Is ED played by mostly "Old Ducks" like me?

I was 35 when Elite was released for the C64. I spent many hours with that on various Commodore machines and after 2000 the release of Deus Ex made me mainly a two game player with a few motorsport games along the way. I seem to have remained primarily an Elite and DX player to this day with all versions of both. Elite will allways remain my favourite though, it is updated far more often.

The thing I miss most from those old games (although DX seems to have stayed true) is game saving. I think everyone would play in open if it didn't cost millions when taken out for no reason. If saved to the last jump there would be no need for solo or groups, just my humble opinion of course, but I play today as a mobian and can still make lots of friends in the game.

Frontier though are very concious of their customers and this game runs on, hopefully, for ever. It's not just a one shot release and with that in mind we should be gratefull. We don't get this from DX and many other games. It's why Elite has such a long term customer base.

Denis.
 
But on the other hand, ED was visually impressive when it first released on PS4 (except for the beige plague, but that's not a console thing). It was no Horizon Zero Dawn, but it was good enough for me. Remember, I'm not as fussy as people think, hence why I play on a Slim instead of the Pro. The broken shadow issue is a bug acknowledged by Frontier, one that's never been fixed despite their attempts.

I think the problem is that Frontier put their best people on the job to port ED to PS4, and once it was released, they moved that team to JWE and other projects. That's why 2.3 was great, but starting with 2.4 ED on PS4 started to fall apart. From Frontier's Cobra Engine page (emphasis mine):


Cobra engine was supposed to allow Frontier to "fire and forget" when it comes to the console ports, but unfortunately it has failed in that regard.

Agreed. If only you knew how to code shadows on ps4..
 
I have a Timex Sinclair, a Commadore 64, a Commadore 128, an Apple II, a Tandy TRS-80, an Amiga, a TI-99-4A with Expansion Box, and an IBM 8086 in my garage. I played Elite on most of them. I'll either start a museum, use them for retirement funds, or put them in a time capsule for posterity. Most of these were made before you were born or ever heard of Elite.

Today, I have not seen any improvements in PC computer technology other than SSD's or video cards. Most these kids can do today is put lights in the box, and call it an upgrade.

My current computer chassis is twelve years old, a Lian-Li V1200 Black, all aluminum chassis which still fits everything made today.

How old am I now?

o7....
A man is as old as he feels...
 
I have a Timex Sinclair, a Commadore 64, a Commadore 128, an Apple II, a Tandy TRS-80, an Amiga, a TI-99-4A with Expansion Box, and an IBM 8086 in my garage. I played Elite on most of them. I'll either start a museum, use them for retirement funds, or put them in a time capsule for posterity. Most of these were made before you were born or ever heard of Elite.

Today, I have not seen any improvements in PC computer technology other than SSD's or video cards. Most these kids can do today is put lights in the box, and call it an upgrade.

My current computer chassis is twelve years old, a Lian-Li V1200 Black, all aluminum chassis which still fits everything made today.

How old am I now?

o7....
I did a lot of game programming on my TI-99-4A. What is the "Expansion Box"? I used the tape drive. I heard the sound of data before I ever heard a modem.
 
I used the tape drive. I heard the sound of data before I ever heard a modem.

Same here. Sometimes, they turned out to be quite musical in an of-its-era-vision-of-what-future-music-would-be sort of a way. If the dusty memory banks serve me, there were even people that had figured out what pattern of data made suitable noises on tape and got a ZX81 to play music by saving the data to tape :)
 
I turned 50 back in December but people don't believe me, as apparently I don't look it or act it. I've never really thought about my age or worried about it, seems little point, it's just a number after all.

I think there's too much emphasis on age these days, if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60+ do what makes you happy, if that means playing Elite for days on end (like I do) who cares? Life is too short and too fragile.
 
Ahh yes, a thread from 2013 that was only just resurrected thanks to this new lazy thread. You're welcome!
As someone already mentioned, both threads indicate only how old are forum visitors and not the actual players.
You better start interdicting players and asking them about their age. :ROFLMAO:
 
44.

Played Elite on the BBC in '84 (but not mine). Got the Spectrum version by Firebird in '85 (with the Dark Wheel, ship chart (I have a modern one now from Frontier) and Lenslok... and was gutted when I found out my Mother threw it out with load of other old games years ago).

Played Frontier and FFE on the Atari ST. I did not back ED as I did not really know much about backing stuff and for some reason it just did not resonate. I regret that, because I did back Star Citizen, and whilst I still have (distant) hopes for that game, love ED. Because of ED I bought a Thrustmaster HOTAS, Pedles and a Vive.

I have been to dine with the Devs twice, got one rare commodity into the game, a few news stories (back when you could) and created four factions (only one which is officially a player one).

I've played alongside players in their teens and others in their 70s.

Not sure I am really old though. And I am not a duck.
 
Last edited:
You better start interdicting players and asking them about their age. :ROFLMAO:
I try to avoid creepy behavior on Playstation.... It's actually one reason I'm way less social with my alt account, because an old man pretending to be a young woman (I roleplay my alt CMDR as Duck's daughter using my wife's PSN account) online is a common tactic used by predators.

This also means that kids may lie about their age / gender if directly asked, as parents often instruct our kids to do for their own safety.

And reality is, I'm actually more interested in how old all YOU are, since this thread was inspired by the "ED is better than Elite on Commodore 64, so it's good enough for me!" stance so many in this forum seem to take. You're the ones I blame for EBL, LOL ;)
 
Born in 1970. Been there to play all the stuff; Zx spectrum, commodore Amiga, crappy Pcs - 286, 386, 486, pentium and more.
Played the original Elite on zx, knights of the Sky was my best on Amiga, Pc took me through Wing Commander series, Privateer, etc...
Had great fun times with Freelancer, Freespace (oh my Gods! <3<3<3), the X series. Now, it's mostly Elite. Space is confy here, silent and huge.
 
I think that teenagers will always consider 41 to be old, regardless of decade (they were just kids in that film, weren't they?). :)

Mathew Broderick and Ally Sheedy were both 21 when War Games was released the year before Elite.
 
Top Bottom