You're playing it wrong: X-Wing & TIE Fighter

From thecrankyhermit

X-Wing was originally released in 1993 for DOS, on floppy disks. Its sequel, TIE Fighter, was released in 1994. The same year there was an enhanced CD-ROM edition of X-Wing for DOS, and in 1995 the enhanced CD-ROM edition of TIE Fighter followed. In 1998 a 3D accelerated version of each was released for Windows.

The versions on Steam and GOG include all three versions of both games, but the 1998 versions are infamously bad. The original iMuse soundtracks, which change dynamically to match the action on screen and seamlessly bridges leitmotifs to alert you to events, are subliminally immersive, and the 1998 versions loses it completely in favor of looping CD audio. They also suffer from balance issues; the engine is based on the multiplayer-focused X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, the speed and damage of weapons has been tweaked with multiplayer in mind, and consequently some missions are unintentionally made much more difficult while others are made much easier.

For X-Wing, if you have an MT-32 or are willing to emulate one, give the 1993 floppy version a try. The game was composed with the MT-32 in mind, and the floppy disk version sounds best on one. The CD-ROM DOS version uses a simpler version of the soundtrack which was converted to General MIDI format, and doesn't sound as good as the floppy version's full MT-32 soundtrack (even though the CD-ROM version supports MT-32 too, it's not as good as the floppy version's MT-32 support). Note, though, the floppy version will not work with an "old type" MT-32. If you emulate with MUNT, or if you have a CM-32L, this is not an issue.

For TIE Fighter, the CD-ROM DOS version is clearly the best. TIE Fighter was composed with General MIDI from the start, and the CD-ROM DOS version's soundtrack is exactly the same as the floppy version's. There are a ton of other enhancements on the CD-ROM version too, most notably high resolution 640x480 mode.