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STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE

Step into the epic saga from the Star Wars: Episode I story -- and beyond -- while taking on the roles of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala and Captain Panaka. Use the Force, and your wits, to overcome challenges at every turn as you plunge deeper into this story of a galaxy in crisis.

In Episode I, Luke Skywalker's father is just a hopeful 9-year-old boy named Anakin, who knows nothing of his eventual fate as a Dark Lord in years to come. In this earlier time, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a determined young Jedi. Qui-Gon Jinn is Obi-Wan's venerable Jedi master, trying to teach the Jedi way to his apprentice as their world begins to unravel in political turmoil. Episode I will take audiences through extraordinary realms and adventures, from the desert planet of Tatooine to the galactic capital world of Coruscant (with its Jedi Temple), the green world of Naboo, and beyond.
  • Solve dozens of challenging puzzles. Your choice of weapons includes lightsabers, droid stunners, Naboo blasters and Force Push powers.
  • Cast of Characters: Battle hordes of enemies including destroyer droids, mercenaries and the evil Darth Maul.
~ advertising blurb

When Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was released 20 years ago, I was an over-exploited under-age employee of a large cinema chain so I really felt the hype. Months before its opening day, moviegoers paid full price to see the mediocre Meet Joe Black only to leave once the Star Wars trailer had finished, that's how big of a deal it was. Naturally, there were tie-ins galore including a long list of videogames, and this official tie-in teased the entire plot of the film months before the movie's July release.

The game fares about the same as its big-screen counterpart in that, in all honesty, it hasn't aged too well. On paper, this third-person action-adventure has it all; shooty bits, jumpy bits, puzzly bits -  but other than the satisfying swing of a lightsaber none of it really comes together. You essentially run around mazes fighting bad guys or running errands for NPCs by clumsily pushing switches and missing each and every necessary jump to a platform on first, second and third attempt.

The levels are obviously based on a grid, making the more natural areas like forests and swamplands feel strange and distorted. In a way, it reminds me a little of the first Tomb Raider except poorly programmed. The levels themselves aren't so bad if a little unmemorable but the camera angle doesn't do it any favours. You view the action in a bizarre tilted overhead view that restricts what you can see. You can't see too far ahead of you so many enemies are firing off-screen and it's almost impossible to gauge jumps accurately. Combined with the slightly wonky controls, it brings the whole package down.

Added up, these points bring down what could've been a great movie tie-in. Instead, it languishes under 'average' like many other licenced games. It's not good enough to stand out, yet not bad enough to be acerbically talked about on random YouTube channels. I did somewhat enjoy my playthrough at times, but I can guarantee those memories won't stick with me.


To download the PC game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses dgVoodoo to run on modern systems. Registry keys will be added to the Windows registry during install. A real or virtual CD drive may be required to play. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.
  19.05.2023 Ver.2 - Removed DxWnd and updates dgVoodoo to v2.8.1.
                                Added fix for AMD/ATI graphics cards.
                                Improved package.

File Size: 673 Mb.  Install Size: 793 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (the game) is © LucasArts
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (the movie) is © LucasFilm
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me


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23 comments:

  1. included dxwnd profile causes, the game's title sequence (lucasarts), to freeze the game.

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  2. It asks for CD, how to bypass it plz?

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    Replies
    1. Hello. The registry information (which includes CD location) is emulated within dxwnd itself. It should implement automatically, though you may have to run as admin (this works for me). Failing that, you can import *install folder*\DxWnd\dswnd.reg into the registry by double clicking on it.

      Delete
    2. np, didn't work, nvm, time for Y2K: The Game :D

      Delete
  3. The run.bat seems to cause it to hang after a few seconds, probably because of dxwnd closing early due to the /R command line option. I changed it to the below and that works:

    @echo off
    @REM start dxwnd in quiet mode, and minimized to the system tray, and load our config file
    start dxwnd.exe /Q /T /C:SWPM.dxw
    @REM ping will wait for 2 seconds to let dxwnd start up completely before sending the next command
    @ping -n 2 localhost > NUL
    @REM tell the currently running dxwnd in the system tray to run game #1 in the config
    start dxwnd.exe /Y:#1


    Also if you want to run change the option in dxwnd to make it run in fullscreen then you must also uncheck "Correct mouse position" in the mouse tab of dxwnd.

    The game still runs at 8fps for some reason though, let me know if anyone knows how to fix that.

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  4. Any chances for Battle for Naboo? The only version that I've managed to get running on 64bit rig has some issue with controls, making your ships constantly nose-dive, which is "kinda" problematic to play once you start flying.

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  5. LOOKS WORSE THAN IT DID ON A 20 YR OLD COMPUTER

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    Replies
    1. i just test it on a old motherboard from 2005 with pentium 4, supports win 98SE, runs perfectly fine on that system, no fps issues, slowdowns or anything, yeah it's one of the few old games thats almost impossible to run on newer motherboards.

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  6. Mmmm I'm not getting far enough to have an install folder. The install can't find a disk and I can't mount the D01, D02, and D03 files since they aren't recognized. Any advice on getting the initial install going?

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    Replies
    1. Those D files are part of the installation package. Have all files in the same folder and run "Install-SWPM.exe" to install the game. There will not be any ISOs required to mount as it will run directly from the hard drive.

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    2. the game works but why it's running in such low frame rate like below 10 fps? i tried playing with the settings and im still getting the same issue

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  7. Thanks! I feel silly - the rest of the installs I've tried for this game have been incredibly convoluted and I didn't think to try the direct approach. The game works like a charm! The only issue I'm still having is that none of the landscape textures are loading - the droids, ships, and characters look fine, basically anything that moves, but for the structures in the first 2 levels all I'm seeing is flat, opaque polygons. The lighting effects are interacting with the walls. Any ideas what might be causing the textures to not load?

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    Replies
    1. Do you have an AMD graphics card by any chance? Having Nvidia, I have no way to test on a variety of machines even if I did have the time. Download the AMD/ATI fix from link below and unzip it to "(install dir)\DxWnd\SWPM\". I'm going to do an update today with it included while also updating dgVoodoo and removing DxWnd (superfluous) in the process too.

      https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=76095

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    2. The fix still didn't work with my AMD card, but I tried it on my Nvidia rig and the textures all load now :D Now I just gotta figure out the framerate issue

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    3. same here, the dgvoodoo is an improvment, but the performance is still pretty bad, at this point he should add PSX version as an option, it probably plays and runs better then the windows version.

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  8. Same here, i'm on an Win10 with a Radeon RX570 and the background textures do not load... what could be causing this?

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  9. It installed fine on win 11, however the mouse doesn't seem to be registering very well, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

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    Replies
    1. I can't get to the options screen reliably or on menus to select anything really

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  10. ok, i think i know why this game runs poorly on modern systems even with dgvoodoo, i had the exact same issue with another game from that era, "Sub-culture", everything looks and runs ok, until you start the game then it goes below 10-fps and becomes unplayable no matter what i do, no dgvoodoo or DxWnd can fix this, its somthing to do with cpu speed, there's a way to lower it but it's a risk for you're operating system, somes games are speed sensitive (not just ms-dos games), and drops fps like crazy without a patch.

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  11. I still have the original CD version and this worked Great. Thank you

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