logo Sign In

Am I losing my memory? CG Tie Fighters in the Millennium Falcon.

Author
Time

This is yet another “is my mind playing tricks with me” thread. It relates to a relatively trivial scene, during the section where the Millennium Falcon escapes from the Death Star, and has the dogfight with the four Tie Fighters.

I do not remember this scene from when I saw this in the theaters in 1978 in the UK, what I am remembering is from a version that a friend of mine had that I watched many times over, it was on Videodisc (CED), in Canada, during the fall of 1982.

In that scene, Luke and Han get into the gun turrets, and for a moment, you see a “CG” Tie Fighter starting to be drawn, presumably by the Falcon’s targeting computer. Try 1:33:38 in the original to find what I’m talking about. In every version I can find nowadays, that view gets as far as a five by five checkerboard of squares, that rotates about 45 degrees and then cuts back to a view of one of the turrets.

In the version I think I remember, the CG of the Tie Fighter continues for several more seconds until it is a recognizable copy of the ship. It finishes the rotation, places a globe between the two solar panel planes, along with the struts that connect the globe (cockpit) to the solar panels.

Am I losing my mind here? Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? Has anyone else ever seen the “full length” version of this?

Author
Time

What you are describing here sounds suspiciously like the targeting systems for the Vipers from Battlestar Galactica. I think the fighter craft in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century also had a similar system.
You might have caught one of those and merged your memories.

Author
Time

I don’t know about the CG TIE.

But the missed grappling hook throw is real. I saw it.

Author
Time

There are several video and computer games of the era that use Tie Fighter shapes and even copy the look and feel of the MF targeting display. Did you play videogames back then?

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I think you might be thinking of the display when they actually land a hit on the tie fighter and one of the squares flash on the solar panels as you put it?

It’s indicating where they hit the tie fighter

If you are saying it’s on a specific release I have never seen it.

Author
Time

The MF targeting display kind of looks like an abstract TIE…

Attacking ships are represented by arrows though. Something Atari and other videogame makers capitalized on.

The only recognizable TIE fighter shape appears on the X-Wing targeting computer display.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I’m still trying to figure out how the Falcon’s Targeting computer works, beyond giving a gunner a rough idea of the space around them.

The X-wing one makes sense; if the ship is in the middle and the cross-hair becomes yellow, shoot. The Falcon’s means you still have to eyeball the shot. Unless real world guidance systems have a similar display, I really don’t see how the falcon’s helps shooting.

Author
Time

Are you maybe thinking of the old arcade game called Star Fire?

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?