F4LL0UT: If you (and anybody else dealing with the flickering on Windows 8) want a less awkward method you may try this:

Create a txt file in your Tie-Fighter folder and add these three lines:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
call tie95
start explorer.exe

Save the file and change its suffix from txt to bat. Executing this file will close explorer.exe, launch the game and automatically launch explorer.exe for you as soon as you quit the game. Saves you all the fiddling with the task manager, tabbing out of the game etc..

If the console window doesn't close automatically after explorer.exe has been restored you may want to add another line that says "exit".

To be honest I'm not a Windows 8 user, though, and cannot *guarantee* that this method works there but it really should (it certainly works up to Windows 7 - just tried it myself). Would be great if you could try it and confirm that it works.

zangetsou: does it matter what i name the txt file?

F4LL0UT: It does not. Just make sure it ends with .bat when you're done (and use an unformatted editor like notepad to write the file, not Word or anything fancy like that).

And of course you only need to replace "tie95" with the corresponding file name if you want to use this method with any other game (for the 1998 X-Wing version obviously "xwing95").