Wing Commander or X-Wing

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Back in the 90's you were either an X-Wing Pilot..or a Wing Commander fan...which were you?

 

I was a Wing Commander fan....but all my flatmates were X-Wingers!

[Slartibartfast 153]

Well I was with you on that one Wing Commander... Even watched the movie

[HotNess 2]

wing commander mainly...but did like the tie fighter version of x wing...but wing commander was cool coz loved hiding behind astaroids to kerrrpoww the bad buggers..and the wing men in it wernt to bad at all, x

 

xx v xx

[dsawan 613]

X-wing all the way. i was a latecomer to it though as I got into the windows versions of the games, not the dos disks. X-wing alliance has the graphics but Tie Fighter has good quality. Hoping Lawrence Holland,the designer of these flight sims, comes back and resoes them with today's graphics. there is a chance he may in future according to wikipedia.

Edited January 5, 2010 by dsawan

[FalconC45 157]

Back in the 90's you were either an X-Wing Pilot..or a Wing Commander fan...which were you?

 

I was a Wing Commander fan....but all my flatmates were X-Wingers!

 

Wing Commander fan here, since before ole blue hair was named Blair. I even read the novels.

 

Falcon

 

PS. Had a crush on Spirit..

[Nightshift82 5]

Wing Commander all the way. Wish there were updated versions out to play on today's computers.

[DWCAce 19]

I have to side with the HotNess. TIE Fighter was where it was at! Especially with the Super Secret Squirrel Society.

[HotNess 2]

now..yo slighty hijack this thread..i know uk widowmaker wont mind as if he did he would end up chained to a radiator in my basement and only let out to play on sundays..id likey to ask,which is the best spacey flight thing out today,as all this made me wanna try one again..or an old one with new mods..?

 

xx v xx

[UnknownPilot 33]

Wing Commander, bar none. From the very start of the intro in WC1. The first time through, my friends and I lost, and lost bad. It was a struggle to master the Kilrathi and turn the tide, but after a few times through we did it. But that didn't diminish the game one bit.

 

I bought all the new ones as they came out and have played them all countless times. Periodically I get the itch and break them all out, start with WC1, and go through the whole series add-ons and all. Prophecy rocked except for what happened to "Blair" (never did care much for that name, but I do understand they had to give him one officially eventually).

 

WC3 was a revolution. But that was part of the best era in gaming history, the FMV era - Phantasmagoria II, Gabriel Knight II, The Tex Murphy Series (Under a Killing Moon, Pandora Directive, & The Overseer), 7th Guest & The 11th Hour...... ah the good ol' days. Fortunately I kept them all and still play them from time to time. lol :D (a non-FMV from that time that rocked was The Labrynth, which had nothing to do with the David Bowie movie).

 

WC4 was awesome because the war with Kilrah was over and it took on a decidedly Babylon 5 twist.

 

Loved Wing Commander Academy too (the Animated Series), even though they screwed up a lot of things in the time line. And gotta love Privateer as well (Privaeer 2, not so much, but it was ok).

 

Got a few of the books, but do want to get more.

 

And when the movie came out, it was like a dream come true.... until I saw it. Ever since then I've always said, if I ever meet Chris Roberts, I will shake his hand, thank him, and then kick him in the nuts. lol

 

Star Lancer is cool too.

 

Oh!..... can't forget Strike Commander.

 

Yeah... Wing Commander remains my favorite game series of all time, to this day.

 

 

Wing Commander all the way. Wish there were updated versions out to play on today's computers.

 

Look for The Kilrathi Saga on eBay. It was the first 3 games, with all the add-ons for 1 and 2 packaged together and made to run on Windows (9x, but it does work in XP). It's also frame limited to run on modern computers... well, modern when it came out, but as it's frame limited, it doesn't matter what you run it on, so you don't need to fight with slow-down programs or find an old machine to play them. WC4 is a Windows game, as is Prophecy.

 

 

now..yo slighty hijack this thread..i know uk widowmaker wont mind as if he did he would end up chained to a radiator in my basement and only let out to play on sundays..id likey to ask,which is the best spacey flight thing out today,as all this made me wanna try one again..or an old one with new mods..?

 

xx v xx

 

Well, most of the good space games are firmly in the past, sadly. Best options for today would be Star Lancer (Erin Roberts, basically a WC re-tread, except it's the Cold War gone hot in space), or Babylon 5, I've Found Her. That one rocks, and it's the closest thing to a space combat sim as ever has been devised (ie, newtonian physics).

 

Another good sim is Orbiter. But it's not a combat game. It's an orbital simulator. There are tons of air craft and space craft available for it, from the pure sci-fi, to near furture possiblities, to actual space craft; ranging from space-borne only, to rockets, to space planes, to SSTOs, to air craft only, even some ground vehicles. It's a serious challenge, and great fun, trying to get up into stable orbit, then working on rendezvous and docking, even space station building, or setting up a course to other planets and moons in the solar system, but working within the contraints of the tech level your ship comes from.

 

That's about it as far as I know. :)

[Slartibartfast 153]

now..yo slighty hijack this thread..i know uk widowmaker wont mind as if he did he would end up chained to a radiator in my basement and only let out to play on sundays..id likey to ask,which is the best spacey flight thing out today,as all this made me wanna try one again..or an old one with new mods..?

 

xx v xx

 

Best Space Sim IMHO is X3 Terran Conflict... Space trading Space fighting from single ships all the way up to Capital ship battles... Story line if you want or if you dont want... you can be a goody two shoes or a pirate the game is all up to you... and the graphics are damn pretty...

 

Here's a Link video from Egosoft

 

 

And the graphics look the same on my PC...

 

Oh yeah you can mod it as well...

 

And paint your Ships to match your shoes...

Edited January 5, 2010 by Slartibartfast

[HotNess 2]

 

the FMV era - Phantasmagoria II,

 

 

OOHHHHH you said Phantasmagoria 11,i loved that,and will admit scared the heck outta me,epecially in the green house,and the freaky deaky rape bit in the bathroom with her very ugly hubby lol..and as u mentioned david bowie,got me thinkin of that other game he did music for Omikron which was awsom.x

 

Best Space Sim IMHO is X3 Terran Conflicthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2BYxSivFZE

 

Oh yeah you can mod it as well...

 

Now that looks pretty coolio xx

 

xx v xx

[Slartibartfast 153]

OOHHHHH you said Phantasmagoria 11,i loved that,and will admit scared the heck outta me,epecially in the green house,and the freaky deaky rape bit in the bathroom with her very ugly hubby lol..and as u mentioned david bowie,got me thinkin of that other game he did music for Omikron which was awsom.x

 

 

 

Now that looks pretty coolio xx

 

xx v xx

 

Just expect to lose large chunks of time playing it...

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

now..yo slighty hijack this thread..i know uk widowmaker wont mind as if he did he would end up chained to a radiator in my basement and only let out to play on sundays..id likey to ask,which is the best spacey flight thing out today,as all this made me wanna try one again..or an old one with new mods..?

 

xx v xx

 

Hotness...the thought of being chained to your Radiator makes me feel all gushy inside!...and I would survive just thinking about being let out to play on a Sunday!..WOOF WOOF!!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

There's a free Privateer game made to run with a modern computer....cant remember where I found it..but do a 'Google'

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Sorry, I meant WC Prophecy

Edited January 5, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[HotNess 2]

but do a 'Google'

 

You love it when i "do a google" dont ya babes lol

 

xx V xx

[Vigilant 1]

now..yo slighty hijack this thread..i know uk widowmaker wont mind as if he did he would end up chained to a radiator in my basement and only let out to play on sundays..id likey to ask,which is the best spacey flight thing out today,as all this made me wanna try one again..or an old one with new mods..?

xx v xx

 

I'd suggest Open Freespace as a spacesim. It uses modernized Freespace 2 engine, so the graphics/compatibility are relatively up to date. It's also moddable - WC, B5, BSG.... The original Freespace games are also good by themselved. Starlancer is also good, but the game engine is not futureproof, so it has significant difficulties with current resolutions and widescreen displays. Freelancer is also not bad. It can be regarded as space trading sim, but mostly because of static universe it probably doesn't compare to the X series(don't have those, co can't compare). As you can see, all those games are about 5+ years old. At least the freespace has been kept alive by online community. It is sad to see the space sim slowly die out...

 

If you want a hardcore simulation, then Orbiter is the way to go. It is completely free and with tons of addons and mods (ranging from Mercury capsule to X-wing). But learning to fly in space is really difficult. Among other things you don't have 40+ guys in Mission Control to help you. Many things including interplanetary navigation are still beyond me.

 

 

For me it was X-wing, then WC3, then WC5 and then X-wing alliance. So I'd say both. Today I sometimes play WC games on DOSBox (IMHO far more stable than the Windows compatible editions). Have you noticed, that WC is the only sim in any category where badly damaged enemies try to disengage, rather to fight it to death? (Okay, in WoX they also sometimes try to run.. :-)) I also have the WC books, they are not bad, but I would not say that they are great either. If brought up to date both series would be awesome.

[TX3RN0BILL 3]

I must lamely admit that I haven't played either, though I DID try the Tie Fighter Demo. If I had the chance to own one of the games it'd definitely have been Tie Fighter though... Empire FTW!

 

But my space glory time is 100% devoted to a rather minor game with tiny ships called Descent: Freespace - The Great War, as well as it's totally un-epic sequel, Freespace 2. Note that I'm being heavily ironic. If there's one thing that has ever impressed me more than the imperial firepower then it was the gargantuan designs crossing the vacuum of space found in Freespace and Freespace 2. I wish I'd played it in multiplayer but still, every now and then, I put it back on my HD and give in to my space cadet lusts...

 

 

 

 

[FalconC45 157]

Starlancer, meh, I love and hate it. I loved the morale model and the ships. I hated the "defend the carrier" mission where you need to shoot down multiple torpedos.. After 100th time which failed I said to myself "Screw it" and uninstalled the game. Did anybody beat that mission? Its the multi part mission, first you piloted a captured Soviet torp ship, and get close to a Soviet carrier, destroy it, run back to your carrier, and re launch in a fighter and defend yours from massive torp attack.

 

Falcon

[Vigilant 1]

Starlancer, meh, I love and hate it. I loved the morale model and the ships. I hated the "defend the carrier" mission where you need to shoot down multiple torpedos.. After 100th time which failed I said to myself "Screw it" and uninstalled the game. Did anybody beat that mission? Its the multi part mission, first you piloted a captured Soviet torp ship, and get close to a Soviet carrier, destroy it, run back to your carrier, and re launch in a fighter and defend yours from massive torp attack.

 

Falcon

 

On what difficulty? Try to take a fighter with blind fire capability (any US or the stealthy Japanese one). Select only one type of guns and they will automatically aim at the selected target's "to hit" point. Shooting down torps is really easy then.

[UnknownPilot 33]

Not trying to hawk or "sell" it, I just know it's obscure, so wanted to post a couple cool vids -

 

(recommend clicking the HQ/HD button and Full Screen for both)

 

Obiter:

 

- Construction of the Orbiter Forum Space Station (all actions are done by the player, the video was just edited for time, and the comms chatter was overlayed along with the music for the sake of the video)

 

- Space Cowboy, little more cinematic (the systems modeling detail of the Delta Glider 4 is phenomenal, but there is a mind numbing amount of magic tech in craft (engines, fuel, strength, heat tolerance, etc, etc) )

 

Orbiter, and everything for it, is free. What you see in those vids has some cinematic effects (wipes, shake, and sepia tone) added, but what you see is what it's capable of in the 2006 version. There is a new one that was due out in '09, but I'm not sure it has gotten out yet (the site implied it was still in the works, and I didn't dig into it, currently hooked on my newly purchased SF2:V right now )

 

 

 

 

[Slartibartfast 153]

Freelancer is not a patch on the X Series owned them both... as you cant go empire building and take over the entire universe muhahahaha.... there's nothing like jumping into a system with a whole mess of ships and reducing them back to the stoneage... only issue I have with the X series is you cant land on planets...

 

Also if I remember rightly I have X3 Reunion pre Terran Conflict... I will confirm tomorrow if anyone on the UK Side wants it they can have it...

Edited January 5, 2010 by Slartibartfast

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

You love it when i "do a google" dont ya babes lol

 

xx V xx

 

 

You whirlwind of Sauce!!!

[FalconC45 157]

On what difficulty? Try to take a fighter with blind fire capability (any US or the stealthy Japanese one). Select only one type of guns and they will automatically aim at the selected target's "to hit" point. Shooting down torps is really easy then.

 

The difficulty was on normal, but the thing is that different guns had different effective ranges. Even if you see the blind fire cue that doesn't mean the shots will hit. Trust me, I tried every tactic from milking energy to make my fighter to go faster to reach the enemy ships before they launch to hitting my burners to reach the enemy ships on the other side. The thing is that every time you try again the mission gets harder, from my pov anyway. Even if I destroyed one side I was too far away to reach the other side. And yes I targeted some torps to tell my AI wingmen to attack too. IMHO The mission was impossible to succeed.

 

Falcon

[Vigilant 1]

Freelancer is not a patch on the X Series owned them both... as you cant go empire building and take over the entire universe muhahahaha.... there's nothing like jumping into a system with a whole mess of ships and reducing them back to the stoneage... only issue I have with the X series is you cant land on planets...

 

Also if I remember rightly I have X3 Reunion pre Terran Conflict... I will confirm tomorrow if anyone on the UK Side wants it they can have it...

 

Thanks for clarification. I thought that it will be something like that.

 

The difficulty was on normal, but the thing is that different guns had different effective ranges. Even if you see the blind fire cue that doesn't mean the shots will hit. Trust me, I tried every tactic from milking energy to make my fighter to go faster to reach the enemy ships before they launch to hitting my burners to reach the enemy ships on the other side. The thing is that every time you try again the mission gets harder, from my pov anyway. Even if I destroyed one side I was too far away to reach the other side. And yes I targeted some torps to tell my AI wingmen to attack too. IMHO The mission was impossible to succeed.

 

Falcon

 

 

I played this mission about two weeks ago and there weren't that many torps or bombers (three IIRC). It is a bit chaotic, but if you launch, stay on afterburner and concetrate only torpedoes (targeting them with T key) it is doable (at first try, two missed torps). IMHO there are several more challenging anti-torpedo missions - the defence of that passenger liner early in the game with cloaking bombers or that defence of the Victorious later.