                                X-WING HELP!
                                  12/31/93
                               Boyd G. Gafford

    Let me introduce myself.  My name is Boyd Gafford, and besides being a
  professional programmer, I am an avid gamer.  One of the best games I have
  ever played is Lucas Arts X-WING.  It is also one of the most difficult to
  master.  After spending countless hours (my wife will attest) at the
  keyboard and joystick, I finally finished the original game, and the first
  and second mission disks, Imperial Pursuit and B-WING.  After going through
  this epic, I thought it might be useful to others if I shared some of the
  "tricks" I have learned over the months, as well as some files I have
  gathered.
  
    Enclosed in this archive you will find a great number of pilot files. To
  use them simply copy the archive (X-WING1.ZIP) into your X-WING directory
  and unzip it, or unzip in a separate directory and copy the files
  individually.  These files take advantage of a very nice feature of
  X-WING. It is a simple matter to copy the YOURNAME.PLT file to a backup
  file before starting a mission, so that if you get killed or captured, you
  can simply copy the backup file to YOURNAME.PLT and be right back where
  you started before the mission.  This keeps your score and awards and such
  intact. For example, if you name is George, the DOS commands would be
  
  COPY GEORGE.PLT GEORGE.BAK
  
  to backup your pilot file, and

  COPY GEORGE.BAK GEORGE.PLT
  
  to restore it.
  
    I have also included a number of files that are in the form of
  TOURX_YY.PLT, where X is 3 to 5, and YY is 02 to 20. This way if you fly
  as one of these pilots (they show up on the pilot roster at the beginning
  of the game), you will be starting at each mission from the 3rd tour
  mission 14 (Death Star run) through the 5th tour mission 20 (the last in
  B-WING).  You can either fly as the TOURX_YY pilot, or you can copy it
  to your own name before running X-WING.  Please note that if you fly as
  TOURX_YY, then if you get killed you will have to unzip the PLT file
  back from this archive to your X-WING directory.

    You will also find a number of pilots with some familiar names.  It is
  helpful to take one or more of these pilots with you when you are trying
  a mission that takes more than one ship.  This way you'll have the
  benefit of being escorted by top aces instead of rookies!  It really does
  seem to help.  And of course if you fly as any of these fellas you'll
  be able to view any cut scenes from any of the tours, and all missions
  will be available as historical combat missions.  If you want a kick,
  take a look at their medals and ribbons and such.  I had to earn each one
  of them the hard way (By the way, for an extra challenge, don't look
  at the hints page in any of the missions -- it's very satisfying).  As
  a help, I have included a batch file called REVIVE.BAT that will let you
  quickly restore these special pilots back in case they are captured or
  killed while flying with you.  Just type
  
  REVIVE
  
  from DOS and all will be back to normal.


    For a real challenge, copy the TOUR4_19.PLT file to YOURNAME.PLT, and
  get ready for a furball.  It took me 13 times before being able to finish
  that mission.  What a nightmare.  Of course you need the second tour of
  duty disk B-WING before being able to try this mission.
  
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    If I have enough requests, I will put up some additional files that have
  some helpful hints on the harder missions.  Of course there is no
  substitute for quick reflexes and nerves steeled by hours upon hours of
  intense dogfighting.  Here are a few hints that are pretty general to
  all missions.
  
  1)  At the beginning of you mission, press F9 and F10 twice to put maximum
      energy towards your lasers and shields.  Always try to be fully
      charged before heading into action.  Pressing SHIFT-F10 will direct
      energy from your lasers to your shields.  Do this a often as possible
      to have maximum protection from enemy torpedos and multiple hits by
      laser fire.  The lasers will charge enough to let you shoot within a
      second or so of transferring all laser energy to the shields.

  2)  Nearly always put your lasers on fire linked with the [X] key.  Just
      holding down the fire button and trying to aim at the enemy can take a
      long time to wear him down when in single fire mode.  Set to fire
      linked and take careful aim and fire when you get a lock.  A single
      hit like this can take out a TIE fighter (if more than one of the
      lasers connect).  For faster ships, lead them a bit and see when the
      lock establishes, and fire. This also gives their shields less time to
      recover.  As an analogy, a shotgun blast has a better chance to take
      out a target than 50 individual shots with a BB gun spaced seconds
      apart, especially if the target can "heal" itself fairly quickly!

  3)  When dogfighting with very fast ships (TIE interceptors, or TIE
      advanced), press F9 and F10 to cycle around to recharging at normal
      levels. This will give you the extra speed to keep him from just
      making passes at you.  If you are in an A-Wing, this is not as
      necessary, as they are pretty darn fast even when charging both lasers
      and shields on maximum.  Try to take out the faster ships as quickly
      as possible, so you can go back to maximum recharge.

      IMPORTANT HINT: Always adjust your speed by changing the charge levels
      on your lasers and shields.  If you need to slow down, put them on
      maximum charge. If you want to speed up, put them on increased or
      normal charging.  Leave your engine level at 100% (backspace key).
      This puts every bit of your unused engine energy into your shields
      and lasers, available to shift over to your shields with SHIFT-F10 at
      a moments notice!  I know it sounds illogical (stopping your engines
      should let everything recharge faster) but it doesn't seem to work
      that way.
      
  4)  When you are full up on laser energy and shield energy, and need to
      get somewhere very fast, press F9 and F10 until both show redirection
      of laser and shield energy to engines.  You will really fly.  Don't
      stay this way too long though, as if you drain all your laser and
      shield energy you will become vulnerable.  Just a little before
      engaging, set it back to maximum recharge as in (1).
      
  5)  When protecting some other ship, always go after the TIE bombers
      first, and any transports that are hostile (show up in red on your
      sensors). The transports can never be targeted with the [R] key, only
      [T] or [Y].  They can destroy the ship you are protecting with Proton
      Torpedos. After clearing them, then you can go after the gunships (who
      can also launch torpedos) and finally the TIE fighters and
      interceptors.

  6)  When in a furball (a hairy dogfight) press the 'S' key three times
      every time you take significant hits on your shields to redistribute
      them evenly.  There's nothing like having your back shields get low
      and then get torpedoed and killed when just pressing 'S' three times
      will distribute some forward energy to the rear.  Do it as quickly as
      possible, listening for the beep sound for each press.  Also look down
      at the message line and you'll see when you are evenly distributed. Be
      sure to do this every time you take a hit from a proton torpedo. You
      can also toss in a few SHIFT-F10 presses after taking a proton torpedo
      hit, to charge up the shields to make up for the loss.

  7)  Transports can take one hit with a proton torpedo, but not two.  To
      kill one quickly, press 'X' to set dual fire, lock on and blow him
      away.  Corvettes will go under with six hits (three shots in dual
      fire) mode.  TIE bombers will die with only one.

  8)  When you're out of proton torpedos and need to kill a Corvette,
      position yourself directly behind him and do him away with lasers. Set
      your speed down low as you approach from behind, and adjust up or down
      as he fires his laser cannons from the top or bottom.  When you are
      right behind him he can't hit you, but you can just fire away. Make
      sure you press the [\] key (backslash) to stop your engines and slow
      your forward momentum or you will run into him.  It's a tricky
      maneuver, but it works well.  When the message flashes "Corvette
      destroyed" wait till he blows up before increasing speed, as he can
      still hit you with his lasers even though he is going under!
      
  9)  When attacking a Corvette or Frigate with lasers, set them to fire
      linked and do a lot of bobbing and weaving while moving towards him.
      If you just line up on him and start firing you'll get wasted.  As you
      bob and weave fire at him as he swings through your sights.  Don't get
      too close, or it wont matter how much you bob and weave.  When within
      0.60 or so, put him in your rear view mirror (sensor) and bob and
      weave away from him, doing the SHIFT-F10 thing and the triple 'S'
      quickly.  Do this until you're about 1.25 away, and then swing back
      around at him and start again.  If you have proton torpedos, just stop
      your engines when about 2.00 away, lock on and fire.  His laser range
      is about 1.50.  Always use your proton torpedos to wear him down (if
      not destroy him) before going after him with lasers.
      
 10)  For Star Destroyers, you must take out the two "water tower" looking
      objects above the bridge.  These are his shield generators.  Try
      taking them out at fairly close range with proton torpedos.  You don't
      need to get a lock to hit them at close range.  When out of torpedos,
      go back to fire linked lasers.  Once they are down, just hit the ship
      as much as possible while keeping some shield energy.  You can switch
      back to single fire to maximize your chance of getting the "kill"
      shot. This is one of the few times that lasers on single fire are
      desirable. Again the bobbing and weaving trick is a must during this
      time!
      
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  Well, that's probably enough for now.  If you have any requests, you can
  send me mail.  I'll take the most common requests and upload another
  file with whatever help I can.
  
  My internet addresses are:
  
  drboyd&aol.com                 (my America Online Internet Address)
  
  73670.636@compuserve.com       (my CompuServe Internet Address).  
  
  I also have a 24-hour company BBS at (816)-353-0991 that I use for
  technical support for EnQue Software programming tools -- you can reach 
  me there as well.
