Elite / Frontier Seriously - why no Elite release for mobile devices?

boringnick

B
With the recent hype with mobile devices and "apps" - and the fad to re-release old games (Monkey Island Special Edition) - why is there no Elite version for mobile phones and such?

Elite and Frontier/FFE would be perfectly viable for phones.

I am pretty sure Frontier Dev thought about it too, and I am beginning to suspect that the total lack on anything Elite has something to do with license problems. The same reason why the Elite Club was canned.

Maybe there are still some issues with Bell that would arise if Frontier would release a new Elite game?
 
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Steve

Steve
I would implore FD not to release Elite or Frontier for the iPhone. My output at work would decline to the point where I would probably be fired :eek:

Seriously though, I get the impression Frontier Developments have no interest in the genre at all these days. Cute animals is the way to go, apparently :rolleyes:
 

The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
Steve said:
I would implore FD not to release Elite or Frontier for the iPhone. My output at work would decline to the point where I would probably be fired :eek:

Seriously though, I get the impression Frontier Developments have no interest in the genre at all these days. Cute animals is the way to go, apparently :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Agreed. But instead of telling us that Elite IV will never come out because it's too much of a niche product, they keep stringing us along, like that girl we've all known at some point.
 

boringnick

B
The Space Pirate said:
Agreed. But instead of telling us that Elite IV will never come out because it's too much of a niche product
Click to expand...

Are GTA style games niche products too?
The fact that The Outsider is dead shows that Frontier Dev abandoned the "serious" market completely and concentrates on kiddie games only.

Pretty sad to see the man behind Elite and Frontier churning out nothing but cute animal simulators.
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
I would kill for a Iphone version. Had the Palm version of Elite once but that was lost in the mists of time.
 

Spacegamer

Spacegamer
Sadly I think it been well established that they have no interest in a remake of Elite, maybe someone will approach then about doing a licensed version on the mobile formats one day.
 

rgmarett

rgmarett
I think DB has mentioned a few times that'd he'd still like to work on a new Elite. With the cancellation of The Outsider I guess Frontier need to concentrate on sure fire hits. Kinectimals has done well, but it was available since pretty much day one and I imagine Disneyland will do well in America. Considering the state of the economy it makes sense (unfortunately) to work on these titles rather than Elite. If Elite IV was ever in development, I'd bet a lot it's been put on hold until the economy settles down...which could be three or four years away at least, and then they'll need to start again with new tech.

That said, this thread isn't about Elite IV, it's about mobile devices, and I for one think it's a cracking idea to release an Elite game app. I have a Windows Phone 7, so make sure it's compatible with that please :)

Or XBLA pretty please :)
 

SpaceTaxi

S
You can get elite working on the iPhone through a spectrum emulator called Spectaculator. Its not really fun though with the tiny controls :(
 

turwhitt

turwhitt
Not sure if it's on the iPaytoomuch, but Star Traders Elite is definitely on Android, and it's a good space trading/combat tactical RPG for those needing a mobile space buzz.

I'd like to see Frontier do something similar set in the Elite world.
 

porl

porl
Been here done this, someone else got the t-shirt :S

Crusty old spacers just don't pay the bills I guess.
 

Spacegamer

Spacegamer
Maybe it about time Frontier gave some consideration about expanding the elite universe by looking at other game genre.
 

thesorehead

T
I wonder how easy it would be to port FE2, really? Even with the minimalist controls of the time, you really needed most of the F-keys as well as the mouse, plus all the direct flight controls in order to control your ship and interact effectively with the game.

Nothing smaller than a tablet would really do, IMHO.
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
I think using the CD32 version of Frontier as a base then streamline the GUI to make it more phone friendly. It would be money for old rope plus it would give Frontier Developments a handy cash injection, maybe not enough to fund development of "some new game", but it would still help, but have we not asked this question before? Frontier remains as silent as ever :S
 

Kipper

K
If i'd won the Euromillions the other week I would have sought out the finest programmers and had them create an epic space trading game.

Unfortunately, I didn't :(
 

SuperG

S
Kipper said:
If i'd won the Euromillions the other week I would have sought out the finest programmers and had them create an epic space trading game.

Unfortunately, I didn't :(
Click to expand...
So it seams I aint the only one thinkin about that.
But I'am out of luck. Still didn't win a big one.
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Elitecraft

This brings up a question, just how much money would Frontier need to create Elite IV?

I think if they went the Minecraft route, released an alpha build and get people to buy that with the promise that the one day they would get the fully finished game, would be a good way to finance it's development.

No more silence (which I find totally baffling), instead a regularly updated developer blog on the games progress. There would be no need for massive (and costly) ad campaigns (word will spread on the net) and as they are doing the game in house, using digital distribution, they can avoid the need for publishers. After the game is finished they could issue licences to other dev houses to create ports to other other platforms including mobile devices.

But having just said all that all we ever get is this silence :S
 

Kipper

K
I always wondered why LucasArts (back in the day) didn't do a star wars based one.

I had some of the best fun on the X-Wing series, all great games of their time, with some of the best space combat i've played ... small ships, capital ships...

Sadly though, all mission based, if you had an updated version of those games bolted on to a free form 'galaxy' where you could explore, trade, etc ... wow!
 
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