Games - Star Wars: X-Wing computer game series

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	Games - Star Wars: X-Wing computer game series

The X-Wing computer game series is a series of space simulation computer games set in the Star Wars universe that attempts to, faithfully to the movies, simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat. The player took the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the Galactic Empire. To complete the games, players must complete missions such as simple dogfights with opposition starfighters, reconnaissance and inspection tasks, escort duty for freighters or capital ships, or attacks on larger opposition ships. As well as dogfighting designed to resemble the free-wheeling duels of World War I, the games also offered the challenge of managing power resources and wingmen, and using weapons effectively.
The games
The first game in the series, Star Wars: X-Wing, and the last, X-Wing Alliance, feature as their concluding missions recreations of the attacks on the first and second Death Star, respectively. The game series refers to the "Imperial Navy" rather than Imperial Starfleet of the Star Wars films. In 1994, X-Wing won the Origins Award
for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1993.

Most of the games feature voiced (this was quite unusual in the days of the first two games, X-Wing and TIE Fighter) and hand-drawn (along with occasional rendered) cutscenes at crucial points in the storyline, although these are nothing like as extensive as those in the Wing Commander
series to which the games owe much. They also feature music from the original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, ) that responds to the player's actions thanks to the iMUSE system.
X-Wing
Main article: Star Wars: X-Wing.

X-Wing (1993) begins, seemingly, a few months prior to A New Hope and involves helping the Rebel Alliance with salvage, gathering intelligence, and ambushing Imperial forces. However, the second tour is driven mostly by the interception of the Death Star plans by secretly modified Imperial communication satellites, which prompts the player to help deliver the plans to Princess Leia Organa and eventually stop the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. The third tour shows the Rebel Alliance desperate to discover the location of the Death Star while the plans are en route to the Rebel Alliance High Command (which suggests that the entire third tour of duty takes place over the course of no more than a week or so).

The expansion packs – Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing – focus on helping the Rebel fleet evacuate Yavin IV after the destruction of the Death Star, along with protecting the Rebel fleet while searching for a new base. The game concludes with the rebels moving into the Hoth System and setting the stage for The Empire Strikes Back.

The storyline contains one potential goof. The action in no fewer than three missions takes place near Coruscant, the Imperial capital world, but it is unlikely that the Rebels would be able to conduct operations so close to the Imperial homeworld. This suggests that Coruscant had at the time of programming not become the official capital world, or that the designers of X-Wing didn't realise that it was. This mistake is not corrected by any of the expansion packs or re-releases, but it is corrected in Star Wars: TIE Fighter.
TIE Fighter
Main article: Star Wars: TIE Fighter.

TIE Fighter (1994) picks the story up just after the Battle of Hoth. The player is initially assigned to various tasks around the galaxy, including helping protect a space station under construction on the Outer Rim, quelling a war between two non-aligned planets, and hunting down pirates. However, the game soon shifts to a growing internal threat to the Empire from two rogue Admirals. One sells his services to the Rebellion, while the other attempts to overthrow the Emperor. The game has special objectives in certain missions that increase the player's prestige with the Emperor. The game ends just before the Battle of Endor. TIE Fighter includes a number of cameo appearances, including Mon Mothma, Emperor Palpatine, then-Vice Admiral Thrawn, and Darth Vader (who in one mission fights alongside the player).

The main character of TIE Fighter is Maarek Stele, although his name is only revealed in the official strategy guide. TIE Fighter had advanced features including Gouraud shading for more realistic polygon models, a more advanced targeting computer (showing a miniature polygon of the targeted vessel, which allows the player to see the target's relative orientation), and the ability to match speed with a target.
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