Elite / Frontier Memories of ELITE

Hey,

Im supprised that I still care about ELITE but today I stumbled across a small article over at GameSpy.com and thought I would have a quick look. This is a bittersweet moment for me as I have some very fond memories of playing ELITE coupled with the realisation that it's been 25 years since it's release and likely over a decade since I played it for any decent length of time :(

However as a teenager I spent many fun filled , angst ridden , exuberant , estatic , crushed and devistated hours in front of my trusty old SONY HIY BIT MSX which had 64 Kb of RAM compared to the BBC's 32 :p Ahh those were the days indeed. I used to have a log book (Woolworths A4 Pad) which I would fill in keeping track , or attempting to keep track of prices which fluctuated as you flooded the market with illegal narcotics or food etc. MAN as I type its all coming back ! I remember Battling either police or pirates and sometimes BOTH :) making for some MASSIVE battles. I had/have a competition pro joystick that would give me blisters but would never break and still works. In fact I still have my MSX and Elite as well as Final Frontier but of course its on the Amiga. I remember fighting my way out of a system. Cant rember if it was police or pirates as both were as I recall nearly constantly after me only to have my ship loose its fuel, just as I killed them off, with a lucky hit. I then had to go and skim the nearest star to scoop up some fuel and then hyperspace over to the next system to sell my combination of legal / illegal and pirated contraband which I had successfully recovered by salvageing some Cargo Canisters with my Fuel Scoop. MAN I Miss those days :/ ELITE was my Favourite game of all time. And must still be in my top 10 if not the top 5 which says a lot when you consider all the games , must be thousands, that Ive played over the years. Today i can see the flaws in the game. Long loading times on cassetes is a chore but back then I would just read a bit of the novella untill it did launch. THAT by the way was an EXCELLENT READ. I loved Sci Fi then and Love Sci Fi now and that Novella is just ACHING for a more substantual SEQUAL !

Also the galactic MAP , displayed on my 14 " DECCA Color Portable TV looked MASSIVE. I had a map to a entire GALIXAY which I , fuel permiting , could travel across. Absoluetly Fabulous. I wonder if there was anything in the tap water back then 8) Aww MAN . I think im going to go and dig in the cupboard and retrieve my MSX or look online for an emulator.

BRABEN . GET YOUR FINGER OUT DUDE AND MAKE US ANOTHER SEQUEL !!!! :D

Are we ever going to see ELITE III ? None of the more recent space operas have quite got the formula right for me yet . inc X3 series which is about the best ive discovered so far.

I just wish my memory was better as I KNOW that there were some moments that were truly EPIC and HUGELY EXCITING as i fought my way through swarths of pirates and police firing lasers and missiles whilst jamming incomming missles and evading laser fire. The Rader was a TRUE inspiration and made keeping track of your position an intuative and unconcious experiance . You know what I mean. The whole Cockpit Lay out was nigh on perfect given the limitation's of the era. Tones of information but displayed clearly and like what I imagine a space fighter / trading vessel of the future will look like.

I suspect the only game that comes close to equalling ELITE today is EVE Online but its too expensive for me to subscribe to. Yes i know its an MMO while Elite was SP but when I played ELITE who is to say that the vessels I fought against wasnt controlled by alien intelligences in orbit above our planet looking for a worthy adverserry :p

Ok I better go and do some work in the real world now!

Hope to see more work from you David and the rest of your Team.

Live long and Prosper :) LOL a cant believe I wrote all this

Paul Kennedy
 
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Elite III was Frontier:First Encounters.

It's Elite IV we're waiting for. No solid dates yet though, i'm afraid.
 
It was the IK+ Lego figures that sold it for me!

I've just downloaded the song from Amazon too, so it's not only iTunes that have it.
 
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