Star Wars may have started its journey in cinemas, but you can make the case that its best experiences are in videogames. The Star Wars universe lends itself well to an interactive medium. Jedi, bounty hunters and rebel spies make ideal videogame avatars, while the universe’s rich library of spacecraft laid the foundation for some of the best space combat on the PC.
Today, there are more good Star Wars games than good Star Wars films, and the best Star Wars games rival the original trilogy in their ability to tell exciting stories. Here, we’ll chart the galaxy of adventures Star Wars has brought to the PC, from the first time we climbed into the cockpit of an X-Wing, to the more turbulent modern era of Star Wars gaming.
JUMP TO HYPERSPACE
Star Wars games existed before modern DOS and Windows PCs, but these were mostly arcade tie-ins later ported to platforms like the Atari 2600 and the ZX Spectrum. The first notable Star Wars PC game is 1993’s X-Wing, the space combat simulator that let players take the fight to the Galactic Empire in a variety of iconic rebel spacecraft. X-Wing's rich combat simulation, including the distinctive power-shifting mechanic that let players prioritise different ship systems, laid the foundation for Totally Games’ (mostly) great series of space combat games.
Totally Games followed up X-Wing with one of the greatest PC games of all time, 1994’s . Switching perspective to the Imperial faction made for a more distinctive experience, and Totally Games capitalised on this with smartly crafted missions that saw players rising through the Imperial ranks, and fighting not just rebel scum, but general criminals and traitors to the Empire. Three years later came 1997’s , the weakest entry in the series, although this multiplayer-focused game was later improved with a story-driven expansion named .
