elite 25th anniversary memories
amiga, amstrad, games, retro September 20th, 2009Elite, the groundbreaking space trading and combat game created by Ian Bell and David Braben, was released 25 years ago on September 20th 1984. In celebration of this milestone, Frontier Developments have launched a new website dedicated to Elite.
Elite was first released in September 1984
Leaving aside the impressive technical achievements of shoe-horning real time 3D graphics and eight galaxies worth of adventure into a BBC Micro, the gameplay of Elite was a true breakthrough in its own right.
For the first time, players were free to explore a vast play area in whichever way suited them. They could play as traders, trading legal goods and high-profit contraband across thousands of star systems while defending against pirate attack, become pirates themselves, mine asteroids for valuable minerals, indulge in a spot of bounty hunting or any combination of these activities.
Elite on the BBC Micro
Following its initial release on the BBC Micro, Elite was ported to all the major home micro platforms of the time and I first encountered (see what I did there?) it on the Amstrad CPC. Initially I found it frustrating as my Cobra Mk. III. spaceship was continually being destroyed by either space pirates or my own ineptitude at docking with the rotation space stations that served as the game’s trading posts. Elite, however, is nothing if not addictive and I kept dodging the space pirates around Zaonce until I could afford upgrades like the vital Docking Computer and more powerful lasers. Then the real fun began.
Elite on the Amstrad CPC
On and off over the next few years, my Commanders traded and blasted their way around the Eight Galaxies. I worked my way around the star systems at the edges of a galaxy then trekked across the diagonals, before finally buying a Galactic Hyperdrive and jumping to the next hunting ground. Occasionally I’d run into a special mission and save some colonists from an exploding star, destroy some Thargoids in Witch Space or do battle with an advanced experimental ship. On my journeys I reached the exalted “Elite” status several times over, due to loss and corruption of save game files.
Elite on the Atari ST
Eventually I did tire of even Elite and moved on to other games, but years later I discovered the Atari ST version on a friend’s computer and was blown away by the super fast (compared to the Amstrad) solid-3D graphics, new ships and missions. Cue another bout of Elite-mania, this time as a two man crew with one flying and one operating the keyboard controls in hectic situations.
Frontier: Elite II on the Amiga
Frontier, a sequel to Elite, was released on the Amiga in 1993 and once again I blasted off to seek my fortune in the hotseat of a Cobra Mk. III. This time there was only one galaxy, but it had four billion stars and accurately modelled solar systems with more than one type of star and many planets and moons. A whole new adventure had begun.
 Elite: The New Kind |
 Oolite |
Many attempts have been made to develop modern day clones of the original Elite. Elite: The New Kind was developed (unusually cleverly) by reverse engineering the original BBC Micro machine code. It was subsequently ported to many platforms, but was eventually withdrawn from distribution at David Braben’s request. As a more readily available alternative, Oolite is an actively developed and expandable, multi platform game inspired by Elite’s gameplay. The others have fallen by the wayside.
There were a lot of games released the same year of course, but not many can claim to have captured (and still hold captive) the hearts and minds of players quite the same way as Elite did (and does). It’s great to see this classic game that touched the lives of so many 80′s home micro gamers being celebrated on its quarter-century.
Right On, Commanders.
1 votes, average: 5.00
John Girvin is a software engineer, sci-fi buff, cyclist and retrocomputer fan (ie: nerd) from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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November 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I loved Elite, and in fact sent in the code given at the end of the original BBC version (BBC Model B + Master) upon completion and got my pin from Acornsoft. I’ve wanted a decent clone of Elite to come along for a long time – Oolite is good, but it does not hold the same feel for me that the original game generated. What would be nice is an EXACT replica of the classic BBC version, in gameplay, graphics and so forth, that runs under Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 without any emulation.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
You should try to track down a copy of Elite: The New Kind by Christian Pinder (it’s not hard to find). As I mentioned above, it’s reverse engineered directly from the BBC machine code so it’s as close as you’re going to get to the original without emulation.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I actually did that when it came out, but did not feel comfortable with the look and feel of it … when I said an EXACT replica of the classic BBC version, I meant in reproducing the interfaces, typeface, hidden line models and so forth, but yes, Elite: The New kind is an excellent version, so good in fact rumor has it that one of the creators of Elite had it removed from the net due to what was considered copyright infringement. Nevertheless, if you look, it can be found and used.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:16 am
That’s not a rumour, that’s exactly what happened. Quoting from the Elite: The New Kind site:
It’s not really that hard to find.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I can remember standing round a BBC Micro on a trolley in the Physics lab at Computer Club after school watching someone play Elite for the first time. Later, many, many Friday afternoons where spent profitably (!) working the trading margins between Lave, Diso and Leesti and blasting the space station for target practice. Oh to be 16 again!
January 7th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Have you seen Oolite? It’s a free, noncommercial remake of Elite for Windows, Linux and Mac with an active modding community. The game is built to allow expansion packs, containing everything from new ships to whole new career structures to whatever else you might want to dream up yourself … well worth checking out.
January 7th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
From the article:
So, yes
January 7th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Right enough, my mistake … Still, worth repeating, I think!
April 6th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
What an old game, I’ve not heard of this one. Doesn’t look t hat fun lol.
April 6th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
I didn’t discover Elite until the early 90′s when I picked up a second hand Amstrad CPC. Played it for hours, but wasn’t much good at it
April 7th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Amazing how the graphics of Elite improved so much from BBC Micro to Amiga! I actually think me friend used to play this game on his NES? Could be wrong… but if it is, this game has an awesome history!
April 7th, 2011 at 9:29 am
You’re not wrong Ray! There was a version of Elite released for the NES. See the Elite Wiki here or you can even download the NES version legally from the author’s site.
April 13th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Wow, has it been this long already? A quarter century and I’m sort of embarrassed to admit that I still have my NES and a copy of this. I’m going to have to whip it out now but I appreciate the download link! The emulator won’t compare to the old feel of the console though…anyone jealous?
April 22nd, 2011 at 2:12 am
Hey I too have never heard of this game. But it sounds quite good from the description given in this post. May as well track it down and give it a go.
July 5th, 2011 at 3:19 am
Oolite is good, but it does not hold the same feel for me that the original game generated. I actually think me friend used to play this game on his NES? Anyway, thanks for sharing.