Rob2984: Also, AngelKnight, what's the deal with the hostility to TIE Fighter on the original as opposed to XWvTF engine? I was of the understanding that it was just a graphical improvement, is that not the case?
McDondo: There was little differences between the original versions and the collector's edition, but for those who fell in love with the original games those little things meant a whole lot.
For instance, the soundtrack in the collectors edition was a straight out Star Wars OST, where in the original game it was an adaptive piece, made to burst out in a crescendo when the most frantic battles took place, your reinforcements arrived or some critical craft got blown out of space.
All of us old gamers know that back then there was little difference in wich video card you'd got, but your SOUND CARD made all the difference, so attention to in game music was a high ranking piece in a game's review.
Another issue was with the general portrait of missions, where some of the original XWing tours got "dumbed down" due to its increased difficulty, wich of course took away some of the challenge in beating those rebellion-like "wing of A-wings against 3 corvettes w/ fighter escort + star destroyer on its way". In fact, I remember me and some friends used to hate Admiral Ackbar for making such deranged battle plans, but as we grew older it dawned on us that we were the rebellion, undermanned, overwhelmed and fighting "dirty" with guerrilla-like tactics.
So, it's kinda understandable that the Collector's Edition was not quite the same as loading up doxbox and having a blast with those wacky polygons, but the graphical update was welcomed by those who didn't get the chance to play them back when they were kings of all space sims
I don't know if anyone agrees about this, so I would like to read some thoughs on this subject
Cheers!
I'll also add that the Collector's series removed alot of the little cutscenses such as showing your battle damaged xwing in the hanger after a battle being repaired by R2. Also
The collectoer's Series also removed the ability to use other player pilots as wingmen. For example, In the original X-wing and the Collector's CD-Rom version you could use the "Top Ace" pilot as a wingman, whereas you can only play as the "Top Ace" pilot in the Collector's Series version.
I was also a fan of the dynamic iMuse MIDI soundtrack as opposed to the looped redbook audio soundtrack from the Collector's series.