Dark Forces

One of my favorite Star Wars games - and games in general - is Dark Forces, the 1995 PC game that was originally written off as just another "Doom Clone". Loading the game up for the first time in the 90s, during the middle of the Star Wars film drought was an exercise in escapism. Something about being the one who found and delivered the Death Star plans, as the first mission mind you, took hold of me and play the game multiple times.

Star Wars to me has always been about the gritty, lived-in quality of the universe, not the glitzy lightsabers and space wizards. The large scale space battles and boots-on-the-ground scenes are what I always wanted more of. I re-watched the Hoth battle so many times on our VHS tapes that the quality started to degraded from the tape stretching from repeated re-winding.

Playing Dark Forces put me into that universe; along with other great 90's Star Wars games X-Wing and it's much improved sequel TIE Fighter and the more modern Battlefront. In these games I was in them, battling against (or for) the Empire and not relying on some astronomical coincidence that the same few characters seem to know all the same people and save the galaxy.

Essays

In 2020, Limited Run Games did a Star Wars: Dark Forces Collectors Edition for PC, which included a booklet of retrospective essays.

Dark Forces Collectors Edition

Dark Forces: Retrospective Essays

These essays are unavailable on the world-wide-web from what I can tell, and attempting to contact the authors has yield no response, so I'm including these four essays in their entirely here and available only on Gemini.

Dark Forces: Canon Once, A Legend Forever

Learning from the filth of Star Wars: Dark Forces

Its Own Game

Words from Yussef Cole

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