The Complete History Of Star Wars PC Games

1998 - Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Rebellion marks the franchise's entry into the real-time strategy genre. You can play as either the Galactic Empire or as the Rebel Alliance. The key is to gain control of planets, where you can build and deploy ships, construct buildings and train troops. The game featured tons of locations, ships and characters from the movies and books, as well as an optional 3D tactical mode for fleet battles.


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1998 - Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is one of the most popular Star Wars games ever released. The gameplay focuses entirely on piloting a variety of ships in battle against the empire. At first, you only have access to the basic X-Wing, Y-Wing, and A-Wing fighters, but later you gain access to an Imperial Tie-Fighter and the Millennium Falcon. Some of these battles take place in space, while others are set around high-value Imperial targets on the surface of planets.

1999 - Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Following the release of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, several new games were released based on the new movie. The first to come out bears the same title as the movie, and was released for PC and PlayStation. During the game you play as several characters from the movie, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn.


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1999 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance

Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance was the last game released in the X-Wing series. Instead of just focusing on being a pilot for the Rebel Alliance, you play as Ace Azzarmeen, who's family is wanted by the Empire for smuggling supplies to the Rebellion. The family also has a feud with the powerful Viraxo trading family, which becomes increasingly violent after the Azzarmeen family is caught smuggling.


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1999 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer was the first of many games to be released focusing on the pod race from Star Wars Episode 1. You can choose from a number of characters and pod racers featured in the movie and race several different tracks. The game also supports multiplayer races. In 2000, a similar game was released in arcades with many of the same tracks.


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2000 - Star Wars: Force Commander

Star Wars: Force Commander was another strategy game released for the PC. The game takes place throughout the original Star Wars movie trilogy and lets you command forces on both sides of the war.


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2000 - Star Wars Episode I: Battle For Naboo

Star Wars Episode I: Battles For Naboo is a similar to the Star Wars Rogue Squadron game in that it focuses heavily on ship-to-ship combat, but extends to ground combat as well.


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2001 - Star Wars: Starfighter

Star Wars: Starfighter was another game that focused heavily on ship-to-ship combat. The game was initially released for PlayStation 2, but a special edition of the game was released later for Xbox and PC with numerous updates including graphical enhancements and a better multiplayer system.


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2001 - Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds

Galactic Battlegrounds was a fresh take on the Star Wars universe as a strategy game. This new game was significantly different than the previous strategy games in the series. Instead of being a simple conquer the universe game, it followed a detailed story line through campaign missions. The game focuses on the original movie trilogy as well as Star Wars Episode I.


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2002 - Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

After a long five years since the release of Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, LucasArts released the highly anticipated sequel: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. This game continued the story of Kyle Katarn as he fights against remnants of the evil Galactic Empire. In the beginning of the game, Kyle Katarn has opted to leave his Jedi training behind but later picks up his lightsaber again and rejoins the struggling Jedi order. The game uses a wide range of weapons ranging from blasters and grenades to a lightsaber and force powers.


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Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • adamovera
    Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3265968/complete-history-star-wars-games.html
    Reply
  • jackwill
    Great stuff, will be sharing :)
    Reply
  • AgentLozen
    The entry for KOTOR 2 is screwed up. You should double check that.

    I really enjoyed the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight games. I tried to replay through Jedi Knight 2 a year or two ago and I got instant motion sickness. I'm not as young as I used to be.
    Reply
  • ralphfaith
    Ah, throwback. Started Star Wars with Star Wars Galaxies back in 2003.
    Reply
  • hdmark
    what about star wars : pit droids???
    Reply
  • Slumy__57
    Ahh, a nice walk down memory lane for me, I've played most of these at some point in time, starting with my all time favorite, Dark Forces II.
    Reply
  • Mousemonkey
    The game uses a wide range of weapons ranging from plasters and grenades to a lightsaber and force powers.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/730-star-wars-pc-game-history.html#s21

    Really? I don't recall giving first, second or third aid to any of the foes when I played it! :lol:
    Reply
  • Mousemonkey
    And page 27 is also a little strange, the text and picture do not match the title.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/730-star-wars-pc-game-history.html#s27
    Reply
  • WildCard999
    Good article for May the 4th. I would love to see a remake or sequel to Star Wars: Jedi Academy.
    Reply
  • MannyBones
    You have the Dark Forces I and II info off. The lightsaber/Jedi stuff along with the live action cutscenes was not introduced until Dark Forces II. The original was strictly 2d animated cutscenes and there was no Jedi/Force stuff.
    Reply