Elite / Frontier Elite on iPhone/iPad/Android?

[Fermats Folly]

There's another current thread on Elite on iPad: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3422 and an older one: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1923

Would be good if they could be merged!

 

[Roberius]

I had that for a while and it was a good port, I assume it was pulled due to it being a bit too close to the original?

It is definately an Elite clone, programmed specifically for Apple iOS. To be frank, it is a superb app, far better than anything else out there.

The tablet market is going to be huge potential for retro games which in my opinion, an iOS or Android version of Frontier Elite would be a massive seller if Frontier Developments consider entering the world of tablet computers.

This would ensure the lasting playability of Elite & Frontier to continue long into the future.

 

[Fermats Folly]

The tablet market is going to be huge potential for retro games which in my opinion, an iOS or Android version of Frontier Elite would be a massive seller if Frontier Developments consider entering the world of tablet computers.

I agree. I'm sure I saw a recent comment (ie during the KS period) from David B suggesting that they are going to look at this. However, I suspect Frontier are going to be occupied with something else for a while!

 

[BacchusZA]

I'm going to be going a little off-topic here, so my apologies in advance - particularly if this has already been discussed elsewhere - but this seemed the closest existing thread to what I had in mind.

What I'm thinking about isn't so much running Elite: Dangerous on either an Apple or Android tablet, but rather using a tablet as an adjunctive device to your platform of choice while playing.

Essentially what I'm thinking of is http://bit-shift.com/icontroldcs/index.html, but for Elite: Dangerous. Obviously we have no idea what the interface is going to look like, what information and instrumentation displays, and what ship management systems are going to be modeled, so it could be something like this would be entirely superfluous. But in the event that it proves to be something that could work in the game, I'd like to ask anyone here who does development for Android, IPad & so on to start thinking about how they'd do it

EDIT

I did a little more thorough searching, and I see what I'm describing above is in the Feature Request thread, so never mind, I'm sure the right people have seen the request there

 

[Sir.Tj]

Merged threads as they are all on the same subject.

 

[Jason S]

I would like a version of ED on the ipad and Android tablets.

FD will do it one day, by then it may be the ipad 8 and extreme Android tablets and will be able to have the graphics to do it justice too ?

The latest ipad does graphics as good or better than the original xbox and the original HALO looked sweet, so I am hopeful going forward a few years what can be done.

 

[Kerrash]

I would be happy with simple tie in apps to alert me of events.

 

[Laton]

Galaxy on Fire 2 is a good time waster. Similar idea to Elite. Take a small ship with a few credits, trade, fight, steal, mine, mission your way to bigger and badder ships with equipment slots and weapon hardpoints. There is a story with an arc of missions but you can ignore that for the most part. It looks and sounds beautiful. Only about 2 dozen systems to explore though. It packs a lot into a mobile game though.

I'd love to see a companion app to E: D though, as others have said. Have notifications when stuff happens. Something to have open while I'm playing for reference. Maybe favourite trade routes which I can save records of. Basically so that I can still have my mind in the Elite universe while I'm at work is what I'm saying (or when I'm at home and the wife wants to talk to me)

 

[Fermats Folly]

A companion app is a nice idea. Especially with access to maps of places been, any discoveries made by other players etc. Basically a subset of the info available in-game but without your ship being active.

I suspect the latest tablets are pretty close to having enough power to run the full game, although input could be interesting!

 

[RobFisher]

Ok I haven't read the whole of this thread but Beebdroid for Android has the BBC version ready to play. Very nostalgic, but now I remember why docking was so difficult...

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Ok I haven't read the whole of this thread but Beebdroid for Android has the BBC version ready to play. Very nostalgic, but now I remember why docking was so difficult...

OOOoooohhh they've got Chuckie egg. And Frak! and ... I had every one of the games that Beebdroid show in their advert. Ah, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. But it's damn close.

 

[RobFisher]

I'm finding the keyboard controls on Elite on Beebdroid a bit of a pain. For some reason the physical (netbook-sized) keyboard on my Asus Padfone does not work.

However now I am playing FE2 on Android thanks to the DOSBox DOS emulator on Android. I downloaded the Frontierverse version and it seems to work fine. It's nearly perfect but touchpad mouse control is not good. I can't imagine combat with the keyboard working out too well. I might be able to manage some safe trading, though.

One thing I find is the autopilot sucks - probably because the frame rate is not quite the same as on a real PC. The fastest time acceleration obviously cheats, though, and that seems to get around it.

I can probably manage to do some completely safe trade routes like this.

When I first played FE2, did I think I would one day be able to play it on a pocket computer -- on some level, yes, but my 1990s self would still be pretty amazed by what I am doing now...

Edit: ok, the right mouse button can be configured by reconfiguring the back key (which is how Android treats the right mouse button). Using a real USB mouse it seems pretty authentic. A bigger problem is that the backspace key does not slow the ship down. Is that really the only way to slow down?

 

[Selezen]

I'm not sure how well a version of Frontier or FFE would work on a small touchscreen. Tilting isn't the most foirgiving of control methods and a big finger on the screen tends to obscure much of the play area, especially on phone-sized screens.

"Unknown" was an Elite-alike for the iPhone and iPad and although it was very good, the controls could be a bit over-sensitive for things like docking.

Would there be any way to alleviate that?

 

[DarkTrancer]

There are so many ways to play elite/frontiers on android, there was a 3d space game that was a port of the gba (controls were tilt based), but there is an emulator for every system you could want to play said games on.
Also factor in that it is simple to setup a gamepad (even xbox 360 and ps3 work on my nexus 7) and you can have a very good session
No need to root you droid either.

 

[Sir.Tj]

There are so many ways to play elite/frontiers on android, there was a 3d space game that was a port of the gba (controls were tilt based), but there is an emulator for every system you could want to play said games on.
Also factor in that it is simple to setup a gamepad (even xbox 360 and ps3 work on my nexus 7) and you can have a very good session
No need to root you droid either.

You intrigue me with this

How would you go about using a Xbox controller with an android tablet?

 

[Skyman]

Speaking of handheld ports:

I think it's awful, awful, awful, demoniac even, that mr. Braben doesn't permit the Palm OS freeware version of Elite, which is just a port of a very old title that has little commercial value with the technologies of today. What is up with that??

Seriously, what is it? Intellectual property narcissism? Give me a break: we're talking light-years in Elite, while copyrights last a mere 120 years or so.


Tribble

This made me think, did anyone play Pocket PC Elite? http://www.eliteppc.com/ Was in Beta format for a while before it was removed from the web?

 

[Thexx25]

Nowadays, i'm playing two different versions of the original Elite on my hacked PSP GO, with a Game Boy Advance Emulator : Elite and Elite A !

Both are great, and close in the aspect, but with a lot of differences in the gameplay and features !

I'm still looking for some playable version of Frontier on PSP emulator (amiga version, maybe ?) but the original Elite is still a great great (X10) game !!

You can easily find some nice GBA emulator for Android and I-stuff... If you want to play Elite on mobile phones, i suggest you to try these two versions of the original game : the GBA console only got 4 buttons (2 buttons and 2 triggers), and the game is much more playable than an emulated computer version !

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

How would you go about using a Xbox controller with an android tablet?

Nexus 7:

• Wireless: Video & Blog : Need root access though.
  
• Wired: Blog

 

[A. Watson]

Why is no one talking about this?

Resurrecting a dead thread here, but I just thought I would draw attention to such a fantastic idea. The original Elite should totally be ported to mobile. If the controls worked right, it would be fantastic!

 

[mcdaymo]

Resurrecting a dead thread here, but I just thought I would draw attention to such a fantastic idea. The original Elite should totally be ported to mobile. If the controls worked right, it would be fantastic!

Unknown a 3d space game is back in the store pretty much the original elite type game