The Dark Wheel. Original book written in the 80's
- Thread starter Sen_Zaurak
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Cool, I still have the original booklet somewhere. It came with the BBC Micro version somewhere back in the eigthies.
That is fantastic! It is very interesting indeed. I have a few theories listening to the original. But I am going to save it for now.
Everyone knows The Dark Wheel was the first novella to be written for a computer game, right? One of the many firsts by Frontier...
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game)
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game)
It's worth to remember that it's not considered part of Elite Dangerous canon.
Given the same guy that wrote it also wrote much of ED lore, How is that not cannon?
Considering Robert Holdstock sadly died in 2009, what Elite Dangerous lore did he write?
Oh hmm, not sure, just the original Dark Wheel for the game.
Just saying.
The Dark Wheel is the original Elite novella which was first published as part of the Acornsoft Elite package in 1984. Written by well-known fantasy author Robert Holdstock it describes the quest of Alex Ryder, a newly-qualified pilot, to exact revenge for his father's death at the hands of a paid assassin. Along the way he is assisted by the enigmatic Rafe Zetter who links him up with a fugitive pilot who also wishes to eliminate the killer of Alex's father, but for her own reasons.
All in all, a good story which, though spoiled by a few irritating character traits and a number of typographical errors, sets up the Elite universe in a cohesive manner.
It also covers the combat and trading sides of Elite and the general nature of trading between different systems, buying what's cheap on one world and selling it wherever the demand is sufficient to keep the price high.
Interestingly, the back of the BBC novella states that a sequel was planned for publication in 1985, but as far as I know this never came to fruition. Later editions of The Dark Wheel, included in the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64 versions amongst others, sported new artwork
(PS) He also wrote much of the game manual for the game too.
Just saying.
The Dark Wheel is the original Elite novella which was first published as part of the Acornsoft Elite package in 1984. Written by well-known fantasy author Robert Holdstock it describes the quest of Alex Ryder, a newly-qualified pilot, to exact revenge for his father's death at the hands of a paid assassin. Along the way he is assisted by the enigmatic Rafe Zetter who links him up with a fugitive pilot who also wishes to eliminate the killer of Alex's father, but for her own reasons.
All in all, a good story which, though spoiled by a few irritating character traits and a number of typographical errors, sets up the Elite universe in a cohesive manner.
It also covers the combat and trading sides of Elite and the general nature of trading between different systems, buying what's cheap on one world and selling it wherever the demand is sufficient to keep the price high.
Interestingly, the back of the BBC novella states that a sequel was planned for publication in 1985, but as far as I know this never came to fruition. Later editions of The Dark Wheel, included in the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64 versions amongst others, sported new artwork
(PS) He also wrote much of the game manual for the game too.
There’s a difference between the novella that Robert wrote for Elite (amd which I have re-read many times over the years) being incorporated into Elite Dangerous lore - the same way as with various things taken from Frontier Elite 2 and First Encounters - and:Oh hmm, not sure, just the original Dark Wheel for the game.
Just saying.
...which I would consider quite difficult to do when dying 3 years before the ED Kickstarter commenced. Some things have been taken, some things are no longer considered canon.
Just saying.
its been retconned / evolved so much its not canon anymore.
The entities DW & Raxxla are just about the only thing that is still lore, but a lot of the description of Raxxla itself is debunked in the Codex.
Raxxla & DW iirc were not even mentioned in E2 & E3.
It was just supposed to be a story to go with the game, back then you used to get a box with the game in it and there was usually some freebie as well, a map or a poster or something to encourage buying the game instead of pirating it. It just so happened that this game and this book were brilliant and fed straight into our minds and we made it lore, none of it bar the actual Systems were in game at all....not even the Tionisla Graveyard was in game. Imagine that
The entities DW & Raxxla are just about the only thing that is still lore, but a lot of the description of Raxxla itself is debunked in the Codex.
Raxxla & DW iirc were not even mentioned in E2 & E3.
It was just supposed to be a story to go with the game, back then you used to get a box with the game in it and there was usually some freebie as well, a map or a poster or something to encourage buying the game instead of pirating it. It just so happened that this game and this book were brilliant and fed straight into our minds and we made it lore, none of it bar the actual Systems were in game at all....not even the Tionisla Graveyard was in game. Imagine that
You just explained away the origin of Dark Wheel. And the Origin of Raxxla. Not sure why but OK. You do you.its been retconned / evolved so much its not canon anymore.
The entities DW & Raxxla are just about the only thing that is still lore, but a lot of the description of Raxxla itself is debunked in the Codex.
Raxxla & DW iirc were not even mentioned in E2 & E3.
It was just supposed to be a story to go with the game, back then you used to get a box with the game in it and there was usually some freebie as well, a map or a poster or something to encourage buying the game instead of pirating it. It just so happened that this game and this book were brilliant and fed straight into our minds and we made it lore, none of it bar the actual Systems were in game at all....not even the Tionisla Graveyard was in game. Imagine that
P.S. Current lore was written mainly by Michael Brookes & David Braben (dunno if others as well or how many). Some 'stories' eg Engineers back story was written by the licenced authors.
There was a whole lore bible for the authors for ED with all the back story of the Empire, Feds, Alliance etc how SC & FSD worked, how artificial gravity worked (spinning creates Gs in stations not magic tech).
there was also an 'Aliens' lore bible - presumably the Thargs & Guardians, no idea if more or not
And Raxxla was 'off-limits' to the authors due to wanting 'it to play out in-game' rather than in a book so they werent allowed to touch it....what that actually means is anybodys guess.
There was a whole lore bible for the authors for ED with all the back story of the Empire, Feds, Alliance etc how SC & FSD worked, how artificial gravity worked (spinning creates Gs in stations not magic tech).
there was also an 'Aliens' lore bible - presumably the Thargs & Guardians, no idea if more or not
And Raxxla was 'off-limits' to the authors due to wanting 'it to play out in-game' rather than in a book so they werent allowed to touch it....what that actually means is anybodys guess.
Can you provide some context? Maybe some links because what I posted was a Audio book made by an ED fan from the Original book of the Dark Wheel from the 80's. Not sure if you were even born back then but that is where it was started so maybe you have a updated ,, update to it all but lets inform shall we? So link it and I will link mine. So mine starts here..
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3244405-elite
And yours starts ?
(Fill in blank below . Cheers mate)
Because those are the facts. As much as Id like them to be different, its what actually happened. Belief and supposition are individual but the facts remain the same whether we like it or not.
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OK, you obviously know so little about the history and the current situation and the current lore that it would take all day.
Try the Raxxla thread, all the dev diaries and interviews with Braben and Brookes both on Frontier channel and @drew and DJTruthsayer and the rest, all the books authorised to be written for ED, the Lore Tour from Drew, the write ups of interviews with game devs, all of Frontier responses (before they went dark) about Raxxla and DW, the Codex itself, interviews with all the authors and loads Ive forgotten.
it seems like you have read one book and decided its canon despite all the evidence?
Why do you have such a problem that a book written in 84 has been retconned for the current game?
Did you even bother to catch when I said it is about the (Original 1980's) book? Just asking for a friend? Why you being so aggressive and not understanding what was posted?
If you think it’s still canon (and not just had bits included in the modern game) then I’ll look forward to mistaking an Oresrian for a Thargoid should we meet them face-to-face in Odyssey, as well as visiting the Graveyard and (checks book in my Acorn Electron boxed copy) trading with the grotesque amphibioid inhabitants of Bierle 
you posted that the 84 Novella was still Canon, its not, what am I not understanding?
Sorry? I Just posted the Original 1980's Dark Wheel book in audio form for ED fans from way back and kiddos that have no idea what it was to have a listen where it started.. Never said anything about cannon other then its where it all started. So what ever your passive aggressive stuff around this is ,, I suggest you go back and re-read please? Because wow just listen to the start of writing of history of ED the Dark Wheel.