There was deceptive marketing even in the nineties!

Or at least it’s not that simple. Star Wars: Dark Forces was released in 1995, and the game was exhibited at the CES (Consumer Electronic Show), where the ISD Avenger appeared as a demo card. This map was also used on the game’s box art, but in the end, Kyle Katern’s first adventure story didn’t feature this location. The mission (which was originally intended to be the first) would have seen Kyle Katern attack the Star Destroyer and fly away in a TIE Fighter with the Death Star plans in hand.

Instead, the mission called Secret Base ended up being the first mission in Dark Forces because LucasArts said the original concept was too difficult. And on the game’s box art, the wireframe map of the ISD Avenger remained (the second image from the bottom in the Big Box Collection, on the right spine of the cover), and that’s all that’s left of it. However, according to the Dark Forces Twitter feed and the Jedi Knight fan site df-21.net, the cut card will be included in the upcoming remaster of Star Wars: Dark Forces!

LuciusDXL, the creator of the open-source Force Engine, helped Nightdive Studios restore the mission because the LucasArts development vault contained the map, which had to be converted to a new file type and then reassembled to make it playable. You can access the map from the remaster’s main menu, as it was released separately from the story. Even after almost 30 years, getting to the Death Star blueprints still seems complex: one switch opens a secret room, another switch reveals a hatch in the secret location, and the hidden entrance is through the ship’s ventilation duct on the side of the bridge…

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered was released on February 28th, and it laid the foundation for the “Where the hell do I go from here?” question that often arises in Kyle Katarn’s adventures…

Source: PCGamer, Big Box Collection, Github

One of the best features of the new Dark Forces Remaster is the inclusion of the cut ISD Avenger level. Its map featured on the game box taunted a generation of players, and it is now playable after almost 30 years!

Kudos to LuciusDXL who helped convert it to a playable format. pic.twitter.com/gcYoId7SoA

— Moldy Crow (@DF21net) February 28, 2024