This is why I love PC gaming.

While researching my upcoming piece on space sims, I found a pair of freeware games that may help satisfy the urge to blast TIE Fighters while we wait and see whether LucasArts delivers on the Aug. 4 tease about the X-Wing series.

A fellow named Bruno R. Marcos made a pair of shareware games in 2004 based on the two climatic battles of the original Star Wars trilogy: The Battle of Yavin and The Battle of Endor. Each puts you into the cockpit of an X-Wing for six stages of dogfighting against TIE Fighters as the Rebels attack the Death Stars.

Download these graphic and sound mods for Yavin and Endor to get the full effect; the games look great, and they're a lot of fun as well. They remind me of a mix of the old vector-graphic Star Wars arcade game and the X-Wing series.

Battle of Yavin opens with a group of Rebel X-Wings and Y-Wings flying toward the Death Star. The games don't follow the movies frame-by-frame -- Imperial-class Star Destroyers show up in the first stage to disgorge TIEs. The fighters come at you in waves as you fight toward the Death Star.

The Death Star stages really remind me of the vector-graphics Star Wars game and the first X-Wing game. Towers and turbolaser emplacements pepper the Death Star's surface, changing the gameplay from dogfighting to surface-strafing runs.

The Battle of Endor feels more like the climatic battle from the film than the series of Endor battles from X-Wing: Alliance. As silly as this sounds, I got a chill as I watched the Rebel fleet drop out of hyperspace. You pull up, and a wall of TIE Fighters greets you. And the battle starts, with fighters dancing between the rag-tag Rebel fleet and, eventually, the Imperial fleet -- including Darth Vader's command ship, the Executor.

Remember, this is a freeware game, so it doesn't give you the full range of options of the X-Wing series -- you're stuck with the X-Wing, you can't manage your shields, the joystick controls can stick a bit (you may control your fighter with a mouse as well), and it's pretty difficult. The A.I. for the TIEs isn't horrible, either -- they get in tight behind you, but they aren't that good at dodging.

I couldn't care less about their issues -- these are two of the most impressive freeware games that I've ever played, and I'm looking forward to blowing up the Death Stars for weeks to come.

And remember: They're free.