I too have waited 44 years, lol, well it feels that long since my Elite addiction began on the C64. Yet looking at David Braben he's still a young man! How is that possible? Makeup? Surgery? DNA cloning? Time travel?
Joking aside, it has been a long while and many a month during that wait I'd google, well, this was pre-google, so I'd search Compuserve, CIX, usenet and so on... and not a peep except the die-hard fans and the occasional rumour.
So back to the now, I'm elated that Premium Beta will be here within a day or two, and although due to personal scheduling conflicts I'm unlikely to get to play it until middle of next week, I'm super-impressed that the game is being made with such a quick pace and high production quality. It looks absolutely fantastic and the alpha 1 combat build was plenty enough to keep me happy over the past few weeks.
Seems funny for a grown man to become excited in anticipation for a computer game but that's how it is (an enthusiasm rivaled only by the Dark Souls game series).
Looking forward to exploring the stars.