Star Wars: X-Wing (video game)

The Star Wars: X-Wing computer game is the first LucasArts PC game set in the Star Wars universe. Benefiting from the renewed interest in Star Wars sparked by Timothy Zahn's The Thrawn Trilogy and building on the popularity of flight simulation software (Lawrence Holland's three previous World War II air combat games had all been huge successes for LucasArts), X-Wing achieved what few subsequent Star Wars games could by being critically acclaimed, embraced by fans and a financial success. Players assumed the role of Keyan Farlander, a young pilot in the Rebel Alliance, and were given the opportunity to pilot the eponymous X-wing, as well as the Y-wing, and the A-wing, in a number of key battles leading up to the Battle of Yavin.
==Plot summary==
===Publisher's summary===
The Old Republic is gone. The Senate has been abolished. The Jedi Knights have been exterminated. Now the Emperor seeks to crush the last remaining opposition. Against the overwhelming might of the Empire stands a small but growing Rebel Alliance. The scattered resistance groups are uniting, every spacecraft marshaled and every being recruited. What is needed most now are starfighter pilots. Will you join their struggle to end this tyranny? Will you become a hero of the Rebellion?Star Wars: X-Wing
===Introduction===
A fleet of Rebel Mon Calamari Star Cruisers is attacked by an Imperial Navy patrol near the planet Turkana. Admiral Gial Ackbar, in command of the Rebel fleet, orders the launch of the Alliance's new starfighter, the T-65 X-wing, leading to a surprise Rebel victory.
===Tour of Duty I: A New Ally===
In retaliation for the loss at Turkana, Emperor Palpatine orders a major offensive named Operation Strike Fear. During a Rebel hit and fade strike against an Imperial convoy, the crew of the Imperial corvette Bixby defect to the Alliance. The captain of the Bixby alerts the Rebels to Imperial forces, led by the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Invincible, massing in the Dellalt system in preparation for the upcoming campaign.
Operation Strike Fear soon begins with an assault on the Rebel base on Brigia. Rebel starfighters provide cover for the evacuation of the base and the transfer of wounded personnel to the medical frigate Redemption. The Empire follows up on the victory at Brigia with an assault on the Rebel base on Orion IV, leaving the facility in ruins and leading to the capture of many Rebels.
The Empire next sets its sights on Rudrig, but the Rebels move quickly to ambush a resupply convoy bound for the Invincible, delaying the next phase of Operation Strike Fear and giving the Alliance time to secure a supply of desperately needed R2-series astromech droids. Unknown to the Rebels, the R2 droids have been programmed to take control of any X-wings they are put into and deliver them to the Empire. Three X-wings are stolen by the R2s and the Rebels launch a mission to recover them and their pilots before they fall into Imperial hands.
For some time, the Rebel Alliance has been attempting to recruit the Sullustans to their cause. When the Alliance learns that Sullustan technical staff have been kidnapped by Imperial stormtroopers, they launch a rescue operation. The success of the mission leads the Sullustan leadership to agree to a diplomatic summit near Sullust. During the meeting, Imperial forces capture the Sullustan leader on the planet's surface. The Rebels mount a rescue mission, which results in the Sullustans joining the Alliance.
Working with General Crix Madine, Sullustan technicians devise a plan to stop Operation Strike Fear by destroying the Invincible. To this end, the Alliance launches an mission to capture design staff from Cygnus Spaceworks during performance evaluations of their latest spacecraft. During a subsequent operation, the Rebels steal an Imperial explosive device. The captive Cygnus staff modify a Rebel shuttle to pose as an Imperial ship. Rebel agents use the shuttle to deliver the explosive device to the Invincible, which detonates shortly after they depart, destroying the Star Destroyer.
====Missions====
#Destroy Imperial Convoy
#ID Reconnaissance Mission
#Fly Point During Evacuation
#Protect Medical Frigate
#Ambush Imperial Supply Convoy
#Raid for R2 Units
#Recover Stolen X-wings
#Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff
#Diplomatic Summit at Sullust
#Rescue Sullustan Leader
#Capture Staff from Cygnus
#Recover Explosive Warhead
===Tour of Duty II: The Great Search===
When two Rebel pilots escape from the prison world Stars' End aboard a freighter bound for Kashyyyk, the Alliance mounts a mission to recover them before the Empire. The pilots alert the alliance to a freighter carrying Wookiee slaves to a secret Imperial military construction project. The Rebels again launch a rescue operation in the hopes of learning more about the project. Documents recovered from the freighter carrying the Wookiees lead the Alliance to an Imperial weapons convoy bound for the construction site. Alliance Intelligence consider it important to delay the project while they attempt to learn more, and starfighters are dispatched to destroy the convoy as it passes by Orron III.
Alliance High Command devises a plan to learn more by tapping into an Imperial communications network. When intelligence learns that a freighter carrying communication satellites has been stolen from an Imperial base, they move quickly to capture the freighter. The captured freighter comes under attack from the Star Destroyer Intrepid, but makes it safely to the cruiser Maximus.
With the satellites secured, they are transferred to the corvette Jeffrey near a Rebel listening post in the Cron Drift, and are deployed in place of several Imperial satellites. The satellites allow the listening post to intercept plans for the the Death Star, an Imperial battlestation with a superlaser capable of destroying a planet. Due to the importance of the plans, it is decided to send them via courier rather than risk transmission. However, the X-wing carrying the plans breaks down not far from the Cron Drift and the Rebels dispatched ships to repair it.
While Circarpous Sector Command work on a plan to get the plans to Alliance High Command, the Rebels learn that the Intrepid was damaged in a collision with a frigate and is in need of repairs. The Alliance launches an operation to destroy the Intrepid. The first phase is to intercept and destroy freighters carrying replacement hyperdrive parts to the stricken vessel. With the repairs prevented, the Rebels next moved to eliminate the Star Destroyer's protective escort, before finally moving againt the Intrepid itself.
With the threat of the Intrepid removed, the Death Star plans are delivered to Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan aboard the corvette Tantive IV for delivery to Chief of State Mom Mothma. Organa plans to transfer to the cruiser Liberty, but is forced to flee by the arrival of the Star Destroyer Immortal. The Empire, having learned of Organa's cargo, pursues the fleeing corvette in an attempt to recover the plans, and the Alliance sends urgent reinforcements to help Tantive IV escape to safety.
====Missions====
#Rescue from Stars' End
#Rescue Wookiee Slaves
#Attack Weapons Convoy
#Capture Stolen Freighter
#Protect Captured Satellites
#Ambush in the Cron Drift
#Protect a disabled X-wing
#Stop Hyperdrive Replacement
#Take Out Intrepid's Escort
#Destroy the Intrepid
#Deliver Plans to Princess Leia
#Protect Princess Leia
===Tour of Duty III: The Gathering Storm===
The Gathering Storm: describes the Rebels' route to the final Battle of Yavin, the trench run and the Death Star destruction. This Tour has two more missions, which occur on the Death Star. In the Death Star missions, the player assumes the role of Luke Skywalker.
====Missions====
#Guard Weapons Transfer
#Destroy Repair Dock
#Capture Military Transport
#Scramble!
#Intercept and Capture
#Destroy Imperial Base
#Destroy Priam Escort
#Capture the Frigate Priam
#Capture Ethar I and II
#Guard Vital Supply Depot
#Defend the Independence
#Begin Death Star Assault
#Attack Death Star Surface
#Death Star Trench Run
===Historical Missions: X-wing===
#Dev's Sidestep
#Wingmen Are Important
#Destruction of Surveillance Satellites
#Beat The Odds
#Rescue at Mon Calamari
#Farlander's First Mission
===Historical Missions: Y-wing===
#Commerce Raid
#Y-Wing Gunnery Practice
#S.O.S. from Corvette Karinne
#Prisoners from Kessel
#Escape From Mytus VII
#Interception and Capture
===Historical Missions: A-wing===
#Raid on an Imperial Repair Dock
#Aggressor Squadron Training
#Intercept TIE Bomber Run
#Attack Run on Supply Freighters
#Protect Returning Starfighters
#Deep Space Reconnaissance
===Tour of Duty IV: Imperial Pursuit===
Expansion 1, Imperial Pursuit: The evacuation of Yavin 4 and the search for a new secret location for a new base. The Rebels must resist growing Imperial pressure and the new Interdictor Cruiser.
===Tour of Duty V: B-Wing===
Expansion 2, B-Wing: Production of a new craft, the B-wing starfighter, and its delivery to the Rebellion. The tour ends with the arrival on Hoth and the construction of Echo Base, setting the stage for The Empire Strikes Back.
===X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM===
Bonus missions included in this edition included historical missions, as well as "new" missions.
==Gameplay==
X-Wing operated on a custom-built graphics engine that used 3D polygons instead of the bitmaps used by the popular Wing Commander games. Totally Games based the engine on their earlier World War II flight simulators.
The player must complete missions ranging from simple dogfights with Imperial starfighters, through escort or capture for freighters or capital ships to attacks on larger opposition ships. Each series of missions is organized linearly, having the player choose either death/capture or a retry at each failure.
Scoring advanced the player's rank (Flight Cadet, Flight officer, Lieutenant, Captain, Commander, General). He then could use his old pilot files and assign them as wingmen; this would improve their AI performance according to the rank of the pilot assigned to each wingman. This feature however was removed from the Win95 remakes as well as the Macintosh version.
Much of the game's challenge had to do with managing power resources (lasers, shields and engines), commanding wingmen, and using weapons effectively.
By combining the exciting space combat with cut scene story elements and the interactive iMUSE music system, X-Wing created an environment that recreated the atmosphere of the original trilogy's space battles.
The game was split into three tours of duty which followed on from each other, though the player was free to tackle them in any order. The first two tours had twelve missions each, while the third had fourteen missions. Echoing the Alliance's hit-and-fade strategy, the majority of missions are concerned with protection, salvage, intelligence gathering and ambushing Imperial capital ships where feasible.
Apart from the tour of duty missions, players could explore the Pilot proving grounds to train and augment their scores on each of the three available ships, X-wing, Y-wing and A-wing; they can also fly 18 "historical missions" at the Rebel Combat Training Facilities for each ship, before beginning the standard scenarios. They could also examine ship schematics and review mission films that can be recorded in the memory cache during the missions, and afterwards saved to disk. There was also a Tech Room that displayed schematics of the ships in the game, naming many of the ships' systems and the companies that manufactured them.
The cutscenes were usually composed by screenshots taken from instances of the movies but combined to make a new narrative.
==Release history==
===Original release===
X-Wing was developed for LucasArts by the team which would later become Totally Games with the story created by Lawrence Holland, Edward Kilham, David Wessman and David Maxwell. The original X-Wing game was released on floppy disk for PCs running DOS in 1993.
A limited edition version was made available with special packaging and a book titled The Farlander Papers, which gave the background story of Keyan Farlander, the player's character, who also featured in the strategy guide for the game.
===Expansion packs===
Two expansion packs, Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing were released shortly after. Each provided a tour of duty with an additional twenty missions while B-Wing also gave access to its namesake, the B-wing starfighter and another six historical missions for that ship. Two of these missions were remade versions of the tour of duty Death Star missions, allowing the player to fly the B-wing instead of an X-wing in the attack against the battlestation.
===The Collector Editions===
A year later (1994) X-Wing was re-released as Star Wars: X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM, with the expansion packs included. It tweaks various areas of the game by including bug fixes, easy versions of some old missions, improved graphics, rehashed cutscenes, and bonus missions, as well as voiceovers for the mission briefings (unlike the in-game radio messages). The in-flight engine is improved to the caliber of the later Star Wars: TIE Fighter game, which is in turn an improved version of the original X-Wing game featuring Gouraud shading.
X-Wing had a major retouch for its release along with the collections X-Wing Collector Series (1998) and X-Wing Trilogy (1999). The game was retrofitted with the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter graphics engine, which uses texture mapping instead of Gouraud shading. Concourse graphics and some cutscenes were also retouched and the game was now Windows 9x compatible.
===Re-release on GOG.com===
On October 28, 2014, Disney Interactive announced a new partnership with GOG.com, a DRM-free digital distributor, that would allow for more than twenty classic Lucasfilm video game titles to be re-released digitally for modern computers. Along with Star Wars: TIE Fighter and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: X-Wing became available for digital download for a price of $9.99.
==Continuity==
===Inconsistencies===
Being a first Star Wars game with a major storyline, X-Wing began the game-contributed C-canon. As such, a number of contradictions to other sources appear that have required retconning or other explanations.
*The abbreviated name of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer in the game is "STD", unlike all later games of the series, in which the abbreviation "ISD" is used instead, following the introduction of the Interdictor-class cruiser (INT), Victory II-class Star Destroyer (VSD), and Super Star Destroyer (SSD).
*The game takes place before the Battle of Yavin, yet it features elements that canon establishes were created after the battle, such as the Mon Calamari cruisers, TIE/IN interceptors, and RZ-1 A-wing interceptors which frequently appear in missions. The A-wing inconsistency was later resolved with the R-22 Spearhead retcon. The existence of the Interceptors was supported by West End Games' The Star Wars Sourcebook stating that at the time of Yavin, standard Imperial Star Destroyers carried (among others) one squadron of Interceptors (12 craft).
**Another inconsistent appearance is that of the fully functional Executor appearing in a cutscene if the player is captured. However this cutscene is non-canon.
*The Twi'lek homeworld is called Twi'lek instead of Ryloth.
*The game causes some confusion by showing the historical battles simulations as actual re-creations in space; it doesn't show the pilot entering a simulator, but leaving the mothership. It's never clear whether the pilot proving grounds are also simulation or actual flying in Rebel space. Briefings seem to be contradictory.
*Although based on the game alone, it seems that the player character (Keyan Farlander) destroys the Death Star instead of Luke Skywalker, The Farlander Papers (included with the strategy guide) explained that in the final mission, the player actually controls Luke Skywalker flying in Farlander's borrowed ship as Red Five. Farlander flew with the Gold Squadron in the battle.
*In the game, proton torpedoes are slower than concussion missiles but more damaging. However, many canon sources show that both proton torpedoes and concussion missiles are general types of weapons with various yields.
===Easter eggs===
If the player runs the game with their BIOS clock set to December 25, a Santa Claus figure will appear in the Independence concourse.
At least in the 1998 Collector's Edition of X-Wing, the first time the player visits the Independence concourse after game installation, an animated figure resembling Marilyn Monroe can be seen standing near one of the hangar doors, in her iconic "flying skirt" pose.
Many names of ships, especially freighters, are English words or names spelled backwards or are just anagrams. The most obvious examples are Nigiro, Arreis, Orcim/Esorp, and Diputs (Origin, Microprose, and Sierra were all prominent software companies in the early '90s, while "Diputs" is a reversed spelling of "Stupid"). This tactic has been continued in the sequels, but to a lesser extent.
Some capital ships like Halifax, Fugazi, and Tone have names referring to real names of ships or slang (usually Japanese of World War II or other real periods) of war.
Some ship names are homages to existing characters, such as the space transport group Renhoek and the Mon Calamari cruiser Stimsenj'kat in the first bonus mission of the X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM. These refer to the main characters Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat from the cartoon The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Other names and locations were borrowed from Han Solo at Stars' End.
==Credits==
==Appearances==
==Sources==
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*The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
*Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Limited Collector's Edition
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==Notes and references==
==External links==
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*New Publisher: Disney Interactive / Lucasfilm • GOG.com
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*Star Wars: X-Wing on MSDOS Games
Category:X-Wing computer games