^^^ This.
Another thing I liked about TIE Fighter was that there was nothing special about you in the game; if you were flying a standard TIE Fighter, you died after two hits. I also liked how you started at such a low rank; the first mission has you inspecting ships at a checkpoint. It made you feel like you had just signed on.

I always really like Privateer as a space sim/RPG game. The nearest game now is Dark Star, which I played a while. Privateer would get my vote for the GOG treatment- it was a real bear to install it with dos and the 640K limit.... but once you got it going...

Yes! I loved that, no mention of force sensitivity so your pilot got there through pure human skill. And bitchslapped a sith lord by nicking his kills...

anyone remember alligence ( think that's the spelling) moderately fun but also moderately repetative

Can I mention the Great Grandaddy of them all......................which is Elite of course.
Originally played it on the BBC Micro (UK), it blew my mind. Now of course, lovingly brought back to life for modern machines with the wonderful (and free) Oolite.
I urge everyone and anyone with fond memories of the original game to take a look at Oolite - constantly improved, constantly expanded with missions and eye-candy galore. It deserves your attention. Look up the Elite wiki to find Oolite
Of course most of the games mentioned in this thread are far in advance technically, but for pure gameplay Elite was the forerunner and for me one of the best.
Yes, I am that old......;o)

Thanks for that!
Downloaded, played the first mission of the raider campaign and now I'm hooked.

I am amazed it took this long for someone to mention the game that started the genre. Elite was truly stunning in its day and its size is still unmatched. I must also mention the squels Frontier and First Encounters. There is even an OpenGL version of First Encounters floating around on the net and would be ideal for GOG to snap up.
Elite 4 has been in development for as long as Duke Nukem Forever was but there is hope Braben will return to it once he and Frontier developments have finished The Outsider.

Damn Straight!! I had it on my Commodore 64 - ahhhh good old 5 minute loading times.
I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Privateer series. I played the first game for ages as a straight trading game before I even realised there was an actual storyline to follow. Clive Owen was great in Priv 2 (probably some of his bext work!)

This is a great thread! I'm learning a lot about games I've obviously missed -- I'll be trawling for installs all over the place now.
My 2 cents:
* I-War 2 is the best space sim I've ever played, hands down. Love the piracy, love the big ship feel, love the open-ended gameplay, love the graphics and the plotline.
* TIE Fighter's missions were so well thought-out and scripted. I really felt like a raw recruit just out of naval training as the game began, and the sense of flying a fragile tin can never really went away. You knew you were going to live or die on your skills and luck. No second chances for the clones, boys!

I looooove Privateer 1. Played that game over and over again... tried downloading it again recently but wasn't running so well on my system.
I'd play Tie Fighter/X-wing again... those were great but I was too young to finish them, didn't have the skillz.

I love B5, I'm going to have to check that out. Always thought that would be a great universe for a good game with all the major plotlines, races and tech.

Has anyone here played Jumpgate?
The new JG is being developed. It may capture what we have been missing since
Elite. Hope is still alive....
http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/
Z

For you privateer fans out there, try a google search for privateer remake, its the old one, but updated slightly so it can run or more current systems, not as stellar gfx's as FS with the media VP's on. But the story is the same.
And in other news.... (:
Yes I miss the good old TIE Fighter / X-Wing series too and would definitly buy both if they ever where to appear here on GoG. But for now I have to settle with FS1 and 2, and the occasional bout of DS-1.

There was another game from the 90s called Renegade Legion: Battle for Jacob's star. It's supposed to be half-decent. I picked up the CD off of Ebay but I can't get it work with Dosbox for whatever reason. I'm not dosbox savy.
The TIE Defender was the lowpoint of the game imo. Well, not QUITE the lowpoint. The lowpoint was on of the last missions where you're in a missile boat and take out an entire rebel fleet by yourself. TF was best when you were actually in a Tie Fighter, or Interceptor or Bomber and just one of the grunts and you feared the A-Wing like the Grim Reaper and even the Z-95 was a hardy opponent as the debris often flew straight back at you and took you out before you could celebrate your kill.
But yeah the more super-powered the craft, the more uninteresting the game imo.