That's a bit harsh. If you saved regularly and made enough money for a docking computer it was a fantastic game, IMHO
Elite / Frontier Desperate, fed up and had enough
- Thread starter captainralph2003
- Start date
I agree - the challenge of docking made the game that little bit more challenging and interesting. Seriously if you couldn't dock manually after the first 20 or 30 tries then maybe you shouldn't have been playing the game.
It was a fantastic game even without the computer.
I agree, with all the games there were tough challenges all the time. Managing to dock in Elite for the first time, completing a bombing run or a assasination in F/FFE all gave you such a sense of achievment.
Make it too easy and it gets boring very quickly, that may be one of the reasons for the enduring appeal of these games.
I'm not saying it should be easy. I'm saying that it was at times frustrating. I mean, even the docking thing isn't really challenging because once you've managed somehow to dock a few times you'll have enough money to buy a docking computer.
But Elite was not user-friendly at all. Trading was annoying what with having to "n" through every commodity to buy something. Having to dock at each system to buy one use of hyperspace fuel. There are many more annoying things.
But this is in retrospect, after user-friendly games such as Frontier. As i said, Elite was truly mind-boggling for its time. But i don't believe computer systems could really cope with such a vision until later.
And you'll see that my post wasn't saying that he SHOULD forget Elite, just that if the docking thing is annoying him, he should try F/FFE as another option.
I'm not the sort of person who would denigrate Elite, because i was so inspired by it that i wrote a 10,000 word story set in the elite universe when i was about 12.
Heh my old BBC B+ couldn't - we'd play it till it started over heating and the screen started corrupting.
I had it on the speccy which had a dodgy lead from the tapedeck to my spectrum, which would crash the damn thing just before the games had finished loading
Cue sitting very very still holding breath praying the lead would not move!
Ahh happy days!
I had it on the speccy which had a dodgy lead from the tapedeck to my spectrum, which would crash the damn thing just before the games had finished loading
Cue sitting very very still holding breath praying the lead would not move!
Ahh happy days!
haha yeah - the patience required was legendary for young lads.
111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 11A 11B 11C... LOL
I would have sold my granny for a disc drive for my BBC. I think my general lack of patience started with, and was caused by, tape loading
I would have sold my granny for a disc drive for my BBC. I think my general lack of patience started with, and was caused by, tape loading
Lack of patience for me! more than once there was a loud crash as my spectrum went flying! tough little ******s they were!
Oh God, that brings back nightmares! I used to have a game called 'Sphinx Adventure' on the Acorn Electron that needed to get to 4C to load!!! 4C!!!
And then, more often than not it'd say 'Data: Rewind Tape!' (the Electron's equivalent of crashing). Thank God for the invention of the HD! At least now if they don't work, they let you know immediately, so you can start fiddling with them to make them work!!!
Also, that extremely weird and disturbing sound the Electron's tapedeck speaker used to make when loading : GRAAAAGRRAWAAAAHAAAA.....Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...
GRAWHAAHBAAAHHGGAA....Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!! (You could turn it down of course).
Nightmares!!! NIGHTMARES!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I need to have a liedown now!)
LOL God we're old
Haha no I just had my 30th this weekend - I feel old
Haha no I just had my 30th this weekend - I feel old
Big 30 eh?
Happy birthday Steve
36 myself
It starts to speed up from here! 40 seems too close for comfort.
But I/We'll hopefully be in a E4 universe by then!
Haha no I just had my 30th this weekend - I feel old
Stop it ! I just turned 30 in March and you feeling old is making me feel old - let's just say that at our age we are mature eh ? I just hope my hairline doesn't start to recede in the coming years
.
I just hope my hairline doesn't start to recede in the coming years
Thanks for reminding me! It's already started for me!I prefer to use the term intelligent looking myself
Tape drives eh? You were lucky! In my day we 'ad to use punch cards to program the computer. It took 3 months and 6 days just to load Pong!
37 here!
I just hope my hairline doesn't start to recede in the coming years
Don't worry, I'm told that if you haven't started going bald now then you most likely won't... at least that's what they tell me
We'll have to all sit around the fireplace reminiscing about the 'old days' playing Elite and drinking a good single malt.
Don't worry, I'm told that if you haven't started going bald now then you most likely won't... at least that's what they tell me
Don't believe a word of it!!!
I've just started on my "extra wide central parting"Single malt sounds good though.