I just downloaded X-COM: UFO Defense. I played it back when it first came out and was feeling a little nostalgic. It's an awesome game if anyone else wants it. I've got it shared at \\sturm\shared files\Games.

Good to see someone else likes this game. It was my FAVORITE game for a while. Heck, still is one of my favorites. I'm not real great at it, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I also have terror from the deep, but have trouble installing it.

Note: On some computers the game goes too fast, mostly seen when scrolling on the battlescape. To fix this I have a program that you basically cut the speed of your processes, I think 50% was about right.

Has anyone actually beaten UFO Defense?? My brother and I played it one summer and got to the part where you go to Mars and then it was an utter and total bitch.

I also have terror from the deep, haven't tried it out yet, but it seems to work. Yes, computers today are much faster than it was meant to be played on, but it's managable if you turn the battlescape scroll speed down. (it's initially set to its' fastest setting)

I beat it before, but I can't remember if I cheated or not... there is a way to start with about 6 trillian dollars. Well, I'll see if i can beat it now. Something really cheesy to do is to save really frequently, like before every turn on the battlescape. If anyone dies, just exit the mission and restart.

I liked X-COM Apocalypse, if anyone has played that, but it just didn't have the same feel as the original.

I have beaten the mars mission, it isn't that hard doing the second easiest setting. I will be trying the game again on the second hardest. Tactics on the battlescape become MUCH more important then.

If the game is running too fast on your computer (my scroll speed sucked even on the slowest) get the program "turbo" from:

http://www.xcomufo.com/turbo.zip

Extract that, run it, and set it to 70% or so, then if it is too fast, set it to 50% or so. That should help some. Anyway, back to the game. What I need to do is restart, then save as soon as I have all my initial settings done (research set, equipment sold off, soldiers fired, etc), that way when I start a new game I don't have to do the exact same thing every time.

why do you sell all of your stuff off as soon as you start? I find your initial equipment isn't that bad. Granted, you want to upgrade to laser rifles ASAP. (Love those things) Soldiers are 80K a pop, why fire them all? Enlighten me.

First off, I buy stuff such as rifles and mags, more explosives (I use high explosives LIBERALLY, if there is a building I can't see well or have enough units to effectively cover, I level it), and various other things. Then I get at LEAST 10 more soldiers right off the bat. Then I go through every soldier and rename them putting the important stuff in their name. To me, at least at the beginning, the important stuff is TU's, accuracy (actually, that one is negligible, after about 8 squares they can't hit shit anyway), and strength. It isn't a bad idea to pick out about 5 of your highest strength, TU, and marksmen and load them with a crapload of equipment, make them your second line (and use your front line as human shields, newbies are cheap), then make them get the kills. Run them down to the minimum needed for snap or triple shots every turn. They'll get stronger, they'll get more TU's, they'll get more accurate, and they'll get promotions. These will be the guys you want shooting heavy plasma.

You say get laser rifles ASAP. I don't. I never issue them. I just get a bunch of scientists and get plasma rifles or heavy plasma (generally heavy) ASAP.

I've beaten the first 4 X-COM games and I can say that UFO Defence was by far the best one of them all. Most of the starting equipment is useless at the start especially for the fighters you have. You should have them loaded up with two of the large missle launchers (can't remember the name) right off the bat and I'd reccomend selling most all of the starting heavy weapons for your squad. A rifle and some high explosives on each man is just as effective and lighter and cheaper. The real trick to winning is getting mind control as early as you possibly can and getting troops trained up really fast. This gives you a huge edge if you have 2-3 guys capable of mind controlling aliens whenever you see them.