Dear Mr. Braben,
This letter is on behalf of the first-rate Russian-speaking community including space games fans from Eastern Europe. For a long time we’ve been enjoying playing the game with already magical name “Elite” – from the times of ZX Spectrum till now, in time of multi-core Athlons and Hyper-threading Pentiums. This game has become for us the best project
ever existed, the symbol of freedom and realization of our dreams on self-actualization in boundless depths of space. We would like to express our gratitude to you, Ian Bell and to all your team, infinite gratitude – like the universe you’ve created and freedom Elite has given us. We are grateful to you for giving us the possibility to find ourselves “there”.
There – where there are no limits, among the stars. And, of course, we would like to congratulate you with Elite’s twentieth anniversary.
Best regards to all who participated in the project.
Also we would like to ask you if there anything we can help with.
Perhaps with Elite 4? Our community is at your disposal. We could help with localization, beta-testing etc.
Our community includes programmers, designers, composers etc. and we are waiting impatiently for some information about E4 release.
Some time ago we asked you about the possibility of FE2
release or FFE as shareware or similar, or to release the sources. You replied in the
positive but said that you need to check the legality of the rights of lawsuit with Take Two that at that time was still going.
So if it’s already not we would be very grateful if you kindly send us the FFE sources or give us the link for download. Then we could make good Russian localization of this brilliant game.
Looking forward to receiving your reply. Any info will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
on behalf of Russian-speaking community
...
This letter is on behalf of the first-rate Russian-speaking community including space games fans from Eastern Europe. For a long time we’ve been enjoying playing the game with already magical name “Elite” – from the times of ZX Spectrum till now, in time of multi-core Athlons and Hyper-threading Pentiums. This game has become for us the best project
ever existed, the symbol of freedom and realization of our dreams on self-actualization in boundless depths of space. We would like to express our gratitude to you, Ian Bell and to all your team, infinite gratitude – like the universe you’ve created and freedom Elite has given us. We are grateful to you for giving us the possibility to find ourselves “there”.
There – where there are no limits, among the stars. And, of course, we would like to congratulate you with Elite’s twentieth anniversary.
Best regards to all who participated in the project.
Also we would like to ask you if there anything we can help with.
Perhaps with Elite 4? Our community is at your disposal. We could help with localization, beta-testing etc.
Our community includes programmers, designers, composers etc. and we are waiting impatiently for some information about E4 release.
Some time ago we asked you about the possibility of FE2
release or FFE as shareware or similar, or to release the sources. You replied in the
positive but said that you need to check the legality of the rights of lawsuit with Take Two that at that time was still going.
So if it’s already not we would be very grateful if you kindly send us the FFE sources or give us the link for download. Then we could make good Russian localization of this brilliant game.
Looking forward to receiving your reply. Any info will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
on behalf of Russian-speaking community
...
. There were (and still is) a spirited discussion among us regarding Elite (and particularly Elite4 – like “to be or not to be”). The main reason why I decided to make a reasonable compilation (with the help of the others), translate and finally send the letter from a group of Elite-like games fans was to put an end to this discussion by clarifying some (hopefully all the) details from the first source. I also hoped this letter will say to David that we didn’t forget what he and his team have done for us by creating Elite, and therefore will encourage them to make a new masterpiece. For me personally FFE remains the most successful attempt to dip a player into the charming world of life among the stars – so close and at the same time so far. It’s the only space game I know in which if you want to participate in key events you should permanently and actively search for any info closing a bit to them, and if you miss it, nothing happened – you just miss something very interesting and maybe useful. It’s like in real life – if you miss it, you just out of it… OK, why I’m saying this – I still hope that Elite4 TO BE and to be exactly the right thing. It’s not only my hope – it’s a hope of every Russian-speaking community member I represent. And Mr B., of course, as it was already mentioned, any info regarding Elite4 will be much appreciated and please don’t hesitate to contact fans via this forum if you need something to discuss or whatever ‘cause they are a tremendous source of your support.
