Wave 2 of Lucasarts games hits GOG.com and get this...

It includes X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance for $9.99 each! I know these games are well-respected, but I never had the chance to play them because I was on a Mac back when they were originally released. Thankfully, I was blessed back then with being able to play X-Wing and TIE Fighter, but that was it.

Here is the complete list of Lucasarts games released today:

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Balance of Power
X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
Dark Forces
Knights of the Old Republic II
Star Wars Battlefront II

I ended up buying the two X-Wing releases and Galactic Battlegrounds Saga. As of this posting, GOG says that more games are on the way in 47 hours, so I wonder what those titles will be.

Specifically, what was so great about those two X-Wing games? I know X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter had multiplayer, but I'm not sure what else was commendable about those titles besides, well, being X-Wing and TIE Fighter games.

Been a long time since I played X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (like, since it released) but to my memory, the deal was the graphics and all were updated and the multiplayer. I remember the single player never being as good as it was after TIE Fighter. I was a single player guy and the follow ups were disappointments to me.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't even remember specifics but the followups never grabbed me and I was a big fan of X Wing and TIE Fighter.

X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter comes with the Balance Of Power expansion which adds a single player campaign to it, but i couldn't tell you if it's good enough to buy both that and X-wing Alliance. I'll likely buy XvT on sale at some point since i never played the BoP expansion despite owning it.

Ah thanks. That explains it. I never had the expansion.

If there's no singleplayer at all I guess that explains why I didn't like the singleplayer haha.

@artisanbreads: yeah, i remember being real bummed out when i got X-wing Vs Tie Fighter originally. Even bought the expansion but didn't bother playing it.

@artisanbreads said:

I prefer single player as well, but reading this thread brought back a memory from the game's release of having the impression that you and other players can participate in The Battle of Endor and that blew my mind. That may be my favorite sequence in the Star Wars saga and would love to experience that with other players. Not sure if that was true, but I thought that was the case back then.

Xwing vs Tie Fighter was my first MP experience. Blew me the frick away, but wondering if the updated it to be in game rooms now, back in the day you had to go to a Lucas Arts hosted website, find a lobby and hope it filled up. The community was really awesome back then, cant wait to try this out!!!

Update: Multiplayer is only supported by LAN and only up to 8 players, bummer...

How was X-Wing Alliance? I remember reading a lot about it back in the day and thinking it sounded awesome, but I never actually got to try it.

@svenzon: Alliance was pretty great, what i played of it. Never got a chance to finish it back i the day so i'm gonna fix that with the GOG version. The gameplay is what you'd expect from the Xwing/Tie Fighter series (which is a good foundation) and the story involves you being a regular joe who helps the rebels and winds up fighting for the alliance. The main addition to the game is you'll be able to fly corellian transport ships which have automated turrets that you can switch to and manually fire.

As far as running Xwing/Tie Fighter games today, the software doesn't play nice with the 360 controller. There's an issue with the deadzone and you'll need modifiers to bind all the keys you'll need so you'll need some third party software running in the background. @kevin_cognetowrote a piece that's worth reading if you want to go that route. (forum link)

You could also get by by checking out Voiceattack and using voice commands for the more complex controls needed for system management and targeting.

@svenzon: @sin4profit: I remember X-Wing Alliance being extremely buggy, to the point of missions sometimes glitching themselves into being unwinnable. I have no idea if those problems were ever patched though, it's possible the GOG version doesn't have those issues. I never finished that game either, I'll definitely need to pick it up.

Everything after TIE Fighter just felt wrong to me, but then I played sooo much TIE Fighter that even the tiniest change to the control scheme was going to be an issue. The fact that they had multiplayer to worry about meant gameplay changes that were purely for balance's sake, and I could never get used to it. For example, I remember in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter they changed it so that your turning radius would be tightest at 33% throttle (or maybe 66%, I forget), I assume to avoid multiplayer dogfights were two guys were just circling each other endlessly. I can understand a change like that on an intellectual level, but to me all it did was make the flying feel wrong.

Wave 3. I hope you like Star Wars!

I think this is technically still Wave 2.

It's weird that GOG always refers to it as "Lucasfilm Games" and never "LucasArts". Sure they were called Lucasfilm Games way back in the day, but they changed their name to LucasArts back in '92 or around then, none of these games were released under the Lucasfilm Games name. I wonder if there's some Disney mandate to never use the LucasArts name, now that all its internal studios have been shut down.

The important question here is if X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter comes with a digital version of The Stele Chronicles.

It's basically just a slightly more modern version of the formula started with X-Wing and TIE Fighter, with much more of a focus on the single-player campaign (where XvT was pretty much all about multiplayer). There's a large variety of ships, the campaign's pretty decent, and there are some added features, like being able to use in-ship gun turrets, as mentioned above. It's probably my second-favorite game in the series behind TIE Fighter. I never ran into any significant bugs that I can remember during the two playthroughs I've done of it, so I can't comment on those remarks.

Galactic Battlegrounds is a surprisingly solid RTS. Though that could be because it was basically reskinned Age of Empires 2. I had a lot of fun with it back in the day. I still have a disk set for it somewhere.

@ben_h: yep I decided to buy it have the original discs somewhere but no idea where! Looking forward to sitting down with the campaigns again.

Rogue Squadron for $6. I'll probably get that. I spent a lot of time playing that on the N64 back in the day.

I love me some Star Wars! I picked up Rogue Squadron and Rebellion. Though Rebellion wasn't well-received, I'm willing to give it a shot. Rogue Squadron was very impressive on the N64 back in '98 because of the 4mb expansion pack (Fun fact: It came out on the same day as Ocarina of Time) and I look forward to seeing how it's improved on the PC.

I love Empire at War, especially the space battles. The ground battles are pretty bland, but not terrible. The campaign gets a little formulaic and repetitive over time, but the Galactic Conquest mode can keep players on their toes. Like Republic Commando, it's a crime there wasn't a sequel to this game.

Overall, I'm really digging how GOG is releasing Star Wars games that haven't been released digitally by Steam. Good on 'em.

@brandondryrock:

Holy shit! I completely missed this when I picked up Galactic Battlegrounds! Didn't even know a PC version existed. Thank you so much!

I wonder if they're planning on releasing any other Star Wars games after today... I'm not sure what's left.

Force Commander wasn't good, but neither was Rebellion (from what I've heard) that was released today.

Was Shadows of the Empire on PC? Not a great game, but I'd buy that just to add to my Star Wars digital game collection.

Yoda Desktop Stories? Would they release that? The Phantom Menace? Probably not? I'd like to get the first Battlefront. I didn't have a Windows PC until 2004, so I missed out on a lot of classic Star Wars gaming except for X-Wing, TIE Fighter and Dark Forces on my Mac in '96. Do they have anything left that's worth releasing?

@bonorbitz: Shadows of the Empire was released on PC and I would but it in a heartbeat.

@kaiserreich said:

I hope so because I'd like to play it again on anything that's not a N64 controller. Watching James Rolfe play it raised my blood pressure, but only because of the sluggish jumping and aiming controls.

As far as Star wars games i feel like SW Episode 1 Racer was fairly well received (gameboy version was pretty great) and i remember there was the Rogue Squadron-like, Battle For Naboo which i dunno if it was bad or just tainted by the Episode 1 hate. Outside of that i can only think of console and arcade versions which would be impressive if GOG could sell emulations of.

i think the 27th will be a LucasArts Adventure blow out with the release of Grim Fandango. I suspect we will see, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle which would only leave one left to wrap up GOG's, "20+" LucasArts/Disney deals (Loom, the Dig?) I'm hoping the, "plus" equates to even more deals as i'd like to see Outlaws come to GOG.

X-Wing Alliance was my favourite. It was neat how it had a few missions before you join the Rebellion, which gave them a chance to kinda show how the war was impacting on regular families, and how you end up getting dragged into it. I guess this was right around the time Half Life had made it popular to spend time establishing characters, rather than just jump straight into the action.

@sin4profit said:

I forgot Episode 1: Racer was on the PC. That one was well received, so it wouldn't surprise me if it made it to GOG. The N64 version was pretty cool with the option to use two controllers at once to represent each of the steering rods on the pod. I highly doubt the arcade games would come to GOG, but I'd love it if that happened. If Battle for Naboo came out on PC then that would be a game worth getting as well.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea for GOG to release Maniac Mansion, Tentacle and Full Throttle the same day Grim Fandango Remastered is released because that game would get buried under the buzz about those games being re-released. I'd wait for Fandango to simmer for awhile then release those other point-and-click adventures. I really, really hope Full Throttle, Outlaws, and Secret Weapons of Normandy are slated for release! I hear that city building game from Lucasarts that takes place in heaven and hell wasn't all that bad either...

@bonorbitz: Dunno that GOG really cares about the marketing manipulation that goes one with timing their releases, but then again, that's kind of what they are doing right now so who knows. Their marketing angle seems to be trying to convince you that they're your best buddy, looking out for your best interest.

Either way, i think it's in their interest to pull interest away from Steam (who is also releasing Grim on the same day) so it's a better story overall for GOG to have Grim PLUS these other Tim Shafer/LucasArts classics to pull interest towards their site while people are high on that conversation.

Never played Secret Weapons Over Normandy, but a ww2 arcade'y flight sim made by the Tie Fighter people sounds like a good time so hopefully i'll get the chance to check that out.

@sin4profit said:

This makes a lot of sense! Regardless of when they released these titles, I'm excited to play them. Someone ripped off my Mac version of Throttle and I've played Maniac Mansion just on the NES. Didn't appeal to me because the interface meant for a mouse didn't gel with me on the NES. That all changed for me when Shadowgate came out.

@bonorbitz: Yeah, i feel i've been more excited about these releases than i have been about a lot of new games recently which is pretty sad. I never played Full Throttle or Day of the Tentacle so those will be new for me but i was a huge fan of Maniac Mansion on the NES.

Hopefully GOG will get their Galaxy network up and running so i can play XvT multiplayer, that's another thing from them i'm looking forward to as Steam just doesn't do a good job of supporting the older games.

Hm, I'm almost jealous you've never played Day of the Tentacle, I'm pretty sure I remember all the puzzles & I'd say it's the best of all the point & click adventure games. Still I'll grab the re-release when it's out.

Anyone heard if Tie Fighter is coming to Steam? I'm hesitant to pick it up on GOG as I seem to forget to play what I buy from them.

@hone_mcbone: Dunno if Tie Fighter is coming to Steam, i'd imagine Disney will do another video game dump at some point which may include it but it seems clear that Valve doesn't really care about their old game releases and some games lack cut scenes and things of that nature so i wouldn't buy old games from them.

I hear ya about trying to keep up with GOG though, their lack of a client makes updating and organizing the games more inconvenient than it needs to be, still no word on GOG Galaxy which is suppose to help with that problem.

Rogue Squadron is the obvious choice from wave 2 releases at GOG. Must have it.

Ah yes, Afterlife. That was a fun little game, not really a classic but it does tend to get lost in the shuffle when you think back on the Lucas catalogue.

Speaking of forgotten Lucasarts games, it's funny that of all the speculation in this thread, the Rebel Assault games haven't come up once. Granted, they are terrible, terrible games. But they were enormous smash hits at the time. I literally spent weeks convincing my dad that the family computer needed a CD-Rom drive, just so I could play the first Rebel Assault.

I would totally pay five bucks apiece to relive my barely-interactive multimedia adventures with Rookie One. Hell, Rebel Assault 2 is one big crazy FMV extravaganza, it's worth it for the goofy fan-film-esque cutscenes alone.

@kevin_cogneto said:

Wow! I totally forgot about the Rebel Assault games! I bought a 3DO in '95 just to play the first game. At the time I didn't even notice how bad the game was because I was impressed by the FMV and my love for Star Wars overshadowed everything. Wow, that has me thinking... Would GOG release them?

So....Rogue Squadron doesn't recognize 360 controller even though reviews on GOG said it does....

In GOG's press release for the latest Star Wars releases, it mentioned that the final three Star Wars games to come are Republic Commando, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and Starfighter (not Jedi Starfighter). Meh.

Edit: I say "meh" cuz I already have Commando and Dark Forces II digitally.

@bonorbitz: that's kind of a bummer, i didn't even realize that Jedi Knight wasn't on GOG. Though it may be worth it once their online network is up and running, wish we could hear more about that. I never got a chance to play Jedi Knight multiplayer and it looked like some dumb fun. I feel like as long as these releases are successful for Disney we'll probably get the rest of the games somewhere down the line.

AFAIK game ranger dot com still will connect online MP for both, I'm going to be over there trying to find a game, at least

TIE Fighter does, X-Wing has the Farlander Papers, which is the novel/strategy guide hybrid I had back in the day. Never knew there was an imperial one until now

(The Farlander Papers are actually really good, the strategy guide part is extremely in depth)

@flameboy84 said:

I didn't see any reviews that stated the 360 controller works, but there's a thread that discusses getting that, and the XBox One controller, to work.

And why is this game called Rogue Squadron 3D, instead of just Rogue Squadron like the N64 title?

Thanks...I tried to dig out the review on the GOG page but it seems to have vanished! I'll get to work tonight trying to get it to work.

EDIT:

Pretty much looks like a compatibility issue so changing that to Windows 98 solves the problem apparently.

Great! If I have the time, I'm going to try to get it to work tonight. I'll post the details regardless of what happens. It seems like people are having more success with the wired 360 controller as opposed to wireless for some reason. I have both, but I'm going to try the wireless first because that's my default. From the GOG thread, I also got the impression that no other USB controllers/joysticks should be plugged in. Would you mind posting if it did or didn't work for you and what you did?

@bonorbitz: Yeah sure I'll post my results. I too have both a wired and wireless controller, last night when I was trying it on laptop I did have a second USB stick plugged in for a mouse so that could have been causing me issues (you never know) so will see tonight!

@bonorbitz: Ok results are somewhere hit and miss. I've tried both suggestions....with a wireless controller.

1. Turn off compatibility mode just out right doesn't work, game loads but nothing responds not even keyboard and mouse.

2. Change to Windows 98/ME - it's hit and miss the game loading at all however sometimes will just hang with a windows 98 style mouse cursor stuck in top left hand corner of a blank screen. When it does I've found pressing nothing and watching the intro will bring me to very slow and laggy menus but I am able to go into the controls menu pick joystick and then hitting default simply assigns buttons and the stick and works perfectly. However when exiting the game it crashes, sometimes I end up with a completely black screen, other times smaller version of the menu just hanging in the middle of the desktop. I can ctrl+alt+delete but bringing task manager doesn't work I have to sign out of windows.

Thanks for looking into that! Consider it's based off the wireless controller, tomorrow I'm going to plug in my wired 360 controller and give it a shot. I'll be sure to post the results. *crosses fingers*

Update: Well, I tried it and ran into major problems. After I launched the game for the first time, it ran through its intro (Factor 5 logo, X-Wings zooming around, etc.) but then the screen went black with a white box in the upper left corner. I could still hear the music and sound effects just fine, but couldn't see a thing.

Upon reinstallation, the game just doesn't launch anymore and says "Not Responding" in Task Manager. I've never had a problem with a GOG game up to this point, but I'm not the first judging from their Community Support forums from the game. Others are experiencing the same problem. I contacted Customer Service about the issue, so hopefully they'll update it soon.

Another update: So the game runs fine on a Win7 Dell laptop with HD 3000 integrated GPU. I read somewhere on the GOG forums that the latest nVidia driver might be borking the game because the OP said that the game ran fine when he reverted to the previous driver. I plugged a wired 360 controller into the laptop and the game ran great with it once I figured out the control scheme.