I never played these games back in the day but I have heard enough reverence for this series (and love Star Wars) that when they came out on GOG I was interested. That being said I don't own a joystick. Is this something that I could play on a 360 controller or should I just continue to avoid it?

http://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-x-wing-tie-fighter-series-on-windows-7-windows-8-windows-8-1-with-an-xbox-xb1-playstation-ps4-controller-flight-stick/

I had a look in the gog forums and someone linked to this, hope it helps you out.

I would seriously recommend getting a joystick for this (Even if its a cheap one) I can't imagine a controller being that great (although its down to what you are used to I guess) but I always remember there being so many keys I constantly had one hand on the keyboard and one on the joystick, especially if you are giving orders to your wingmen a lot.

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_TIE_Fighter/Controls

That being said if the choice was use a controller or never play this I'd say grab that controller and go for it!

@kevin_cogneto on this very forum made this great guide for Tie-fighter. It'll work for X-wing as well.

Yes, and it's still fun.

I can't imagine it would be the best way to play it, but probably.

I've heard that controller sticks don't quite 0 properly.

I think you could play TIE Fighter with a gamepad, but X-Wing was a much harder game. At a minimum, I remember using buttons in TIE Fighter to:

Fire, Fire Secondary, Toggle Weapon Systems, Manage Shield Energy, Manage Weapon Energy, Manage Engine Energy, Manage Beam Energy, Target Nearest Enemy, Target sub-system, Accelerate Time, Normal Time, Match Target Speed, Full Throttle, 1/3 Throttle. Deflector shield forward, back. That's over a dozen buttons that I'd say are required. There are more.

I'd probably end up right handing the controller, so I had access to the stick, trigger, and bumper. That'll be like playing on a two button stick. Then you have your left hand available to access keyboard controls.

Also, unless you -really- love the Alliance (And to that, I say "Rebel scum"), play TIE Fighter instead. It's a better game that's also more forgiving. There's a major side plot that you need to complete secret objectives to get, but it's pretty bad ass.