Elite 1984 - porting the game to Nintendo Switch

[foxking]

Hi all!
I want to contact the developers:
Please port Elite 1984 to Nintendo Switch
I'm sure it would be a good idea since my generation (who played this game) has grown up and most have a Nintendo Switch.
I'm happy to pay $50 to play this game on the Nintendo Switch!
The cover of the cartridge, please, like the cover of the game on an audio cassette, like in the good old days!
(If you also add modern voice acting for shots, hyperjump to this port, it will be super!)

Sincerely!
Alex

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

I think the devs have gone as far as they are gona go via the pc & linux version
cant see them developing for the Nintendo switch tbh so good luck with that suggestion...…………………….

 

[foxking]

I think the devs have gone as far as they are gona go via the pc & linux version
cant see them developing for the Nintendo switch tbh so good luck with that suggestion...…………………….

I don't think adapting an old game to the Nintendo Switch would take a lot of man hours.

 

[Morbad]

L4T Ubuntu - A fully featured linux on your switch

L4T Ubuntu Intro L4T Ubuntu is a version of Linux based on nvidia's linux for tegra project. It uses a different kernel compared to previous releases which allows it to use features not yet in mainline. Such as audio, docking support and vulkan. Join our discord: https://discord.gg/53mtKYt We...

gbatemp.net

(or some other distro)

Then emulate the version of Elite you want to play.

I don't think adapting an old game to the Nintendo Switch would take a lot of man hours.

'Not a lot' and 'way too many for FDev to devote to this', are almost synonymous!

 

[foxking]

L4T Ubuntu - A fully featured linux on your switch

L4T Ubuntu Intro L4T Ubuntu is a version of Linux based on nvidia's linux for tegra project. It uses a different kernel compared to previous releases which allows it to use features not yet in mainline. Such as audio, docking support and vulkan. Join our discord: https://discord.gg/53mtKYt We...

gbatemp.net

(or some other distro)

Then emulate the version of Elite you want to play.



'Not a lot' and 'way too many for FDev to devote to this', are almost synonymous!

I don't want to dance with tambourines,
I don't want to install various additional software, poking around in the settings for a couple of hours.
I want to buy a cartridge with a nice label, insert this cartridge into the console and enjoy the game.
The target audience of this game (Elite 1984) is 40 year old adults dreaming about space!
I'm sure most of these people will buy this game.
I would even buy a new Nintendo Switch oled if it comes in a limited edition with the logo of the legendary Elite.

 

[Arioch]

I don't want to dance with tambourines,
I don't want to install various additional software, poking around in the settings for a couple of hours.
I want to buy a cartridge with a nice label, insert this cartridge into the console and enjoy the game.
The target audience of this game (Elite 1984) is 40 year old adults dreaming about space!
I'm sure most of these people will buy this game.
I would even buy a new Nintendo Switch oled if it comes in a limited edition with the logo of the legendary Elite.

I wouldn’t want to make any assumptions about our generation and Switch ownership (I don’t own one but occasionally borrow my daughter’s) but I’d be confident in assuming a native port of original-flavour Elite is never going to happen. I’d also want to assume our generation wouldn’t be averse to “getting our hands dirty” with a few technical shenanigans seeing as we grew up with proper computers, but that would be me projecting

Personally*, I’d go down the route of installing custom firmware on the Switch then installing a ZX Spectrum emulator - if the image you posted was intentionally the Speccy version, then I’d like to point you towards what I consider to be the best 8-bit version of Elite: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-legend-zx-spectrum-2021-best-8-bit-elite.596176/

I’ve been playing this version daily for over a year now (a trade run or two per day, just right for a short session) and it is superb - without the inherent slow-down of the original version, combat is much more dangerous! I’m also looking forward to discovering things hinted at but never included in the original - Generation Ships, Space Platforms, and even…Raxxla

*though the actual route I went was spending £180 on an 8” Android tablet + 8Bitdo SNES-style controller - which enables me to play Elite & Frontier: Elite 2 as well as a host of my old games across various platforms that are currently sat in boxes in the attic

 

[foxking]

Personally*, I’d go down the route of installing custom firmware on the Switch then installing a ZX Spectrum emulator - if the image you posted was intentionally the Speccy version, then I’d like to point you towards what I consider to be the best 8-bit version of Elite: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-legend-zx-spectrum-2021-best-8-bit-elite.596176/

For hacking the console software - you can get banned, lose your entire library of games and lose the ability to play online

 

[foxking]

I wouldn’t want to make any assumptions about our generation and Switch ownership (I don’t own one but occasionally borrow my daughter’s) but I’d be confident in assuming a native port of original-flavour Elite is never going to happen. I’d also want to assume our generation wouldn’t be averse to “getting our hands dirty” with a few technical shenanigans seeing as we grew up with proper computers, but that would be me projecting

In fairness - your daughter didn’t buy this console herself, but you bought it for her, so you have a console

If the developers of the game make a Nintendo Switch port, I hope they add modern retro music and game sounds (8bit or 16bit).
Also, I hope that in the future a couple of add-ons will be released for the game, greatly expanding the possibilities of the game, for example, new events, new galaxies, new alien races and ship weapons.
Within the framework of this game, it is not difficult to do this, this is 1 week of work for a senior game developer.

 

[Arioch]

In fairness - your daughter didn’t buy this console herself, but you bought it for her, so you have a console

If the developers of the game make a Nintendo Switch port, I hope they add modern retro music and game sounds (8bit or 16bit).
Also, I hope that in the future a couple of add-ons will be released for the game, greatly expanding the possibilities of the game, for example, new events, new galaxies, new alien races and ship weapons.
Within the framework of this game, it is not difficult to do this, this is 1 week of work for a senior game developer.

In fairness - my daughter is 24 and bought her own Switch last year and I only occasionally borrow it when she’s at work

I think your estimate of the amount of work needed to expand the original game is wildly off - the modder behind the Speccy 128k version I linked released the initial version (after an unknown amount getting to that stage) in November 2021 and their “final” version at the end of October 2022. I’m willing to bet that the amount of time they spent coding it was longer than about a week’s worth of work.

 

[foxking]

In fairness - my daughter is 24 and bought her own Switch last year and I only occasionally borrow it when she’s at work

I hope that the developers will read my request and give us all a gift - they will release Elite 1984 Remaster for Nintendo Switch
(+ 2-3 dlc)

 

[MickyG1982]

There are places that you can play it in browser however.

Not sure I can place the link here though but a search for Elite coupled with the word Abandonware will bring up said site.

 

[foxking]

There are places that you can play it in browser however.

How to play Elite on Nintendo Switch through a browser?

 

[Rubbernuke]

jsbeeb - Javascript BBC Micro emulator

A Javascript BBC Micro emulator

bbc.godbolt.org

 

[MickyG1982]

How to play Elite on Nintendo Switch through a browser?

The switch has an internet browser doesn't it?

 

[DrinkyBird]

How to play Elite on Nintendo Switch through a browser?

The Switch has no official browser app. You can however access a browser by using a custom DNS server that opens the browser used for captive portals. It's not a reliable method though, and you have to trust that whoever runs the DNS won't store the domains you go to or sneakily override them.

Also a lot of people in this thread don't realise that running custom firmware on a Switch is difficult unless you have a really early manufactured unit or want to spend money, time, and effort on a modchip.

 

[foxking]

The Switch has no official browser app. You can however access a browser by using a custom DNS server that opens the browser used for captive portals. It's not a reliable method though, and you have to trust that whoever runs the DNS won't store the domains you go to or sneakily override them.

Also a lot of people in this thread don't realise that running custom firmware on a Switch is difficult unless you have a really early manufactured unit or want to spend money, time, and effort on a modchip.

I don’t understand why I’m offered to play in the browser when the topic of my post is porting the game to the console ...

 

[DrinkyBird]

I don’t understand why I’m offered to play in the browser when the topic of my post is porting the game to the console ...

Because no one here has a Switch apparently, and internet people have a habit of attempting to correct people even when presented with just an idea. (Even I do it sometimes.) That's probably because a Switch port of Elite is unlikely to happen though to be frank.

 

[Arioch]

For hacking the console software - you can get banned, lose your entire library of games and lose the ability to play online

True - I’ll hold my hands up to using CFW on my PSP & NDS so I wasn’t carting around all my UMDs & carts while I was away from home, but as I didn’t use my handhelds online it was never an issue for me. I can see it being much more of an issue with a modern console as they’re tied into being online much more.

I’d suggest then the solution I took in my post above - an Android tablet & Bluetooth controller (though I have successfully tried using Joycons with it, which is how I played Frontier First Encounters recently - Joycon in my left hand, wireless mouse in the other). I’m enjoying lots of the games I used to play on GBA, PSP, NDS, ZX Speccy, MSDOS, and PS1 and often with graphical enhancements

 

[foxking]

True - I’ll hold my hands up to using CFW on my PSP & NDS so I wasn’t carting around all my UMDs & carts while I was away from home, but as I didn’t use my handhelds online it was never an issue for me. I can see it being much more of an issue with a modern console as they’re tied into being online much more.

I’d suggest then the solution I took in my post above - an Android tablet & Bluetooth controller (though I have successfully tried using Joycons with it, which is how I played Frontier First Encounters recently - Joycon in my left hand, wireless mouse in the other). I’m enjoying lots of the games I used to play on GBA, PSP, NDS, ZX Speccy, MSDOS, and PS1 and often with graphical enhancements

Yes, an android tablet might have solved the problem, but I hope that for the Nintendo Switch the game will be slightly supplemented with content and modern sounds.

 

[Markov Chaney]

I don't believe the Nintendo Web Framework supports WebAssembly anyway, so even the "in a browser" version of Elite would not work in a simple browser wrapper on Switch deployed as an app.

I don't think adapting an old game to the Nintendo Switch would take a lot of man hours.

Switch development almost exclusively takes place in the Unity framework, and that means C#. C# was released in 2000, so for anything written earlier than that, you will need to reverse engineer and start from scratch.

There has already been one reverse-engineering effort, which I am not going to mention by name here; that was written in C, so you could maybe port that code to Unity plug-ins and then stitch the gaps up with C# and the framework. Does that sounds like a week's work to you? (It was widely ported to other platforms, too...)

And there is a complete reimplementation out there too, written in Objective-C, which might be a little bit closer to what you need, but I am not sure you'd win THAT much time using that as a base for Unity dev. It was a struggle to get it off Mac and onto PC in the first place.

Plus one of the original developers says Arch and SNES were the best versions; and the other developer owns this here forum. You'd need them both to bless this idea and bless the idea of letting the absolutely most litigious gaming company in history (Nintendo!) have the rights to run this on their platform. I'd say that's about five years of Development Hell right there before you cut a single line of code.

Nice idea though...