I had been playing the game off and on since middle school. I finally beat the game!!!!!! I got all the extra commendations too! I also kept the General rank :D Gonna attach my pilot file to upload my success! Oh never mind it says wrong file format when I try. Oh I see the attachment is only for pictures. lol Whatever I am happy!!!! :D

My hat is off to you, sir. Well done. I have the hardest time with that game.

Which version did you beat?

Do you know if the Mac version that is available for this game through GOG is the same Mac version that you used to play?

@mavdixxle77. Which mac version. There are none as far as I can tell. There is the 93, the 94, and the 98

Beating X-wing is quite a feat, I had to use manual backup to keep my points and I don't know how many times I tried to beat the mission with all those transports, the rest of the game was a cakewalk by comparison. There indeed was a mac version, the cutscenes and the graphics for the concourse and the mission select interface were reused for the win95 version of the game.

Some year or two before gog published X-Wing I managed to bough it on auction in floppy version (I think this is the first version published).
I beated it then (with B-Wing), and my is it a feat.
I still remember how I finished Death Star - I came out from the trench shot to pieces with all instruments fried, half systems destroyed, probably one hit from being blown up - only thing that saved me was a cutscene :D
Such a good game! I'm planning on finishing it at least one time, when I find spare time.

I just beat it too! 23 damn years I've been trying to do that. You know what the hardest mission in the whole damn game turned out to be though? Bloody X-Wing Historical Mission 5. Seriosuly. Even the sodding DEATH STAR TRENCH RUN was easier than that.

I fly into a blind rage whenever I hear the words "protect the freighters" Ha! yeah me too! I was too busy checking to see if my torpedoes went in that I nearly smashed into the side of the port!

Congratulations! There are few that know the happy struggles of the game. I had to use a back up pilot to keep all my points too btw to the person that mentioned doing that. There is a kind of meta game of remembering to copy your pilot file after every mission you succeed at :D

Almost every freighter escort mission I remember with dread. There was one especially where I practically hugged entrance to Star Destroyer hangar bay and destroy wave upon wave of TIE Bombers coming from it, while dodging fire from everywhere, few time almost colliding with bombers spawning from SD. I don't know it this was this one though.

Yeah, the most frustrating thing about that is when one accidentally gets by without your notice and singlehandedly starts wrecking havoc on the ship you are supposed to protect. Often is is just a single damaged tie fighter. You need to put everything into engines and arm your torpedoes or missiles in hope that you can get a lock on to hit in before the freighter gets taken down. Then you need to turn around and push back the ships that used the distraction to also go after the freighter.

The best tactic for taking out bombers was to hit them with torpedoes without lock, just ungaided from point blank range.

Nah, the best strategy against bombers was to shoot down al but one bomber in a wave and then hit the last one four times (until HULL DMG appears, than 1x more). Then it will turn around and fly back to its mothership. Only when it's back the wave is respawned.

There isn't a "best" strategy, they are both correct, only the torp strategy is usually for the first wave of bomber to shoot it down as fast as possible before they get in range then you can get closer to the ISD or Frigate that releases them and you can use the second tactic.

Of course neither are strictly necessary, I usually went straight to intercept after quickly dumping laser energy into the shields and then disabling laser recharge to get as much speed as possible to reach them before they came into range, when in range I maxed out lasers and shields and startet to shoot their formation until all of them started evasive manouvers.

I'd disagree. The strategy of shooting a TIE Bomber with 4x lasers (or a TIE Interceptor 2x) to cause HULL DMG and force it to return to its capital ship works best when they are at some distance from the capital ship. Why? Because it gives you a good delay before respawning a new wave, as a damaged fighter has to travel the entire distance to the capital ship and enter its hangar first.

Also, I don't like wasting missiles or torpedoes on TIE bombers. They take long to aim, and cost mission points.