Elite - 25yrs old...

[NeilF]

Again I dissagree - there was skill involved, it was by no means a 'skilless joust' altho I see the comparison, there was plenty of scope to get good at it. It's a space sim not an arcade shooter...

Hmmm... I just remember it being a weak element of the game

Yes it was realistic, but realistic doesn't necessarily = fun...


Not looked at the combat in 'Infinity', but I wonder which direction they've gone in?

 

[nIckEl101]

Hmmm... I just remember it being a weak element of the game

Yes it was realistic, but realistic doesn't necessarily = fun...

my trick whenever i saw pirate was to pause, get into one the turrets, and target the ship with the bfg laser ( i can't remember the name, but it killed in 1 hitm, and was blue/green/turquoise colour).

 

[SteveOBHave]

Hmmm... I just remember it being a weak element of the game

Yes it was realistic, but realistic doesn't necessarily = fun...


Not looked at the combat in 'Infinity', but I wonder which direction they've gone in?

Infinity has a combat prototype that you can DL - unfortunately (from your perspective at least) it's Newtonian as well. I works tho... It's a pretty looking game too.

 

[Darkman]

I don't think there has ever been a game that produced the 'wow' factor that Elite did the first time I saw it.

It simply redefined what was 'possible' in the eyes of developers and gamers.

Sure does bring back some memories. I remember the docking computer on the cassette version was instant whereas the floppy disk version subjected you to the Blue Danube waltz (a la 2001 a Space Odyssey) for ages. But if you headed for the docking bay at full speed and engaged docking computer at the last second you could speed it up no end

Interesting to hear that Braben is working on a sequel. 24 years too late methinks.

P

 

[saddler]

I spent so much time playing this on the BBC when it came out. We had a really weird joystick that i could never get the hang of. Manual docking was fun one for twice but I soon gave up and used my own auto-pilot ie my dad! he seemed to take a perverse pleasure in the laborious process of matching the rotations up.

Elite was the game that taught me programming. I learnt basic at the age of 8 just so I could cheat and give myself some more credits

 

[.one.]

Again I dissagree - there was skill involved, it was by no means a 'skilless joust' altho I see the comparison, there was plenty of scope to get good at it. It's a space sim not an arcade shooter...

I agree the combat was spot on if you follow the tutorial on line it works perfect gets a little anal in explanation but when the penny drops it opens up a new game and proves braben was spot on all along.

 

[Devlish]

Again I dissagree - there was skill involved, it was by no means a 'skilless joust' altho I see the comparison, there was plenty of scope to get good at it. It's a space sim not an arcade shooter...

I absolutely hated the dogfighting physics, because there werent any. You could use any of about three tactics to kill anything. I dont know why they even bothered including the 3d radar, they might as well have had a big 'in front' or 'behind' there.

As for it being a 'space sim' the original elite was not, and if youre going down the route of gameplay mechanics like warp drives, you lose a little bit of credibility trying to argue the 'sim' value of inertia fighting. Dogfighting made it fun - light sabres on a skating rink made it tedious.

 

[pumaz]

you could argue X3 is just the same thing with modern gfx. personally i will not play any of these games until one comes along where you could land on all the planets too. And also not just about trading either.

I used to play a game called Damocles on the Atari ST where you could land on planets and even go inside buildings.

 

[ChileanLlama]

You might not want to (to preserve your memories) but if you want to try Elite out on a BBC emulator;

Install this
Download and extract from here
Instructions to run a disk image here

Basic Keys;
A - Fire
S - Up
X - Down
< - Left
> - Right
Space - Thrust
/ - Brake
M - Missiles
H - Hyperspace
f keys - Various when docked - F0 (launch is mapped to F10)

 

[simpletom]

I used to play a game called Damocles on the Atari ST where you could land on planets and even go inside buildings.

I remember that, it was a sequel to Mercenary. I also enjoyed Starglider and Starglider 2. Starglider 2 was tough as it gets. I played it a couple of years ago using an emulator, I lasted about a nanosecond before getting destroyed.

 

[Hades]

I loved Elite and spent so many hours on it. In fact the only game I eventually played more was online Quake.

Great memories here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRjaZsVRtgc

 

[.one.]

You could use any of about three tactics to kill anything

Which were those ?

 

[Scania]

What a great game, I remember it first time around and am looking to buy another BBC Model B (from E-Bay or the like) just for a blast down memory lane.

I have emulators but the real thing would be nice again.


That so many of us still await a true Elite 2 says a lot for how ahead of its time it was / still is.

25 years? Bloody Hell!

 

[tals]

If you're looking for an Elite style game then Evochron Legends probably fits the bill, space trading/exploration combat. Released early 2009

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronlegends/index.htm

The demo (which I am going through at the moment) has an unlimited tutorial and then 90 minutes of fly time.

If you just want to check the online guide out that is here

http://starfighter.home.att.net/evochronlegendsguide/elguide.htm

Game plays single player or multiplayer pvp/coop and there are a couple of persistant universes set up

 

[.one.]

If you're looking for an Elite style game then Evochron Legends probably fits the bill, space trading/exploration combat. Released early 2009

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronlegends/index.htm

The demo (which I am going through at the moment) has an unlimited tutorial and then 90 minutes of fly time.

If you just want to check the online guide out that is here

http://starfighter.home.att.net/evochronlegendsguide/elguide.htm

Game plays single player or multiplayer pvp/coop and there are a couple of persistant universes set up

Thx for that tals nice to see all the elite links of goodness keep em comming people

Shall take a look at this later for sure.

 

[NeilF]

On a side note... Talking about that footage from the game ''Infinity'...

So, 25yrs ago, the best special effects people in the world, with the most advanced and fastest hardware, managed to render this footage over a period of weeks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXbWCrzWJo4

...and now on a PC in someone's bedroom... in realtime...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCQgSBne0jg&feature=player_embedded

 

[Sleepery]

If you're looking for an Elite style game then Evochron Legends probably fits the bill, space trading/exploration combat. Released early 2009

Never realised there was a demo for that, cheers

 

[Windle]

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=144208206836&id=274252200563&ref=nf

Competition on the Elite Facebook to draw your own Elite ship. Can win a one-off Elite t-shirt and Amazon voucher. You can currently see my entry! Woop!

 

[Vampyre]

Oh dear...makes me realise just how old I really am (physical age, not mental age...obviously!)

 

[Bald-Eagle22]

I had the cassette version on a BBC Electron , damm thing used Crash to Desktop when loading up all the squeeks and squeels from the tape ,so I just eneded up loading Manic Monor instead , played on a very old black and white telly at the time .

OMG I am 40 next month .