How many "Eighty Fours" are out there?
- Thread starter ElectricZ
- Start date
I first played the game on a 48K ZX Spectrum (think it was called a Timex 1000 in the USA?). I was 30 years young at the time. Played it all the way to Elite using a Kemston joystick, the one with 2 big buttons on the front. My display was an old 12 inch portable B/W TV. I loaded the game off a tape using a tape recorder. Took forever and you just prayed that something would not go wrong before it was loaded.
My next Elite venture came when I had an Atari ST, colour monitor, game loading from a floppy disk. No more wire frame graphics, but shaded colour graphics. Compared to the Spectrum days, it was all quiet amazing. Again I took myself from mostly harmless to Elite.
Now playing Elite Dangerous, nothing short of jaw dropping. I don't know if I will ever proudly wear a shiny Elite badge again, but it will not be for the want of trying.
You know in some martial arts, they start as red belts and then go beyond black belts to 6th/7th Dan etc. But when the older guys reach their late sixties early seventies they go back to wearing a red belt. Maybe I should do that
What can I say about the game that's not been said before. I love it and am delighted to be playing it again. If you see me somewhere, be gentle with me lol
My next Elite venture came when I had an Atari ST, colour monitor, game loading from a floppy disk. No more wire frame graphics, but shaded colour graphics. Compared to the Spectrum days, it was all quiet amazing. Again I took myself from mostly harmless to Elite.
Now playing Elite Dangerous, nothing short of jaw dropping. I don't know if I will ever proudly wear a shiny Elite badge again, but it will not be for the want of trying.
You know in some martial arts, they start as red belts and then go beyond black belts to 6th/7th Dan etc. But when the older guys reach their late sixties early seventies they go back to wearing a red belt. Maybe I should do that
What can I say about the game that's not been said before. I love it and am delighted to be playing it again. If you see me somewhere, be gentle with me lol
first played it on a friends BBC and then later bought it myself on a ZX Spectrum.
I think I reached Elite status, not 100% sure though.
I think I reached Elite status, not 100% sure though.
Best he doesn't ask how your homework suffered with the first one.
Thankfully I was in Final year of Highschool then, and had parents that were just as strict
sounds like a good name for a faction/guild/corp/.. whatever.. "The Eighty-Fours"!!
C64 in 1985* for me. Spent countless hours playing on a 14" TV with my Kraftwerk LP`s playing in the background to provide some sort of theme music before I finally reached Elite status.
I still think of the Trans Europa Express song when I think of Elite. Guess it would have been more appropriate to play some Vangelis, but all I had was loads of punk and Bowie records, so Kraftwerk was the only futuristic sounding music I had.
Oh, and even back then the 15-20 minute load time on the non-turbo tape version was excruciating
*or was it 84? Bought it the moment it came out for the C64, but not sure when that was.
I still think of the Trans Europa Express song when I think of Elite. Guess it would have been more appropriate to play some Vangelis, but all I had was loads of punk and Bowie records, so Kraftwerk was the only futuristic sounding music I had.
Oh, and even back then the 15-20 minute load time on the non-turbo tape version was excruciating
*or was it 84? Bought it the moment it came out for the C64, but not sure when that was.
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GB Microland in Waterlooville was my local games store, spent most of the 80s and my pay checks in there, fondly remembered.
Konnichi Wa Electric Z
I turned 18 in that year, I played on a 48K ZX Spectrum, my tv was a 20" Colour, my controller was a Kempston joystick.
The thrill of climbing into the cockpit of my Cobra MKIII; seeking the best trade route, hoping there wouldn't be a hyperspace mis-jump, and that you would run into some pirates and score a big bounty! These were just the tip of the iceburg, of course! I could take up smuggling to the anarchy systems, pirating if a choice Anaconda/Boa/Python flew by, go prospecting, or jump a claim, long to see a Generation ship, save people from an exploding star. The options seemed endless, and all of this in a single player game. And now we will get to play in a living breathing universe filled with real pilots, not just some npc's; with new dreams and asperations in the exploration of Elite Dangerous.
Domo Arigato
I turned 18 in that year, I played on a 48K ZX Spectrum, my tv was a 20" Colour, my controller was a Kempston joystick.
The thrill of climbing into the cockpit of my Cobra MKIII; seeking the best trade route, hoping there wouldn't be a hyperspace mis-jump, and that you would run into some pirates and score a big bounty! These were just the tip of the iceburg, of course! I could take up smuggling to the anarchy systems, pirating if a choice Anaconda/Boa/Python flew by, go prospecting, or jump a claim, long to see a Generation ship, save people from an exploding star. The options seemed endless, and all of this in a single player game. And now we will get to play in a living breathing universe filled with real pilots, not just some npc's; with new dreams and asperations in the exploration of Elite Dangerous.
Domo Arigato
This one day, about 9 billion years ago, before I even had my OWN C64.... we spent the night at a friend, partying. Things you do when you are a teenager.
What I did NOT know that day was that my sis's boyfriend's little brother (they were a very rich family!) got an Acorn B as a Christmas present.
When we spent the night, after the party, I went up in that guest room to sleep. And I discovered this "Acorn BBC" COMPUTER hooked up to the TV!! It was connected to a cassette player/radio as well and there was some demo tape in it.
This was my first real "first-hand" experience with a "home computer", a year or two before I got my own C64.
This night where I explored this computer in this guest room for many hours under the roof was about to transform my life!
I am mentioning this since the Acorn B (Or BBC computer how they called it) was almost/literally unknown outside the UK. (I was in Germany at that time, there too you hardly heard about the BBC computer. It was all VC20 or C64, Spectrum etc.).
This BBC Acorn was a really sharp computer and I think it was miles-above the C64 even in terms of hardware...just saying...
Good times
What I did NOT know that day was that my sis's boyfriend's little brother (they were a very rich family!) got an Acorn B as a Christmas present.
When we spent the night, after the party, I went up in that guest room to sleep. And I discovered this "Acorn BBC" COMPUTER hooked up to the TV!! It was connected to a cassette player/radio as well and there was some demo tape in it.
This was my first real "first-hand" experience with a "home computer", a year or two before I got my own C64.
This night where I explored this computer in this guest room for many hours under the roof was about to transform my life!
I am mentioning this since the Acorn B (Or BBC computer how they called it) was almost/literally unknown outside the UK. (I was in Germany at that time, there too you hardly heard about the BBC computer. It was all VC20 or C64, Spectrum etc.).
This BBC Acorn was a really sharp computer and I think it was miles-above the C64 even in terms of hardware...just saying...
Good times
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The original Elite was the one that got me into gaming in a big way. Played it on a C64 with a tape drive. Ah that takes me back Really looking forward to playing Dangerous when it's ready for release, and can I just say what a pleasure it is reading these forums. So much more cordial than certain other space game forums
Really looking forward to playing Dangerous when it's ready for release, and can I just say what a pleasure it is reading these forums. So much more cordial than certain other space game forums I'm a veteran of the original BBC Micro B version. Loaded from tape (I think it loaded when the count got to about 50 - which I always thought was amazing as philosopher's quest went up to 72).
I had a Microvitec Cub monitor which I was very proud of - anyone remember these?
I played on keyboard only.
I got to dangerous.
I was 10 years old and it is still my best gaming experience.
My best friend Laurence could never dock. To this day, I still mock him about this. He is a very successful venture capitalist so guess he got the hang of trading with those docking computers that I earned for him.
I had a Microvitec Cub monitor which I was very proud of - anyone remember these?
I played on keyboard only.
I got to dangerous.
I was 10 years old and it is still my best gaming experience.
My best friend Laurence could never dock. To this day, I still mock him about this. He is a very successful venture capitalist so guess he got the hang of trading with those docking computers that I earned for him.
Waves hand!
I'm an eighty fourer!
I used to spend an unhealthy amount of time in my darkened bedroom playing Elite on my BBC Model B. It was one of the best games around on any of the PC's at the time and I was so proud that it was so good on the BBC Micro.
I remember the ever increasing number of ambushes the Thargoids placed on me in witchspace and got pretty good at killing them all. I also seem to remember a bug where I used to get stuck in witchspace afterwards and had to restart... but this only happened about 10% of the time.
Despite that, Elite was a firm favourite and I remember getting my letter and badge confirming I was Dangerous! Awesome.
I've only just recently joined and missed out on the expansion pack offer but I am completely loving this iteration of Elite. Well done team!
I'm an eighty fourer!
I used to spend an unhealthy amount of time in my darkened bedroom playing Elite on my BBC Model B. It was one of the best games around on any of the PC's at the time and I was so proud that it was so good on the BBC Micro.
I remember the ever increasing number of ambushes the Thargoids placed on me in witchspace and got pretty good at killing them all. I also seem to remember a bug where I used to get stuck in witchspace afterwards and had to restart... but this only happened about 10% of the time.
Despite that, Elite was a firm favourite and I remember getting my letter and badge confirming I was Dangerous! Awesome.
I've only just recently joined and missed out on the expansion pack offer but I am completely loving this iteration of Elite. Well done team!
Javert
Volunteer Moderator
Some people remember the moment that JFK died. I remember the first time I saw someone playing Elite in the computer room at Bradfield College in 1984 on BBC Model B. Strangely I didn't know it existed and had never heard of it up to that moment.
When I show the kids the screenshots of original Elite today and tell them this was the most amazing thing we had ever seen in 1984, they look at me like I am mad.
If I remember correctly, you had to have the disk drive version of Elite on BBC to have missions and a docking computer - the tape version didn't have that. That's in the time when you had to take out a mortgage to own a 330kb floppy disk drive - yes, that's a floppy disk drive not even a hard disk.
Cue much pestering of parents for disk controller and disk drive. Ctrl-Break ...Chain "Elite"... something like that.
Still, my enthusiasm for those early days of computing got me half a career in IT ,and counting.
The other great thing about ED is that as far as I can see, pretty much everything that was in the original Elite (and more) is already there and playable in the first Beta (apart from the limit to the number of systems you can visit).
cheers
Patrick.
When I show the kids the screenshots of original Elite today and tell them this was the most amazing thing we had ever seen in 1984, they look at me like I am mad.
If I remember correctly, you had to have the disk drive version of Elite on BBC to have missions and a docking computer - the tape version didn't have that. That's in the time when you had to take out a mortgage to own a 330kb floppy disk drive - yes, that's a floppy disk drive not even a hard disk.
Cue much pestering of parents for disk controller and disk drive. Ctrl-Break ...Chain "Elite"... something like that.
Still, my enthusiasm for those early days of computing got me half a career in IT ,and counting.
The other great thing about ED is that as far as I can see, pretty much everything that was in the original Elite (and more) is already there and playable in the first Beta (apart from the limit to the number of systems you can visit).
cheers
Patrick.
Played it to death on the BBC B Diskette version with an analogue joystick (was great for docking as it didn't self centre). Couldn't get enough of it. Used to read and re-read the pilot's manual at night when I couldn't play. Lost count of how many times I read the Dark wheel too! The disk version showed you a very basic snapshot of ships or cargo cannisters lying around in the docking bay when you docked too, random each time. Nice touch!
Im an 86, I was not very good at the game for a long time as I was only 9, but I was obsessed with my spectrum +.
I remember actually enjoying to use the copyright protection code thingy as well, that strange orange device that you had to put against the screen to tell you the code that you needed in order to play the game, sometimes that was a challenge in itself !
I also remember the first sci-fi story I encountered came in that wonderful box as well, the first of many.
I remember actually enjoying to use the copyright protection code thingy as well, that strange orange device that you had to put against the screen to tell you the code that you needed in order to play the game, sometimes that was a challenge in itself !
I also remember the first sci-fi story I encountered came in that wonderful box as well, the first of many.