How many "Eighty Fours" are out there?

[starjump]

C64 Elite here back in 84'. Also had the spectrum, C20 and Atari 2600 (this was the first not counting Pong) and i traded it for my Wild Willy RC car i got for christmas as i wanted video gaming more than the RC car at that time. I got the C64 another christmas some years later hehe. Magical times for gaming. I still get that fuzzy feeling thinking of the nights i was up when my parents had gone to bed and turning the C64 on. Bright colors warming up the room and some epic adventure awaited to be played long into the night.

Good times. And now we get to get a piece of that back in an updated package hehe. Real happy Frontier is doing this. Happy indeed.

EDIT: Forgot of course i had the A500 & A1200 as well. Great machines. It was the first time i said to myself "damn, it looks real!" looking at deluxe paint demos.

 

[Juniper]

Class of 84 here.

Owned a commadore 64 and an Amiga 1000.

Amiga 1000? I didn't think they were real.

The Amiga where the Kickstart didn't come on ROM and you had to boot it from disk first - then load Workbench?

Edit: now I remember it, I did much the same thing for a time with my A500 - could sideload a KS 3.0 ROM from hard disk prior to loading Workbench 3.1.

 

[Daughter of Sol]

Another "84" here (though it could've been 85, or 86, I'm really not sure) ... played Elite on the good old C= 64 and the Amiga 500. Still have an Amiga 3000 around in a box somewhere, possibly the 500 too.

 

[Ondaderthad]

Class of 85-86
I first played Elite on a C64 with a small BW TV
I was 40yo at that time. (yes I am almost 20 years older than David Braden)

 

[Shockwave]

I started with an Atari 800 back in 1981 and programmed a few video games on it too. While not an "Eighty Four", I do hail from "Back in the Day".

 

[Cmdr YourNameHere]

Was 12. Had it on the C64, loaded on tape drive and using an Atari joystick - one of those terrible ones that wore blisters into the palm of your hand.

To this day, of all the games I've played, Elite '84 is still the one I would have spent the most playing time in.

 

[Dunk]

Me,
Me,
Me,

Class of '84 - Acorn Electron - Cassette Deck - 15" black and white TV - No fancy controls - just the basic Keyboard. Frame rate often dropped to less than 1fps...

Lots of time invested - lots and lots of time. I was 13, almost 14, so I had lots of time. I remember the elation when "Right on, Commander" -> I reached Deadly. Had over 1 million Cr as well as a fully loaded Cobra MkIII.

Amazing times.

Cheerz

Mark H

Scarily similar. I got the Electron version for my 14th birthday, but had already played it at a friend's house on the BBC B first. I also found the box before my birthday, copied the tape, snuck it all back and played it early. I felt sure I wouldn't get away with that act though as I had to remove the cellophane and throw that away to get into the box. I distinctly remember wondering (before the act) if I would be able to remove the cellophane and put it back on. LOL

 

[nexxo]

Competition Pro - only way to go back then. Almost indestructible and TWO buttons!

Yup clear case so you could see all those micro switches going click!
Takes me back now

Same here: ELITE on a Commodore 64 with 1541 floppy drive, black Competition Pro joystick --still the best arcade joystick going, because it is the same stick built into commercial arcade machines. It was 1984 and I was the tender age of 18.

 

[yooguruto]

Eighty six here. Not much sims experience gained but wanted to share with you the time, when I soared for the first time in my life: CLICK

 

[mrinku]

Commodore 64, must have been 1985 sometime. 1541 floppy and Competition Pro joystick. Had the Amiga version later on on my A500.

 

[scimon]

11 years old playing it on my friends BBC (when I got a turn).

We crashed a lot.

 

[brumster]

Oh go on then, I'll own up. Must have been 10, on a BBC Micro B. Then eventually with a WE co-processor upgrade (Turbo baby!) and, whoooa, scrolly Star Wars-esque intro

I can't remember whether the Turbo upgrade went in my Model B or the Master 128 I subsequently had... my memory fails me

 

[Vestinious]

Yes started playing in 84 on the Spectrum, got to love the good old lenslock now that was hardcore

And talking about 84, today Ghostbusters is rereleased on the cinema for its 30 anniversary, tickets already brought

 

[Innocence]

I was 13 in '84, played Elite on an Amstrad CPC 664. Load time by cassettte tape was 15+ minutes.

 

[Portent]

It occurred to me today that Elite has been around for thirty years now. I played it on a Commodore 64 with an Atari 2600 joystick, on a 13-inch BW TV to start 320x200 resolution, loading it off of a 5.25" floppy drive. Our avatars on this board have a higher pixel count. I just joined up the ED Beta and oh my how far things have come. But it made me immensely happy that one of my all-time favorite games had come back, and come back in style.

It got me wondering... Who else out there is a member of the "Eighty-Four" Club? What was your gaming rig? How many old farts are out there, jumping on the comm channels saying "When I started out, our joysticks were 8-direction digital with ONE button, and we LIKED it!!!"

tl;dr Get off my lawn.

84 for me too. Played on a friends version the got it for my 48k Speccy. Also got it now for my Acorn A3000 and Amiga A1200.

Also bought the sequels for pc when they were released, despite the shop assistant advising against it due to the bugs! Awesome games despite the problems. Still have the full boxes and contents.

 

[PiLhEaD]

Me too. I played it on my BBC B when it first came out. I still have my BBC B in a cupboard + 5.25" disc drive - oooh the luxury of fast loading times vs tape...

I loved it so much I converted a pair of unsprung analogue joysticks, making docking (comparatively) easy in terms of matching the speed of rotation.

I never got beyond Dangerous if memory serves.

The owe the BBC B my career I guess. I got into BBC Basic early and have spent a mostly happy working life 'playing' IT.

Hence my affection for the Raspberry Pi and similar. The more people realise that IT can be a creative outlet the more will create.

Sorry for the ramble...

 

[Comandante]

Oh, and I kept my name that I used back then and it got accepted as a KS name.

IIRC we were playing Marvel Super Heroes RPG (yellow box version) with school friends and I used my 'normal' person name (not the silly super hero name). Same CMDR, just +30 years

 

[anikaiful]

I'm a kiddo (agewise) in comparison to most folks in this thread, but 1st Elite I ever played was for Amiga... was all sorts of awesome game then, is such now with ED (and even more so) ^.^

 

[withnail]

'87 here. I always player as Cmdr Jameson.

 

[darker70]

Old codger reporting in I still have the great big whacking Speccy Firebird box that housed all the Elite gubbins,and the near extinct lesser spotted cassette of the prehistoric era,jeez now that does make make me feel old.