For anyone who is a fan of the games and wants to run them again I found some information on how to do it under a 64bit OS (such as XP 64, vista and Win 7). There is also some information on getting them to work on a modern raphcis card so you can enable 3d without getting graphical errors and run in widescreen. Just read through and find the section that is relevant.

Installing XvT and XWA to a 64 bit OS

Ok, so you want to install XvT/XWA to a 64 bit OS? Then you need to use the Markus Egger custom installers. Just follow the instructions and you can make your own disk that will install correctly:

http://www.markusegger.at/Software/Games.aspx

I didn't bother making a disk. I simply copied my disk contents to C:XWA (or whatever it is the custom installers ask for), then ran the installer from the above link. I then ran Setup.exe from within this folder and everything installed fine. The only problem I have is that if I try to run XWA from the normal XWA shortcut it asks me for the original disk even though its in the drive. Just go to programmesx84/lucasarts/xwa or whatever the address is, and double click on XWINGALLIANCE.exe, the game will start up fine. You can however setup your pilot file from the normal XWA launcher. As I haven't tried playing online yet I don't know how this will affect things, so you may want to try making the disk etc as the program found at the link above says.

Ok, great, XWA is installed, now lets try to make it pretty by forcing it to run with a modern graphics card at max settings shall we

Forcing Widescreen

Now, this next step I found on the Totally Games forum, it allows you to force a widescreen resolution. This requires a hex edit, which sounds scary but is actually quite simple. The instructions for doing this are found in the link and require no further instruction from me as its very straightforward. Just follow the guide! Remember that once you have carried out the hex edit DO NOT change the resolution from the game menu options. You can however set everything to max and select 3d hardware, just don't change the resolution!

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/fo … hp?t=13717

Running with a modern graphics card (to enable 3d!)

Now, with widescreen set (if needed!) or another resolution of your choice, you may find that with 3d hardware enabled in the game options menu, that you get some odd graphic artifacts. This is down to the way modern cards handle Open Gl, or rather don't. Or something. Anyway, again Nejaa has provided the link, but I'll do it again anyway

Go to this next link, and look at the post by Reimar in maroon/red. You will see two download links there, one for a file called xwahacker and the other for a .bat file. Download both of them and as it says in the post, put them both in your XWA installation folder then double click on the .bat file. This will run some magic and make everything work wonderfully.

http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewto … 25#p133936

So there you have it, how I installed XWA to a 64bit OS and got it to run in widescreen, at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with full graphic support under 3d on an ATi 4850 card. I just have to say...it looks absolutely beautiful like this, I will have to try and get some screen grabs, because this high it doesn't look all that dated.

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!