Before LucasArts’ X-Wing soared into polygonal glory on PC, it began life as a sprite-based space sim built on the engine used in SWOTL and Battlehawks 1942. Thanks to a tip from Andreas Wanda, a rare glimpse of this early version may have surfaced in a 1992 slideshow video – complete with a possible screenshot at the 0:30 mark.
Thanks to contributor JP, another screenshot has been found within The Adventurer, LucasArt’s old newsletter. A very different cockpit to the final game and the TIE interceptors certainly look like they could be sprites. Or was it merely a mock up?
Could more of this original prototype still be out there? With many of the original devs still around, there’s hope. If you know anything more, please do get in touch!
With thanks to Andreas Wanda for highlighting and for the screenshot and JP for the flagging of another screenshot and Archive.org as the source.
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Dear JP,
thanks for that awesome X-Wing preview screenshot from the Adventurer!
As for the smoke-spewing X-Wing from Lucasarts‘ demo reel, I agree with your assessment. It certainly did not feature in the shipped game nor its mission disks, always a good starting point for unearthing an early version of a beloved game.
I have asked Lawrence Holland on LinkedIn if he might enlighten us!
All the best,
Andreas
i wonder if we could reach out to David Fox or Noah Falstein, who might be in touch with Brian Moriarty
Give the pixel size and 1:1 scaling of the X-wing in that shot and the way that damage it’s taking would be hard to redraw from multiple angles, it might just be a still from a cinematic.
One of the earliest, maybe the first shots of X-Wing was in this issue of The Adventurer, LucasArts’ old newsletter, on page 5: https://archive.org/details/lucasarts-the-adventurer–magazine-complete/The%20Adventurer%2C%20Issue%20No.%2004%20Spring%201992/page/n7/mode/2up
It’s an interesting shot because aside from the cockpit art it looks nothing like the shipping game, and those TIE interceptors definitely seem like they could be sprites. It could also have just been a mockup.
Thanks JP, I agree it would have certainly been hard work. Thank you so much too for the additional screenshot – just added now with credit to yourself.