Original Elite players who also read C&VG and typed in games in assembly

Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
So here we are in the future.

I should have prefaced this thread with (self help group for). I'm not up on how people are organising themselves into gangs or whatnot, but I do notice how many older gamers have been drawn out of the woodwork by Mister Braben's latter day incarnation of a childhood pleasure.

I'm thinking it would be nice to have a forum for those of us who remember the Tharg's Future shock days of 2000AD, The difficulty of Uridium, the allure of text based adventure "parser" technology and being amazed at Jerry Paris's work in the 'bughunter' strip in C&VG.

So if you played Elite with a McVities Digestive in one hand and a Quickshot 2 with 'autofire' in the other, sound off and Maybe Ill build a buddypress site or something.

I can't see ED becoming something with the longevity of Eve yet, but as a vehicle to the internet stars I think it's magnificent.

The thing about these old 'orse brasses is....
 

Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
If you're wondering which peripheral you need to play Elite, wonder no more....

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felicitous blue

F
The good old "type in". I don't believe I ever got one to work. I do recall spending two weeks typing in the code from a book I'd borrowed from the library, which was supposed to give you a working assembler, cause I wanted to learn assembly on my C64. Two solid weeks of three to four hours a night, typing in code that looked like (from hazy memory)

50 a9,b6,3c,36,77,7e 1746

Only for there then to be an error in the checksum program which meant I could never work out which line of hex was wrong.


As for elite... Well, I had a dodgy copy (shame on me I know but hopefully I've made up for it now in beta fees, merchandise and skins). I had to manually realign the heads on my datasette to get it to load, but then no other games would load so it was elite or nothing for a while. Suited me fine, would regularly play nothing but elite for a few weeks before giving something else a whirl.

I couldn't work out some controls though, so used to go to my local game emporium and ask if I could "have a look at that elite game thing" ... These where the days when they'd let you peruse the box contents... "What are the controls like, ooh yes there's the control sheet, hmm look complicated ****must remember T is target then M for missile**** thanks maybe I'll get me mum and dad to buy it for Christmas"

Ah memories. Kids these days wouldn't understand half of what I've just written. Was playing halo 2 anniversary with my 7yo nephew yesterday, and he kept switching to the old graphics saying "this looks so bad, why did they make the graphics so bad then". Fully understood the original was 10 yrs, just couldn't get how much technology has changed, he just takes it for granted. He does like flying around in elite though, except his feet don't reach the pedals....
 

Tar Stone

Banned
Tar Stone
The Cheetah 125+ was the greatest stick of all time,

And Halo Jones was the best female sci-fi protagonist of all time,

And Crash was better than C&VG,

And my dad etc.


Uridium was bloody hard though.
 

Spiggs

Spiggs
Wisdomlikesilence said:
You millionaires.. always winning Daly Thompson, with your unbreakable sticks. No such thing as RSI in those days. When men were made of meat.
Click to expand...
LOL'd so hard I almost put my hip out :D.

Nevertheless, is not good pretending you wern't a "Champange decatholete" yourself. There's too much first-hand experiance in that quote to hide the Wico ownership! ;)
 
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Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
True story, a guy in our town ran an electrical place beside a sweetshop. He started featuring games in the window in their tiny plastic portrait format frames. It was 7 quid a game, but you could return it for 5. He didn't realize you could just dupe the tapes. Man, he went out of the games business so fast we only got about 3 games! The sweet shop made a king's ransom in celebratory sour apples and mint pillows.

Apocryphal story: We did not buy the Akai twindeck tape duplicator from the same shop.
 

Lobstris

Lobstris
Right. So, without using the internet can anyone name all of the elements the dreadnaughts in Uridium were named after? Iron, gold, uridium... and... and... (think Lead was in there...)
 

Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
no but I can paste this depressing quote from wiki:

In 1986 Braybrook was voted Best Programmer of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
Braybrook now works as a senior software developer for a large insurance firm.

And there in 2 short sentences is the precise reason so many people are angry that in the beginning, God created the universe, and have widely regarded it as a bad move ever since.
 

Sectoid

S
If you want a return to the 80's and how the gaming industry in the UK grew then check out bedrooms to billions. It's a lovely film of about 2 and a half hours. Get your drinks ready, sit in your favourite armchair, don't be disturbed and reminisce about a golden age of computer gaming. Oh yeah Mr. Braben is in it too.
 

Bald Avenger

B
I think the pinnacle of assembly key in was not C&VG, but has to be the Marshall Cavendish 52 week magazine course, INPUT.

Not only did it provide a simple game in assembly (a bit like a Hunchback clone), it even made you write the assembler!

I never got the game working. But I do still have the full course of magazines on my bookshelf, with the official binders. Hmm, lovely.
 

Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
Yeah it blew my mind, but not as much as a version of Gauntlet that had a video hologram of some chick going on about stuff at the start, I remember thinking, "this three dimensional video stuff will really take off, if it's real, and it cannot possibly be".

These days I'd put it down to a few microgrammes of acid on bart simpson imprinted blotter squares, but my memories of those days are pretty much immaculate, like the pre-match entertainment at a Seldon crisis. I can't imagine what shenanigans they must have gotten up to at Atari to make that "hologram" look really 3d. I walked 120 degrees around it. It cast light.
 
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Wisdomlikesilence

Wisdomlikesilence
You bought the binders? they were 6 pounds! My inputs are still safely in Gypsy hands along with all my comics and Joy Of Knowledges. Thanks mum.

I learned more about things from Joy of Knowledge than school. And it didn't badger me about which team I preferred. And even If i did prefer a team, for god's sake clarify the sport first.

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Bald Avenger

B
Oh yeah, binders. I can smell your jealousy.

Interestingly, I just opened a binder and smelled it, and it has an awesome musty 80's 11 year old's bedroom smell. Mmmm
 
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