Buy X-Wing Special Edition for $9.99 on GOG or Steam, then install XWVM on top of it. That gets you the 1993 original running at a modern resolution with a modern stick, and it is free. If you would rather stay period-correct, launch the 1994 Collector's CD build in DOSBox and set the cycles to about 27,000. Leave the 1998 Windows version alone unless you have a joystick plugged in, because it will not start without one.
X-Wing is the game that made space combat a Star Wars genre, and it is the one that ages worst on contact with a modern PC: three different builds in one ten-dollar package, a default that picks the oldest, and a Windows port that refuses to launch on a keyboard. Here is the order we would try them.
What you are actually buying
Both stores sell one package containing three versions of the game, plus the Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing Tours of Duty:
- X-Wing (1993, DOS). Five floppies, 320x200, and the iMUSE score that reacts to the fight. Playable on keyboard and mouse.
- X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM (1994, DOS). One CD, the engine rebuilt on TIE Fighter's, gouraud shading instead of flat polygons, and voice acting for several characters. Keeps the dynamic MIDI music.
- X-Wing (1998, Windows). The Collector Series port onto the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter engine: Direct3D, real textures, redone concourse screens. It dropped iMUSE for Red Book CD audio, caps at 30 FPS, and requires a joystick or gamepad.
GOG lists all three on the store page and added the 1994 CD build on April
28, 2015. Steam's description mentions only the 1993 and 1998 versions, but
the Steam install ships classic and collectors_cd folders, so the CD
build is in both. That is the opposite of the situation with
TIE Fighter, where GOG
has the CD version and Steam does not, so if you are buying the pair, buy
both on GOG.
| Version | Looks | Music | Voice | Input |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 DOS | 320x200, flat polygons | iMUSE, dynamic | None | Keyboard, mouse or stick |
| 1994 CD | Shaded, sharper | iMUSE, dynamic | Yes | Keyboard, mouse or stick |
| 1998 Windows | Textured, any resolution | CD audio, static | Yes | Joystick required |
Route one: XWVM, free and the one we would install
XWVM is a fan re-implementation of X-Wing's executable in Unity. It is not a total conversion and it ships no game content: it loads the missions, models, audio and voice from your own copy, which is why you buy the game first. The team describes it as "a facilitator app to play Star Wars X-Wing."
What it gets you: modern resolutions, modern gamepad and HOTAS support, rebindable keys, VR support, and an optional HD Asset Pack if you want new art and music instead of the 1993 originals. A separate optional mod adds in-flight mission dialogue.
How to install it:
- Own and install X-Wing Special Edition (GOG or Steam), or the original discs.
- Download XWVM Core for Windows or Linux from the project's ModDB page. The current public build is Alpha 20251116, released November 18, 2025.
- Optionally add the HD Asset Pack and the in-flight dialogue mod, then point XWVM at your X-Wing installation.
Two honest caveats. It is alpha software, so expect rough edges and keep the DOSBox route as a fallback. And TIE Fighter support, which the team has been building for two years, is not in the public release yet; the same goes for macOS, which the team said in May 2026 it was working toward. If you want TIE Fighter remastered today, the Total Conversion route in our TIE guide is the one that exists.
Route two: the DOS builds, in DOSBox
Both DOS versions run in DOSBox through the store versions, and both keep the music that makes the game. The 1994 CD build is the better of the two: same score, better visuals, actual voices.
Four settings do nearly all the work. Edit dosbox_xwingcd.conf for the CD
build or dosbox_xwing.conf for the 1993 one:
cycles=27000, rather thanmax. This one matters more than it sounds: leave the cycles uncapped and capital ships and turrets almost never fire, because the firing rate runs inverse to the emulated CPU speed. A 486-at-66MHz equivalent puts it right, and anything from 27,000 to 30,000 works.joysticktype=chinstead ofauto, which exposes buttons three and four and the hat switch on a modern stick.output=overlayandfullresolution=desktop, so 320x200 scales to your panel without turning to mush.- In the game's own setup, set machine speed to FAST. The default is slow and the cutscenes suffer for it.
Route three: the 1998 Windows version
Pick this only if resolution and textures matter more to you than the music, and only if you own a stick. The port cannot be flown on a mouse at all unless you fake a joystick with something like vJoy, and it is capped at 30 FPS.
If you go there anyway, the problems that come up most:
- It will not start without a controller detected. Plug the stick in and calibrate it in Windows' own Game Controllers panel first, and unplug anything else that registers as one.
- A DirectX install prompt on launch: run
XWING95.EXEdirectly instead of the front-end menu. - Objects and textures vanishing in hardware mode: the community fix is
XWAHacker's
xwing95fixedclear.bat, run as administrator. - Wrong colours: that is the old DirectDraw renderer, and a wrapper like dgVoodoo2 is the standard answer.
Joysticks, briefly
Any USB stick works, and DOSBox maps a modern two-axis one fine. In the 1998 build the right stick reads as throttle, so a plain Xbox pad is enough to satisfy the check and fly with. A cheap HOTAS is what makes the game feel the way people remember it, and X-Wing is one of the few games where a $40 peripheral changes the verdict.
Steam Deck
Valve rates X-Wing Special Edition Unsupported. ProtonDB has it Gold across nine reports, and the two complaints are always the same: it does not run at native resolution, and it is a joystick game on a thumbstick. Fine for a Tour of Duty on the couch, and not how you should meet the game. The rest of the catalogue on Deck.
What we would do
Coming to it new: GOG, then XWVM with the HD pack, on whatever stick you can borrow. Coming back after thirty years: the 1994 CD build in DOSBox at 27,000 cycles, because the shaded cockpits and the reactive music are the game you remember, and the first Death Star run still works. Either way it is ten dollars, and it earned its place in our space combat ranking.
The details
- Version differences, the joystick requirement, the 30 FPS cap and the Windows-era fixes come from PCGamingWiki's X-Wing page, which is also where the XWAHacker and DirectDraw fixes are documented. Steam's own store page carries the controller warning for the 1998 build.
- The
collectors_cdfolder, the cycles figure and thejoysticktypechange come from the long-standing community DOSBox guide for the Steam release (October 2019), cross-checked against PCGamingWiki's note that the firing bug is cycle-dependent. - XWVM's requirements, feature list, current build and TIE Fighter status come from the project's own ModDB page and its release posts.
- We have not run XWVM on our own machine yet. When we do, anything here it contradicts gets corrected visibly.