Elite / Frontier FFE Shareware Plus

[Hooplah]

Greetings,

Years ago I was one of the sites to provide a mirror site for The Elite Club downloads page. This put the games on a server in California, thus faster downloads across the pond. They are still located at:

The Elite Club Downloads

The USA Mirror

However playing FFE requires an older PC running DOS and patch files. Playing on Windows PCs required additional patches, modifications of the config.sys and autoexec.bat files, memory adjustments, etc. Then programming literate fans developed upgrades to repair the original bugs in the game as well as improve the graphics and gameplay. All of this of course started occurring five minutes after FFE was relased in 1995!

So why not just put a package together incorporating what is needed to play the game today using the official SHAREWARE version of FFE? Thus this was accomplished including all the patches and the additional versions of JJFFE and FFED3D. You can access them by going to my home page and click on the blue button at:

The FFE Art Page

Also scroll down the page as there are additional requirements per Microsoft DirectX, Adobe Reader, etc.

Both games have tested successfully on XP and Vista. However given all the different software and hardware configurations, there can always be additional problems. So be sure to email me per problems and solutions which I will update.

Also note that Frontier Developments Ltd. does not support JJFFE or FFED3D, nor any support documents and files included in this package, any further additions that you may install, and with the exception of the Mirror page is not affiliated in any way with The FFE Art Page. So don't bug them if you have issues.

As FFE is still legally SHAREWARE, please be kind and mail in the £5 Pounds Sterling ($8.23 US Dollars, 5.23 Euros) to:

Frontier Developments Ltd.
306 Science Park
Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 0WG
England, UK

Note that the old company address in the included license is no longer valid.

Now, if the several hundred thousand players who downloaded the game and didn't send in the shareware fee would do so, then maybe Frontier Developments will see that the fans are serious, get excited, and speed up the completion of Elite IV!

Best Regards,
George

The FFE Art Page
E-Mail

 

[Steve]

Nice work, George

A quick reminder; the BUFFET trainer doesn't work with FFED3D. Save game files are interchangeable between all versions of FFE however, so you can always use BUFFET in JJFFE to change something, save the game and then load that game into FFED3D. It's a bit long-winded, but it works.

 

[Hooplah]

Geetings,

> A quick reminder; the BUFFET trainer doesn't work with FFED3D. <

Yes, this is covered in the introducion.pdf file. Also the mouse cursor not pointing to a button in Vista is also covered. I'll add more solutions and updated patch files as they occur.

So did my first thread scared many off? Is Shareware an issue? My intention was to cover the legal issues, then allow the player to easily install the game. This is minor compared the the skills needed to play the game!

So send me your comments, install issues, and whatever.

Best Regards,
George