One of the ship's earliest owners was the smugglerRoark Garnet, who used it until he inherited the Dorion Discus from his dead gunslinging sister Neena. He used the Crow as payment for debts incurred to Grappa the Hutt.
It was eventually stolen from Grappa by Dace Bonearm and IG-72. The Moldy Crow was subsequently abandoned on the planet Teth after the two hunters used it as a decoy to capture Rebel commander Winfrid Dagore and claim the Imperial bounty on her. The Crow then fell into the hands of Lieutenant Palob Godalhi, who gave up the beat-up freighter to the Rebel Dreadnaught New Hope.
"You've got to be joking. This isn't even a ship! Hey, I thought you said this thing would get off the ground!" "It will. But after that, I'm not making any promises."
―Kyle Katarn to the deck master at his first sighting of the Crow — Listen (file info)[src]
In the hands of the Rebels, the Crow was refitted and acquired by Kyle Katarn for use during the Battle of Danuta. Kyle would grow attached to the ship, and would utilize it later in his mission to destroy the dark trooper project. More often than not, though, it was Jan Ors, Kyle's partner and mission coordinator, who piloted the ship for pick-up and drop-off.
The Crow was captured on Ruusan by Jerec's forces and held onboard the Sulon Star during Kyle's and Jan's mission on the planet. When the Star's support systems were damaged, Kyle managed to reach his ship in the hangar and escape the disaster. However, the shockwave of the larger ship's explosion was too strong, and the Crow crashed near the Valley of the Jedi. She was soon replaced by Kyle's new ship, the Raven's Claw.
In early production of the game, the ship was named simply Crow and was intended to be a Baudo-class star yacht. Also, it was not a 3-D polygonal object, but a two-dimensional bitmap sprite rendered from different view angles. [1]
In the alternate dark side ending of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, the Moldy Crow did not get destroyed. Instead, Kyle managed to avoid the rocks and successfully landed the ship. It was last seen right before his rematch with Yun.
It has been speculated by fans that the Crow was added to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New HopeSpecial Edition; being visible through an archway as Luke Skywalker sells his XP-34 landspeeder to Wioslea. It was also rumored that the Crow appeared in Coruscant's sky traffic in The Phantom Menace. However, both these facts are yet to be proven.
A HWK-290 could also be found in the Mysteries of the Sith multiplayer level, "Spaceport".