Elite / Frontier Question About Saving Data On C64 Disk Version Of Elite

nighthawk71

nighthawk71
Hello, I have a question regarding save data.

I'm might be getting a C64 within the next couple of weeks, so I was wondering. Can commander data be stored onto the game disk, or is it recommended that I use a second drive (floppy or casette, with their respective media) to save the data?
 

Zieman

Zieman
nighthawk71 said:
Hello, I have a question regarding save data.

I'm might be getting a C64 within the next couple of weeks, so I was wondering. Can commander data be stored onto the game disk, or is it recommended that I use a second drive (floppy or casette, with their respective media) to save the data?
Click to expand...
You don't need a second drive, just swap an empty disk or the other side of the game disk into the drive once you've loaded the game. The save disk doesn't even need to be empty, one Elite save takes 1 block space in disk. If you do use an empty disk, remember to format it to be able to use it.
 
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nighthawk71

nighthawk71
Alright.

Thank you for the information. I didn't know the game disk could be removed while it's running. I was thinking that would crash the game.
 
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Zieman

Zieman
nighthawk71 said:
Alright.

Thank you for the information. I didn't know the game disk could be removed while it's running. I was thinking that would crash the game.
Click to expand...
That's one part of the wonder that is C64 Elite - once you see the spinning Cobra mk 3, the game needs access to the disk drive only when saving game or loadig a previously saved game - everything is in RAM / procedurally generated on the fly. :)
 

nighthawk71

nighthawk71
Yeah, I'm interested in running the game on the real hardware, that, and I'm also a vintage computing and gaming enthusiast.
 

Blue Moon

B
Both the regular and promotional versions of software appear to be the same. I would speculate that the promotional version is simply the normal version with a sticker applied. The contents are the same, excepting normal variations such as Kathy inson being named on some of the manuals. I suspect that the promotional versions would have been distributed to games magazines and others for the purpose of review hence the sticker stating that they are not for resale. I have asked David via Twitter and will post his response here (if he remembers anything else)









MooN
 

eachann

E
Blue Moon said:
Both the regular and promotional versions of software appear to be the same. I would speculate that the promotional version is simply the normal version with a sticker applied. The contents are the same, excepting normal variations such as Kathy inson being named on some of the manuals. I suspect that the promotional versions would have been distributed to games magazines and others for the purpose of review hence the sticker stating that they are not for resale. I have asked David via Twitter and will post his response here (if he remembers anything else)


MooN
Click to expand...

One thing I remember from playing the game as a kid, and again later on an emulator is this. After saving your game once... if you try to save the game again with the same name it will give you a "file exists" error. The game doesn't know to automatically overwrite the existing save file. There are two ways around this.. one is to change the name of your commander every time... which is kind of annoying. The other is to save your name as @0:CommanderName
The @0: was a Commodore 64 thing that told the drive to overwrite an existing file.

Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you do start playing elite and run into this problem :)
 

Zieman

Zieman
eachann said:
One thing I remember from playing the game as a kid, and again later on an emulator is this. After saving your game once... if you try to save the game again with the same name it will give you a "file exists" error. The game doesn't know to automatically overwrite the existing save file. There are two ways around this.. one is to change the name of your commander every time... which is kind of annoying. The other is to save your name as @0:CommanderName
The @0: was a Commodore 64 thing that told the drive to overwrite an existing file.

Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you do start playing elite and run into this problem :)
Click to expand...
Dang, I wish I had known about this circa 1987...
 

nighthawk71

nighthawk71
eachann said:
One thing I remember from playing the game as a kid, and again later on an emulator is this. After saving your game once... if you try to save the game again with the same name it will give you a "file exists" error. The game doesn't know to automatically overwrite the existing save file. There are two ways around this.. one is to change the name of your commander every time... which is kind of annoying. The other is to save your name as @0:CommanderName
The @0: was a Commodore 64 thing that told the drive to overwrite an existing file.

Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you do start playing elite and run into this problem :)
Click to expand...

Aha, I saw something about this on Lemon64, but wouldn't using that command take up 3 characters on the save, or would I still be able to type out the full name (for example, @0: Skylar)?

Edit: Actually, nevermind about the question. I was able to test the command in-game, but my first question was correct. The command takes up the first 3 characters of the commander name, leaving players with only 4 character names (luckily Hawk is a 4-character surname). It's also weird, cause the command ends up showing on the commander name at the info screen.
Solution To C64 Elite Disk Saving Problem by Nascar241993, on Flickr

Anyway, I would like to thank Eachann for helping out with the save issue on C64 Elite. :D
 
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loudscotsbloke

loudscotsbloke
I remember the file save issue well on the 64. When I played the disk version, I would cheat slightly and save the entire game with my Freeze Machine. Yes, it snapped the entire ram contents, but hey... I could keep my commander name intact with all my saves. :)
 

Styggron

S
loudscotsbloke said:
I remember the file save issue well on the 64. When I played the disk version, I would cheat slightly and save the entire game with my Freeze Machine. Yes, it snapped the entire ram contents, but hey... I could keep my commander name intact with all my saves. :)
Click to expand...

I never did that, but I did have Isepic in fact I still do. :)
 
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