Competition: Your Fondest Frontier Memory!

Jumping into Pleione in the Argent's Quest and seeing the ??? contact on the scanner on FFE, probably sounds silly but it was a real rush moment.
 
I'm new to the elite serious. In the short time I have been playing I have more memories with this game then most other multiplayer games. Alot of fun times with friends dueling or playing cooperatively on wing missions. My biggest memory is playing in VR and falling asleep mid hyperspace jump and waking up crashing into a star. Good times!
 
Being right the way out towards the edge of the Galaxy, about as far as you could get in an AspX before engineering, sitting on a moon orbiting a ringed gas giant and looking at the whole galaxy. I felt awestruck, a very long way from home and just a bit overwhelmed. A moment I'll never forget.
 
The first time my canopy blew, I was a Rookie fighting in a combat zone, flying an un-engineered Vulture by myself. I knew I wanted to pick off enemy ships out in the fringe, but after a few minutes became disoriented and found a half-dozen ships firing on me near the center of the zone. I switched all power to engines, a little to shields and boosted away. My shields came down fast. Suddenly my canopy began to crackle and then the air blew out of the cockpit with a swoosh. Life support kicked in and the countdown began. My heart was racing. I was on comms with friends who were racing to help, but they hadn't arrived in time. I had not upgraded my life support systems and the timer ticked off the seconds, 5:00; 4:59; 4:58...

My wing-mates calmed me down (a little) and offered advice. I targeted another system (the first one on my list) to avoid mass lock and high-waked it out of there. My hull was down to 36%. Panicked, I asked where to go. I needed a system with a station near the entry point. By the time they found a nearby system, and I selected it on the galaxy map, I only had 2-3 minutes of air. I flipped the the FSD switch and fled to the station. Once in supercruise, I had to stand up to try and see out the front because the HUD couldn't be fully displayed on the jagged hole in the glass cockpit. Leaning left and right to see out the window, and using the radar I was able to keep the station targeted and avoid the loop of shame, gripping my throttle and adjusting pitch and yaw with my joystick. As I entered normal space and approached the station, the sound of the station chief was muffled. I requested docking permissions, rushing full speed as my oxygen timer counted down with something like 8 seconds left. My ship exploded in glorious fashion within arms-length of the hangar bay.
 
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Well, firstly thank you for Elite in all its incarnations over the years, the best and fondest memories I have of gaming.

I actually bought this ‘new space sim’ game in 1984 for my BBC model b (that I convinced my parents I needed to help with my electronics and electrical engineering diploma at college, yeah right).

I remember going to a specialist computer shop hoping they would have a copy in and they did.

Getting home there was so much in the box, back then you actually got more than a health and safety leaflet. I think there was a novella, a welcome commander book, ship guide, key template? and a card, where if you managed to get to Elite rank you could send off for a T-shirt (note - still have it. It no longer fits, smells funny and looks a bit tatty but I can’t get rid of it).

When I started playing I was hooked . . . and so was my family. Those days we only had one tv so if I was playing it everyone sat watching me playing it. Some weekends I’d play for 10 or 12 hours (it didn’t matter, my parents were social animals and enjoyed the pub so didn’t mind) and go to sleep with starfields spinning behind my eyelids :)

I remember the sheer panic of being confronted by a thargoid for the first time. The frustration of docking and then the delight at how fast I could dock as I continued playing.

The graphics were unlike anything I’d seen before, the sense of flying through space was incredible and I adored the game, still do.

The best bit was finally reaching that Elite rank. I’d been playing when I stepped away; pee break, drink, food not sure but one of them, only to come back and my brother said “I just blew up a ship and it said ‘Right on commander’”. Obviously I blew my top, that was mine, I wanted to get that, why did he spoil it. Aaarrrggghh

Anyway, loaded the game back in, thinking I’ll blow up another ship and get the Elite rank through my own endeavours. Blew up a ship, nothing. Blew up another, nothing. It took an age (well another couple of hours) before I got the Elite rank, but I did and it felt good.

Anyway, I just have really fond memories of playing the original Elite and it’s sequels and was straight in with my money when the Kickstarter program was announced for the new game. Thank you for one of if not the greatest games I’ve ever played, and at 51 I’ve played a LOT.
 
Fondest memory must be playing Elite on my C64, lights off with full Moon shining through my room window. I was 'sun skimming' and decided to follow an NPC ship, so I flew right next to them, matched speed & viewed them at side view. Then I realised the Moon was getting darker on one side, it turned out to be a full eclipse that night. Watched the whole spectacle while flying along with the NPC all the time.
 
Playing the original Elite on a Commodore 64 in about 1985 and obtaining the docking computer allowing much easier access into the stations finally and all to the music of the Blue Danube
 
When I played far enough on the original BBC version to realise that the secret missions were actually real! And being hyperdicted by Thargoids for the first time. And then getting my cousin to work out the trading routes while I flew and did the combat. I still suck at trading so nothing has changed :D

It was light years ahead of its time, so many happy memories. Thank you David and Frontier, here's to the next 25!
 
First contact with alien lifeform, thargoid ship. It came as a total shock as it occured during jump between stars. After interdicting, alone in dark space, no power, strange sounds and alien in sight disappearing then into vastness of space.
"What just happened? " mostly in mind.
Sounds are cherry on the top in Elite.
 
It makes no sense to talk about individual Frontier games. Frontier is a solid project of several great games that will suit both your little child and an honorable grandfather. I hope that your projects will develop further.
 
My fondest memory would be the day I discovered Elite: Dangerous. I bought it through an XBox Live promotion and was blown away. Being a huge fan of astronomy and cosmology, this game was EXACTLY what I was dreaming of since I was a little kid. I love this game dearly and applaud those that have poured their heart, soul, and talents into making it and maintaining it. Cheers to Frontier on their "birthday"!
 
As an old timer (i was 16 at this moment) from Elite 1984, the dream continues with Elite Dangerous. Above and beyond for the new era. Thanks a lot FDEV for the journey :) [heart]
 
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My fondest memory is being an 11 year old kid eagerly saving up to buy the original 1984 version of Elite for the BBC model B. I'd stop in at the shop on my way home from school and look at the box and manuals. Once I finally got it, it took 7 minutes to load from tape drive but it was well worth it! I still have the manual and novella. Fast forward 30 years and I had the same eager anticipation waiting for Elite: Dangerous!
 
The biggest moment for me was realizing the size and scope of Elite Dangerous. As an amateur astronomer, many of the locations in Elite are places I've seen in real life through a telescope, or taken images of. But that first time I realized that, hey , I can actually go to these places....that was a special moment for me in Elite. And two and half years later, it still is something special.
 
My best memory is from the time I bought my first Asp Explorer, and almost immediately went exploring the core of our galaxy. Seeing all the stars is such a pretty sight and really made an impact on me. I truly love Elite.
 
30+ years ago, my dad, sister and I would sit down in front of the house TV, pop a tape in the player for the old Commodore 64 and play Elite. We took turns taking CMDR Jameson out for spins in his Cobra, while the others watched. Our efforts comprised hauling goods around or popping by Riedquat for some pirate hunting. We struggled with Trumbles until someone (probably dad) figured out to get rid of them when fuel scooping. There are some fond memories there including first time docking without a docking computer, and fighting off thargoids.

Years later I had been playing through Frontier and First Encounters, having enjoyed the games but somehow feeling they fell short of the original. That feeling was blasted away when I, after donating a horrendous amount of CR to someones memory, was handed a prototype ship and sent out to the Pleiades to find... a single thargon floating in silence. That was some of the most intense gaming experiences I have ever had.

And then a few years ago, as the kickstarter for Elite Dangerous ended and we moved into Alpha, that original Elite feeling was awoken again as I docked a Sidewinder at Eravate. It was beautiful. Just for old times sake, I upgraded it to a Cobra Mk III (took forever, you youngsters don't know anything about hardships!), added a docking computer and leaned back in my chair with a silly grin as the little oyster shell tumbled through the mail slot to the tune of Blue Danube.

:D S
 
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The most fun, exhausting and facinating journey i have ever made:
A colonia run.
We had two rules: we go as fast as the slowest member of the group, and no friendly fire.

We started off in the bubble and had a jump range of about 20ly so it took us a while to get there but man, we went to black holes, nebulas, waterworlds, planets close to the sun to make some amazing screenshots, and so on.
The person with the smallest jump range was upfront, and we gave him the name "Captain canary" and that name sticked to him for a loooong time xD . The journey took us about 4/5 months? We did a 4+ hour stream every Friday evening called "Friday Night Shenanigans". Sometimes on Saturday's but that's the reason why we took so long :)
When we got close to Colonia, we heard that thargoids started to attack outside and inside the bubble. So we decided once we reach Colonia, we will sell all the exploration data, explore it a little bit, and then get the hell outta doge to help out and fight the targoids! We did took the neutron highway back succesfully, each on their own.

Once back in the bubble, we grouped up and fought the targoids!

Thanks to IanDLive, Smiter1983 and scotsdragon54 for the amazing journey!
 
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my first memory of elite is going back to 1984 on a sinclair spectrum and one of my fondest memories is my first docking in Ed 30 years later, i was moving the free look like a kid to try to see everything at once.
 
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