Star Wars: X-Wing

aka: Star Wars: X-Wing - Simulador de Combate Espacial, Star Wars: X-Wing - Space Combat Simulator
Moby ID: 536
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Description

X-Wing is a space combat simulation, the first in the Star Wars universe. From the cockpits of X-Wing, Y-Wing and A-Wing starfighters, players fight for the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire.

Unlike earlier titles in the genre like Wing Commander, X-Wing employs a polygonal 3D engine: flat-shaded polygons are combined with bitmaps only for explosion effects.

The game features a comprehensive training element. Before starting on real missions, players should navigate the pilot proving grounds, also known as 'Maze', by flying through a course of doorways set atop platforms in space, preferably without missing any, all while keeping an eye on the tight time limit. Higher levels add additional challenges like hostile laser turrets. Next to the 'Maze', there are simulated historical missions (six for each of the three fighters) that prepare for the complex missions in the rest of the game.

The main part of the game consists of three separate campaigns, called Tours of Duty. The Tours can be played in any order, even though they build on each other story-wise: Tour I, 'A New Ally', tells of the Rebellion's search for political allies in their fight against the Empire, while the Emperor launches Operation Strike Fear, a major offensive against the Rebels. Tour II, 'The Great Search' chronicles the Rebels' search for the plans to the Empire's new superweapon, the Death Star. Tour III, 'The Gathering Storm', tells of their efforts to find and destroy the battle station. Animated cutscenes are featured after certain missions to continue the story.

Each Tour consists of around a dozen missions, which include a wide variety of objectives. There are standard strike, escort and defense assignments, but also reconnaissance flights - just scanning ships without attacking them - or capture operations - disabling enemy ships, then protecting the transport carrying the strike team during the takeover. The game of course culminates in the famous attack on the Death Star.

The three flyable fighters all handle differently and are thus more or less suitable for the different types of missions. The X-Wing is heavily armed and armored, and is usually used on strike missions. The Y-Wing is slower and less well protected, but is the only ship equipped with ion cannons, necessary for disabling ships. With its high speed and maneuverability, the A-Wing is ideal for recon and intercept missions.

Next to lasers and ion cannons, the fighters are armed with limited amounts of warheads: proton torpedoes are slow and highly destructive, while concussion missiles are faster, but yield less damage.

A unique feature of the game is energy management: Energy must be divided between engines, weapons and shields. At the standard settings, weapons and shields don't recharge - energy must be diverted from the engines for that, slowing the ship. On the other hand, putting more power into the engines adds speed, but drains shields and guns. Energy can also be transferred between the systems, boosting weapons power at the expense of shields or vice versa.

Space is populated by many ships besides the player's, most of which are well-known from the movies. The Empire will usually launch waves of TIE Fighters, Interceptors and Bombers from Star Destroyers. The Rebels employ large Mon Calamari cruisers and Corellian Corvettes. In use by both sides are Nebulon-B escort frigates and Lambda-class shuttles. Some ships not seen in the movies include the Imperial assault gunboat, the stormtrooper transport and bulk freighters. Friendly fighters will sometimes accompany the player, and can be given specific orders.

Spellings

  • X-Wing :מלחמת הכוכבים - Hebrew spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

61 People (55 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Design and Project Management
3D Polygon Programming
Cinematic Engine Programming
Mission AI Programming
Background Artwork
3D Animation and Rendering
3D Flight Engine Models
Additional 3D Models
Mission Design
Theme Music
Additional Music and Orchestration
Sound Effects
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 12 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 89 ratings with 11 reviews)

Along with TIE Fighter, this game is a classic...

The Good
95% of it, really. It takes you straight into the Star Wars universe, and right into the sizzling battles. If you lose your nerve in a battle, you can go do something else, you can go to hyperspace, it's a very 'free-flowing' game.

You get a nice choice of craft, ranging from X-Wings to A-Wings, and a B-Wing is in order, also. You can command your wingmen, which gives you a nice sense of leadership, and reminds you of the Battle of Yavin from the first Star Wars film. The sound effects are also great, the great swirling noise of a TIE Fighter fills you with the Star Wars spirit, and thrusts you oh-so-much deeper into the game.

The Bad
The music is awful. Simple. The in-game music goes on and on, and I can't stand it. Fortunately this was rectified in the 1995 version of this game, but it was terrible. This music also features in TIE Fighter demo, but the music in the real game of TIE Fighter is far better.

As many old games, the graphics ARE dated, and unlike TIE Fighter, you cannot adjust the resolution. This results in pretty poor quality on larger screens. This game also WILL NOT function correctly on NT4/2000/XP, and requires emulation, or Windows 9x to play with the sound.

The Bottom Line
Classic game, the beginning of a well known Star Wars game series which began then, and ended in 1999. Buy this game, you won't regret it.

DOS · by Quackbal (45) · 2005

One of my all time favorites.

The Good
X-Wing was such an amazing game for its time. Of all of the other games that came out in 1992 X-Wing's graphics are by far the best. The soundtrack is awesome of course. The large amount of missions will keep you occupied for a very long time.

The Bad
Highly unrealistic. But who cares? I would rather have fun playing a game than have it be so realistic its boring.

The Bottom Line
The Star Wars game that started it all.

DOS · by Attila (553) · 2001

Play Wing Commander Instead

The Good
This was a pretty good game. But flying mission after mission with no real plot got boring after a while, even if you are flying in a wooo X-wing. Still, game play was smooth and the graphics is very clean. I can see why people would like it, especially those that feel Wing Commander's plot is cheezy.

The Bad
Missions got to be routine after about the 10th time.

The Bottom Line
Star Wars and flight simulator fans will like it 75% of the time.

DOS · by Yeah Right (50) · 2000

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Manual/docs roy donato Jul 12, 2007

Trivia

Cancelled Amiga port

An Amiga version was announced in magazines but was never released. Perhaps a wise move since the game is almost unplayable without an analog joystick, and analog joysticks for the Amiga were rare.

Christmas

If you play the game on Christmas you will see Santa Claus on the floor of the Space Station after you have selected your pilot.

Death Star

The Death Star trench when playing with maximum detail settings (otherwise it's a bit like cheating) has a few more objects into which you can crash. Some of them look like T-shaped "bridges" and frameworks, which are absent in the original Star Wars movie. It seems they are modeled after the Disneyland's Star Tours ride, which climaxes with the trench run. If you look closely, you can compare the differences and notice the fact that the Star Tours trench was built using bits of the second Death Star model (from Return of the Jedi), as it was constructed in mid-1980s. A minor detail, yet it adds more obstacles to dodge, which are not to be seen in the movie.

Installation

The floppy install program was known to cause panic among first-time players. Instead of showing a percentage completed based on disks, it counted actual files. The problem was that half of the files were on the fifth and final disk. IE, you're installing it, it takes four disks just to reach the halfway mark, and you spend the entire last disk certain that your copy was incomplete.

Limited Edition

The Limited Edition of X-Wing (the original floppy disk based release) contained a companion book called The Farlander Papers. This book contained spec sheets for the various spacecraft in the game, short stories, a "who's who" for the races of the Star Wars universe and much more. The Limited Edition versions are identifiable only by a small round sticker on the front of the box. Apart from The Farlander Papers, the contents are the same as the normal version of the game.

References

  • In the Tour of Duty I -Mission 1, You have to Identify 4 cargo containers and destroy them..The cargo containers are names Arreis, Nigiro, Ocrim and Esorp. You think LucasGames had something gunning for Sierra, Origin and MicroProse?
  • In one of the later missions, you have to fly to a space-probe called BFG-9000. This is the Big Fucking Gun in the iD Software game DOOM.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • October 1993 (Issue #111) – Simulation Game of the Year (together with World Circuit)
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #11 Hardest Computer Game
  • Electronic Entertainment
    • March 1994 – Editors' Choice Awards: Best Game
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #42 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #19 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • Origin Awards
    • 1993 - Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game

Information also contributed by Colin Kelly>/a>, [Erkan O](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,65974/), [Felix Knoke](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,15660/), [Gramkow](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,44365/), [PCGamer77](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,1717/), [Rola](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,133005/) and [WizardX](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,1444/)

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 536
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Additional contributors: Chris Martin, Havoc Crow, formercontrib, Crawly, SharkD, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 5, 1999. Last modified January 24, 2024.