This game was AWESOME. You already described it well. I would also mention that I played the original Elite on the Commodore 128, 64 and 64+4. I still have all of these computers and I am teaching my 8 year old son some very basic programming with them. I have compilers for C, FORTRAN, and COBOL for the 128. But I digress.
Elite was awesome for its time. I played it after all the Infocom games and D&D games. I especially liked getting the Tribbles that would have eaten my cargo if I had any food.
Here is another one that I loved from way back, Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony.