Do people know Elite 1 - 3 exist?

[Tim Wheatley]

Hi folks,

Just curious... There was a recent video by Gamespot where they talked about the rebirth of space games, yet they completely forgot to mention Elite. They acted like the first space game was Wing Commander.

Nothing against Wing Commander. I played them, I loved them. But I felt it was a complete injustice.

Are you guys finding a lot of people don't know about Elite?

If interested, I talked a bit and 'unboxed' my copies of Elite 1, 2, 3 in this video. It's maybe worth a look if you have never seen actual boxed copies, or perhaps even heard about the fact that Braben released Elite 6 years before Wing Commander.

http://youtu.be/sa5O5iqI-ok

Enjoy.

Tim

 

[Bobbydylan]

It's probably an age thing.

It pretty rare finding a gamer who knows Elite exists. Hell, a lot of these "gaming journalists" haven't even played games like Doom, Duke-3d, Dues-ex or System shock.



It's a bit like being a literary critic when all you read is Mills and Boon.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

True, you've probably hit on it. Although, when the video in question doesn't hesitate to mention Wing Commander, but makes no mention of Elite, it's confusing, no?

Besides, when they are in a position to give information, they should do their research regardless. Gamespot are relied on. They effectively are spreading misinformation when they do not research a piece like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mziqXZNvhzI

 

[Uridium]

Yes and played them all.

I watched a top 25 (i think it was 25) computer games ever TV show in the UK a while ago, and Elite featured very close to the top if I recall correctly.

 

[mrrockitt]

I've been 'banging on' boringly for years about Elite to the 'yoof'!

I made sure my sons knew about it pretty early and have been trying to 'spread the word' at work with my younger colleagues. Unfortunately, unless a game includes the word 'Call' or 'Fifa' many youngsters will know nothing about it!

I started with the cassette version of Elite on the Beeb when I got it for Christmas in 1984.

Wing Commander was pretty good, although initial reviews for it were fairly lukewarm I seem to remember, Privateer 2 was the pinnacle for that series I feel but none of them were a spot on Elite as it was years ahead of it's time.

'nuff said

Good video

 

[breakpointUK]

Everyone spam the comments section with this link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game)

lol

 

[Shepard]

Sorry guys, but Elite generation is getting older every year and most of us who know and played Elite are at least probably in their 40s now. Next generation after us were not raised on those games. It's odd to realize sometimes how old you are. But thanks to E D I think a lot more people will know about what the Elite was and how cool it was to imagine things looking at first "3d graphics".

 

[ZeeWolf]

This gets discussed quite a bit. It's perhaps due to a generation gap and a culture gap, largely because Elite appeared during America's 'video game crash' and U.S kids seem to have a shared culture built around Nintendo games due partly to Nintendo re-selling their child-hood back to them over and over again. Remember Mario? You remember Mario don't you? Your best friends cousin whose parents had separated and got a Nintendo for his Birthday had that Mario game that time? Well he's back with better graphics! This has spread back to Europe where NES games weren't all that popular in the early 90's and there is a convenient memory lapse about games that happened in the eighties on home computer systems and nostalgia over Japanese games that most people in Europe didn't actually play back then.

By the time America was getting back into proper computer games the majority had missed out on Elite and Frontier and now there is a shared re-write of history that defines wing commander as being a water shed moment in video games when (for those of us that actually remember the magazine reviews at the time) it appeared to be a cut-scene heavy show case for sound cards when it was released, followed by the multi-swap CD FMV windowed, nightmare, Mark Hamil walking around corridors, mediocre 2D sprite scaling shooting range of WC III & IV but apparently I'm wrong and everyone now thinks they were excellent games that defined a generation ;-)

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I've been 'banging on' boringly for years about Elite to the 'yoof'!

I made sure my sons knew about it pretty early and have been trying to 'spread the word' at work with my younger colleagues.

I want to do that with my kids. My younger brothers were 11 and 14 years younger than me and before I left home they were always given my older PC parts when I upgraded. I have a Vic-20, C64 and Amiga 600, once my daughter is old enough I want to give her a bit of a history lesson, too. Hopefully she'll be that annoying one at school who knows everything before she gets there... lol

 

[mrrockitt]

This gets discussed quite a bit. It's perhaps due to a generation gap and a culture gap, largely because Elite appeared during America's 'video game crash' and U.S kids seem to have a shared culture built around Nintendo games due partly to Nintendo re-selling their child-hood back to them over and over again. Remember Mario? You remember Mario don't you? Your best friends cousin whose parents had separated and got a Nintendo for his Birthday had that Mario game that time? Well he's back with better graphics! This has spread back to Europe where NES games weren't all that popular in the early 90's and there is a convenient memory lapse about games that happened in the eighties on home computer systems and nostalgia over Japanese games that most people in Europe didn't actually play back then.

By the time America was getting back into proper computer games the majority had missed out on Elite and Frontier and now there is a shared re-write of history that defines wing commander as being a water shed moment in video games when (for those of us that actually remember the magazine reviews at the time) it appeared to be a cut-scene heavy show case for sound cards when it was released, followed by the multi-swap CD FMV windowed, nightmare, Mark Hamil walking around corridors, mediocre 2D sprite scaling shooting range of WC III & IV but apparently I'm wrong and everyone now thinks they were excellent games that defined a generation ;-)

Very true Zeewolf, it seems the US and UK tastes is computer and video gaming have varied greatly though the years.

(Glad to see it's not just me who hates Mario though, now I know there is at least one other person who does!)

 

[Tim Wheatley]

This gets discussed quite a bit. It's perhaps due to a generation gap and a culture gap, largely because Elite appeared during America's 'video game crash' and U.S kids seem to have a shared culture built around Nintendo games due partly to Nintendo re-selling their child-hood back to them over and over again. Remember Mario? You remember Mario don't you? Your best friends cousin whose parents had separated and got a Nintendo for his Birthday had that Mario game that time? Well he's back with better graphics! This has spread back to Europe where NES games weren't all that popular in the early 90's and there is a convenient memory lapse about games that happened in the eighties on home computer systems and nostalgia over Japanese games that most people in Europe didn't actually play back then.

By the time America was getting back into proper computer games the majority had missed out on Elite and Frontier and now there is a shared re-write of history that defines wing commander as being a water shed moment in video games when (for those of us that actually remember the magazine reviews at the time) it appeared to be a cut-scene heavy show case for sound cards when it was released, followed by the multi-swap CD FMV windowed, nightmare, Mark Hamil walking around corridors, mediocre 2D sprite scaling shooting range of WC III & IV but apparently I'm wrong and everyone now thinks they were excellent games that defined a generation ;-)

Interesting. Seems like multiple reasons for the 'blackout'.

hahaha, I loved the WC series. I think it was due to investment in the characters. I wasn't playing the game, I was in it. Still, much like I am expecting from Squadron 42, it never got a second playthrough, neither did any of the others because I had already seen the story... With Elite and specifically Elite II, I made the story. Which is why it got played from 1993 to 2013.

 

[mrrockitt]

I want to do that with my kids. My younger brothers were 11 and 14 years younger than me and before I left home they were always given my older PC parts when I upgraded. I have a Vic-20, C64 and Amiga 600, once my daughter is old enough I want to give her a bit of a history lesson, too. Hopefully she'll be that annoying one at school who knows everything before she gets there... lol

Well Tiger Wood's Dad forced him to play Golf at a very young age, the Williams Sister's Dad was obsessed about them playing tennis, I want my Kids to have a thorough knowledge of old computer games, it's all relative isn't it?

 

[ZeeWolf]

Interesting. Seems like multiple reasons for the 'blackout'.

hahaha, I loved the WC series. I think it was due to investment in the characters. I wasn't playing the game, I was in it. Still, much like I am expecting from Squadron 42, it never got a second playthrough, neither did any of the others because I had already seen the story... With Elite and specifically Elite II, I made the story. Which is why it got played from 1993 to 2013.

I have tried to like WC over the years, I still have the Amiga version. It's a horrible disk swapping nightmare of a conversion and it's horribly slow compared to the other versions. It's not a slate on Chris Robert's though, I've enjoyed many of his other games and I was rather hoping to be playing Arena Commander today :-( I just get annoyed when people tell me how great Wing Commander was, I wonder if they actually played it back in the day or later on Playstation or GOG? If they remember trying to move the red pixel into the middle of the scanner and shooting balls at a flick animation of a pix-elated ship and pressing 'A' to see a cut scene of ships in auto-pilot over..and..over.. and desperately trying to get the FMV in Wing Commander III to render at a decent frame rate, having to play through the boring first ten minutes of game before an option screen became available that let you change the video to black & white in a desperate attempt to get a 386 Amstrad PC to run it at a decent pace. To be fair, Frontier didn't exactly run smoothly on an Amiga 500 either

 

[mrrockitt]

I have tried to like WC over the years, I still have the Amiga version. It's a horrible disk swapping nightmare of a conversion and it's horribly slow compared to the other versions. It's not a slate on Chris Robert's though, I've enjoyed many of his other games and I was rather hoping to be playing Arena Commander today :-( I just get annoyed when people tell me how great Wing Commander was, I wonder if they actually played it back in the day or later on Playstation or GOG? If they remember trying to move the red pixel into the middle of the scanner and shooting balls at a flick animation of a pix-elated ship and pressing 'A' to see a cut scene of ships in auto-pilot over..and..over.. and desperately trying to get the FMV in Wing Commander III to render at a decent frame rate, having to play through the boring first ten minutes of game before an option screen became available that let you change the video to black & white in a desperate attempt to get a 386 Amstrad PC to run it at a decent pace. To be fair, Frontier didn't exactly run smoothly on an Amiga 500 either

I also had WC on an Amiga A500 too but I later upgraded to an A1200 and it actually looked better and ran quite smoothly on there as did Frontier. But WC still wasn't very good!

 

[Asmodi]

As said its an "Age thing". And also one that you had to experience in the early 80's on a BBC or a Speccy 48k.

You will get a lot of people that will have bought a Speccy etc in the 90's and played Elite and raved about it to be cool but those players are like your WOW players that go back and do old content 10 levels on as they weren't good enough to do it when it first came out.
I think those who were 12 to 17 in the early / mid 80's will understand me.
The rest? I just don't think you will no matter how I try and explain it.

If we are being frank the game was wired framed blackness and nothing else. So what made me sit for 57 hours one weekend playing it?
I think several things.
It was a space sim. The short story was fantastic and the first time you got the crap kicked out of you by the Thargoids just made you want to get back in the seat and exact revenge. The whole trading thing was good too.

But for me it was 2 memorable moments.
Sun Going Nova
Trumbles Ah yes the Cute Furry Trumbles ....Little B$%t$rds....I fell for it twice

2 and 3 were major let downs for me. They really were. Horrible buggy affairs and not worthy of the titles of follow ups.

 

[Alric]

I guess I'm more Wing Commander age than Elite - a friend had Elite on his BBC but I never owned it. I played Wing Commander on Amiga though and then sequels on PC and enjoyed them a lot. Certainly a classic.

Frontier, though, was the definitive game for me. That set the bar that has yet to be topped. One of, if not the, best game ever created. I wouldn't put any other space sim or dogfighting game even in the running.

 

[Asmodi]

I guess I'm more Wing Commander age than Elite - a friend had Elite on his BBC but I never owned it. I played Wing Commander on Amiga though and then sequels on PC and enjoyed them a lot. Certainly a classic.

Frontier, though, was the definitive game for me. That set the bar that has yet to be topped. One of, if not the, best game ever created. I wouldn't put any other space sim or dogfighting game even in the running.

Have you never tried Freelancer and the bucket load of Mods that were released?
Some of those were and still are pretty mind blowing considering they were done on peoples spare time.
I still have a couple that I play back and forth.

 

[Corvino]

Judging from the "How Old Are Us Pledgers" thread I'm in the youngest 10%, at a hardly youthful 28. I well remember early-to-mid 90s games including Frontier: Elite II though I never had a chance to play it. The influence of it is hard to ignore though, and every space sim since has borrowed elements from Elite. Trading, Fighting and Exploring as the cornerstones of the genre were codified in Elite.

Many people only have a superficial understanding of where things come from. They hear a modern rock band and think it's entirely unique and novel, not looking backward and seeing the roots of things. Without Rhythm & Blues you'd never have Rock & Roll, without which you wouldn't have modern rock, punk, metal or associated genres. Understanding of the history of gaming seems similar. People are limited by their own experience and rarely look backwards for understanding.

 

[Iskariot]

Do people know Elite 1 - 3 exist?

I have no idea what you are talking about. What is it you said? .... Elite?

 

[Devil]

As said its an "Age thing". And also one that you had to experience in the early 80's on a BBC or a Speccy 48k.

You will get a lot of people that will have bought a Speccy etc in the 90's and played Elite and raved about it to be cool but those players are like your WOW players that go back and do old content 10 levels on as they weren't good enough to do it when it first came out.
I think those who were 12 to 17 in the early / mid 80's will understand me.
The rest? I just don't think you will no matter how I try and explain it.

If we are being frank the game was wired framed blackness and nothing else. So what made me sit for 57 hours one weekend playing it?
I think several things.
It was a space sim. The short story was fantastic and the first time you got the crap kicked out of you by the Thargoids just made you want to get back in the seat and exact revenge. The whole trading thing was good too.

But for me it was 2 memorable moments.
Sun Going Nova
Trumbles Ah yes the Cute Furry Trumbles ....Little B$%t$rds....I fell for it twice

2 and 3 were major let downs for me. They really were. Horrible buggy affairs and not worthy of the titles of follow ups.

Ah yes the Cute Furry Trumbles ....Little B$%t$rds....

Cute furry and first thing on my kill list, revenge time. Come to think about this, we could have a mission, to the trumble home world.

Im sure it would catch out anyone who is not OLD.