Collector's Series vs. Collector's CD-ROMs (2000/2001)?

[No Body]

According to the Mobygames site, Lucasarts released a Windows compatible "X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM" in 2000 and a Windows compatible "TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM" in 2001.

Are these the same versions that were included in the "X-Wing Collector's Series" in 1998, just distributed separately? Or are are they closer to the original DOS releases?

I ask because I've never played any of the games before and while reading the reviews for the "Collector's Series", I decided that I would like to play the games as they were originally intended, even if the graphics aren't as good. If this means tracking down the original DOS "Collector's CD-ROMs", then so be it.

[Wildstar]

You're probably better off getting the Collectors' Series, because they're native Windows games and can run on Windows 2000 and XP without emulation (but be sure to pick up this fix if you plan on running the games w/ hardware 3D acceleration on the above operating systems).

[No Body]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

You're probably better off getting the Collectors' Series, because they're native Windows games and can run on Windows 2000 and XP without emulation (but be sure to pick up this fix if you plan on running the games w/ hardware 3D acceleration on the above operating systems).

Thanks for the advice, but right now, I have Windows 98SE, so compatibility shouldn't be a problem.

I'd still like to know if the 2000/2001 CD-ROM releases are the same versions as the "Collector's Series" or not.

[Wildstar]

The only X-Wing series release I can think of from that time is the X-Wing Trilogy, which was basically the X-Wing Collectors' Series with X-Wing Alliance rather than X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Flight School. I can't remember the Windows versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter being released as separate games, but the DOS CD-ROMs are circa 1995-96, so the 2000-01 releases are more likely the Windows versions.

BTW, XW95 and TIE95 (the Windows versions) use the XvT graphics engine, so the graphics will be a bit better than the DOS versions.

[No Body]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

The only X-Wing series release I can think of from that time is the X-Wing Trilogy, which was basically the X-Wing Collectors' Series with X-Wing Alliance rather than X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Flight School. I can't remember the Windows versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter being released as separate games, but the DOS CD-ROMs are circa 1995-96, so the 2000-01 releases are more likely the Windows versions.

Here are the listings for the Windows Collector's CD-ROMs;

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/star-wars-x-wing-collectors-cd-rom
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/star-wars-tie-fighter-collectors-cd-rom

Note that the Windows compatible Collector's CD-ROMs are also listed on Amazon, so this isn't just a mistake or wishful thinking on the part of whoever entered those entries in Mobygames. The reviews make them sound like the upated/changed versions, but Amazon has a bad habit of mixing reviews between difference releases of the same game. (and in some cases, including reviews for a completely different game)

Originally Posted by Wildstar

BTW, XW95 and TIE95 (the Windows versions) use the XvT graphics engine, so the graphics will be a bit better than the DOS versions.

Yes, but they did away with Imuse interactive music and some other things from the originals, which I think I would prefer to have.

[Wildstar]

Those listings say "DOS" in the "Also For" information, so these are the Windows versions. If they were the DOS versions, "Windows" would be in the "Also for".

[No Body]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

Those listings say "DOS" in the "Also For" information, so these are the Windows versions. If they were the DOS versions, "Windows" would be in the "Also for".

Yes, I know. Maybe I'm not explaining myself properly...

X-Wing/TIE Fighter came out on Floppy disk. Some time later, Lucasarts released DOS Collector's CD-ROMs which contained the original games, the add-ons and had a few tweaks to the games to fix bugs and ajusted the difficulty of some of the missions.

In 1998 Lucasarts released the X-Wing Collector's Series, which had new, Windows compatible versions of the game, which would make use of a 3D card. In the process of updating the games, they did away with the interactive Imuse system in favor of digitized music and made some other changes to the games. Even though I haven't played either of the games, I didn't like the sound of the changes that the reviews mentioned, so I would rather play the original versions, as they were originally intended. As far as I know, this means getting the DOS Collector's CD-ROMs. (Note, even though there were some minor changes made to the games, they're still much closer to the originals than the Collector's Series, and having all the games collected together is much easier than finding all the games and add-ons separately)

While looking up information on Mobygames, I stumbled across the listings for the Windows versions of the Collector's CD-ROMs.

They probably are the same as the versions in the Collector's Series, but here's the thing that I can't figure out;

All the work for the Collector's Series was done (CD authoring, packaging, manuals, etc). People buy it and they get both games, all the add-ons and a cut-down version of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. Why would Lucasarts take those versions, author two new CD-ROMs, make up new packaging, new manuals and then release them separately? That's all extra expense just to split up two games that are already available in a single package. Why would people buy two separate packages when they could just buy the Collector's Series?

Like I said, they're probably the same as the ones in the Collector's Series, but it doesn't really make sense to just split up the games up if they're the same as you can already get in a single package.

[Wildstar]

I think you sound just as confused as I am.