Ok, let me take you back to when star wars games actually mattered. When Lucasarts still knew what they where doing and way before Disney stole the lot. I mean the good Star Wars games, not the shite EA keep churning out.
My first experience with a Star Wars game wasn’t on my bedroom computer (we weren’t rich enough for that luxury). Nope it was at the arcade down the road in Stretford wedged in between a dodgy pac-man machine and a claw grabber (always empty- rigged I know). The Original Star wars arcade game from 1983 all vector graphics and awful sound clips. “Use the force Luke” it would cheerfully proclaim from the scuzzy speakers that looked like they had death by vibrator. But I didn’t care, I was up on my tip-toes just to reach the controls thanks to this beautiful arcade cabinet.
And the vector graphics oh god they were magical to a 10 year old that had spent his childhood watching them on a dodgy VHS copy of the films. That sparkly wire frame Death Star, watching that trench run with something that vaguely resembled real arcade controls that actually felt solid under my fingertips unlike the rubbish you get today. Yep it was harder than maths. I’m sure I attempted that game more times than I care to remember, but that never stopped me. Every 10p coin dropped was worth it for those couple of minutes where I felt like I was in the cockpit of an X-wing.
Flash forward a few years and we eventually got a Mega drive. Didn’t have to much choice really as we couldn’t afford a SNES that was for toffs with decent parents, but the mighty Mega drive had Star Wars games all of it’s own. Empire Strikes Back was bat shit insane, has anything even in the games industry been the same as the films since? Luke running amok in Cloud city with a lightsaber killing about 50 pod troopers a screen. My younger brother Mark would shout “thats not what happened in the film” every time I died for what seemed like the 100th time trying to pilot that basket case of a snowspeeder through the awful Wampa cave scene. Did I care? No of course not, why? Cos it was star wars and it was blasting out of my TV whilst I sat in my bedroom.
But what truly was a game changer was saving up our pocket money to get a proper PC of our own in 1994. We somehow managed to find enough money for a big beige beast of a computer that ran windows 3.1 and took forever to load, sounded like a fucking rocket taking off. And that was when I stumbled across X-wing…..my God it was love at first sight. THIS was not your typical side-scrolling film premised video game with some half arsed Star Wars slapped over it. No this was the shit!
Real space combat simulator with energy management and actual fighter pilot-y things to think about. Want to know something scary? For a while X-wing replaced school as my priority in life. Literally addicted to that game. Entire weekends spent memorising where the hell the difference between a laser cannon and ion cannon we’re I could move power from my engines to my shields to maximise my chances just long enough to memorise enemy fighters attack patterns. I even kept a notebook (still have it somewhere) full of tips and tricks for each mission. Mission 12: destroy the interdictor first then watch the skies for fighters from sector 7-G….serious business.
Thing is with X-Wing that younger kids might not understand just how difficult it actually was. No quick saves, no checkpoints and very little hand holding what-so-ever. You’d go on a 40 minute mission, get destroyed halfway through just as you were about to finish and then have to start from the bloody beginning. Mum would waddle upstairs at midnight to find me frantically waving my gloves in the air as I sat in front of the PC “John you’ve got college tomorrow!”….but I didn’t care, could I just fly 1 more mission?
TIE fighter landed a couple of years later and I loved it. Wanted to be a hero in X-wing….now I could be down with the bad guys. What’s not to love? Bigger ships, better interiors and it actually felt like you were part of the Empire with it’s ranks and stupid call signs….now the rebels really were just a bunch of pesky terrorists in my eyes. The TIE defender was a beast of a ship, seriously felt like it could one shot an X-wing in it’s ferocious&page i think. But it wasn’t just the ships that were better. The story lines they attempted to put across in TIE fighter were way more political and thoughtful than the films ever really gave you time to understand.
Graphically these games were light years ahead of their time but often overlooked nowadays. The iMUSE soundtrack that flowed from battle to menu just blew my mind. Literally every game should compose their soundtrack like this….but they don’t. True 3D environments when most games on the PC were still running on pixels and sprites. Voice acting wasn’t laughable and whispered as if they recorded it in their bath.
But wait Dark Forces came along in 1995 and I was in heaven. Doom had opened our eyes as to what a first person shooter could look like but Dark Forces took the Star Wars edge to it. Swivel those shoulders, you could look up AND DOWN people….WHAT!? Levels with actual vertical depth, this was a whole new world of gaming for me as a kid. Another fantastic central character that didn’t jump straight from the films was Kyle Katarn. Awesome bonus sneaking missions as his junk chute slid into the swamp.
I remember crawling around those Anoat City bits, spent hours in those industrial areas trying to find which lift or corridor would take me UGH where I needed to be. Back then you either had to reverse work it yourself or phone the hint line. £2 a minute for the clueathon. Ah memories of the huge bill I got and my mum ending up working to for about a week.
It also expanded the SW universe in a way that the films never really did back then. Sure we had read some books and comics but these games took you to locations and introduced ships that you didn’t know about. Hell it even introduced a new Imperial super weapon I’d never heard of before (second death star? what a novelty). Felt like these games were adding to the films rather than rehashing the same battles we already knew and loved over and over.
Local multiplayer was a totally different beast back then as well. X-Wing vs.TIE fighter needed you to physically connect your computers with fucking serial cables (and convince your parents you needed to move all the furniture out the front room so both boxes could fit). “It educational dad we need to learn about…..networking”. Safe to say that one worked for some reason.
Dave and I would spend hours playing versus matches we made up ourselves then keeping leader boards for our kills in my trusty notebook. Serious competitions ensued between my friends and I. Broke about 4 joysticks just from gripping too hard on them during close air combat. Dave is still moaning about my Top Gun “licking”….
I’m sure modern Star wars games are better than these old games in every conceivable way but they all seem to miss something. They explain everything to you now. Info dumped from the beginning so they can turn it into YouTube content. These games left you to use your imagination and fill in the gaps. Those games expanded on the universe.
Funnily enough I re-installed a couple of these games recently. They were on sale for like a fiver each on GOG a few years back and I got distracted and bought about 100 things I didn’t need. Some hold up better than others I won’t lie to you. The originals X-Wing is terrible, zero texture mapping, cockpit view is shit, story missions are actually quite evil with how hard they can be. But tie fighter? Amazing. Strategy still plays such a huge part in your missions even now. So many different goals you have to remember whilst flying your ship and managing your systems.
Everyone talks about Super Star wars on the SNES but I was a Mega Drive boy through and through. Didn’t get to experience those goodness until years later on emulator….PC Gaming affecting your childhood yet again.
I find it really interesting how these games weren’t adapting scenes from the films. They were building a feeling that you were part of that universe. It feels like modern SW games are obsessed with key scenes from the films. These games wanted you to feel like you were discovering a place you already knew.
My nephew thinks I’m mental when I try to explain to him why TIE fighter was the bees knees. Lets me bang on about it for about 5 mins then wanders off back to the game he’s probably playing. Some 100GB dump fest that cost him £60…. fair enough i guess. Probably rolled my eyes when my old man tried telling me how special his ancient games were. But theres just something about those early Star wars games…….
Maybe it’s old age. I’m just turning to that dreaded whiney old man who keeps going on about the good ol days. But if Lucasarts ever do a new SW game with that level of passion and detail about the universe……call me.
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