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* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Missile Boat does indeed live up to its name.
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** Whether or not the player is merely returned to the Star Destroyer or captured by enemy forces is determined at random, however.
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* SpaceMines: They use lasers as introduced in ''VideoGames/XWing'', but also have ion cannon and warhead variants. One mission also requires you to clear a minefield in an unshielded craft.
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* SpaceMines: They use lasers as introduced in ''VideoGames/XWing'', ''VideoGame/XWing'', but also have ion cannon and warhead variants. One mission also requires you to clear a minefield in an unshielded craft.
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* SpaceMines: They use lasers as introduced in ''VideoGames/XWing'', but also have ion cannon and warhead variants. One mission also requires you to clear a minefield in an unshielded craft.
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Beam weapons.
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*** Also, craft equipped with beam weapons (tractor beam, targeting jammer) don't have any kind of speed or maneuverability penalty over their non beam equipped counterparts, meaning you can simply shunt all power from the beam recharge to the engines and use it as a makeshift speed upgrade. Since the TIE Defender and Missile Boat almost always have a beam equipped, you can easily make these already fast craft faster still. The extra energy also means you keep your lasers recharged without the usual loss of speed, and of course, you can keep the SLAM operating for significantly longer.
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The TIE Advanced was the production model of Vader\'s X-1
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** Before either of these rear their heads, the TIE Advance is the king of the hill, though not quite game-breaker material. It has decent shields, 4 laser cannons, its own hyperdrive, a set of missiles, and just enough speed to beat an A-Wing in a race. ''This is the ship Darth Vader's personal TIE is based on.'' Of course, a short time later the Defender and Missile Boat show up, making everyone forget about the poor Advance.
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** Before either of these rear their heads, the TIE Advance is the king of the hill, though not quite game-breaker material. It has decent shields, 4 laser cannons, its own hyperdrive, a set of missiles, and just enough speed to beat an A-Wing in a race. ''This is the ship that was based on Darth Vader's personal TIE is based on.prototype.'' Of course, a short time later the Defender and Missile Boat show up, making everyone forget about the poor Advance.
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The history of the game itself goes back to the early 1990s, when LucasArts approached game developer Lawrence Holland and his studio, Totally Games!, to develop a series of games for the publisher. The first games were actually WWII flight simulators including ''Battlehawks 1942'' and perhaps Holland's best known non-franchise game, ''{{Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe}}''. These games became instant classics, and in the meantime Holland was working on a 3D rendering engine specifically for flight sims, something that back in 1992 was revolutionary.
This prompted LucasArts and Holland to develop a flight (or rather space) sim game using both this engine and the StarWars license, and ''{{X-Wing}}'' was the result. A year later, Holland got working on a sequel. Rather than being a direct sequel chronicling the Rebel Alliance and their starfighter squadrons after the Battle of Hoth (which is where X-Wing left off), the game would put the pilot in the ranks of the Rebel's greatest enemies, the Galactic Empire, by putting them in the seat of one of the Empire's greatest symbols of military might, the TIE Fighter.
This prompted LucasArts and Holland to develop a flight (or rather space) sim game using both this engine and the StarWars license, and ''{{X-Wing}}'' was the result. A year later, Holland got working on a sequel. Rather than being a direct sequel chronicling the Rebel Alliance and their starfighter squadrons after the Battle of Hoth (which is where X-Wing left off), the game would put the pilot in the ranks of the Rebel's greatest enemies, the Galactic Empire, by putting them in the seat of one of the Empire's greatest symbols of military might, the TIE Fighter.
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The history of the game itself goes back to the early 1990s, when LucasArts Creator/LucasArts approached game developer Lawrence Holland and his studio, Totally Games!, to develop a series of games for the publisher. The first games were actually WWII flight simulators including ''Battlehawks 1942'' and perhaps Holland's best known non-franchise game, ''{{Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe}}''. These games became instant classics, and in the meantime Holland was working on a 3D rendering engine specifically for flight sims, something that back in 1992 was revolutionary.
This promptedLucasArts [=LucasArts=] and Holland to develop a flight (or rather space) sim game using both this engine and the StarWars license, and ''{{X-Wing}}'' was the result. A year later, Holland got working on a sequel. Rather than being a direct sequel chronicling the Rebel Alliance and their starfighter squadrons after the Battle of Hoth (which is where X-Wing left off), the game would put the pilot in the ranks of the Rebel's greatest enemies, the Galactic Empire, by putting them in the seat of one of the Empire's greatest symbols of military might, the TIE Fighter.
This prompted
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The market life of this game was extended numerous times through various expansions and "collector's editions." This was particularly annoying as LucasArts and Totally Games! clearly anticipated expansion packs from the beginning, ''since they left the campaign story of the original release of the game blatantly incomplete.'' The first expansion, "Defender of the Empire" added the TIE Defender and its associated campaign missions - by the way, even after installing Defender of the Empire, many players were annoyed when it was found that ''they '''still''' left the campaign story incomplete because those money grubbing bastards were going to force yet more expansion packs!'' The ''final'' "expansion pack" was abandoned in favor of releasing the "Collector's CD" edition in 1995 which not only ('''finally''') included a '''finished''' campaign story, but upped the in-game resolution to 640x480 (though no changes were made to the graphics engine itself) as well as updated speech and voice acting. Of course, understandably, original purchasers of the first game were ''very'' annoyed since in order to actually complete the campaign, they had to buy the game all over again. And then they had the nerve to rerelease it ''again'' in the X-Wing Collector Series, this time stripping it of the [=iMuse=] music technology in favour of the Williams scores. Fortunately all was forgiven because in the end, ''TIE Fighter'' turned out to be just that damn good.
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The market life of this game was extended numerous times through various expansions and "collector's editions." This was particularly annoying as LucasArts [=LucasArts=] and Totally Games! clearly anticipated expansion packs from the beginning, ''since they left the campaign story of the original release of the game blatantly incomplete.'' The first expansion, "Defender of the Empire" added the TIE Defender and its associated campaign missions - by the way, even after installing Defender of the Empire, many players were annoyed when it was found that ''they '''still''' left the campaign story incomplete because those money grubbing bastards were going to force yet more expansion packs!'' The ''final'' "expansion pack" was abandoned in favor of releasing the "Collector's CD" edition in 1995 which not only ('''finally''') included a '''finished''' campaign story, but upped the in-game resolution to 640x480 (though no changes were made to the graphics engine itself) as well as updated speech and voice acting. Of course, understandably, original purchasers of the first game were ''very'' annoyed since in order to actually complete the campaign, they had to buy the game all over again. And then they had the nerve to rerelease it ''again'' in the X-Wing Collector Series, this time stripping it of the [=iMuse=] music technology in favour of the Williams scores. Fortunately all was forgiven because in the end, ''TIE Fighter'' turned out to be just that damn good.
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*** When this particular feature was carried over to ''X-wing Versus TIE Fighter'', carrying beams quickly became a popular form of {{Griefing}} in multiplayer, since most players loaded them entirely to take advantage of the power boost.
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* DroneJam: Your wingmates have a nasty occasional habit of getting in front of your crossfire. And vice versa, as well - death from friendly fire is ''waaaaaaay'' too common. Avoiding it is possible, but living through the experience is a headache in and of itself. It's far too easy to end up between dueling capital ships more than once when trying to ''not'' shoot down your wingmates upon which HilarityEnsues.
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* InvisibilityCloak: Cutscene use only. It is one of the projects being researched, although Admiral Harkov does steal the device.
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* InvisibilityCloak: Cutscene use only. It is one of the projects being researched, although Admiral Harkov Zaarin does steal the device. device.
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** : The T-Wing, used mostly by pirates, was similar in that it had poor shields and hull strength but a high missile capacity. However it was also nearly as fast as an A-Wing which meant that a player's only chance to complete an EscortMission was to take down the missiles in mid flight.
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** : The T-Wing, used mostly by pirates, was similar in that it had poor shields and hull strength but a high missile capacity. However it was also nearly as fast as an A-Wing which meant that sometimes a player's only chance to complete an EscortMission was to take down the missiles in mid flight.
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* ArmoredCoffins: Averted. Even the unshielded fighters have reliable ejection systems. They can be damaged like any other system but its likely that you will be outright destroyed, and eject automatically, before this happens.
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* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: TIE Fighters have two laser cannons, no other weapons, no shields, no hyperdrive, and essentially six hit points. Enemy TIE Fighters in the expansion have shields.
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* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: TIE Fighters have two laser cannons, no other weapons, no shields, no hyperdrive, and essentially six hit points. Enemy TIE Fighters in the expansion have shields. Justified in that Zaarin was heavily involved in improving the TIE series and was looking for ways to keep his depleted forces alive.
** [[spoiler: Grand Admiral Zaarin pulls this later and far less ambiguously; as he goes warlord rather than joining the Rebellion.]]
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* GlassCannon: TIE Bombers.
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* GlassCannon: TIE Bombers. They actually had strong hulls but a lack of shields meant that were prone to losing systems or being easily destroyed by missiles or even torpedoes because of how sluggish they were. Their rockets and bombs however meant that if they survived even a single attack run would see the loss of all but the biggest capital ships.
**: The T-Wing, used mostly by pirates, was similar in that it had poor shields and hull strength but a high missile capacity. However it was also nearly as fast as an A-Wing which meant that a player's only chance to complete an EscortMission was to take down the missiles in mid flight.
**: The T-Wing, used mostly by pirates, was similar in that it had poor shields and hull strength but a high missile capacity. However it was also nearly as fast as an A-Wing which meant that a player's only chance to complete an EscortMission was to take down the missiles in mid flight.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: [[spoiler: Harkov had no love for Rebel ideals but they paid him a generous sum so over he went.]]
** This even extends into the StarWarsExpandedUniverse; the Defender occasionally pops up but the Advanced hard ever appears and is only mentioned in visual encyclopedias.
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* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters:
** The player is a star fighter pilot in service to the Empire, which is presented as the guardian of order, and the Rebels are portrayed as terrorists (though Vader still scares everyone and you don't actually fight Rebels that much). In fact, most of the early missions consist of legitimate work like scanning freighters for contraband and defending military installations from attack. The OpeningScroll and cutscenes in TIE Fighter specifically refer to "Rebel terrorists" and "Rebel insurgents."
** The player is a star fighter pilot in service to the Empire, which is presented as the guardian of order, and the Rebels are portrayed as terrorists (though Vader still scares everyone and you don't actually fight Rebels that much). In fact, most of the early missions consist of legitimate work like scanning freighters for contraband and defending military installations from attack. The OpeningScroll and cutscenes in TIE Fighter specifically refer to "Rebel terrorists" and "Rebel insurgents."
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* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters:
**YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The player is a star fighter pilot in service to the Empire, which is presented as the guardian of order, and the Rebels are portrayed as terrorists (though Vader still scares everyone and you don't actually fight Rebels that much). In fact, most of the early missions consist of legitimate work like scanning freighters for contraband and defending military installations from attack. The OpeningScroll and cutscenes in TIE Fighter specifically refer to "Rebel terrorists" and "Rebel insurgents."
**
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* [[spoiler: FaceHeelTurn: Harkov and his fleet, from the Empire's and the PC's perspective]]
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* [[spoiler: FaceHeelTurn: Harkov and his fleet, from the Empire's and the PC's perspective]]perspective.]]
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* FaceHeelTurn: [[Harkov and his fleet, from the Empire's and the PC's perspective]]
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* [[spoiler: FaceHeelTurn: [[Harkov Harkov and his fleet, from the Empire's and the PC's perspective]]
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* FaceHeelTurn: [[Harkov and his fleet, from the Empire's and the PC's perspective]]
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* SpacePirates: They mostly use outdated ships compared to the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
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* [[spoiler: MeleeATrois: TheEmpire, Zaarin and [[LaResistance the Rebels]] in later parts of the game. Also add some SpacePirates for flavor.]]
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] and ''[[SerialEscalation the Missile Boat]].
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, it gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] and ''[[SerialEscalation [[SerialEscalation the Missile Boat]].
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Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[UpToEleven manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
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Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[UpToEleven [[SerialEscalation manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] and ''[[GameBreaker the Missile Boat]].
* PassThroughTheRings: training missions.
** Surprisingly fun training missions. Some people have spent hours running through the training course as a sort of odd racing (against the clock) game.
* PassThroughTheRings: training missions.
** Surprisingly fun training missions. Some people have spent hours running through the training course as a sort of odd racing (against the clock) game.
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] and ''[[GameBreaker ''[[SerialEscalation the Missile Boat]].
* PassThroughTheRings:training missions.
**Surprisingly fun training missions. Some people have spent hours running through the training course as a sort of odd racing (against the clock) game.
* PassThroughTheRings:
**
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* SerialEscalation: TIE Advanced was considered the most powerful imperial fighter. They then released the TIE Defender (faster and has ion cannons), and the missile boat (carries enough ordinance to wax multiple capital ships). However, these two ships were scrapped and/or mothballed in the final missions.
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] ''[[GameBreaker and]] [[GameBreaker the Missile Boat]].
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] and ''[[GameBreaker and]] [[GameBreaker the Missile Boat]].
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* OvershadowedByAwesome: The TIE Advanced, which was introduced as the most powerful Imperial starfighter, being the first TIE starfighter with shields and hyperdrive. But not long after its introduction, gets outmatched by [[GameBreaker the TIE Defender]] ''[[GameBreaker and]] [[GameBreaker the Missile Boat]].
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* FasterThanLightTravel: Vessels enter and exit the combat zone via hyperspace jumps. Unlike more advanced ships, the basic [=TIE=] crafts lack a hyperdrive so they must return to some kind of MotherShip to conclude their mission.
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* RootingForTheEmpire: Apparently invoked in the literal sense but it comes out more as a subversion since this is among the first Star Wars high-profile works to avert BlackAndWhiteMorality.
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* InvisibilityCloak: Cutscene use only. It is one of the projects being researched, although Admiral Harkov does steal the device.
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* FragileSpeedster: All non-shielded TIE craft are either this or [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]].
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* GlassCannon: TIE Bombers.
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*JackOfAllStats: The TIE Advance/TIE Avenger. The TIE Defender takes this to [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] levels.
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* MightyGlacier: Assault Gunboats have powerful shields and weapons out the rear but are slow to accelerate and turn like molasses.
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* BurialAtSpace: A ceremony for the deceased player is held and the casket is disposed of this way.
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* BurialAtSpace: BurialInSpace: A ceremony for the deceased player is held and the casket is disposed of this way.
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* DeflectorShields: The main advantage the Rebel fighters have over the Imperial basic ones —the only spacecrafts that lack a shield— until Gunboats and Tie Advanceds/Defenders appear. RegeneratingShieldStatic Health variety and an important element of the energy management gameplay.
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* DeflectorShields: The main advantage the Rebel fighters have over the Imperial basic ones —the only spacecrafts that lack a shield— until Gunboats and Tie Advanceds/Defenders appear. RegeneratingShieldStatic Health RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth variety and an important element of the energy management gameplay.gameplay once you are given shielded crafts.
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* BurialAtSpace: A ceremony for the deceased player is held and the casket is disposed of this way.
* DeflectorShields: The main advantage the Rebel fighters have over the Imperial basic ones —the only spacecrafts that lack a shield— until Gunboats and Tie Advanceds/Defenders appear. RegeneratingShieldStatic Health variety and an important element of the energy management gameplay.
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* UpdatedRerelease: the "Collector's CD ROM Edition" ''defines'' this trope
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* UpdatedRerelease: the "Collector's CD ROM Edition" ''defines'' this tropetrope. The game received two updated releases, one with upgraded SVGA graphics and a second one (Tie Fighter 95) retrofited and ported to the engine of ''XWingVsTieFighter''. A fanmade [[GameMod total conversion]] for ''{{X-WingAlliance}}'' also [[http://www.maxgames.it/xwc/ exits]].
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* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters:
** The player is a star fighter pilot in service to the Empire, which is presented as the guardian of order, and the Rebels are portrayed as terrorists (though Vader still scares everyone and you don't actually fight Rebels that much). In fact, most of the early missions consist of legitimate work like scanning freighters for contraband and defending military installations from attack. The OpeningScroll and cutscenes in TIE Fighter specifically refer to "Rebel terrorists" and "Rebel insurgents."
** All of the Star Wars flight sims, and their companion comics and novels, play with this trope in regard to capital ship names. Those stories told from the Rebel perspective are likely to include Alliance ships named after ideals - "Independence," "Liberty," "Freedom" - while enemy ships have names with definite negative connotations - "Inquisitor," for example, or even "Eviscerator." If, however, the protagonists fly for the Empire, suddenly all the Star Destroyers have names like "Protector" or "Stalwart", while the ships of their Rebel opponents have non-evocative names.
** The player is a star fighter pilot in service to the Empire, which is presented as the guardian of order, and the Rebels are portrayed as terrorists (though Vader still scares everyone and you don't actually fight Rebels that much). In fact, most of the early missions consist of legitimate work like scanning freighters for contraband and defending military installations from attack. The OpeningScroll and cutscenes in TIE Fighter specifically refer to "Rebel terrorists" and "Rebel insurgents."
** All of the Star Wars flight sims, and their companion comics and novels, play with this trope in regard to capital ship names. Those stories told from the Rebel perspective are likely to include Alliance ships named after ideals - "Independence," "Liberty," "Freedom" - while enemy ships have names with definite negative connotations - "Inquisitor," for example, or even "Eviscerator." If, however, the protagonists fly for the Empire, suddenly all the Star Destroyers have names like "Protector" or "Stalwart", while the ships of their Rebel opponents have non-evocative names.
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* HeyItsThatVoice: the briefing officer is voiced by [[AlloAllo Lieutenant Gruber]].
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* HeyItsThatVoice: the briefing officer is voiced by [[AlloAllo [[Series/AlloAllo Lieutenant Gruber]].
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Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[BeyondTheImpossible manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
to:
Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[BeyondTheImpossible [[UpToEleven manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
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[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tiefighter.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''Good Hunting Alpha 1!'']]
''TIE Fighter'' is a PC game first launched in 1994, with various expansion packs and collector's editions being released as late as 1997.
The history of the game itself goes back to the early 1990s, when LucasArts approached game developer Lawrence Holland and his studio, Totally Games!, to develop a series of games for the publisher. The first games were actually WWII flight simulators including ''Battlehawks 1942'' and perhaps Holland's best known non-franchise game, ''{{Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe}}''. These games became instant classics, and in the meantime Holland was working on a 3D rendering engine specifically for flight sims, something that back in 1992 was revolutionary.
This prompted LucasArts and Holland to develop a flight (or rather space) sim game using both this engine and the StarWars license, and ''{{X-Wing}}'' was the result. A year later, Holland got working on a sequel. Rather than being a direct sequel chronicling the Rebel Alliance and their starfighter squadrons after the Battle of Hoth (which is where X-Wing left off), the game would put the pilot in the ranks of the Rebel's greatest enemies, the Galactic Empire, by putting them in the seat of one of the Empire's greatest symbols of military might, the TIE Fighter.
The main protagonist of TIE Fighter was Maarek Steele (though he was never named as such in the game; his name comes from the [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental guidebook]] that came with first run editions of the game) who started out as an anonymous pilot but would rise through the ranks with distinction over the course of the game's events. What separated TIE Fighter from X-Wing in particular was its rather involving story and campaign, which not only pitted the player against the Rebels (and certain traitorous Imperials) but also explained the motivations behind the actions of the Empire and its enemies and gave significant insight into many key characters of the Star Wars universe, including Thrawn (a major story thread of the game is how Thrawn was promoted from Vice Admiral to Grand Admiral). The game also presented optional "secondary" mission goals which, when completed, would earn the player additional rank.
Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[BeyondTheImpossible manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
Another notable feature of the original issue was the "[=iMuse=]" system (no, it doesn't have anything to do with [=iMacs=] or [=iPods=]) which dynamically changed the background music based upon the player's actions. The background music itself was notable for being comprised of original scores by the Totally Games! crew. Sadly, the [=iMuse=] feature was dropped in the X-Wing Collector Series box-set rerelease, replaced by high-fidelity scores from the original trilogy, though the soundtrack's still quite good.
The market life of this game was extended numerous times through various expansions and "collector's editions." This was particularly annoying as LucasArts and Totally Games! clearly anticipated expansion packs from the beginning, ''since they left the campaign story of the original release of the game blatantly incomplete.'' The first expansion, "Defender of the Empire" added the TIE Defender and its associated campaign missions - by the way, even after installing Defender of the Empire, many players were annoyed when it was found that ''they '''still''' left the campaign story incomplete because those money grubbing bastards were going to force yet more expansion packs!'' The ''final'' "expansion pack" was abandoned in favor of releasing the "Collector's CD" edition in 1995 which not only ('''finally''') included a '''finished''' campaign story, but upped the in-game resolution to 640x480 (though no changes were made to the graphics engine itself) as well as updated speech and voice acting. Of course, understandably, original purchasers of the first game were ''very'' annoyed since in order to actually complete the campaign, they had to buy the game all over again. And then they had the nerve to rerelease it ''again'' in the X-Wing Collector Series, this time stripping it of the [=iMuse=] music technology in favour of the Williams scores. Fortunately all was forgiven because in the end, ''TIE Fighter'' turned out to be just that damn good.
Despite its age, you'll ''still'' see this game often in top 5 lists of best ''StarWars''-themed games ever, and often across other related "best of" lists too.
All the cutscenes have been collected [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R78l7v3DqkM&feature=related here]].
!This game provides examples of:
* ArrowCam
* ATeamFiring: Based on how the AI works, stopping the craft is an effective method of avoiding enemy fire from X-Wings and Z-95 Headhunters, on par with erratic maneuvering. Y-Wings or other craft that shoots from the cockpit will still hit.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Doubly subverted as traitor Imperial forces will adopt the tactics and equipment your side developed (indeed, it was ''them'' who developed them in the first place before they turned traitor), forcing you to use the same tactics to counter them (as they're the best available) until something even better can be developed.
* BossInMookClothing: You can make an argument that enemy TIE Defenders qualify since they will ''waste'' everything besides the player.
* ChasingYourTail: Otherwise known as ''dogfights''.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Admiral Harkov.
* ChewingTheScenery: "For the greater glory of the Empire, '''destroy everything!'''
* CivilWarcraft: ''Big time. '''Twice.'''''
** As well as varying who you fight, this is also a good explanation for why the Rebels stand a chance against the Empire (which, as we see, not only has numbers but game-breakingly good craft like the TIE Defender and Missile Boat) - because the Empire is expending a lot of its resources in fighting its own traitorous generals.
* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: TIE Fighters have two laser cannons, no other weapons, no shields, no hyperdrive, and essentially six hit points. Enemy TIE Fighters in the expansion have shields.
* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: Understandable, since one part of outer space has a tendency to look like every other part of outer space.
* CollisionDamage: A surprisingly effective weapon against other, weaker fighters, by the way. However, it is toned down a lot in this version.
* CoolShip: Two of them.
** First, you've got the inaccurately-named TIE Defender, which dominates all the other [=TIEs=] in speed, acceleration, maneuverability, and weapons systems. Yes, it's that powerful. Four lasers, 2 ion cannons, and 8 missiles mean it can dominate in space superiorty situations. It's a full 50% faster than a X-Wing or TIE Interceptor, and comfortably faster than an A-Wing or TIE Advanced, while also being more maneuverable. With strong shields and its own hyperdrive, it could pop in anywhere and basically stomp on any other fighter's head, while they would be unable to escape.
** Secondly, you've got the holy hell war god Missile Boat, which is extremely powerful and was designed specifically to kill TIE Defenders with ease. It has merely one laser, but as its name implies, it carries more missiles than an entire wing of starfighters, enough to use them as its primary weapons at all times. The otherwise forgotten laser can instead be used to power the Missile Boat's exclusive SLAM system, which basically dumps all the energy from your laser banks into your engine for a ''phenomenal'' boost of speed, giving it the ability to jump in or escape pretty much any situation at will. And like a lot of advanced imperial fighters, it has special beam systems, typically a tractor beam. This thing is designed to kill TIE Defenders by zooming up on top of them before they know it, grabbing them with the tractor beam before they can escape, and then pounding the poor bastard with a nearly endless supply of missiles. This plan works wonders against pretty much any fighter. And if it's armed for a bombing role instead, it can destroy entire fleets without having to pause or reload, simply because it carries ''that much ordnance.''
** Before either of these rear their heads, the TIE Advance is the king of the hill, though not quite game-breaker material. It has decent shields, 4 laser cannons, its own hyperdrive, a set of missiles, and just enough speed to beat an A-Wing in a race. ''This is the ship Darth Vader's personal TIE is based on.'' Of course, a short time later the Defender and Missile Boat show up, making everyone forget about the poor Advance.
* CutScene
* CutScenePowerToTheMax: Whereas ''enemy'' TIE Defenders can wreck an entire flight group of Assault Gunboats each, once you have some on ''your'' side they have an annoying tendency to fall in single combat against measly A-Wings.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: When the player's character dies (a rare event in of itself, actually) or is captured, it shows a cutscene with the charater's demise. While ''{{X-Wing}}'' allowed you to continue by reviving your pilot and resetting the score, ''TIE Fighter'' allows an automatic backup and restore to bring you back without penalty. If you want, you can disable the automatic backup and try the game without dying.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: In this game, you now have the option to take out turrets on capital ships, rendering them defenseless. Likewise, you can use Ion cannons to quickly disable large capital ships. The result in either case allows you to destroy the largest of ships using lasers.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Everything you learned about the "proper order" of the galaxy in ''Star Wars'' is subverted, since after all you are fighting for the Empire this time.
* DogFightingFurballs: The entire game revolves around it.
* DroneJam: Your wingmates have a nasty occasional habit of getting in front of your crossfire. And vice versa, as well - death from friendly fire is ''waaaaaaay'' too common. Avoiding it is possible, but living through the experience is a headache in and of itself. It's far too easy to end up between dueling capital ships more than once when trying to ''not'' shoot down your wingmates upon which HilarityEnsues.
* EasterEgg
* EnemyChatter: Apparently no one's heard of "secure communications channels" in the Star Wars universe.
* EnemyScan: built right into your fighter, just get really close to them and you find out what they're carrying. This is actually a plot point [[spoiler:for at least one secret objective, as it's how the player begins to find out about Harkov's double dealing]].
* EscortMission: ''and how!''
* FakeDifficulty: In this game, very much related to the above trope.
* FallingIntoTheCockpit: The feelies reveal your character was a mechanic running a test on a fighter who happened to save a high ranking Imperial officer from rebellion attack during the flight.
* {{Feelies}}: "The Steele Chronicles"
* FridgeBrilliance: It seems more than a bit obscene that in a game like this, you'd spend so little time fighting the Rebels and so much fighting Imperial splinters. Why can't TheEmperor keep all his eggs in a basket long enough to finish the Rebels off once and for- [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Oh..... so *that's* why the Rebels survived in canon...]]
* FriendOrFoe: Averted for earlier missions, in that the Rebels are coded green on the map and threat display, and fly typical Rebel Alliance craft. However, as the game progresses, you are increasingly called upon to fight Imperial hardware, which usually are in the hands of defected or traitorous forces, and are encoded red (the same as your side). Generally though they will appear with '''Z-''' or '''H-''' prefixed names, indicating that they are on the opposite side.
* GameBreakingBug: In the collector's version, you can destroy the nose warhead launcher of a Star Destroyer. This reveals a hole that you can fly into and attack the capital ship from the inside without worry about being attacked. Some laser batteries from the Star Destroyer may still be able to hit you, but other enemy craft can't hit you.
* HelloInsertNameHere
* HeyItsThatVoice: the briefing officer is voiced by [[AlloAllo Lieutenant Gruber]].
* HighAltitudeBattle: it doesn't get much higher than [[InSpace OUTER SPACE]].
* HoldTheLine
* IrrelevantImportance: A particularly annoying example where a pirate fighter can enter the hangar of a pirate cruiser and fail the mission because it's considered "escaped" even if the cruiser is destroyed afterwards.
* ItsUpToYou: Usually straight, but averted in the earliest missions - when the Rebels attack during your training, you're immediately ordered back to base. There's plenty of trained pilots about, no need to waste a rookie and his ship.
* LordBritishPostulate: Except in a few [[CharacterShield rare cases]], it is theoretically possible to destroy almost everything. And you get [[WhatTheHellPlayer more points for doing so]] (and maybe a scolding) as long as the [[InstantWinCondition win conditions are met]]. Star Destroyers have a blind spot if you take out the one rear laser turret, and can be taken down with an unshielded craft.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Not quite, but after defeating the last of Harkov's forces an even bigger traitor is revealed.
* {{Mook}}: partially subverted in that ''the player'' takes on the role of one of the Empire's random Mooks, at least early on in the game. The player even gets stuck in the ultimate MookMobile, the bog-standard [=TIE=] Fighter.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Missile Boats.
* MookMaker: just about any enemy capital ship, but they'll eventually run out.
* MultiMookMelee
* NitroBoost: The Missile Boat's "SLAM" drive, which makes it ''temporarily'' the fastest ship in the game... at the expense of your laser cannon's ammunition. As the Missile Boat has only a single laser cannon and usually carries 100+ missiles, this isn't really a problem. The TIE Defender on the other hand is the fastest without such.
** You can adjust which systems get how much power in any ship. If you redirect all power to the engines, you can make ''anything'' go ridiculously fast... though you won't have lasers, shields, or tractor beams.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Inverted, since this is essentially the "wicked campaign" counterpart to X-Wing.
* NoFairCheating: As this game was much harder than the predecessor, there was a simple toggle in the in-flight menu to give you [[CharacterShield invulnerability]] and [[BottomlessMagazines unlimited ammunition]]. However, this reduced your score by 90% if used at any point in the mission, making advancements and promotions difficult at best.
* NoWarpingZone: Interdictors prevent ships from using the HyperspaceEscape, while having other ships destroy the intended targets. An allied interdictor is used across multiple missions to prevent enemy capital ships from escaping, while a few missions later, another interdictor prevents you from escaping.
* OldSchoolDogfighting
* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: or three in this case, and you ''literally'' have to buy ''the same game again'' (in "Collector's CD Edition" form) if you bought the original release and want to see how the whole thing ends.
* OneManArmy: For the most part accidental just because your wingmen (and reinforcements, which you can call in in almost any mission) are pretty much useless, but there ''are'' true One Man Army missions as well. For example, [[spoiler:when you've been using the TIE Advanced (fast, hyperdrive, shields, and concussion missiles) only to be assigned to show two wingmen how to clear a minefield... in an unshielded TIE Interceptor, with them watching from behind you...]] Gee, [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong what's the worst that could happen]]?
** Hint: [[spoiler:Destroying your wing men will not result in your commander complaining about friendly fire]].
* PassThroughTheRings: training missions.
** Surprisingly fun training missions. Some people have spent hours running through the training course as a sort of odd racing (against the clock) game.
* PlotArmor: The original versions had invulnerable capital ships that needed to survive for a future mission. Thus, you can't kill Harkov's final Imperial Star Destroyer until [[FakeLongevity a few missions pass]].
* ProtectionMission: In one mission, your wingmen are destroyed more quickly than the platform you're defending. When just one wingman is left, he asks how the two of us can stop all these ships.
* RevenueEnhancingDevices: Played up straight and ultimately is itself a result of revenue enhancing devices of the Star Wars merchandising empire.
* ScriptBreaking: it's possible to ensure that certain conditions to achieve Secondary Goals are never met due to actions performed within the mission.
* ShipShape: Some abandoned containers lying around happen to be perfectly salvageable for building a space station (but it ''is'' space, after all, and they were only abandoned for a short while)
* SprintShoes: In a weird way, the Tractor Beam, since against anything but A-Wings and the more advanced [=TIEs=] it's kinda wasted, so most people shunt the energy that would go to it back into the engines.
** Even better: if the tractor beam wasn't mounted on your craft, that energy was not available to shunt into other systems. Apparently, the tractor beam carried its own power supply that could be fed into your craft at will. Makes you wonder why they didn't just leave our the beam generating part and added the power supply to your fighter in order to strengthen it. It would have been handy against the traitor craft.
** Ironic in the case of the Missile Boat/TIE Defender; the TIE Defender can actually mount the tractor beam in some missions (perhaps only in the Combat Simulator?), but the Tractor Beam is supposed to be part of the Missile Boat's basic in-universe tactic: catch a TIE Defender in a tractor beam and [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile spam it to death]].
*** The technology was originally developed for the Advanced, so it's nothing like odd for it to have been implemented on the Defender a couple of times.
** Also, the Missile Boat has the SLAM system, which doubles your speed by consuming your stored laser energy. If you redirect all power to engines, you'll still be coasting above maximum speed for a while.
* SuicideAttack: Some capital ships are scripted to ram or block other capital ships. If they touch, both are instantly destroyed. This is explained by having one of the vessels contain "explosives" or some other dangerous cargo.
* TheParalyzer: In addition to Ion Beams that disable unshielded vessels, the Mag Pulse was introduced to temporarily disable weapon systems on a fully shielded craft.
* ThemeNaming: Zahn started it with the [[TheThrawnTrilogy Emperor's Hand]]. In addition to a Hand, you become an Emperor's Reach and an Emperor's Voice. You also become part of the Emperor's Sword fighter wing.
* UnwinnableByMistake: The early version would sometimes carry over ship conditions from previous missions. If you managed to destroy a win condition ship from a previous battle, it would become impossible to finish the game. The ''Collector's CD'' fixed this in most cases (except the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Falaricae Falaricae]], which was only a bonus goal later).
* UpdatedRerelease: the "Collector's CD ROM Edition" ''defines'' this trope
* WhatTheHellPlayer: In one of the missions, if you're fairly clever, you can [[OffTheRails disable and destroy your own command ship]], a small Corellian Corvette. If you ''succeed,'' though, the ''Imperial freaking Star Destroyer [[MeaningfulName Badi Dea]]'' shows up and starts [[CurbStompBattle launching fighters]]. However, if you survive the retaliatory waves, and have not yet completed your mission goals, you'll only receive the mission failure debriefing by the officer and get to try again.
** If you can out last the [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard game's cheating ass]], you can shoot down ''Darth Vader''. You also get reprimanded if Darth Vader is killed while on a command ship that you are also supposed to defend. However, it's a non-issue since [[InstantWinCondition you completed all other objectives]] and [[FirstLawOfResurrection he's around on later missions]] as well.
* ZergRush: [[AvertedTrope Nope]], [[RetCon not here]]. Despite the prequel saying otherwise, the Galactic Empire seems to have a TIE Fighter shortage and as such, has to deal with more powerful enemy craft outnumbering them.
----
[[caption-width-right:320:''Good Hunting Alpha 1!'']]
''TIE Fighter'' is a PC game first launched in 1994, with various expansion packs and collector's editions being released as late as 1997.
The history of the game itself goes back to the early 1990s, when LucasArts approached game developer Lawrence Holland and his studio, Totally Games!, to develop a series of games for the publisher. The first games were actually WWII flight simulators including ''Battlehawks 1942'' and perhaps Holland's best known non-franchise game, ''{{Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe}}''. These games became instant classics, and in the meantime Holland was working on a 3D rendering engine specifically for flight sims, something that back in 1992 was revolutionary.
This prompted LucasArts and Holland to develop a flight (or rather space) sim game using both this engine and the StarWars license, and ''{{X-Wing}}'' was the result. A year later, Holland got working on a sequel. Rather than being a direct sequel chronicling the Rebel Alliance and their starfighter squadrons after the Battle of Hoth (which is where X-Wing left off), the game would put the pilot in the ranks of the Rebel's greatest enemies, the Galactic Empire, by putting them in the seat of one of the Empire's greatest symbols of military might, the TIE Fighter.
The main protagonist of TIE Fighter was Maarek Steele (though he was never named as such in the game; his name comes from the [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental guidebook]] that came with first run editions of the game) who started out as an anonymous pilot but would rise through the ranks with distinction over the course of the game's events. What separated TIE Fighter from X-Wing in particular was its rather involving story and campaign, which not only pitted the player against the Rebels (and certain traitorous Imperials) but also explained the motivations behind the actions of the Empire and its enemies and gave significant insight into many key characters of the Star Wars universe, including Thrawn (a major story thread of the game is how Thrawn was promoted from Vice Admiral to Grand Admiral). The game also presented optional "secondary" mission goals which, when completed, would earn the player additional rank.
Since flying around in an unshielded TIE Fighter when the other guys have much faster and better shielded craft wasn't much fun, the game also introduced a number of new craft for the Imperials to fly around in. The "Assault Gunboat," invented for X-Wing to give the player a more challenging foe, was reintroduced in TIE Fighter to provide him with a craft that actually could be able to attack capital ships without dying all the time. Also introduced was the "TIE Advanced" or "TIE Avenger" which was an improved production version of Darth Vader's TIE from ''A New Hope'' (it also had shields and a hyperdrive like the Assault Gunboat), the TIE Defender (a starfighter which [[GameBreaker pretty much defines the term "broken"]]) and the Missile Boat (which [[BeyondTheImpossible manages to outdo even the TIE Defender in terms of being broken]] - [[OneManArmy you can take out entire fleets with one.]] And it is awesome).
Another notable feature of the original issue was the "[=iMuse=]" system (no, it doesn't have anything to do with [=iMacs=] or [=iPods=]) which dynamically changed the background music based upon the player's actions. The background music itself was notable for being comprised of original scores by the Totally Games! crew. Sadly, the [=iMuse=] feature was dropped in the X-Wing Collector Series box-set rerelease, replaced by high-fidelity scores from the original trilogy, though the soundtrack's still quite good.
The market life of this game was extended numerous times through various expansions and "collector's editions." This was particularly annoying as LucasArts and Totally Games! clearly anticipated expansion packs from the beginning, ''since they left the campaign story of the original release of the game blatantly incomplete.'' The first expansion, "Defender of the Empire" added the TIE Defender and its associated campaign missions - by the way, even after installing Defender of the Empire, many players were annoyed when it was found that ''they '''still''' left the campaign story incomplete because those money grubbing bastards were going to force yet more expansion packs!'' The ''final'' "expansion pack" was abandoned in favor of releasing the "Collector's CD" edition in 1995 which not only ('''finally''') included a '''finished''' campaign story, but upped the in-game resolution to 640x480 (though no changes were made to the graphics engine itself) as well as updated speech and voice acting. Of course, understandably, original purchasers of the first game were ''very'' annoyed since in order to actually complete the campaign, they had to buy the game all over again. And then they had the nerve to rerelease it ''again'' in the X-Wing Collector Series, this time stripping it of the [=iMuse=] music technology in favour of the Williams scores. Fortunately all was forgiven because in the end, ''TIE Fighter'' turned out to be just that damn good.
Despite its age, you'll ''still'' see this game often in top 5 lists of best ''StarWars''-themed games ever, and often across other related "best of" lists too.
All the cutscenes have been collected [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R78l7v3DqkM&feature=related here]].
!This game provides examples of:
* ArrowCam
* ATeamFiring: Based on how the AI works, stopping the craft is an effective method of avoiding enemy fire from X-Wings and Z-95 Headhunters, on par with erratic maneuvering. Y-Wings or other craft that shoots from the cockpit will still hit.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Doubly subverted as traitor Imperial forces will adopt the tactics and equipment your side developed (indeed, it was ''them'' who developed them in the first place before they turned traitor), forcing you to use the same tactics to counter them (as they're the best available) until something even better can be developed.
* BossInMookClothing: You can make an argument that enemy TIE Defenders qualify since they will ''waste'' everything besides the player.
* ChasingYourTail: Otherwise known as ''dogfights''.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Admiral Harkov.
* ChewingTheScenery: "For the greater glory of the Empire, '''destroy everything!'''
* CivilWarcraft: ''Big time. '''Twice.'''''
** As well as varying who you fight, this is also a good explanation for why the Rebels stand a chance against the Empire (which, as we see, not only has numbers but game-breakingly good craft like the TIE Defender and Missile Boat) - because the Empire is expending a lot of its resources in fighting its own traitorous generals.
* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: TIE Fighters have two laser cannons, no other weapons, no shields, no hyperdrive, and essentially six hit points. Enemy TIE Fighters in the expansion have shields.
* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: Understandable, since one part of outer space has a tendency to look like every other part of outer space.
* CollisionDamage: A surprisingly effective weapon against other, weaker fighters, by the way. However, it is toned down a lot in this version.
* CoolShip: Two of them.
** First, you've got the inaccurately-named TIE Defender, which dominates all the other [=TIEs=] in speed, acceleration, maneuverability, and weapons systems. Yes, it's that powerful. Four lasers, 2 ion cannons, and 8 missiles mean it can dominate in space superiorty situations. It's a full 50% faster than a X-Wing or TIE Interceptor, and comfortably faster than an A-Wing or TIE Advanced, while also being more maneuverable. With strong shields and its own hyperdrive, it could pop in anywhere and basically stomp on any other fighter's head, while they would be unable to escape.
** Secondly, you've got the holy hell war god Missile Boat, which is extremely powerful and was designed specifically to kill TIE Defenders with ease. It has merely one laser, but as its name implies, it carries more missiles than an entire wing of starfighters, enough to use them as its primary weapons at all times. The otherwise forgotten laser can instead be used to power the Missile Boat's exclusive SLAM system, which basically dumps all the energy from your laser banks into your engine for a ''phenomenal'' boost of speed, giving it the ability to jump in or escape pretty much any situation at will. And like a lot of advanced imperial fighters, it has special beam systems, typically a tractor beam. This thing is designed to kill TIE Defenders by zooming up on top of them before they know it, grabbing them with the tractor beam before they can escape, and then pounding the poor bastard with a nearly endless supply of missiles. This plan works wonders against pretty much any fighter. And if it's armed for a bombing role instead, it can destroy entire fleets without having to pause or reload, simply because it carries ''that much ordnance.''
** Before either of these rear their heads, the TIE Advance is the king of the hill, though not quite game-breaker material. It has decent shields, 4 laser cannons, its own hyperdrive, a set of missiles, and just enough speed to beat an A-Wing in a race. ''This is the ship Darth Vader's personal TIE is based on.'' Of course, a short time later the Defender and Missile Boat show up, making everyone forget about the poor Advance.
* CutScene
* CutScenePowerToTheMax: Whereas ''enemy'' TIE Defenders can wreck an entire flight group of Assault Gunboats each, once you have some on ''your'' side they have an annoying tendency to fall in single combat against measly A-Wings.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: When the player's character dies (a rare event in of itself, actually) or is captured, it shows a cutscene with the charater's demise. While ''{{X-Wing}}'' allowed you to continue by reviving your pilot and resetting the score, ''TIE Fighter'' allows an automatic backup and restore to bring you back without penalty. If you want, you can disable the automatic backup and try the game without dying.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: In this game, you now have the option to take out turrets on capital ships, rendering them defenseless. Likewise, you can use Ion cannons to quickly disable large capital ships. The result in either case allows you to destroy the largest of ships using lasers.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Everything you learned about the "proper order" of the galaxy in ''Star Wars'' is subverted, since after all you are fighting for the Empire this time.
* DogFightingFurballs: The entire game revolves around it.
* DroneJam: Your wingmates have a nasty occasional habit of getting in front of your crossfire. And vice versa, as well - death from friendly fire is ''waaaaaaay'' too common. Avoiding it is possible, but living through the experience is a headache in and of itself. It's far too easy to end up between dueling capital ships more than once when trying to ''not'' shoot down your wingmates upon which HilarityEnsues.
* EasterEgg
* EnemyChatter: Apparently no one's heard of "secure communications channels" in the Star Wars universe.
* EnemyScan: built right into your fighter, just get really close to them and you find out what they're carrying. This is actually a plot point [[spoiler:for at least one secret objective, as it's how the player begins to find out about Harkov's double dealing]].
* EscortMission: ''and how!''
* FakeDifficulty: In this game, very much related to the above trope.
* FallingIntoTheCockpit: The feelies reveal your character was a mechanic running a test on a fighter who happened to save a high ranking Imperial officer from rebellion attack during the flight.
* {{Feelies}}: "The Steele Chronicles"
* FridgeBrilliance: It seems more than a bit obscene that in a game like this, you'd spend so little time fighting the Rebels and so much fighting Imperial splinters. Why can't TheEmperor keep all his eggs in a basket long enough to finish the Rebels off once and for- [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Oh..... so *that's* why the Rebels survived in canon...]]
* FriendOrFoe: Averted for earlier missions, in that the Rebels are coded green on the map and threat display, and fly typical Rebel Alliance craft. However, as the game progresses, you are increasingly called upon to fight Imperial hardware, which usually are in the hands of defected or traitorous forces, and are encoded red (the same as your side). Generally though they will appear with '''Z-''' or '''H-''' prefixed names, indicating that they are on the opposite side.
* GameBreakingBug: In the collector's version, you can destroy the nose warhead launcher of a Star Destroyer. This reveals a hole that you can fly into and attack the capital ship from the inside without worry about being attacked. Some laser batteries from the Star Destroyer may still be able to hit you, but other enemy craft can't hit you.
* HelloInsertNameHere
* HeyItsThatVoice: the briefing officer is voiced by [[AlloAllo Lieutenant Gruber]].
* HighAltitudeBattle: it doesn't get much higher than [[InSpace OUTER SPACE]].
* HoldTheLine
* IrrelevantImportance: A particularly annoying example where a pirate fighter can enter the hangar of a pirate cruiser and fail the mission because it's considered "escaped" even if the cruiser is destroyed afterwards.
* ItsUpToYou: Usually straight, but averted in the earliest missions - when the Rebels attack during your training, you're immediately ordered back to base. There's plenty of trained pilots about, no need to waste a rookie and his ship.
* LordBritishPostulate: Except in a few [[CharacterShield rare cases]], it is theoretically possible to destroy almost everything. And you get [[WhatTheHellPlayer more points for doing so]] (and maybe a scolding) as long as the [[InstantWinCondition win conditions are met]]. Star Destroyers have a blind spot if you take out the one rear laser turret, and can be taken down with an unshielded craft.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Not quite, but after defeating the last of Harkov's forces an even bigger traitor is revealed.
* {{Mook}}: partially subverted in that ''the player'' takes on the role of one of the Empire's random Mooks, at least early on in the game. The player even gets stuck in the ultimate MookMobile, the bog-standard [=TIE=] Fighter.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Missile Boats.
* MookMaker: just about any enemy capital ship, but they'll eventually run out.
* MultiMookMelee
* NitroBoost: The Missile Boat's "SLAM" drive, which makes it ''temporarily'' the fastest ship in the game... at the expense of your laser cannon's ammunition. As the Missile Boat has only a single laser cannon and usually carries 100+ missiles, this isn't really a problem. The TIE Defender on the other hand is the fastest without such.
** You can adjust which systems get how much power in any ship. If you redirect all power to the engines, you can make ''anything'' go ridiculously fast... though you won't have lasers, shields, or tractor beams.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Inverted, since this is essentially the "wicked campaign" counterpart to X-Wing.
* NoFairCheating: As this game was much harder than the predecessor, there was a simple toggle in the in-flight menu to give you [[CharacterShield invulnerability]] and [[BottomlessMagazines unlimited ammunition]]. However, this reduced your score by 90% if used at any point in the mission, making advancements and promotions difficult at best.
* NoWarpingZone: Interdictors prevent ships from using the HyperspaceEscape, while having other ships destroy the intended targets. An allied interdictor is used across multiple missions to prevent enemy capital ships from escaping, while a few missions later, another interdictor prevents you from escaping.
* OldSchoolDogfighting
* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: or three in this case, and you ''literally'' have to buy ''the same game again'' (in "Collector's CD Edition" form) if you bought the original release and want to see how the whole thing ends.
* OneManArmy: For the most part accidental just because your wingmen (and reinforcements, which you can call in in almost any mission) are pretty much useless, but there ''are'' true One Man Army missions as well. For example, [[spoiler:when you've been using the TIE Advanced (fast, hyperdrive, shields, and concussion missiles) only to be assigned to show two wingmen how to clear a minefield... in an unshielded TIE Interceptor, with them watching from behind you...]] Gee, [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong what's the worst that could happen]]?
** Hint: [[spoiler:Destroying your wing men will not result in your commander complaining about friendly fire]].
* PassThroughTheRings: training missions.
** Surprisingly fun training missions. Some people have spent hours running through the training course as a sort of odd racing (against the clock) game.
* PlotArmor: The original versions had invulnerable capital ships that needed to survive for a future mission. Thus, you can't kill Harkov's final Imperial Star Destroyer until [[FakeLongevity a few missions pass]].
* ProtectionMission: In one mission, your wingmen are destroyed more quickly than the platform you're defending. When just one wingman is left, he asks how the two of us can stop all these ships.
* RevenueEnhancingDevices: Played up straight and ultimately is itself a result of revenue enhancing devices of the Star Wars merchandising empire.
* ScriptBreaking: it's possible to ensure that certain conditions to achieve Secondary Goals are never met due to actions performed within the mission.
* ShipShape: Some abandoned containers lying around happen to be perfectly salvageable for building a space station (but it ''is'' space, after all, and they were only abandoned for a short while)
* SprintShoes: In a weird way, the Tractor Beam, since against anything but A-Wings and the more advanced [=TIEs=] it's kinda wasted, so most people shunt the energy that would go to it back into the engines.
** Even better: if the tractor beam wasn't mounted on your craft, that energy was not available to shunt into other systems. Apparently, the tractor beam carried its own power supply that could be fed into your craft at will. Makes you wonder why they didn't just leave our the beam generating part and added the power supply to your fighter in order to strengthen it. It would have been handy against the traitor craft.
** Ironic in the case of the Missile Boat/TIE Defender; the TIE Defender can actually mount the tractor beam in some missions (perhaps only in the Combat Simulator?), but the Tractor Beam is supposed to be part of the Missile Boat's basic in-universe tactic: catch a TIE Defender in a tractor beam and [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile spam it to death]].
*** The technology was originally developed for the Advanced, so it's nothing like odd for it to have been implemented on the Defender a couple of times.
** Also, the Missile Boat has the SLAM system, which doubles your speed by consuming your stored laser energy. If you redirect all power to engines, you'll still be coasting above maximum speed for a while.
* SuicideAttack: Some capital ships are scripted to ram or block other capital ships. If they touch, both are instantly destroyed. This is explained by having one of the vessels contain "explosives" or some other dangerous cargo.
* TheParalyzer: In addition to Ion Beams that disable unshielded vessels, the Mag Pulse was introduced to temporarily disable weapon systems on a fully shielded craft.
* ThemeNaming: Zahn started it with the [[TheThrawnTrilogy Emperor's Hand]]. In addition to a Hand, you become an Emperor's Reach and an Emperor's Voice. You also become part of the Emperor's Sword fighter wing.
* UnwinnableByMistake: The early version would sometimes carry over ship conditions from previous missions. If you managed to destroy a win condition ship from a previous battle, it would become impossible to finish the game. The ''Collector's CD'' fixed this in most cases (except the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Falaricae Falaricae]], which was only a bonus goal later).
* UpdatedRerelease: the "Collector's CD ROM Edition" ''defines'' this trope
* WhatTheHellPlayer: In one of the missions, if you're fairly clever, you can [[OffTheRails disable and destroy your own command ship]], a small Corellian Corvette. If you ''succeed,'' though, the ''Imperial freaking Star Destroyer [[MeaningfulName Badi Dea]]'' shows up and starts [[CurbStompBattle launching fighters]]. However, if you survive the retaliatory waves, and have not yet completed your mission goals, you'll only receive the mission failure debriefing by the officer and get to try again.
** If you can out last the [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard game's cheating ass]], you can shoot down ''Darth Vader''. You also get reprimanded if Darth Vader is killed while on a command ship that you are also supposed to defend. However, it's a non-issue since [[InstantWinCondition you completed all other objectives]] and [[FirstLawOfResurrection he's around on later missions]] as well.
* ZergRush: [[AvertedTrope Nope]], [[RetCon not here]]. Despite the prequel saying otherwise, the Galactic Empire seems to have a TIE Fighter shortage and as such, has to deal with more powerful enemy craft outnumbering them.
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