Long ago in a place far far away Frontier First Encounters was released in April of 1995. It had so many bugs that the distributor GameTek went out of business! The general problem as I saw it at the time was GameTek needed cash flow while Braben argued that he needed more time to test. But GameTek was paying the bills, won out and FFE went down in history as one of the most bugged games ever released! It also had many features which were in the coding but never fully developed so that the player could access them.
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This is 1995. There was no Internet as we know it now. The Internet was maturing but many were still using Bulletin Board systems using a modem and phone number per dial up. But there was an 11 year old fan base who knew coding and DOS 6.22 (yes FFE wasn't Windows). So I and many other dedicated fans from the "Class of 1984" took over the Tech Support job when GameTek folded. We answered many issues when GameTek wasn't there nor did we get paid for it. In 1997 I started a website and used my computer programming skills to reverse engineer many of the issues in FFE and how to complete the hand coded missions in the game which gave the player an amazing Thargoid ship to fly. I also provided access to the ships and gear a player couldn't get in normal game play. The site also provided walk thoughs to quickly obtain credits as well as detailed info on all the ships, equipment, ratings, factions and all things Elite. Pretty much like the current Elite Dangerous wiki is going to do shortly without the modified executables. They will no doubt get serious when ED goes full release in December.
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But it wasn't just me. It was a few dozen dedicated fans of the Elite games with computer talent who made FFE a great game after the fact. We all became lifelong friends though I have never met any of them. Time passes and more talent shows up transferring the Elite games to work in a Windows OS. It has been updated ever since. JJFFE was a Windows breakthrough and the Russians went nuts with it actually upgrading FFE graphics to a much higher level. Note they were not worried too much about British copyright law but then per a failed game that wasn't much of an issue with FD at the time.
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Many others used the Elite game versions source code and FD was fine with it until Pocket PC Elite came along. The programmer screwed up with rewriting the EULA without FD's approval. FD was very upset. Thus FD started shutting down the use of their source code beginning with Elite TNK. I intervened with FD to come to a solution per first deleting the EULA and then working with the programmer and doing all the graphics and hand coded missions to make this an amazing game. We succeeded and got rave reviews from the major gaming magazine publishers per the limited test sample we provided. Then we presented this to FD as a profit for both them and us but it was declined. They were about to release Darkside for the PDA and it was bad timing. But the programmer did initially hurt the progression of Elite which eventually FD allowed others to progress with the games a few years later.
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Now we have an ED forum. 80,000 players (maybe more) supported ED in the testing stages. We play ED on high speed Internet connections. We will no doubt download the full Solo offline version. That opens up websites for mod versions as in flying a Millennium Falcon in ED and other possibilities. There is probably going to be Apple and Android support soon. How communications have changed so massively in 2014. This game could not have been accomplished 5 years ago. The major game investors says that space games are obsolete. Thus FD went with a Kickstarter program as they believed in Elite. So did many fans. Look at where we are now.
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A few dozen fans took an old game that otherwise would have been lost in history and made it last for years. Imagine what 80,000 plus players will accomplish. The young players just getting started will in 30 years be writing the history as "They were there" when ED was released.
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I as a fan waited 19 years since FFE for Elite 4 which became ED. I also know many of the issues and difficulties over all those years that Braben and his company had to go through both legal and personal to get to this point. I applaud Braben for surmounting years of issues and making this game into a reality next month. It is FD's shining moment. So if one has complaints then look at how hard it was to get to here per the history. No other game I have ever played came close per Braben's dedication to make this happen. He could of spent his company resources elsewhere but like me and many others it was a passion we all needed to accomplish.
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Regards
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References:
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The FFE Art Page (See the Links page for all those who supported the games.)
Pocket PC Elite
-
This is 1995. There was no Internet as we know it now. The Internet was maturing but many were still using Bulletin Board systems using a modem and phone number per dial up. But there was an 11 year old fan base who knew coding and DOS 6.22 (yes FFE wasn't Windows). So I and many other dedicated fans from the "Class of 1984" took over the Tech Support job when GameTek folded. We answered many issues when GameTek wasn't there nor did we get paid for it. In 1997 I started a website and used my computer programming skills to reverse engineer many of the issues in FFE and how to complete the hand coded missions in the game which gave the player an amazing Thargoid ship to fly. I also provided access to the ships and gear a player couldn't get in normal game play. The site also provided walk thoughs to quickly obtain credits as well as detailed info on all the ships, equipment, ratings, factions and all things Elite. Pretty much like the current Elite Dangerous wiki is going to do shortly without the modified executables. They will no doubt get serious when ED goes full release in December.
-
But it wasn't just me. It was a few dozen dedicated fans of the Elite games with computer talent who made FFE a great game after the fact. We all became lifelong friends though I have never met any of them. Time passes and more talent shows up transferring the Elite games to work in a Windows OS. It has been updated ever since. JJFFE was a Windows breakthrough and the Russians went nuts with it actually upgrading FFE graphics to a much higher level. Note they were not worried too much about British copyright law but then per a failed game that wasn't much of an issue with FD at the time.
-
Many others used the Elite game versions source code and FD was fine with it until Pocket PC Elite came along. The programmer screwed up with rewriting the EULA without FD's approval. FD was very upset. Thus FD started shutting down the use of their source code beginning with Elite TNK. I intervened with FD to come to a solution per first deleting the EULA and then working with the programmer and doing all the graphics and hand coded missions to make this an amazing game. We succeeded and got rave reviews from the major gaming magazine publishers per the limited test sample we provided. Then we presented this to FD as a profit for both them and us but it was declined. They were about to release Darkside for the PDA and it was bad timing. But the programmer did initially hurt the progression of Elite which eventually FD allowed others to progress with the games a few years later.
-
Now we have an ED forum. 80,000 players (maybe more) supported ED in the testing stages. We play ED on high speed Internet connections. We will no doubt download the full Solo offline version. That opens up websites for mod versions as in flying a Millennium Falcon in ED and other possibilities. There is probably going to be Apple and Android support soon. How communications have changed so massively in 2014. This game could not have been accomplished 5 years ago. The major game investors says that space games are obsolete. Thus FD went with a Kickstarter program as they believed in Elite. So did many fans. Look at where we are now.
-
A few dozen fans took an old game that otherwise would have been lost in history and made it last for years. Imagine what 80,000 plus players will accomplish. The young players just getting started will in 30 years be writing the history as "They were there" when ED was released.
-
I as a fan waited 19 years since FFE for Elite 4 which became ED. I also know many of the issues and difficulties over all those years that Braben and his company had to go through both legal and personal to get to this point. I applaud Braben for surmounting years of issues and making this game into a reality next month. It is FD's shining moment. So if one has complaints then look at how hard it was to get to here per the history. No other game I have ever played came close per Braben's dedication to make this happen. He could of spent his company resources elsewhere but like me and many others it was a passion we all needed to accomplish.
-
Regards
-
References:
-
The FFE Art Page (See the Links page for all those who supported the games.)
Pocket PC Elite
Last edited:
S
