Star Wars: X-Wing

Star Wars: X-Wing is a 1993 published space flight simulator game from LucasArts . It was programmed for MS-DOS , later a port for the Apple Macintosh was added. The game, which its makers call the "space combat simulator", was the first in which a playercould immerse himselfin the popular Star Wars universein the cockpit of a space fighter. X-Wing became a huge success for LucasArts and marked the beginning of a long line of PC games based on the Star Wars saga. It's part of a series that includes Star Wars: TIE Fighter and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance .

action

The game's action begins a few months before Episode IV - A New Hope begins . The power of Emperor Palpatine over his Galactic Empire is consolidated. However, the continued atrocities in the implementation of his "New Order" led to the establishment of the Rebel Alliance. With the help of the Mon Calamari and other peoples, the Alliance succeeded in building a powerful fleet. Only the fighter pilots mostly have to rely on outdated ships.

The intro of the game shows the Battle of Turkana: the Alliance's main fleet, including the flagship Independence, is discovered by a group of Star Destroyers. In the battle that followed, the rebels deployed a squadron of the new, secretly built X-wing for the first time. This new star fighter is wreaking havoc among the Empire's TIE squadrons and forcing their fleet to retreat.

The player himself begins as an Alliance flight cadet. Although the player can choose the name of the pilot himself, a booklet enclosed with the game and the official solution book establish the character "Keyan Farlander". The book also introduces other, in-game, unnamed characters that have generally been included in the Star Wars canon. Farlander is transferred to the Defiance cruiser after completing his Red Squadron training .

Campaign I: A New Alliance

When the Imperial Corvette Bixby defected to the rebels, the rebels learned of Operation "Strike Fear", which was intended as a reaction to the new threat posed by the X-wing. The operation, led by the star destroyer Invincible, is to attack the suspected bases of the Alliance instead of facing it in space combat. In one of his first missions, Farlander succeeds in spying on the deployment of the imperial fleet and identifying most of the ships involved. The first possible target is the rebel base on Briggia. The Defiance pilots protect the ships during the evacuation of the base. At the same time, Star Destroyers attack and capture the rebel base on Orion IV. Before an attack on a third base occurs, the Invincible needs new supplies. The rebels succeed in intercepting and destroying the supply convoy, pushing back operation "Strike Fear" by weeks.

Meanwhile, the alliance of the rebels seeks the support of the Sullustans. Officially affiliated with the Empire, there is secret resistance to the New Order. When the rebels free several Sullustans kidnapped by the Imperials, these talks promise. Despite strict secrecy, the Invincible shows up during the meeting . Keyan Farlander played a key role in ensuring that rebels and Sullustans can escape unscathed. With the help of their new allies, the rebels develop a plan to finally end Operation Strike Fear. The rebels kidnap several Cygnus Corporation technicians. They are supposed to prepare a lambda ferry in such a way that it is recognized by the imperial as a supply ferry. In a second mission, the rebels steal an Imperial freighter with a nuclear warhead on board. In a bogus supply flight with the converted ferry, the rebels place the bomb on board the Invincible and detonate the Star Destroyer. Farlander is awarded the Corellian Cross for his part in cracking down on Strike Fear.

Campaign II: The Great Search

Keyan Farlander and his wingman assist in the rescue of two Alliance pilots from captivity. This informs the rebels for the first time about rumors about a new secret weapon of the empire. To verify the rumors surrounding this new military project of the Emperor, the Alliance is launching Operation Skyhook. The pilots of the Defiance hijack a freighter with Imperial communications satellites. These satellites are launched by a rebel corvette and are integrated into the empire's radio network. Some time later, a listening station in the Cron Drift actually receives details about a huge battle station of the Empire - the Death Star .

In order to cover their tracks about the purchase of the plans, the Defiance staff drafts a plan: The star destroyer Intrepid, which operates in this sector, is to be destroyed. The pilots successfully destroy supplies, escort ships and fighter squadrons of the ship in several missions. In a daring attack by the Red, Gold and Blue squadrons, the now stranded carrier ship is finally to be attacked directly: While the A-wings are pulling the remaining fighters on them, Keyan Farlander succeeds in switching off the shield generators on the bridge of the Star Destroyer. The Y-wings carry out the actual attack: the Intrepid is destroyed.

Meanwhile, the plans received in the Cron Drift are handed over to Alderaan's Senator, Leia Organa . On board her consular ship, she collects all the data that the rebellion could learn about the Death Star. The star destroyer Immortal appears surprisingly and starts his fighters against the corvette. Farlander manages to hold back the TIE bombers long enough for Princess Leia to escape. Farlander receives the Mantooine Medallion for his services in Operation Skyhook and in defending Leia Organa.

(This is where Episode IV begins, in which Princess Leia plans to flee the Imperial fleet.)

Campaign III: The Last Stand

The Rebel Alliance prepares to fight the Empire's new space station. The Defiance pilots are first trying to slow down the construction of the station. Still searching for the production site of the Death Star, the Alliance command decides on a daring plan. By destroying a fuel depot, such a stranded imperial spaceship is to be conquered. The pilots of the Defiance manage to capture the frigate Priam , which flies to the station with almost empty fuel tanks. The rebels learn the place where the Death Star is made: the prison planet Despayre. When the alliance reaches the planet, the now functional Death Star has already destroyed it with all its prisoners and left the system. In addition, the rebel flagship Independence is attacked by the empire. The Alliance High Command is evacuated from the ship to the secret base Yavin IV.

When Princess Leia lures the Death Star to the secret base, the decisive battle known from the film ensues. At X-Wing , this takes place in several stages: First, the station's escort is attacked, then a path is shot into the turbo laser phalanxes. In the final mission, the player finally controls Luke Skywalker's X-wing, which scores the decisive hit on the Death Star and completely destroys it. Farlander, who - according to canon - flew a Y-wing during the mission, survived the battle and was awarded the "Star of Alderaan" medal.

Gameplay

The player first creates a pilot profile. Medals and promotions can be earned by completing missions and collecting game points. If the pilot dies during a mission or is captured by the empire, he can be "resurrected" by the player, but loses all points and ranks. Most players get around this limitation by manually backing up their pilot files after each successful mission. After choosing a profile, the player has three options: The "training area" is an obstacle course that must be flown through within a certain time. The "historical missions" are individually selectable missions, some of which serve as a tutorial for the actual main part of the game.

The main part is represented by the “campaigns”. These (initially three, with five extensions) campaigns are linear sequences of missions. There are no branches; Missions must always be repeated until they are successfully completed. It is noticeable that, in contrast to Wing Commander , a background story at the level of the player and other pilots was consequently dispensed with. Other rebel fighter pilots only appear through their call signs ("Red 1", "Gold 2" etc.). Instead, the plot is only developed further through the mission descriptions and individual cutscenes. The missions are the real heart of X-Wing, as they outperform most other space simulations in terms of complexity and tactics. Scripted events lead through the respective scenario, which usually consists of quieter and also time-critical phases. There are fixed mission objectives that often require the player to protect their ships from attack. Since the enemy’s AI also pursues different mission goals, it is important to consider whether you should first take care of the fighters you have set yourself up or protect your own ships from the torpedoes of the bombers. More often than in comparable games, the wingman comes into play, who does not have a high hit rate, but can effectively distract opponents. "Energy management" is also of tactical importance: The energy of lasers and shields can be regulated in several stages. This is necessary because both the laser banks and the shields do not recharge in the normal position. On the other hand, a high setting has a negative effect on speed.

The only criterion for evaluating the mission is whether the specified goals could be achieved. Points are awarded for kills and hit rates, which can result in promotions or awards. If a primary objective is not met, the mission must be repeated until it is successfully completed. After completing a campaign, the included cutscenes can be viewed at will.

Development history

When programming of X-Wing began in 1992 , a fresh breeze was blowing through the Star Wars franchise: Nine years after the last Star Wars film hit theaters, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy , which told the story of Star Wars continued , the saga started talking again. At that time, the selection of Star Wars games was limited to simpler arcade and console games . Chris Roberts ' Wing Commander had already proven in 1990 that modern computers were now able to compute complex space simulations. LucasArts hired Edward Kilham , who by then had worked on several successful LucasArts adventures, and Lawrence Holland to develop a worthy competitor. Holland and his team had previously programmed several flight simulations that were set in World War II , including the successful Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe . Most of the programmers of this title also took on the work on X-Wing (their subsequent games were developed under the label " Totally Games ").

design

X-Wing uses and extends the realities of the old film trilogy. The playable machines of the rebels, like the TIE fighters of the Empire, correspond to the models that can also be seen in the films. The same applies to the capital ships such as Mon Calamari cruisers and Star Destroyers. Other types of ships were designed for tactical reasons: Freight is generally transported with slow, unarmed freighters or containers. The "assault gunboat" was invented in order to provide the player with TIE fighters as well as a large, shielded hunter as an opponent. The "Stormtrooper Transporter" gives the missions an additional tactical variation, as they can capture enemy ships but are themselves defenseless. Otherwise, it was particularly important that Star Wars fans find details from the films in the game: This is how the "S-foil wings" of the X-wing can be folded up. As mentioned in Episode IV , it is also possible to put “double energy” on the ship's deflector shields.

Game physics

As with most space simulations, the X-Wing largely dispenses with a realistic physics engine . All ships react practically without inertia during maneuvers . The relative speed of the ships to each other is - also in comparison to other space simulations - low. Fights usually take place in the form of dog fights between individual hunting machines. Firing is mostly done with laser cannons, whose slow projectiles require precise holding in front of the gun. This creates the impression of a flight simulation from the time of the world wars, similar to the "Star Wars" films.

graphic

With the graphics engine , the programmers went a different way than that of the quasi-model of X-Wing. In Wing Commander , objects were represented using different sprites , depending on the perspective. This technique enabled quite good results with little computational effort. The change between two sprites occurs abruptly, however, changes in direction of the ships cannot be displayed smoothly. Large objects could almost not be included in the game, as the two-dimensional sprites prevented the player from seeing exactly where the outer boundaries of the ship are.

X-Wing , on the other hand, chose to use polygon models . This technique has already been used in flight simulations. The wire mesh models were provided with monochrome surfaces, the brightness of which could be changed depending on the viewing angle. At first glance, the resulting models were less detailed than those from Wing Commander, as is particularly evident when trying to depict an asteroid field. However, smooth flight movements of the ships were possible with X-Wing ; In addition, capital ships - especially the seemingly indomitable "Star Destroyers" - became an integral part of most missions.

The only graphics mode is VGA with 320 × 200 pixels and 256 colors.

volume

X-Wing was the first game from LucasArts that no longer offered support for the system speaker . Instead, the systems AdLib , Sound Blaster , Roland MT-32 and General MIDI were supported . Much of the wave effects were taken straight from the Star Wars films. The music was composed by Michael Land , Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian with the help of their iMUSE system, which had already been used in the LucasArts adventures Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones 4 . iMUSE made it possible to provide the player's space flights with continuous background music that adapts to the respective situations. Parts of the music are arrangements of the original Star Wars soundtrack by John Williams , other pieces have been newly composed and fit seamlessly into the soundtrack. Individual, important sentences as well as the cutscenes are set to music with voice output, but the mission descriptions are only displayed as text.

Extensions

Imperial Pursuit

The first expansion to X-Wing appeared in the summer of 1993 . Imperial Pursuit added a new, fourth campaign to the game, which consisted of 16 missions. For the first time, part of the story between film episodes IV and V was told here. The only other innovation was the "TIE Mk II", which was clearly superior to the X-wing and was based on the model of Darth Vader's fighter, which appeared in the last Death Star mission. Softgold released the add-on under the name "Upgrade Kit". With this module, buyers of the English-language main game could convert their program to the German version at the same time.

Campaign IV - Imperial Pursuit

After the Death Star is destroyed, the rebel base on Yavin IV is attacked by the Imperial Starfleet and must be evacuated. The pilots of the Defiance help with the evacuation of the Mon Calamari cruiser Maximus and the frigate Anvil, which were badly damaged by the Imperials and have to be abandoned. After the escape, the next crisis is revealed: the food reserves are running out. Overlord Ghorin, who allegedly wants to renounce the empire and sells the Alliance a large amount of grain, offers a way out. However, after the trade is completed, it turns out that the grain is poisoned. In retaliation, the rebels launch Operation Grain Snatch. Defiance pilots capture a shipment of Ghorin to the Empire and exchange the grain. For his apparent betrayal of the Empire, Ghorin is murdered by Darth Vader.

At this time, Farlander first encountered prototypes of a new fighter from the Empire: the TIE Mk II (in the original "Advanced TIE"). The rebels manage to steal and examine some unmanned prototypes. A newly developed shield system is discovered that will also be used in corvettes. The rebels start Operation "Ram's Head" to steal such a corvette. Keyan Farlander succeeds in taking out the corvette in question and destroying its escort. This corvette, equipped with extremely strong shields, will eventually be used to ram a number of Star Destroyers that are in a repair dock and render them unusable. Farlander receives the "Shield of Yavin" medal for his performance.

B-wing

B-Wing appeared in the fall of 1993. Compared to Imperial Pursuit , this expansion was more extensive: a training course and the usual six training missions were added for the new playable “B-wing”. The new campaign now consisted of 20 missions. The expansion closes a gap in two ways: On the one hand, the story continues up to the arrival of the rebels on Hoth (and thus around the beginning of episode V ). On the other hand, the B-wing was the only space fighter of the rebels that had been seen in the old trilogy, but was neither playable nor mentioned in X-Wing .

Campaign V - B-wing

The Rebel Alliance, still looking for a new base, plans to put a new, self-developed bomber into service. When the Empire discovers the B-wing's production yard, the rebels unexpectedly receive help from the isolationist Habassa race. Attacks and kidnappings by the empire drive them into the arms of the rebels. Allianz receives data from them about possible locations for a new secret base. The ice planet Hoth appears particularly promising.

Meanwhile, the Empire tries to track down the scattered rebel fleet using space probes. The star destroyer Relentless leads a small fleet of Imperial ships to coordinate the search. To cover their tracks, the rebels are doing everything in their power to destroy this fleet. The climax of this operation is the attack on the Relentless with the help of the new B-wing. Farlander is again the pilot who takes off the Star Destroyer's protective shield. After this action, the Alliance succeeds in escaping undetected to the ice planet Hoth and building its new base there. (This is where episode V begins .)

Versions

Star Wars: X-Wing Collector Series
Studio	Totally Games
Publisher	LucasArts
Erstveröffent- lichung	1998
platform	Windows
genre	Space simulation
Subject	Science fiction
Game mode	Single player, null modem , LAN , TCP / IP
control	Keyboard + joystick
system advantages preconditions	Windows 9x or lower Pentium 100 MHz 16 MB main memory DirectX 3 card 30 MB hard disk space
medium	2 CD-ROMs
language	English
information	Patch needed for WinXP

X-Wing was originally released on February 15, 1993 on five 3½ "floppy disks, programmed for PCs with MS-DOS . In Germany, the company Softgold took over distribution, which initially published the game in English with German manuals. One later appeared completely German version.

CD-ROM edition

After the successor Star Wars: TIE Fighter appeared , LucasArts released a new version of X-Wing in 1994 : the CD-ROM Edition (in the original Collector's CD-ROM ) included the original game and both expansions. The graphics have been improved, using techniques known from TIE Fighter , such as Gouraud Shading , to make the spaceship models look more realistic. The large capacity of the CD-ROM was used by now all mission descriptions were given out in language. Also, more wave sound effects were used where previously only effects from FM synthesis were available (e.g. when an X-wing flies by). The sound systems Soundscape, Pro AudioSpectrum and Sound Blaster AWE32 are now also supported. In response to the criticism of the players about the sometimes extreme level of difficulty, individual missions have been simplified. Softgold published the version entirely in German.

The Collector's CD-ROM was also released in 1996 in a version for the Apple Macintosh with System 7 . Although this was a 1: 1 port of the PC game, this version was released by the USK differently than the PC version from the age of 16.

X-Wing Collector Series

In 1998, under the direction of Lawrence Holland's Totally Games, a new version of X-Wing was created, which together with an equally edited TIE fighter and a light version of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was sold as a collection. The processing, also called “X-Wing 95”, was programmed for Windows 9x / Me and received the one from X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter well-known graphics engine with hardware acceleration via DirectX . The original plan to redesign all cutscenes and background images had to be abandoned due to time and cost reasons. The result is a mixture of high-resolution render graphics and hand-drawn sequences in a resolution of 320 × 200. In addition, the conversion of the iMUSE music system to the DirectX interface was considered too time-consuming. Instead, parts of John Williams ' film soundtrack were pressed onto the data carrier as audio CD tracks. To X-Wing 95 under Windows 2000 / XP to play, one is unofficial patch needed.

In 2000 this version appeared in another collection: the X-Wing Trilogy . This was expanded to include the X-Wing Alliance published last year . Both collections did not appear in German-speaking countries.

literature

Rusel DeMaria, David Wessman et al. David Maxwell: X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide. Prima Publishing, op . Cit . 1993, ISBN 1-55958-375-4 .

Web links

Totally Games - Star Wars: X-Wing series (English)
Computer Gaming World - issue 10/1992 (English, PDF, 70 MB) - contains a preview of X-Wing
X-Wing series at MobyGames (English)
Star Wars: X-Wing in Jedipedia.net

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Updates: Star Wars: X-Wing ( English ) lucasarts.com. Retrieved November 20, 2011: " For PC: Top Ace Pilot, Roland Upgrade, I / O Fix, IP Fix, Gameport Upgrade, For Macintosh: 1.02 Update "

↑ X-Wing CD-Rom - LucasArts (1994) DOSBox Compatibility List - X (accessed November 20, 2011)

↑ ^a ^b Craig Perry: X-wing & Tie Fighter 95 Compatibility Fix - XWTIE95.zip ( English ) lucasfiles.com. July 27, 2004. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 20, 2011. @1@ 2

[lucasartsupd-1] Updates: Star Wars: X-Wing ( English ) lucasarts.com. Retrieved November 20, 2011: " For PC: Top Ace Pilot, Roland Upgrade, I / O Fix, IP Fix, Gameport Upgrade, For Macintosh: 1.02 Update "

[2] X-Wing CD-Rom - LucasArts (1994) DOSBox Compatibility List - X (accessed November 20, 2011)