Star Wars fans rejoice! X-Wing, TIE Fighter games return to Mac

GOG.com recently made a splash by re-releasing vintage Star Wars games previously published by LucasArts on their digital rights management (DRM)-free gaming service, but Mac users were disappointed to see that X-Wing and TIE Fighter weren't available for their platform (LucasArts did release Mac versions, back in the day). Now that's been fixed, and Linux users get some joy too.

True story: Back in 1993 I was working in the tech support department of a Macintosh peripheral maker, spending my free time learning as much as I could about computers and this thing some of my friends were using called the Internet.

I spent a lot of time trading messages on a bulletin board service called the Usenet, and in one of the gaming boards there began to develop quite a chatter about LucasArts' first Star Wars-branded game, a DOS space flight simulator and combat title called X-Wing. You got a chance to pilot the famed X-Wing from the Star Wars movies, but you could also pilot A-Wing, B-Wing and Y-Wing vessels too. It was tough. Tons of combat, but lots of strategy too: Adjusting power allocation is a big part of the game, making sure you have the right amount of power going to shields, engines and weapons.

A few weeks later I saw the game in action, and fell in love. I had to have it. Only one problem: I was a Mac user, and X-Wing wasn't available for the Mac.

I saved up that summer, and ended up building my own DOS-based PC to run the game. I played the hell out of it, every day. It was utterly magnificent. Eventually X-Wing would come out for the Mac too, but it's the only game I can ever remember that actually provoked me to buy a system to play it.

So when GOG.com announced earlier this year they were releasing LucasArts titles, I wasn't entirely surprised that the Mac version wasn't available, but I'm happy to see them make amends now.

You can download them for $8.99 for a limited time - 10 percent off the regular price of $9.99. GOG.com sells the games with no DRM, so you don't need to be online to activate or play them.

Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition