Hey, I just have this question, maybe people can help me figure this one out.

I'm playing the GOG version of this game (it's the version with the old midi music and the unimproved, but still 3D model graphics) and I used to have this game when I was a little kid. I could swear I remember there being the constant drone of the TIE Engine in the cockpit, but that sound doesn't play. I wasn't able to find any kind of toggle for it in any of the settings either. I thought maybe I just remembered it wrong, but then I saw some Youtuber playing the game and there were engine sounds! They even get weaker when the person playing cuts their thrust to 0%. Why won't these sounds play on my version, and can I get them to play or was this just yet another feature that got randomly gutted?

I checked (I have dosbox installs made from the original cd-roms) and neither have the engine sound, it was introduced later in the windows remakes with CD audio and textures graphics.

EDIT

Some people mod the windows version to have the original midi music however the midi music of the mod is "static" not dynamic like in the dos versions of the game, perhaps that's what those videos were.

Well, my version does have the original midi music. I assume by "dynamic" you mean how it changes when ships enter the battlefield and goals are met, etc. I believe it's the "collector CD Rom" version, which is the version I had when I was younger. Only this time it's downloaded for a Mac instead of installed from CD on a PC.

Which is the version I have on my PC.

That's also what I meant, the XVT engine changes music only in case of victory or loss to accomodate the use of CD audio music, X-wing Alliance instead went back to the old dynamic iMUSE music system since mp3 and similar formats didn't have the limits of the music streamed from a cd audio.

So, no engine sounds for me, eh?

I don't think so. My original Collector's Edition CD (which is the version you are playing) did not have engine sounds. I didn't get those until I played X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. It seems the Windows version of TIE Fighter from 1998 used the X-Wing vs. TIE FIghter game engine, complete with engine sounds, but I've never played that version.

Still, most players consider the version you're playing to be the best (myself included). So hopefully you can live without the engines! If you really want them, though, you can play the Windows version instead.

Not sure how I would go about playing the Windows version on a Mac, but I think since I still get the awesome music complete with event cues I'll be just fine. I am a bit irritated that, just like with the movies, there are so many different versions with their own specific quirks and changes. Why couldn't there just be a version with the updated visuals, with all original sounds intact? But, oh well. I'm still having a tremendous amount of fun. Even more than I did as a kid, as I can now play with invincibility off, and limited power for the stuff. It brings so much more depth and strategy to the game. I wish they would make a new TIE Fighter like this one, with beautiful visuals but gameplay and music that are a throwback to "the good old days"....

Mainly audio hardware limits, having a costant droning sound took a channel out for the audio and the thing was only resolved later but the hi-fi music they added with it had the limit of not being dynamic like MIDI.

Oops, forgot you were running on Mac. Might be possible to do it, but I've never even played that version so I don't know. I've heard there are other problems with it though; the game didn't port to the new engine perfectly and there are some AI quirks and such. The version you are playing should work the best. Det_Bullock is right on this one. MIDI can be dynamic because it isn't a pre-recorded sound file, it's just a set of instructions for which notes to play at which times. Then a player's sound card actually generates the sound. At the time, sound cards weren't too great as synthesizers so the MIDI sounds were noticeably worse than a pre-recorded audio file which could sound like a true orchestra (because it was). Also the actual MIDI sound changed based on each player's hardware. So when CDs came along and had enough storage space for pre-recorded music, it sounded so much better that people got all excited about it even though it could no longer be dynamic.

Today, of course, high-quality soundfonts can make MIDI sound like a full orchestra, which would enable awesome-sounding music that's still dynamic. Which leads me to... I completely agree. I was hoping something like that would come out of the early kickstarter boom, when a lot of "throwback" games were being funded, but that didn't happen... the space sims all focused on open-universe exploration and multiplayer rather than a tight singleplayer mission-based campaign.

But, you might want to keep an eye on this project to port X-Wing into a brand new engine:

https://www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_xwing_and_tie_fighter_series/xwvm_any_interest/page1

Seems to be updating fairly regularly. Not sure if there are plans to tackle TIE Fighter too, but I suspect it wouldn't be too much extra work to do so if the X-Wing project is finished.