Heya, folks.

While cleaning out some old boxes with come acient CD's in them, you'll never guess what I found... Ahhh X-wing, Tie Fighter, X-wing VS Tie Fighter... Suddenly my eyes were filled with tears of nostalgic joy, remembering weaving bewteen acient renderings of blocky Star Destoryers, shooting down worthless rebels and using: "Space Bombs"... The physics of which were a little confusing! Why did they fall!?

I slapped the little blighters into the DvD drive and found they still worked! :D They didn't want to install, but a little google work soon found a patch that fixed the compatability issue with Windows 7. Thanks for that, google.

What google couldn't give me is a way to play these games with the keyboard and mouse. The games demanded I use a joystick... Something I didn't know people still used! I looked around and found PPJoy, but it doesn't seem to like Windows 7 very much, and Windows 7 doesn't seem to like it! A quick search didn't find much on your forum... Can anyone help me find a way to play these timeless classics with just a keyboard and mouse?

PPJoy worked well with previous versions of Windows, but not Win7, apparently. And people still use joysticks...there are even ones that will plug into one of your USB ports now. ;)

Those joystick people should be ashamed of themselves!! *Kidding*

Well, that's not filling me with hope... I wanted you to fill me with hope! Why wouldn't you bring me some hope instead of his sour tasting realism?? Does this mean there's no hope of finding an emulator for a joystick? I took a look around, but all the emulators that came up were ones used to make your joystick replace your mouse and keys, and not the other way around. :(

X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter requires a joystick no matter what you play it on. Just get a cheap one off ebay, or you might get a nice Logitech or Saitek one. Tie Fighter work with the keyboard unless you have the version that is in the XW Vs. TF engine.

It should be noted that the original intent of PPJoy was to provide a driver for old parallel port sticks (hence the PP part of the name)...it just had joystick emulation w/ keyboard/mouse as an added feature. Parallel port sticks became obsolete w/ the introduction of game/MIDI ports, which have themselves become obsolete.

X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter requires a joystick no matter what you play it on. Just get a cheap one off ebay, or you might get a nice Logitech or Saitek one. Tie Fighter work with the keyboard unless you have the version that is in the XW Vs. TF engine.

I reckon I've got the "95" versions, which were the ones realeased with the XWvsTF engine. How foolish of me to purchase the updated version! :(

I reckon I've got the "95" versions, which were the ones realeased with the XWvsTF engine. How foolish of me to purchase the updated version! :(
It certainly looks nice though. IMHO it's not nostalgia if you don't play with a joystick.

*Folds his arms, disgruntled* Well, that blows! You know, I might be forgiven for thinking that a re-release of this classic game with updated graphics and game play might do well... Something with it's tactical, flight sim feel, rather then the 3rd person view, hold down the fire button and do a barrel roll rubbish that gets pumped out every other week.

If you want a flight-sim feel, then why do you want to play with your mouse instead of a joystick? I know of no real aircraft that are controlled by a mouse...they all have either sticks or flight yokes (and you can get yoke-style controllers, too).

Because I've always found the joystick sloppy, wildly inacurate and needlessly large... Additionaly, getting a bit of hardware for one game type (let alone ONE game) seems like such a waste. I remember when I got a joystick for X-wing Vs Tie Fighter... Used it for that game, and then it gathered dust.

Still, if Lucas Arts put out "Tie Fighter 2: This time it's personal", and said it was joystick only, I'd prolly still pick it up and get a cheap'o joystick from some place.

Now stop questioning me and divert stored energy from my lasers to my shields!!

If you want a flight-sim feel, then why do you want to play with your mouse instead of a joystick? I know of no real aircraft that are controlled by a mouse...they all have either sticks or flight yokes (and you can get yoke-style controllers, too).
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MWTyGxdTC1A/R8fIqKETJbI/AAAAAAAABWI/qzhW_hOJplE/s400/Predator+Drone.jpg)

EDIT: Is that one of those unmanned drones that are controlled remotely from a PC?

In Wildstars defence, those unmanned drones don't often engage Nebulon B Frigates.

I remember playing the DOS version with mouse rather than joystick, as it was much more accurate to kill those pesky small mines.

It was a great disappointment to find the 95 version (and XvsT) didn't allow the use of a mouse.

I remember playing the DOS version with mouse rather than joystick, as it was much more accurate to kill those pesky small mines.

It was a great disappointment to find the 95 version (and XvsT) didn't allow the use of a mouse.

Stryker, former Rogue Leader in the old CompuServe Rebel Alliance, set the mineracing record (X-Wing Historical Combat Simulation #3, flown for time as what's shown on the mission clock when the last object is destroyed) with 7:36 (both TRNs and all objects in :24), and he was quite fond of his Thrustmaster joystick set-up. I was back in contact with him fairly recently and told him of my wish to have him replicate his record run in XW95 and have FRAPS capture it on video so we could upload it to YouTube.