Many great sound effects can be found on a few LucasArt's Star Wars games. The key is in knowing how to get to them. This article discusses the two important games: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, and The Phantom Menace, and the necessary tools required to retrieve sounds from these games. For each game, we list for download, some of the more popular sounds just in case you can't retrieve them yourself, or do not have access to these wonderful games. We also provide a third section to this article on other SW and sci-fi related sounds not found on these games, but discovered through our web journeys. You'll need to browse through these. You might find that right sound you've been looking for.

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
If you never played Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, you're really missing out. In this game a user can use various items and Jedi powers from the Star Wars universe such as lightsabers, blasters, ships, etc. In order to pull the sounds you desire, you will need a program called Gobex. Gobex allows you to locate the "Resource.Gob" file, browse through the many sounds used for the game, and save the sounds you want to your hard drive. If you are having trouble with the extraction, TFN FanFilms provides zip files for the most popular sounds below.

Lightsaber sound effects (596kb)
Blaster sound effects (678kb)
Stormtrooper chatter (968kb)
More Stormtrooper chatter (806kb)
Various Force sounds prt1 (962kb)
Various Force sounds prt2 (2.4MB)

The Phantom Menace
Some of the same type sounds are also available from the "The Phantom Menace" game. In order to get to the sounds you will need the program SCUMM. SCUMM basically allows you to do the same thing that Gobex does, except Gobex doesn't work for The Phantom Menace Game.

First, you'll need the FULL install of TPM in order to use SCUMM. Only the FULL install places all sound files on your machine. Open Scuumrev, hit BROWSE, go to PROGRAM FILES, then LUCASARTS, then THE PHANTOM MENACE. There should be three folders, then two cluster files. Open the one called "big.lab" A giftbox icon will come up, with the name LABN. Double click that. You should get a really long list, starting with 3D model icons with names like 21b.baf and 21bblk.baf and so forth. Go way down that list, until you get to the icons that look like folders with music notes on them. These are the sound effects files. Click on the folder, and two buttons should appear at the bottom right: PLAY, and SAVE AS .WAV. There are a TON of sound effects files, and most of the lightsaber sounds start with LS (LsHitsm1, etc.) but some of the sounds filmmakers have used are other things, like laser ricochets and blasts and stuff.

Of course there are other sounds available on this game, but we list below the lightsaber sounds director Clay Kronke of "New World" used with outstanding results.

Lightsaber sound effects part 1
Lightsaber sound effects part 2

Other Sounds
Of course a sound designer/editor will need many different type of sounds for their film. So, below we list other sounds - some are from different Star Wars movies, and some from other sci-fi films or television - we've found that might help you. Enjoy, and good luck!

Various star ship engines (10MB)
Various star ship engines prt 2 (903kb)
Explosions (2.4MB)
Star Collapsing (1.4MB)
Star Trek Alerts (1.7MB)
Cloaking & Tractor Beams (2.4MB)
Gunfire Sounds (450kb)
Thunder (6.4MB)
More Thunder (3.4MB)