Elite / Frontier Playing the classics

[Docjas18]

I am curious about playing the classics in this fantastic franchise. Elite Dangerous is my first Elite game and I love it. I want more. I love classic games, they remind me of my childhood in ways I can't describe. But am plagued by a conscience.

To that end I have the question, are these games open sourced now? I have found multiple places that you can download the game files seemingly for free, but I don't want to do that if it is not legal. Even as old as the games are it would not sit well with me. That said, if it is legal to download, where do you guys recommend is the best place to search for it that won't fill my PC with junk or viruses. I am rather computer ignorant so if these seem dumb questions, remember that I was at least polite while asking

 

[Zieman]

Ian Bell's (co author of the original Elite) pages:
http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/

& FrontierAstro are good places to start with:
http://frontierastro.co.uk/

Then there's the excellent open source remake of Elite, Oolite:
www.oolite.org
http://aegidian.org/bb/

 

[Docjas18]

Awesome thank you. I also viewed the stickier thread up too where there were links to the shareware versions of fe2 and FFE. Will be trying to make those work later today.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Don't forget to check this thread out as well.



The FFED3D Thread

 

[Docjas18]

I won't lie FE2 and FFE are the ones that interest me the most. I will be trying to get all three but getting them to work is making my head hurt. Like I said I'm not a PC player. I got a version of FE2 to play, but it had no sound and in a small window whose size I couldn't increase. I know there is a way to make them work. How is just escaping me.

 

[Zieman]

I won't lie FE2 and FFE are the ones that interest me the most. I will be trying to get all three but getting them to work is making my head hurt. Like I said I'm not a PC player. I got a version of FE2 to play, but it had no sound and in a small window whose size I couldn't increase. I know there is a way to make them work. How is just escaping me.

Dosbox is good for FE2, and there's a mod for FFE that enables you to run it in Windows environment.

 

[AndyJ]

and there's a mod for FFE that enables you to run it in Windows environment.

Hi Docjas18 - drop by the FFED3DAJ thread and see the 1st post for more information.
If you need any help with it, send me a PM or ask any questions in that thread - as it'd be Off-Topic in here

Regarding Frontier: Elite 2 - I think that there may be known sound issues with the OpenGL mod. An alternative to running the PC version in DOSBox would be to find the Amiga version and run that in an emulator instead - this seems to be the more popular solution. This version was also released under a shareware license at the same time as the PC versions, and there's still a working copy of the downloads page from "The Elite Club" cached in the "WayBack Machine" internet archive site here.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Hi Docjas18 - drop by the FFED3DAJ thread and see the 1st post for more information.
If you need any help with it, send me a PM or ask any questions in that thread - as it'd be Off-Topic in here

Regarding Frontier: Elite 2 - I think that there may be known sound issues with the OpenGL mod. An alternative to running the PC version in DOSBox would be to find the Amiga version and run that in an emulator instead - this seems to be the more popular solution. This version was also released under a shareware license at the same time as the PC versions, and there's still a working copy of the downloads page from "The Elite Club" cached in the "WayBack Machine" internet archive site here.

Or do what I did and obsessively collect Amigas and play them as nature intended.

Good to see the old Elite club page again.

 

[Nathanael]

glfrontier for fe2 has a few issues with textures not displaying, however it is still very enjoyable and they reappear when reverted to the original res "super chunk o vision" mode as I like to call it.

If you want to emulate fe2 try the cd32 version, it is the best looking and has a few more models for buildings on planet surfaces.

I grew up with fe2 and first encounters, so personally find original elite a bit hard to get along with as it is very primitive in comparison. However oolite with some nice griff ship models and a few of the oxp addons make it a pleasure to play