Classic Game of the Week - Feb 2
We love great games, and more than that we love talking about great games, which is why we are introducing our Classic Game of the Week series every Friday. These are the games that have earned a storied place in the hearts of gamers, the games that refuse to be forgotten. We begin with a space flight-sim PC classic.
In this week's GWJ Conference call I spoke of the long lost AAA space flight sim, and the one that I most wish I could play again for the first time is easily Tie Fighter. Released in 1994 by LucasArts, Tie Fighter arrived at a time when the Star Wars franchise was still worth getting excited about. Before we had played the Battle of Hoth in a hundred different games, before midi-chlorians and Jake Lloyd and before Greedo shot first there was Lawrence Holland and his outstanding space combat games set in the Star Wars Universe.
A unique story that created a sympathetic lead in the employ of the empire with a plot that had you as embroiled in maintaining galactic civil order as blowing up Rebels all served to create a rich and living universe. When married to an excellent flight model and exhilerating combat Tie Fighter became a quck classic. They just don't make Star Wars games like this anymore.
You can submit your own suggestion for Classic GOTW at elysium@gamerswithjobs.com with the subject CGOTW.
You may add one short paragraph explaining why your game should be chosen.
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Excellent choice for the first game to be featured. Tie Fighter was an outstanding game (as was it's expansion packs) that I sank countless hours in. I still remember the mission where you had to "try" to disable the mine field in just a Tie Interceptor. I would love the chance to play this again.
A Mind Without Purpose Will Walk In Dark Places
"I may be out of ammo but I ain't out of chainsaw B*TCHES!" - Sinister's warcry for Gears of War
Excellent idea for a column and an excellent first choice of games. I remember it fondly as well.
You can't run an empire without order and being a team player and those rebels needed to be taught that. Never did I fail to thwart those bumpkins' attempts to spread their chaos, be it sending a pair of lumbering bombs toward a frigate or disabling some self-important revolutionary's ship with ion cannons. The latter was the most satisfying, knowing that their wait for the boarding party would feel like an eternity to them.
Got any toast?
Would you guys stop producing all this great content? It's taking too much time out of my day and I have no will power.
/Awesome game. I remember working for hours to make it run perfectly on my 486.
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
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My home on the web
A true classic. Nice way to kick it off.
The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid. - Elysium
Wordsmythe is my hero. - rabbit
XBL: E Munnie
C'mon. Without presenting a list of other possible Classic Games we can't say that you are biased and picked wrong. It says Game of the Week in the title, but without the fighting it just doesn't feel like a Game of the Week thread.
If it makes you feel any better you got full xp for a tough fight that you spent mostly bleeding to death. -KingMob
JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle
Worry not, McChuck. My reign of controversial terror and JRPG slighting will continue in full with the regular GOTW. I look forward to ignoring some niche DS title I've never heard of but that Nei feels passionately about!
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Good god, that makes me wax nostalgic. Excellent choice.
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
I will now admit something to you all, I feel it should be like AA or something...
Hi. My name is TheWanderer. I've never played TIE fighter.
Always wanted to, though. Anyone tried to run it in DOSBOX?
wordsmythe wrote:
Crouton wrote:
Tie Fighter is without a doubt my favorite game of all time. I play through it once a year (I've got the win95 redo with updated graphics and the like). I would love a sequel, or even another remake. It'd be hard to improve on the game as the gameplay mechanics and mission design are already about as good as they can get. The game is also notable for using dynamic music, it'd change according to the events in the mission, a Star Destroyer jumps in? Queue up a bit of the imperial march into the music, you nail a bunch of fighters and it plays a bit of a victory tune. Very very cool stuff.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Whoa!
My Gamercard
Yea I never played it either.
XBox Live|Tshirts|My Music|GameFly|xfire
Will the Win95 Collector's Edition run on Win98? I assume so, because they're the same kernel, but I just wanted to see if anyone actually knew. I have a copy and an old box running win98 and a Voodoo3 2000. I just might install it this weekend.
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
Best. spacesim. ever.
Tie Fighter has receded into the back of my mind, all I remember now is "awesome." Can anyone recount some of the great design choices for us? I know that Tie Fighter upped the graphics, adding textures where X-Wing had only flat shaded polygons. Plus the story was just plain cool. Sinatar mentioned the music. What I remember most, though, is the mission design was fun, exciting, and probably the best of any space flight sim. There is the famous "shoot the torpedoes heading for the convoy" mission which I believe was in X-Wing, but I could be wrong.
I'm still sad that the 3rd X-wing game didn't live up to Elite/Privateer standards.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
This was a truly great game. Selection approved!
I remember when this was announced. In the preceding X-Wing series TIE Fighters, while nimble, we're pretty easy to kill (no shields). What made them a threat was their numbers. I was skeptical on how I, as an imperial pilot, would be able to survive through the story in so fragile a craft. They pulled it off with flying colors.
There was an expansion called Defender of the Empire. There were also games that followed it that were sequelish: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (multiplayer introduced) and X-Wing Alliance. The latter being not bad, but buggy.
XBox Live: Croutonic | Bungie.net: Croutonic
Bacon is like monkeys - it makes everything better. - Bagga
This was a fantastic game. FANTASTIC. Not quite the religious, fomative experience for me that were Wing Commander 1 & 2, but still, an awesome game. The narrative was compelling, the missions were exciting...great game.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
I can actually run them on XP, there is a little patch out there that makes them work on any XP rig. If anyone wants it, I can email it to them (it's only 265kb).
If you can find this, it has X-Wing and Tie Fighter ported to the XvsTie engine.
Oh I know. I've played every entry in the series multiple times.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Whoa!
My Gamercard
I was a big huge fan of X-Wing but I don't think I ever got around to playing TIE Fighter.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
This is the game that first caused the lovely Mrs. Croaker to laugh her ass off at me because I'd get so involved in it, I'd physically lean my body in relation to the movement of my fighter...
Definitely a great pick. Like Elysium said, at the time, Star Wars was untainted and you could get so immersed in these games. I got a hankering to play about a year ago, so I bought a release that had X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (Flight School?). I believe that was the X-Wing Collector Series. Anyhow, after patching, it ran just fine on XP, and I was even able to use my joystick without any problems.
EDIT: Sinatar beat me to it.
http://www.tftc.gaylenol.com/
Yes, you too can play the Tie Fighter campaign in the updated Xwing Alliance engine
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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I loved being Vader's wingman.
Also, advancing through the ranks of the Imperial Navy as well as the Secret Society was pretty darn cool.
Oh man sweet, I was following that for awhile, awesome to know they actually finished it.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Whoa!
My Gamercard
You kind of set the bar pretty high with your first pick. The trick is to start with Privateer and then rise to a fever pitch with Tie Fighter and finally Monkey Island.
Rat Boy on Newlywed Ackbar wrote:
You set the bar too high for incoming weeks, where are you going to place Elite now?
Hasbro may have bought the name Avalon Hill 10 years ago but to borrow a phrase, I knew Avalon Hill. It was a friend of Mine. You sir are no Avalon Hill.
Just seeing this filled my mind with all kinds of sweet, fuzzy nostalgia. The X-Wing campaign with two datadisks, then Tie Fighter - I spent months with them. And actually bought a joystick for them. And sound card - The cutscenes were talkies at the time when it was totally rare. Only other thing coming close is Privateer. Which I guess means that this is the first and last classic game of the week, you can't get any better, right?
You can't take the sky from me.
I now have proof that no one reads my posts. Ah well.
Rat Boy on Newlywed Ackbar wrote:
What's all this talk about there not being a better game? Have none of you played Krondor?
The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid. - Elysium
Wordsmythe is my hero. - rabbit
XBL: E Munnie
What does the "AAA" stand for in "AAA Space Flight Sim"?
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
That's the sound you make on the Tie Fighter mission where the Admiral betrays you by abandoning you in a field of laser mines.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Whoa!
My Gamercard
Right.
XBox Live: Croutonic | Bungie.net: Croutonic
Bacon is like monkeys - it makes everything better. - Bagga
Ah Betrayal at Krondor. Good choice Wordsmythe
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP