Newcomer / Intro 30 Years of Elite. Your memories.....

[p.opus]

Hi all. Although I am new to the forums and to E, I am not new to Elite. Elite was one of those rare games that I found a way to purchase for every platform that I owned since the C-64.

I am amazed how many joysticks I broke playing the 1985 C-64 version. The Vector graphics were crude and had a ridiculously low refresh rate, but it was enough. The sandbox of all sandboxes. I can't tell you how many hours I spent on that game. I always dreamed of being able to buy a ship other than my old Cobra MK III. But I was nigh unstoppable with my Military Lasers and Military Shields. But even with my tricked out Cobra, I still feared being pulled out of witchspace by a Thargoid.

I remember reading the "Dark Wheel" tons of times and had always tried to unlock the mystery of Raxxla and the Dark Wheel. I'm not even sure if it was coded....But it didn't matter. I had pencil and paper and meticulously kept records on the best trades.

I remember the nail biting fear of jumping to an anarchy system with a belly full of computers and trying to make it to station space in one piece.

Throwing my joystick at the computer after I finally made it to the station in one piece only to impact against the station wall because I hadn't been patient enough and chose a bad line into the docking bay. Losing all those computers and a good chunk of my cash as well.

I purchased Elite for the PC and the Amiga as well. Each version giving a slightly better experience with the graphics, but still providing the same awesome game play.

When Frontier Elite 2 and Alien Encounters came out, I tried those, but it wasn't the same. The team's reach had exceeded their grasp.

When I saw Dangerous come out, I knew I had to get it, but at the time I had a substandard computer. Luckily I found some money from my Tax Refund to purchase an Alienware Alpha and now I can fully enjoy the game. It's everything I ever wanted from Elite. The docking system in incredible and the addition of heat management is fantastic.

I'm back in Lave now with an Adder. I see Leesti and Diso on my galactic map and it brings it all back. I'm 18 again... The galaxy is wide open...

We've come full circle.

 

[Painkiller]

I was sharing Elite on Amiga with my friend. I was the combat pilot (with TAC-2 joystick), he was the copilot in charge of docking clearance, missions, goods trading ...we turned our room in Admirals bridge and his house in huge "space ship" ...this is all I can add since you described very good my childhood ...I also had (have) 8 yr old pc , bought R9 270x video card and Thrustmaster Hotas X for now , just for Elite ...and upgrades will go on, ..one day I WILL have my own space ship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-mYm4QPW58

 

[Dommarraa]

While I played a lot on our school bbcs, most of my game time was racked up in a smoke filled room of hippies in week long sessions passing things like the joystick around. Hence my memories of elite are shall we say vague

 

[Salentine]

On the Spectrum for me, 1985, loved it, as far as i can remember the thargoids weren't too difficult to kill, just hard to hit because they were so agile...

 

[p.opus]

Thargoids weren't that difficult, once you could hit them. But like you said they were slippery little buggers, and they always gang attacked you. They always left alien artifacts when you killed them though. That's why I always kept about 4T to 6T open in my cargo bay extension. If they did pull me out of witch space, I was going to make sure they paid for their mistake, and clean up on some free goodies as well. Nothing like sitting in a debris field full of Alien Artifcacts with a belly full of low yield food stuffs. I don't believe you could ditch your cargo back then, so you just had to cry. And because it always happened in between jumps, you could never just go back and pick it up later. You learned to never fly a full boat.....

 

[kilvenny]

From the original - Lenslok - man that was challenging. First time I encountered Thargoids - still feel a chill even now at the thought. Docking for the first time - that learning curve!

 

[p.opus]

Ahhh. Lenslok. I had a SX-64 that I bought on sale at Jafco for $500.00. Had to borrow the coin from my old man. It's 5 inch screen would not allow you to use the Lenslok properly. I used to write down which Lenslok pattern was associated to which two letters on the keyboard you needed to enter. I had started doing that before upgrading to the SX-64 because taking out Lenslok was a PITA

Once you had 6 or 7 examples, you could get into the game without too much worries. I had my little Lenslok code sheet taped to my bookshelf so after awhile I never had to use the stupid piece of plastic

I eventually got a ISEPIC'd copy of Elite from a pirate friend and that solved all my Lenslok issues.

 

[Cmdr Marchese]

Got back to the states from South Korea to Ft Polk Lousiana. 19 y/o private in the US Army. Saw the add in Compute magazine for Elite C64. Called from a pay phone on post to order it from Frontier in England. Took forever to get here but I was dying with anticipation. When I got it...stayed up all night reading the entire manual and novella at least three times each. When I finally got down to playing I could NOT get pass the copy protection. Near sighted and could not for the life of me get the right letters through that lens thingy. After calling FD support from the pay phone at least twice which with two rolls of quarters they finally relented and gave me the master code "ED". Then I spent the remainder of the weekend smashing into the side of a rotating space station Played for months and months...Got to either Dangerous or Deadly but not Elite. The only reason I quit is because my C64 died and I bought an Amiga.....

 

[Spookie]

still remember the manual, At chapter 3: Combat , the opening was 'Welcome to the manual' always tought that was funny!

 

[Gemat]

I remember
-always fighting backwards, shooting only with the rear laser.
-the hope that I will get to the station wihtout many pirate interruptions.
-the INSTANT docking computer.
-fingers crossed that the frame shift drive does not fail when hypercruising and finaly...
-killing Thargoids until the FSD is back on line !!