Game Discussions Missions on the ZX Spectrum version of Elite

drew

drew
On my Saturday twitch stream (https://twitch.tv/drewwagar) I've been undertaking a playthrough of the Spectrum version of the game with a view to capturing the missions for posterity. This week we got the first one, known as the "Supernova" mission (though in game it's actually called "Nova"). Many thanks to Cmdr Arioch for assistance in working out the requirements!


More missions to come!

Cheers,

Drew.
 

Arioch

Arioch
Watching this again made me realise something - the local star is always behind you when flying towards a planet, and the Station is always* in front of or to the side of that body - after launching from the Coriolis you can sometimes see the star behind the planet, such as with the Nova mission.

This implies that the Station is actually orbiting the planet and that transactions while docked (loading, refuelling etc) take a finite amount of time, even though they are instant from the player’s perspective.

*Edit: actually, looks like I’m wrong about this, I’ve just been using the Docking Computers too long - if you Torus drive up to a planet, get the “S” HUD indication, and the compass pointer is still central, there’s a good chance the Station is on the dark side of the world and you’ll have to orbit around to it. Perhaps it’s something that doesn’t happen in the first Galaxy chart?
 
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Arioch

Arioch
Congratulations to Drew on triggering the Thargon (sic) mission - and almost completing it on the first try!

On my first attempt I was slightly befuddled by the Station “safe” compass point which was directing me towards the planet even when my altitude indicator was warning me that I was about to conduct an extreme litho-breaking manoeuvre. I eventually corrected my two-dimensional thinking (I thought the compass might be bugged) and realised the Coriolis was behind the planet, so after several minutes orbiting around I reached the invaded station.

Looking forward to seeing how Drew survives the mission next week!
 
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