Tachyon: The Fringe
What can I say? 10/10 would buy again. This little gem has been a classic and to my knowledge no space fighter game has been able to live up to this, unless somebody would like to make a recommendation.
The intuitive nature to this game is beyond compelling, I’ve taken down multiple capital ships, overcome insane odds, all while strategically being able to manuever my craft and manage my shield and energy/ammo reserves. The ability to turbo and then slide is exactly something a space simulator should have, I’m not sure how I could play any other without it. The way the physics are set up are awkward, but make sense to how true space physics would be.
– Real player with 142.5 hrs in game
Despite being an out dated space pilot simulator that dated 2001, it scratches that nostalgic itch for me when I had this game on the disk. The game is an underrated gem of the past that would of had so much more if a sequel was ever to be made.
You play as star pilot Jake Logan (Who is voiced by the legendary Bruce Campbell) who takes on contracts to take on jobs that range on from simple fetch quests, ship escorting, and of course, the dog fights of enemy pilots and large star ships. What I enjoy about this game is, when fighting the huge star ships, you can cycle through targeting to find the ship’s weak points such as power plants that power the ship’s engines, shield regenerators, and weapon power cores to destroy and weaken those ships. Note you can’t pilot them. Just your star ships. The game does feature a nice variety of ships on 1 or 2 factions. Bora or GalSpan. Both ships have their strengths and weaknesses. Bora ships are built very durable for taking damage and have a better arsenal of energy based weaponry. They also have a few more special weapons they can use as well. Downside is, not all their ships are built for speed, and missiles are always unguided. So you have to rely on being up close using your missiles and sappers to get better results. GalSpan star ships are built more stylish and smooth like eye candy. Unlike Bora, their ships do make up in speed in exchange of defense from their ship’s shields and hulls. They have more of a wide range of being the missile users then energy weapons. They also have their own turret that uses ammo instead of energy that can be recharged after completing missions, but can run out if you’re still in the middle of a fight. Almost all missiles are guided and can be homed to your enemies. They only have one special weapon that is a vacuum to pull your enemies who are at a short distance to you to hold them from flying away and pulling them slowly to you. It can backfire if you crash into your enemy and not only damage your ship, but the enemy as well. (I also think this special weapon feels somewhat game breaking in the story. Which made dog fights so easy for me, I breezed through the game’s story!) The choice is yours on who you side with. Giving you different contracts to complete, different wingmen you can hire from the respective factions, and two different endings between the stories. There’s also added lore you can listen and/or read into from the game’s new channel of current events that happen during the contracts you complete. Involving the contracts you complete and outside events that happen in the game. Some give you added clues on things to look out for. While other news articles are just useless filler. The game may not have any character models that are mostly still images. But the voice actors are just amazing to listen to and build their own character to the game just by hearing their voice. I recommend playing this game mainly using mouse and keys for full control of the game. The game is too clunky to play using keys alone. It is possible to play using a flight stick joystick like a flight simulator, or using a controller if you can hot key the keys with the right software. If you’re interested of playing this game, buy this game when a sale hits. I am aware there’s a multiplayer feature, but I’m not gonna bother with it to think the multiplayer is dead. Maybe if enough people play this game, it can be fun. X3
– Real player with 33.6 hrs in game
STAR WARS™ - X-Wing Special Edition
Dudes, ok, look at my game time playing this. That’s the amount of time it took for me to get through it all from the beginning completing all missions, all tours, and even the proving grounds. I’ve been playing games for a minute now…and by a minute, I mean 35 years, and this is the most difficult PC game that I’ve ever played. It’s no joke. It’s rage-inducingly difficult at times. I’m all glad that I played through it especially considering the historical value and the fact that I missed it the first go around. Wow that game took a long time to finish! But, it’s kind of cool…the first game to really add to the star wars universe by creating new plots. Pretty cool, huh? But, basically, to complete it, you have to basically become a x-wing, a-wing, y-wing, and b-wing pilot. No joke. There’s over a hundred missions, and at least half of them are going to take a good deal of practice to complete. Wow, that’s done. I’m going to play something less, um, twitchy next…I’m thinking FF4. Yeah. FF4. At any rate, this game has got loads of content, it’s well developed, and you’ll feel like you’re in a tiny little x-wing where literally anything can go wrong and ruin your day. It’s an older game, but you know the loving care that these studios put into these things. The graphics are the 98 version. So, honestly, it looks pretty good. The music is MIDI music. Etc, etc. If you like the old school space shooters, and you haven’t completed this one, you’re in for a treat and a challenge. Man. It’s over. It’s finally over!
– Real player with 162.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic 1990's Games.
STAR WARS - X-Wing Special Edition is the second best classical space flight simulator I’ve ever played, second only to STAR WARS - TIE Fighter Special Edition .
The Steam version of X-Wing includes the Floppy Disk (1993) version (along with the Imperial Pursuit & B-Wing expansions), the Collector’s CD-ROM (1994) version, and the Special Edition (1998) version. As is, the graphics are dated in all three, but it’s still a fun way to experience the 90’s. But for the best experience I would recommend playing the Special Edition version after polishing it up with the 3D and widescreen tweaks according to this guide .
– Real player with 71.8 hrs in game
STAR WARS™ - X-Wing Alliance™
Star Wars, X-Wing Alliance
The Best Star Wars Space flight simulator to date.
Quick disclaimer, I am by no means saying the TIE Fighter or X-Wing are lacking, far from it, they are very, very good games with great story and skirmish missions.
It’s just that Alliance took all that made its predecessors great then added more ships, options, tools and even an editor for us to create endless missions.
Unlike with X-wing & TIE Fighter you are not a member of a major faction.
– Real player with 239.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Multiplayer Games.
-Quick Review-
Do you like Star Ships? Do you like Star Fights? Do you like Star Battles? Do you like Star Wars? Do you have a Joystick? If you say “yes” to all of these questions. You’ll probably like this game.
X-wing Alliance was the developed by Totally Games and published in 1999. This was the last Star Wars flying simulator game Totally Games developed.
-Detailed breakdown review-
*Requirements: Firstly, make sure you have a joystick. It seems there are some controllers supported with the game that you could use, but not all controllers work with the game, so buyer beware of that. Furthermore, there are additional graphical problems which may force some to download addons or additional software to fix them.
– Real player with 30.8 hrs in game
STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hty5Zx8Thcs
Like the Windows Version of X-Wing, TIE Fighter Requires the use a Joystick to play. The MS-DOS Version of TIE Fighter Special Edition is very fun to play. This time around, you’re one of the Bad Guys fighting along side the Galactic Empire set where The Empire Strikes Back begins as you crush the Rebel Alliance so that the Empire can maintain Peace, Order & Law throughout the Galaxy with an Iron Grip & most of all in Vader’s Fist name set in 13 Different Tour of Duty Battles with a total of 121 Missions & if your Reputation is High Enough, you might be able to attract the attention of the Secret Order, a faction of the Empire with Close Ties to The Emperor himself. You’ll fly 7 different ships in your Mission to crush the Rebel Alliance including TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors, TIE Bombers, TIE Avengers, TIE Defenders, Assualt Gunboats & Missile Gunboats. If you don’t have a Joystick, then play the MS-DOS Versions of TIE Fighter, Regular or Special Editions instead of the Collector’s Edition CD-ROM Version made for Windows.
– Real player with 68.8 hrs in game
-Quick Review-
TIE Fighter is a star wars combat space flight simulator where you take on the role of a TIE pilot fighting against the enemies of the empire and bringing peace and order to the galaxy. You will pilot several different fighter ships against classic rebel vessels and maybe even a few new ships you’ve never seen before.
Review Video:
If you don’t like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay check out my video here:
-Detailed breakdown review-
– Real player with 42.7 hrs in game
Freespace 2
There are no words in the English language (or any other, for that matter), to describe how much I loved Freespace 2. Especially Free Space Open from the modding community of the Hard-Light Project, which is basically the definitive edition of freespace, enhanced to todays graphical standards and featuring hundreds of hours of very high quality user made content they could actually charge money for. Writing, voice acting etc. the modding community did a better job at those than many AAA titles within the industry.
– Real player with 36354.8 hrs in game
Why I recommend this game
This game is what made me the gamer I am today. I bought it back when it first came out, I bought it on Good Old Games and now I’ve bought it on Steam. Why? I’ll tell you why - I believe it’s the greatest game ever made.
Why this game is awesome and deserves your attention;
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The original graphics were fantastic back at release in 1999.
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You won’t be using the original graphics when playing the game.
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The story was - and still is - amazing. Far better than the usual tripe.
– Real player with 412.8 hrs in game
STAR WARS™ X-Wing vs TIE Fighter - Balance of Power Campaigns™
I have played this game on and off for many years, it is still very enjoyable even now. No tedious leveling or gear grinding but you do get to build a flight rank and various in game achievements like medals and performance ribbons. I missed out on the multiplayer back in the day because of the limits of the dial up we had. Now it still works fine through gameranger and turning internet mode off in the config area each time you host makes the multiplayer experience very smooth especially when doing co-op.
– Real player with 127.2 hrs in game
Here’s a game that no trailers or screenshots can really make you understand. If you’re a veteran of the old days and just here to see if this is worth getting to play on your modern rig, then yes, this is the same experience that you know, and it’s been patched so you can play it without any problems. (In fairness, GOG gets points for not having the CD-rom issue in the first place.) But for the uninitiated…
You can see that the game puts you in the cockpits of the galaxy’s most iconic starfighters. What you don’t realize is that your micromanagement skills will be tested as thoroughly as your reflexes and hand-eye coordination. You hear the missile lock warning, so you immediately switch targets to see who’s on your tail, at the same time dropping your throttle for maximum evasive maneuverability while simultaneously dumping your weapon regeneration power to the engines so you can zoom out of his firing zone, but ****, you’ve forgotten to transfer your current laser energy to your shields! A single blast connects before you set your shields fully aft, and then all you can do is hope that the countermeasure you just launched will take care of any other warheads coming your way… And that’s just for the keyboard. Your other hand will be pushing your joystick as far as it goes, hoping to juke your pursuer so that you can line up your own assault - which isn’t just a matter of pointing and shooting, but requires you to lead each shot so that you’re firing at where you anticipate your enemy will be after a split second. What, this sounds too complicated? Did you think you could just sit down and instantly fly like Wedge Antilles? You’ve got some learning to do, trainee… (Fortunately, there is an extensive series of exercise missions that will walk you through all of your available tools. Whether you decide to do these is completely up to you, given that you can immediately jump headlong into any mission you wish.)
– Real player with 65.3 hrs in game
X-COM: Interceptor
Quite a nice game.
Unfortunately it crashes a lot until u swich 3d acceleration thingy. Also u have to find a fix for alien probe mission bug, when it spawns IN your ship and u can do nothing about it.
In addition to this, controls are somewhat weird.
Edit 6 years later:
Still loving this one, though i do wish devs had more time and resources on their hands to refine it before releasing.
i didn’t encounter that bug with things spawning god knows where anymore. Game crashes a lot so i recommend you save before going to “equip ship” and “buy equipment” screens. I do still recommend to turn off 3d acceleration to minimise crash rates. There’s a manual with keybord control map in the end of it so you might want to look into it before starting a game.
– Real player with 114.8 hrs in game
Good game, even after two decades, but no experience with multiplay. First install in windows 10 with standdard setting caused regular error messages, exiting the game. I worked around with saved games but got annoyed. With properties options in steam menu you can acces the installed maps and change the launcg mode to windows 95 or 98.
Alas, my controller lost 2 buttons, used in the first install with the joytokey program(third party). But with some adaptions i can play it anyway, just with enoug buttons left. CONTROLLER/JOYSTICK IS VERY RECOMMENDED!
– Real player with 96.7 hrs in game