Thanks to Good Old Games (that’s GOG.com), I’ve spent my weekend behind the stick of an Incom T-65 X-Wing starfighter, helping to free the galaxy from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. GOG recently added several classic Lucasarts games to their library, including X-Wing: Special Edition and its Imperial counterpart, TIE Fighter: Special Edition, along with many others.
These games were released in the mid-1990s and were both a critical and commericial success. Indeed, though many of LucasArts future games didn’t shine as brightly, these two flight simulators are still as much fun as they were over twenty years ago. It’s important to note that they’re not graphic updates or enhanced editions, unlike the recent re-releases of the Baldur’s Gate games – but the games exactly as they were at the time of release, only designed to run on modern PCs.
The graphics are dated, but the game’s strengths still shine through. The gameplay and soundtrack are fantastic. After two decades, it still feels like you’re in the cockpit with a TIE Fighter in your sights. In addition to the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games, GOG also has other LucasArts classics like, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the iconic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It seems like they managed to get the gems that came out of LucasArts and avoid some of the poorer games that had a franchise name slapped haphazardly on them before being shipped to store shelves.
Playing these games is a trip down memory lane for older gamers like myself and its reassuring to feel that adreneline still pumping after two decades. They’re just as much fun as they ever were, and Good Old Games lives up to their name. So stay on target, watch your back and aim for the thermal exhaust port right below the main port!
X-Wing: Special Edition, TIE Fighter: Special Edition and several other LucasArts titles are available for $9.99 or less. These digital downloads come with PDF scans of both the instruction manual and the strategy guide (at least in the case of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, which are the only ones I purchased). GOG is famous for offering all kinds of fun extras with their games. The games are DRM-free.
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