Elite / Frontier A piece of Elite history I found on Ian Bell's site: A letter from Ian to David dated Sept 1984

[Vithigar]

I downloaded one of the disk images from Ian Bell's Elite website and discovered the following text on the disk, discussing the then-upcoming second processor version of Elite, as well as some fan made origami cobras:

Ian Bell, 139 The Ryde, Hatfield, Herts AL9 5DP
Tel: Hatfield 65201
(Jesus College, Cambridge CB5 8BL)
28th Sept 1984
Dear David,
I enclose two Origami Cobra Mk IIIs, together with folding instructions. They are the original work of an expert Origamist (?) friend of mine. They are quite complex, possibly too much so so novice folders. I am reasonably proficient but it took me a while to learn it.
I promised him a copy of BBC Cassette Elite (please send one to my home address), and full credit with reasonable payment for any use made of this model.
It could perhaps be used:
(i) In advertising
(ii) At Elite stands at shows
(iii) At the Grand Elite Final Competition
(iv) At the 2nd Proc Version Press Launch (if there is one)
Mark has appeared at various Origami conventions demontrating his original models and is willing to attend Elite events.
I also enclose a disk with the most recent 2nd proc Elite on the A side, with probably the final file structure. The missions should now work but I haven't tested them. The new Escape-Capsule-in-Thargsville bug has been fixed in this version. The only known bug is the action on BRKs executed by the DFS. (eg File Not Found) What is the tube protocol for Filing System Errors? Until somebody tells us, we cannot fix it.
The files are totally unprotected (except for our routine EORing and checksumming).
Below are details of the loading process for Rob Northern or whoever is going to do the protection. With second processors we are almost certainly dealing with people who know how to copy so something clever might be in order. Unlike disk Elite, we only need to load the files once, with as much code as you like.
After a few minutes, the title page goes into a Star-Wars-style routine, which in turn returns to the title page. If you haven't seen this before it is best to see it while playing the Star Wars Main Title Theme (honestly) since it is reasonable synchronised with the music and the effect is greatly enhanced. Boot up the game on the primary title page then start the music, pressing TAB when you hear the first note. This forces entry to the routine.
There are no new secret missions, tombs of Ben Ryder, or anything like that; except for a new little something taken from page 29 of the Training Manual.
This version of Elite should be heavily playtested since many routines have been rewritten or improoved.
The following should be specifically checked:
Mining and Military Lasers (purchase and use)
The Missions
The Bitstick Toggle
Loading and Saving
Basically, Second Proc Elite is the disk version; faster and in colour, with the possibilty of any combination of ships from the disk version.
On the B side of the disk are two view files: this letter and a file of the Elite program text for translation into German. Please impress upon your translaters the importance of compactness.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Bell

 

[Steve]

I met the origami guy - Mark Bolitho - at the Elite Gathering in Nottingham in 2009. It was a shame the origami never made it into any of the Elite releases, though I confess I don't have the patience to create anything.

A little something from page 29 of the manual? Rock hermits?

 

[madbilly]

Good find! It's a long time since I used those images, and I never looked in detail at what was on them.

I wondered the same about P29. Based on the scans of the manual I found online it could be:
- Rock hermits, as you said
- ECM, or at least Thargoid's having ECM
- Thargoids?!
- Thargons?!
- Ability to scoop and sell Thargons as Alien Items

I think that your suggestion of Rock Hermits is most likely, although I'm not very familiar with the different versions of the games.

 

[Micha]

That is an awesome piece of history Freakish attention to detail (press play on Star Wars music to watch intro) - I haven't met anybody in modern development who'd do anything like that!

As for the "little something" - I never played the original BBC version so not sure what it had/didn't have. My first encounter with Elite was the C64 version, and it had all of the features mentioned by @madbilly, including Rock Hermits.

Lol @ the note to the translators to keep the german "compact".

 

[Darlington]

BBC Elite & 2nd Proc Elite

I played the BBC Version for far too many hours.

The rock hermits & the generation ships only appeared on the Dual processor version of Elite.

Also on that version if you left it on the title screen for too long you got a Star Wars esq running story/title screen eg "In a galaxy far far away"

It set the standard for games of that time and for a long time afterward.

Darlington

 

[Bounder]

Good find! It's a long time since I used those images, and I never looked in detail at what was on them.

I wondered the same about P29. Based on the scans of the manual I found online it could be:
- Rock hermits, as you said
- ECM, or at least Thargoid's having ECM
- Thargoids?!
- Thargons?!
- Ability to scoop and sell Thargons as Alien Items

I think that your suggestion of Rock Hermits is most likely, although I'm not very familiar with the different versions of the games.

All these things were in the Master 128 version (the one i spent years playing). Never really played the Tube version outside of an emu so no idea what extras it had...

 

[AndyJ]

Wait...Generation ships WERE in the co-processor version?? News to me. Wow. And Space Dredgers too? What did they look like?

Well there's a disk on Ian Bells site with the "Excecutive" 2nd processor version of Elite: http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/bbc/
BeebEm will run it if you grab the 4.03 version listed on it's homepage: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/
(Enable "65C02 Second Processor" under Hardware menu)

The starwars-esque intro is pretty horrible tbh.