Elite - 25yrs old...

I only looked briefly at the original Elite, but played Frontier Elite 2 to death on the Amiga and later PC in 92/93. Crikey, is it really that long ago - where's my time machine, so much was better back then and not just in the gaming world!

It was a true classic though least said about First Encounters, the better. Thing is, could a modern iteration of the format really pull off the same magic?
 
miker1 said:
I got Elite for my BeeB on the day it came out - some shop in Covent Garden.

Truely special game.

The one thing that stays with me is I was about to enter a station having JUST got my precious docking computer and my ship collided with another ship leaving!!!!

Had to start the grind again - BOY did I swear!
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I assume you had the disc version? - You did not get the animated docking sequence on the Cassette or Electron versions.

I used to dock @ full speed, lots of crashes but great when (if) you timed it right! :D

Early on I recall being slightly wounded when I got my first "Right On Commander!" message, I rushed downstairs to tell my Dad about my progress with this new wonder game that had me glued to my Beeb.

When I announced I was now "Mostly Harmless" he laughed....... :( :D
 
Vern1961 said:
least said about First Encounters, the better. Thing is, could a modern iteration of the format really pull off the same magic?
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First Encounters is actually a very good game when moded and is highly recommended in the elite Community check it out > hires glffe with moded **** pit e.t.c ,not so much bugged now but more like it said to have querks :D

I still play it regularly today.
 
.one. said:
First Encounters is actually a very good game when moded and is highly recommended in the elite Community check it out > hires glffe with moded **** pit e.t.c ,not so much bugged now but more like it said to have querks :D

I still play it regularly today.
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Links?
 
I havent ever played any of the other Elite games i must give them a try,

I loved playing X Beyond the Frontier and all its sequels, although X is a game with a steep learning curve but once you understand it, it becomes great fun.
 
Once patched First Encounters is better than Frontier, although thats not all that surprising since its basically Frontier +

http://glffe.alioth.net/

Unfortunately First Encounters is no longer available to download from www.eliteclub.co.uk

Anyone who is considering playing the Elite games for the first time, please take into account when they were made. As mentioned in this thread, Elite was released in 1984, Frontier in 1993 and the last game First Encounters was released in 1995. All were stunning for when they were released, but obviously graphically a million miles away from modern games.

Oolite as has been mentioned earlier in the thread.

http://www.oolite.org/

The original Novella "The Dark Wheel" which was released with Elite

http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/dkwheel.htm

Various versions of Elite (From Ian Bells site, co-author of Elite)

http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/game.htm

Elite the New Kind and a sequel Darkness Falls (being co-written with Ian Bell), no longer available due to Braben asking for it to be removed.

http://www.christianpinder.com/games/
 
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Here is my sexy hires version of First Encounters and with new **** pit :)
 
i rebuilt my a1230 to play frontier off the hdd but it won't run for some dang reason. I can't find all the discs or the manual. bogger. As I was so anti pc those days I never realised there was a pc release after frontier.

anyone else remember hours learing how to manually dock, finally mastering it and still smashing your expensive ship to bits on that last cargo run to make the money for the autopilot. Without bragging i rocked at elite :p but couldn't dock for toffee!
 
capriboy1978 said:
anyone else remember hours learing how to manually dock, finally mastering it and still smashing your expensive ship to bits on that last cargo run to make the money for the autopilot. Without bragging i rocked at elite :p but couldn't dock for toffee!
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I loaded it up the other day because of this thread and i manually docked first time :D just to see if i could still do it lol i also made 30 credits for stuff i had on board.
 
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.one. said:
I loaded it up the other day because of this thread and i manually docked first time :D just to see if i could still do it lol i also made 30 credits for stuff i had on board.
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what do they say about the sun shining even on a dog's ass.....

o and git :p by the way!! If I can hook my amiga upto one of my pc crt's I'm going to get frontiers working even if it kills me :)
 
I could manage docking in Elite. The only problem was that on the Amstrad CPC version there was a ******** stupid random chance of pirates taking over your ship, game over, any time you docked.

The BBC version felt the purest though. My friend and I were convinced if we played long enough we'd see one of the fabled generation shops or a space dredger.
 
The trick to docking wasn't to try to match rotations, but you basically put your foot down and time it so that you hit the entry just as it was aligned with you ship. You could just do little angle changes as you approached to make sure you did.

Much quicker too :)
 
What a fantastic game Elite was, I spent a huge amount of time playing that game and loved every minute of it.

Did you ever once though think,"What would it be like if all these ships were being flown by mates or people around the world?" at the time? no I didnt either!

Its good to see plenty of people here remember it too I thought I was old! :D
 
tals said:
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 :)
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i dled this.. and had a short stint.. no clue what to do how to trade etc.. but i like the fact you fly into planet atmosphere..
 
.one. said:
First Encounters is actually a very good game when moded and is highly recommended in the elite Community check it out > hires glffe with moded **** pit e.t.c ,not so much bugged now but more like it said to have querks :D

I still play it regularly today.
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FFE was a great game, much more playable than Frontier, its a shame its got such a frosty reputation.
I've still got my FFE installation from years ago! afraid to delete it as my cd is probably on the verge of unreadable :(

Must check out the latest mods!
 
i couldn't get the sharewear version of FFE to install on my w7 64-bit. It doesn't like 64-bit operating systems

Can i ask? So is the only real difference between Eilite and it's sequels and X3 (apart from GFX/age) is the ability to land on planets?
 
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I'm trying to hunt down an advert for Elite I remember seeing as a kid.

It had a rogues gallery of various people including a punk, a kid and a grandma. Under or next to each of their photos was their status. The punk was harmless, the kid was dangerous and the grandma was Elite.

Does anyone else remember this ad?
Does anyone have a link to it?
 
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