A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away - That's the Men In, Just Nod Your Head

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there was Zone.com & X-Wing Alliance.

Friday night, nice fun week on a Holiday in Strathfield, came home decided to boot up some Star Citizen, honestly, may I say, the game will be fantastic but personally? Its rather hard to justify committing time to a game that when you try and do a simple trading run, or even dock with a station, the game wigs out, I appreciate its early access, but it needs to have a semblance of regular stability otherwise your just investing your time for nothing, and if we think of it from an e-sports point of view its like trying to play a game of cricket with broken cricket bats yeah?

So had some fun, walking New Babbage, logged out woke up and was like, well what am I going to play, I think to myself, Eve Online? Nah, looking for something new, so I scroll through, X4 looks interesting, I did play X3 back in the day, briefly, but then I was like, you know what would be awesome, lets go all the way back to the beginning, there were games I played before it, but Star Wars – X-Wing Alliance was my first true, online gaming experience as a young youth on a 28k Modem.

Psst, am I the only one that secretly loves the sound of a dial up modem nostalgia wise… and can like, do the sounds, oh I know there are many of you who just were like “yes, but I don’t tell people about it” ha!

The game itself, was well ahead of its time, and was very stable, so when I was re-purchasing it (the game only costs about $15 AUD at time of writing) I was like right, well, I’m going to need a Joystick?

Headed into EB Games, picked myself up a PXN F16 Flight Stick, can’t say I have done the retail gaming hardware purchase experience for a while, was good to get out there and in the store, all be it, in Penrith Westfield, I do miss the old Gamesmen store, that was where I purchased all my physical media when I was younger, I believe it’s a Mad Mex now, well, that used to be a gaming store, back in the day, I think it was a Hogs Breath, after Gamesmen? Not sure, seem to recall having a few dinner dates there sometime, but I digress.

I have only played a few hours of it, but I must say, it is still as good of a title today, as it was in 1999 but what brings it up to speed, is this.

Now credit where credit is due, I was scrolling through the comments and a gamer by the name of Elandiel recommended the XWA mod, Ladies & Gentlemen, may I say, it brings the game up to speed, honestly, for a game that came out in 1999 that was WAY ahead of its time, this mod, brings all the QOL graphics updates you could need, now yes, still looks a little bit dated, but compared to the base game, what they have done is phenomenal, I just spent an hour or two playing it just now, before I was about to destroy a star destroyer and the game mysteriously crashed, at which point I thought, right, might as well do a write up, and its stunning.

The fun thing about the game, is that A. Its stable, and it comes from a time, where games had to be polished, before they could be published, now, with early access games and digital releases, coders and development studios can be a bit more liberal with how they do things, so far as product releases, but back in the day of physical media, development studios needed to make sure everything was perfect, because the only way you distributed patches back in those days was through gaming magazines with discs on the cover, particularly in the Australia region because our internet was so bad back then.

Everyone remembers walking into the News Agencies and buying the magazines with the demo discs on the front? Those were the days huh? They really should get back to doing that, but with USB’s or whatever, maybe they do, haven’t looked in a while, Demos and those magazines were great marketing, for a few reasons honestly, the Younger generations loved them, because, lets face it, its hard buying premium titles on mum and dads pocket money, that was true of me when I was 16, im sure it’s the same of 16 year olds today, and you get to try before you buy, and by having that, it makes game studios hold themselves to higher account.

Now to Modern Star Wars fans, you will note its all a bit different, to what your familiar with because, most of it has been de-cannon, however, the game itself, is from a time where there was only Episode IV V and VI – so George had not even sat down to even star writing the prequels yet, so while the fact is, that Disney has de-cannoned a lot of this older star wars stuff, that doesn’t mean its not, cannon, it is, you just have, corporate divergence, they can say black and blue its not “Lore” but it is, if you want to apply a scientific mind to it, in a pop culture sense, well, who’s into multiverse theory?

I’m not going to provide links or anything, because this is just an opinion piece to bring to light some really stable, high quality titles that many of you may have missed, its simple old-school dog-fighting, and the game is stable, and just works.

You can find the core game on Steam, Star Wars X-Wing Alliance but, truly, you must, download this XWA Upgrade Mod, it is found at https://www.xwaupgrade.com it really brings the game up to code, simple to install, simple to use, and yes, the game does have multiplayer function, so you can play with your friends.

I honestly recommend it, but all these sci-fi simulators, this, was one of the first, and certainly one of the first online, and Bill Gates, who owned Zone.com can confirm that himself, ask him, and he will tell you everything I’m saying is true.

Highly recommend it, the game is still as good today, as it was in 1999, and still as stable, and many of you are like, aren’t you all about ships? Of course, Navy has aircraft to people, don’t know how I would go in a jet, but yeah, throw me in a spitfire, that I could handle.

And that’s the thing I think a lot of star wars fans don’t realize, its all based on WW2, well not all, (George can confirm) but certainly a lot of the way the pilots fly, the type of craft, all those sorts of things, its all WW2 stuff, fighting the Nazis, and as for the force, that’s Japanese stuff, Kei, and that’s not just me speculating that, the gentleman said it himself! Watch the behind the scenes with George in the first, DVD Remaster release.

You all remember in Australia after the Prequals came out, and they ran them all again in the Cinemas?

Yeah the force is real, its psychic phenomenon, and then you ask me, so are you a Jedi, are you a Sith? Neither, but yet both, I never understood why the Jedi were the way they were, yet the Sith were a lot wiser, in the time before, the old republic, the whole rule of two thing, dreadful idea, no I guess you would consider me a Grey Jedi, and dam straight, celibacy? Are you insane council? Sith girls are always DTF - I get on with them quite well, but they are not evil either, their just from another galaxy, that is also, far far away, a long time ago.

Personally, I think Reven was right, its not about the dark side, or the light side, its about the balance of both, and is that not what they call Ying & Yang in Asia? Both sides of the force, must be wielded and understood, you use, what force, you need, in whatever given situation, but still ascribe to the modern code, but for me, no, very much not a Jedi, cute sith girl flicks her hair I would be balls deep in a heartbeat, but im not a sith, Grey Jedi, I think is the phrase? I mean come on, those girls are fun, and strong, and also, some of my best friends, what im going to surround myself with a clergy of celebrants? Come along now, is me your talking about.

Download the game, give it a try, honestly, if you a star wars fan of any age, you will enjoy it, and the single player campaign is awesome! And how good is it to use a Joystick again? So great, and apparently compatible with Star Citizen, whenever the game is stable enough to play that is, so practice your dogfighting in something that works for now, then move to something modern, no more excel spreadsheets in space for me, I think those days are done, but my name is on the Pyramid.

Around about that time, I purchased my first two albums, what do you think they were?

Pokemon Soundtrack, and Willenium – Man Jess of Team Rocket, with her FM boots, guess I always have liked the bad girls, so Hi, to all the “Bad Girls” out there, your more fun anyway, Starwars and Chill? Ha !

Team Rockets still Rocking, 😉 or did you not know that was MGI? Well, lucky were the good guys, always with the technical issues though, to protect the world from devastation, to defend all peoples within our nation…

Written by Kashmir_Z
Art Generated by Krea.AI