Fangenuity is a very special thing. Some join costume groups, some write fan fiction, others are artistic and some code. This is a stunning example of those very special skills, porting the 1994 LucasArts game TIE Fighter into into the 1999 X-Wing Alliance (XWA) engine, making something fresh and new; TIE Fighter: Total Conversion.
Here’s how MODDB.com describe the project.
The TIE Fighter Total Conversion (TFTC) project is aimed at porting the original classic 1994 LucasArts game TIE Fighter, into the 1999 X-Wing Alliance (XWA) engine. Based on the original TFTC from 2005 and built upon the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade project, this is a complete overhaul of the game from graphics to gameplay. All 13 battle campaigns and their training missions have been ported over along with 8 Reimagined battle campaigns, taking advantage of the much better XWA engine and imagining how TIE Fighter could’ve been had the technology of the time not limited it.
What you’re looking at here is TIE Fighter: Total Conversion, which isn’t actually the original TIE Fighter. Instead, it’s a mod for its sequel, 1999’s X-Wing Alliance, porting the original game’s menus and missions into a more robust engine, then using more mods on top of that (the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project) to make everything look nicer.
Having been in development for years, the project was finally and fully released over the weekend, and is so much more than just “TIE Fighter with better lighting.” Because this had to be rebuilt in a whole other game, the developers decided to take the opportunity to mess with the original, and have designed a “reimagined” campaign that goes for 37 missions and adds “more ships, bigger battles [and] in some cases completely new missions.”
The soundtrack has also been remastered, proper widescreen resolutions are available, and there’s VR support as well. Though it’s important to note that both those reimagined missions and the soundtrack are optional improvements; you can still play the original campaign and listen to the old MIDI soundtrack if you want.
- In Episode I, you'll meet new characters including your droid co-pilot Z0-E3, wield a lightsaber, and traverse Vader's fortress to find out what he's searching for.
- In episode II, with the fearsome Switch Lord as your guide, you'll battle terrifying creatures and uncover ancient secrets beneath the planet's surface and learn to master the force.
- In Episode III, with the fate of Mustafar in your hands, you will need to take everything you've learned along the way to face off in a final confrontation.
- Each episode comes with a lightsaber Dojo, an open-ended training mode where you can hone your skills with the weapon of a Jedi Knight and unlock different lightsaber hilts.
- Each episode comes with a Lightsaber Dojo, an open-ended training mode where you can hone your skills with the weapon of a Jedi Knight and unlock different lightsaber hilts.
