Chic, IL Random Star Wars Discussion Thread

Another attempt to put John Williams to techno

 

I generally don't care about guys dressed up in armor or pictures thereof, but these are some pretty sweet shots.

D'

 

My favorite's the "Annie" one

 

Here's a gospel music tribute to the Ewoks with a surprise guest appearance by a certain charming rogue.

Phil

 

I like that one too


[image=http://www.eisenhowerhall.com/images/artist/annieL.jpg]

 

Something tells me that this is JediAutobot's ringtone.

 

Amen, brother!

 

Cartoon Network will have a preview of the new Clone Wars cartoon this Thurday at 7:58 pm ET. No cable for me, so thank goodness for YouTube on Friday

 

I don't have $2900 to spend on an R2-D2 DVD player/projector, but you have to admit it's pretty cool. Too bad they didn't make it 1:1 scale.

 

If this doesn't make you yearn for the golden age of SW gaming nothing will. If you are wondering why that video is so important then you need to play those games and get educated. There is a reason they still top many "all time" lists. They are just that good.

Lucasarts, please take note, we need these games back. Don't "reimagine" the formula is there and it works don't muck with it. Just remake them all in their entirety.

 

It's telling that TIE-Fighter and XWA STILL hold their own against such things as the "Jump to Lightspeed" expansion for SWG and other titles. A good game is a good game, even if it doesn't have specular lighting and supports DX10. Between those and the Wing Commander series, I used my joystick more than my mouse in the '90s.

 

I gotz 3 months open, an Intertoobz connection and copies of XWvsTF & XWA dusted and ready to rock if anyone thinks they can hang.

Bosh

"Have Server Will Jump."

 

Is there a better sim that TIE Fighter? Check that. Is there a better game than TIE Fighter? I can make arguments that Tetris, Half-Life, Warcraft and World of Warcraft are at least its equal; but I honestly don't know of any game that has captured my attention and imagination so completely with both its gameplay and narrative. I could go on for hours about how much fun it is, the responsiveness of the controls, the 3D realtime mission records, the coolness of the plot's subversive missions (and secret tattoo "trophy room") and graphic design that is technically primitive today but still a beautiful creation (akin to older comic book artists like John Romita Sr and Kieth Giffen who drew with simpler lines but utilized the layout of a page as the true artform.) But all that was already mentioned in the video.

One thing that made TIE Fighter a truly great video game (and not just a cool SW experience) was its multiple planes of escalating difficulty. First, the missions themselves slowly ramped up in intricacy (not just difficulty) so that each new mission seemed to require learning one more aspect of piloting. By the time mission 15 or so rolled around, you suddenly realized that you had almost total control over everything in the cockpit without ever being made to feel like you were pushed out of the tree too young. Until WoW came around, I don't think a game's instruction manual had ever felt so useless. My dad, in his mid-40s when I got the game, would watch over my shoulder as I tooled around in later missions, utilizing every button on my gamepad and a handful of keyboard commands. He tried flying a few of those missions and was completely lost. I created a new username for him, and within a few weeks' time, we were at equal playing levels.

I also loved how the game handed over new and more powerful ships without making you Godlike. I love HL2, but the supercharged gravity gun is easy mode; same deal with the Hero classes in Warcraft III. The TIE Advanced and Defenders, as badass as they were, were simply the right tool for the job; just as the regular TIE was for earlier in the game. Subsequently, missions #20+ still carried the same risk of failure as mission #3.

One lone complaint, and it's not really a complaint... more of a cry of frustration. There's a mission (fairly early on if I recall) to attack a rebel space platform. The instant you enter the mission, you're given an alternate mission to capture/destroy a fleeing Corellian ship. To stop it, you had to divert ALL power to the engines and take off like a laser on an intercept course. Even if everything went right, I still only got to it about 50% of the time.

Man... I wonder how much a cheap gamepad would run me these days.

"I have you now!"

 

Gravis gamepad pros run about 10-20 bucks.

I cannot recall a game I have played through from beginning to end more than Tie Fighter. Perhaps the first Jedi Knight? I must have logged hundreds of hours on that game over the course of 4 years of college. My Tie Fighter /played would likely have dwarfed my WoW /played if I had measured.

That is the only game also that I don't have a single complaint about other than we need more!!! That is not so much a complaint as it is a demand of Lucasarts.

Also
http://www.xwaupgrade.com/

I may have to reinstall now.

I've been considering a cheapo flightstick for BSG: Beyond the Red Line. This may have just pushed me over from active research to purchase mode.

 

I have to say I love all of the X-wing derived games. When I was in middle school, my good friend Mike and myself would sometime go to his house when his parents were home after school,(we were in the after school program)and play the original X-wing on his dads pc, which I think ran windows 3.something. It is amazing what a step up tie fighter was in graphics wise.Plus it was a christmas present along with a Logitech wingman joystick, I loved that game. X-Wing Alliance was a lot of fun introducing new types of fire modes and crafts. Plus the capital ship mod was really fun. I really wish they bring these games back. I used to rule in the online games, man it has been so long since I played.

 

Oh, I think there is.


Bosh
"Naw, but they will be there to kill you...[/link]"

 

The best part was spending hours and hours making boot disks for XW and TF and when you got one that finally worked it was like you swallowed a planet's worth of awesome then punched a troll in the nuts. Lots of people hated the custom boot disk thing but I really enjoyed making them. It made you really know what was in your machine.

 

Swallowed a troll's whats?

 

Project for this weekend: Look for all my XW / TF CD-ROMS and see if they work on this POS computer....

If these work, oh I'm in soooooo much trouble!

 

sounds like we might have to all put them back on our computers and go at it.

 

[image=http://rebelrockrunners.org/gallery/d/15309-2/ban_him.jpg]

 

Installing....

 

which game does everyone have. I have X-wing Vs Tie with the expansion balance of power. The best and most recent one I would say is X-wing Alliance.

 

X-Wing comment


Not sure when this first came out, but this was the moment in time that
something on my PC beat out my old Atari-800 STAR RAIDERS game.

Also, when X-Wing went to CD-ROM, (Yes, I still have all the Floppies
and boxes in MINT condition)

it was "upgraded?"

and was no longer as much fun as the original.

also, all the original add on-s,
tho very good,
were not as much fun.

currently I play nothing,

tho I will load X-Wing aliance just to fly the practice course.

 

I moved this over to the What Video Game are you playing? thread.

D'