Elite / Frontier Elite - Amiga Version - Detail questions
- Thread starter Stardust
- Start date
68k source code
I guessed as much. It's rather an honour to think somebody took the time to disassemble it. I really do wish I'd kept the 5.25" disks with the source code on. I can see them clearly in my head. Amiga & ST. I think it was written on a Sirius-1 PC clone using a cross-assembler:
http://oldcomputers.net/victor9000.html
Cheers, Rob.
I guessed as much. It's rather an honour to think somebody took the time to disassemble it. I really do wish I'd kept the 5.25" disks with the source code on. I can see them clearly in my head. Amiga & ST. I think it was written on a Sirius-1 PC clone using a cross-assembler:
http://oldcomputers.net/victor9000.html
Cheers, Rob.
Wow, Rob... Thanks for joining in this thread!!
By now, thanks to the great community here, nearly all of my original questions have been answered. And I, at least, have learnt a lot. Now it's even more fun to play the old Elite again on the emulator
. I think you did an awesome job!
Philipp
Oh, P.s.: Did you ever get the facebook message I sent "you" (or the Rob Nicholson I thought it likeliest to be you)?
By now, thanks to the great community here, nearly all of my original questions have been answered. And I, at least, have learnt a lot. Now it's even more fun to play the old Elite again on the emulator
. I think you did an awesome job! Philipp
Oh, P.s.: Did you ever get the facebook message I sent "you" (or the Rob Nicholson I thought it likeliest to be you)?
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My compliments on the code quality. You mentioned that you didn't know much about 3D back then but the code shows a deep knowledge. Your register allocation scheme when calling subroutines had me a bit perplexed however
Anyway, it was reverse-engineered to make an iPhone port running in a VM with various graphical and touch screen enhancements, but unfortunately it can't be publicly released.
Oh, P.s.: Did you ever get the facebook message I sent "you" (or the Rob Nicholson I thought it likeliest to be you)?
Not that I can recall. This is me:
https://www.facebook.com/rob.nicholson.3979
Cheers, Rob.
I knew nothing about 3D before starting the Elite conversion ;-) I did electrical engineering at university and there was just enough math there to get me kickstarted. As I said, I was really helped on the maths side by my friend Alex King. We did proof of concept of the 3D on an Amstrad CPC.
Your register allocation scheme when calling subroutines had me a bit perplexed however
I've always been a fan of OOPs even at assembler level. Guess what's why I transferred to C++ easily. Can't remember what my register allocation scheme was. The 68k was a lovely chip though. Much preferred it over the awful 8088 architecture in the memory-flawed PC. Same reason I preferred the 6502 over the Z80 and went completely mad over the Alpha Risc chip which I never used but read the manual (yes I know sad). I often thought that the world would have been a better place if the Motorola architecture had won over the Intel one.
The only coding I do these days is in VB.NET and C# for web apps.
That's a shame - would be good to see the old girl on my phone. Any chance for the Android? I'm not a big Apple fan - too controlling for me.
Cheers, Rob.
Stardust, I told you this wasn't him and that you should consider yourself lucky he didn't reply
https://www.facebook.com/rob.nicholson.1829
Re: Android version, no plans myself but maybe someone else here...
https://www.facebook.com/rob.nicholson.1829
Re: Android version, no plans myself but maybe someone else here...
LOL - who posts like that!!
Geraldine, thanks for your links. Unfortunately, I already knew about them... But obviously, I also know that my questions are very specific, so I wasn't too optimistic about answers
I read "somewhere" that the original Amiga sources had previously been made public; but the thread in which that was discussed was long dead and so, unfortunately, I couldn't peruse the sources for answers, either... Maybe someone still has them?!
Well, I'll just keep on looking...
I don't think the Amiga Elite source code was leaked as I was the only one who ever had it... and still do if we can read these:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36684956/IMAG0794.jpg
Cheers, Rob.
- - - Updated - - -
And yes I know I said they were lost but I found them again ;-)
Cheers, Rob.
[heart] *nostalgic feelings*
"Dysan - Precision Magnetic Media"!
Should be still functional...
Quick! Get them copied! I'm sure you must know someone who has an old machine with both 5.25 and 3.5 floppy drives, our even better USB, then onto something more permanent.
Quick!
Hi,
I just found this thread and I am fascinated by all the details you could dig out. I have played the Amiga 500 version for ages and I am very glad to find now the numbers behind all the work.
I have made screenshots of all missions in WinUAE, I will post them here.
Mission 1 - Kill the Constrictor
I just found this thread and I am fascinated by all the details you could dig out. I have played the Amiga 500 version for ages and I am very glad to find now the numbers behind all the work.
I have made screenshots of all missions in WinUAE, I will post them here.
Mission 1 - Kill the Constrictor
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Mission 3 - The Supernova
The mission starts directly after a hyperjump when the screen turns red and your fuel tank reads zero (Apollo 13?)
You must now fly to the sun and and use your fuel scoop first to be able to pass the mission.
After having refulled at the sun and flying all the way back to the station, you get a help requset
If you say "Yes" when asked...
...your cargo gets replaced with "unhappy refugees", so sell your valubale cargo BEFORE the mission starts
The station has no fuel to sell, so if you have not fuel scoop'ed you are basically dead right now...
If you have fuel, select a target system before leaving the station and press H immediately to leave the system after leaving the station.
When you arrive at the next space station the civilians thank you
If you say "No" when asked, the civilians are not so happy
The supernova a few seconds before (your) death...if you have no fuel at all or if you have pressed H to late
The reward is 1kg Gem stomes (=1000g) which equals to about 22k credits
The mission starts directly after a hyperjump when the screen turns red and your fuel tank reads zero (Apollo 13?)
You must now fly to the sun and and use your fuel scoop first to be able to pass the mission.
After having refulled at the sun and flying all the way back to the station, you get a help requset
If you say "Yes" when asked...
...your cargo gets replaced with "unhappy refugees", so sell your valubale cargo BEFORE the mission starts
The station has no fuel to sell, so if you have not fuel scoop'ed you are basically dead right now...
If you have fuel, select a target system before leaving the station and press H immediately to leave the system after leaving the station.
When you arrive at the next space station the civilians thank you
If you say "No" when asked, the civilians are not so happy
The supernova a few seconds before (your) death...if you have no fuel at all or if you have pressed H to late
The reward is 1kg Gem stomes (=1000g) which equals to about 22k credits
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Mission 4 - The Cougar
The mission briefing warns you...
...and from this moment on ALL planetary descriptions are replaced with a new text
The Cougar always comes in a wing with 2 Asps (they are easy kills, just use a missile each). The Cougar itself turns "invisible" every other 10 seconds when it will disappear from radar and your lasers will miss.
Pick up the cargo canister to mount the cloaking device. Be careful when shooting the Cougar, once I shot the Cargo canister after killing it (too trigger-happy).
The cloaking device drains your main energy but you become invisible (=enemy ships stop firing)
One (of the few) screenshots of the uncloaked Cougar
The mission briefing warns you...
...and from this moment on ALL planetary descriptions are replaced with a new text
The Cougar always comes in a wing with 2 Asps (they are easy kills, just use a missile each). The Cougar itself turns "invisible" every other 10 seconds when it will disappear from radar and your lasers will miss.
Pick up the cargo canister to mount the cloaking device. Be careful when shooting the Cougar, once I shot the Cargo canister after killing it (too trigger-happy).
The cloaking device drains your main energy but you become invisible (=enemy ships stop firing)
One (of the few) screenshots of the uncloaked Cougar
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Mission 5 - Thargoid Space Station
Mission briefing. I recommend flying to a peaceful system, since the Thargoid waves seem to be based on the same calculation like "regular" attacks.
Approaching the (beautiful) Alien space station. Note that there are civilian craft leaving the station (like from regular Coriolis stations) until you open fire. From then on, the station spits out a new Thargoid vessel every 10 seconds or so.
The reward is the ECM jammer which enables your missiles to even destroy Thargoids (fun). When used together with the cloaking device you switch to some kind of 'God-Mode' since nothing can kill you and you can kill everything, but the energy drain is rather hefty so you can keep this state only for a few seconds.
The fully equipped Cobra after completing all missions yay
Mission briefing. I recommend flying to a peaceful system, since the Thargoid waves seem to be based on the same calculation like "regular" attacks.
Approaching the (beautiful) Alien space station. Note that there are civilian craft leaving the station (like from regular Coriolis stations) until you open fire. From then on, the station spits out a new Thargoid vessel every 10 seconds or so.
The reward is the ECM jammer which enables your missiles to even destroy Thargoids (fun). When used together with the cloaking device you switch to some kind of 'God-Mode' since nothing can kill you and you can kill everything, but the energy drain is rather hefty so you can keep this state only for a few seconds.
The fully equipped Cobra after completing all missions
yay
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Right on Commander BlastDuke!
o7
o7
I hope you all enjoy the screenies as I do..so many good memories..
It's amazing that after all this years I now have found the secret of the "mission triggering" in this thread:
I just tried it on WinUAE and it is indeed possible to get the 1st mission in galaxy #2 while still being "Harmless"...must be fun to kill the Constrictor with a Pulse laser
The "trick" to master the 2nd mission "Thargoid documents" using the Escape Shuttle is known to me - and I used it myself, because the mission is soo hard otherwise.
My self-developed strategy to survive the Thargoid waves in this mission is to mount a rear-faced Beam/Military laser.
In combat, fly full speed AWAY from the enemies and use your rear gunner position. This gives you WAY more time to kill them before they reach you.
This is also my preferred tactic to survive in witch-space or when facing multiple Wolf MkII's...
(on Amiga I just rotate the Competition Pro joystick 180 degrees to make targeting easier when shooting from the rear gunner position)
It's amazing that after all this years I now have found the secret of the "mission triggering" in this thread:
I just tried it on WinUAE and it is indeed possible to get the 1st mission in galaxy #2 while still being "Harmless"...must be fun to kill the Constrictor with a Pulse laser
The "trick" to master the 2nd mission "Thargoid documents" using the Escape Shuttle is known to me - and I used it myself, because the mission is soo hard otherwise.
My self-developed strategy to survive the Thargoid waves in this mission is to mount a rear-faced Beam/Military laser.
In combat, fly full speed AWAY from the enemies and use your rear gunner position. This gives you WAY more time to kill them before they reach you.
This is also my preferred tactic to survive in witch-space or when facing multiple Wolf MkII's...
(on Amiga I just rotate the Competition Pro joystick 180 degrees to make targeting easier when shooting from the rear gunner position)
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