[Despondent]

Of course this cool craft would be from Empire, the best of the batch IMO. I always liked the snowspeeders and wondered if they were engineered specifically for frozen climates? or what's the learning curve, if you could fly an x-wing, would this vehicle need more training? Or, what altitude could they reach? (landspeeders maintain a constant hover of a few feet, right?) Of course all of the swooping around was great. but it'd be safer to fly higher wouldn't it? and the rear gunner's role- kinda limited? Came in handy for the use that came up however.

the cloud city cars were cool too. I love all the nimble action. I used to have a motorscooter and the Best place to ride (3 of us would race here) were the twisty turny one lane roads at riverview park in hannibal, mo. the smaller the roads, the bigger the thrill given the limited speed. (we would play "tag")

of course the xwings were great. the awesome size of the star destroyers. The OT did spacecraft well.

[Paladin]

I still have some old CDs with the X-Wing, TIE Fighter and X-wing Vs TIE Fighter games on them. I still enjoy playing them from time to time, but I just wish there were more fighters to fly in.

[Chefelf]

Those games were the best. I played the hell out of them. Paul and I made a macro in DOS so that we could copy a great pilot's profile to new names so that we always had good wingmen. Otherwise the wingmen just plain sucked.

I agree that Empire had the coolest vehicles, most noticely the addition of the AT-AT and AT-ST.

I think flying the snowspeeders (though they pretty much just look like A-wings) would require different training as gravity is involved.

[Despondent]

I think flying the snowspeeders (though they pretty much just look like A-wings) would require different training as gravity is involved.

Hadn't considered that. the way the xwings manuever (star wars physics albeit) it's easier to think of them as modern-day, gravity affected jet fighters than say, skylab or an apollo capsule. or the space shuttle of course, but when it flew on descent it was coasting rather than flying under it's own power.

the walkers were cool. I remember in the theatre (at first, when they look through the binoculars) someone saying "look at the size of those things!" the at-at in Jedi was pretty foreboding.

[Jordan]

Snow Speeders would consume about 99.9% more gas and be less efficient since the engine is running at high rpms in below below freezing temps. Different Hydraulic Oil would be needed for movement in the wing flap actuators. The snow speeder would also need a far superior heating/cooling system to regulate air conditioning in the cockpit.

X Wings could never work because no one can move that agile in space. You would need thrusters at every vital angle on the ship, and a hella complex control system to trigger them off at the right timing.

The chassis would have to be made of fibre glass or low carbon metal.

[Despondent]

Of course everyone knows TIE fighters get their name from Twin Ion Engines. What is an Ion engine? how does/will it operate?

[Jordan]

The engine rejects Ions which is what causes the motion. Nasa uses it. You can use hardly any fuel by just shooting Ions out the back of the craft. Ions give virtually no push but over time you will start to move extremely fast since in space there is no frictional forces to slow you down. Once you start going thats it, you go till you hit something or apply thrusts in that direction. It's virtually impossible to stop in space.

[Paladin]

Hadn't considered that. the way the xwings manuever (star wars physics albeit) it's easier to think of them as modern-day, gravity affected jet fighters than say, skylab or an apollo capsule. or the space shuttle of course, but when it flew on descent it was coasting rather than flying under it's own power.

In the Wing Commander games (at least, the Privateer series) they had menuvering jets placed around various parts of your ship. That's a pretty feasible explanation for the menuvering ability.

One thing which I've always wanted is a space flight simulator game that obeyed ALL rules of physics. Something like that would rock. And it might even provide a basis for future space warfare, should we ever develop a cheap and fast way to get off this planet.

The engine rejects Ions which is what causes the motion. Nasa uses it. You can use hardly any fuel by just shooting Ions out the back of the craft. Ions give virtually no push but over time you will start to move extremely fast since in space there is no frictional forces to slow you down.

Ion engines are pretty primitive right now. NASA can barely get a piece of paper of the ground with it. But who knows how they will be in 200 years from now, and how much space travel would progress.

[Despondent]

I'm not a home gamer, but there are 3 flight sim video games I'd say that rock.

1) 1979 Exidy Star Fire. used starwars like logo text, even tie fighter targets. it was great and had lock on firing computers.

the SW sit down arcade game of early 80's was ok, but the pilot had little control. good theming and audio though.

2) Afterburner(?) the sit down one that had pitch and roll (to a degree) axis movement. took off from a carrier, computer targeting, when you got hit the thing shook. that was great!

3) I don't know what it's called, but it's from japan and you can fly (manual or auto) any of 6 or 7 jets. (747's or the smaller ones) It's great. of course, shudder to think, a 9/11 terrorist would be wiser after playing it, it's that good. rudder pedals, steering wheel goes in for down, out for up. throttle control and idicator of how upset the passengers are getting. there's a help button and if you're off the least little bit PUSH it for a do-over. or game over. there are lights to guide you but it's harder than it looks. just takeoff and landings, from what I've seen.

and then across the aisle at the galleria is the nascar experience, but that's totally different. when I 've done bad on that one, I've turned around to wreak havok driving in the opposite direction!

[Jordan]

We don't use Ion Perpultion to lift objects off the ground, we use it for movement in space. It works well up there.

[Radu094]

One thing which I've always wanted is a space flight simulator game that obeyed ALL rules of physics. Something like that would rock.

www.orbitersim.com