Thank you for posting this, it gives me some hope.
My brother died in 2010. We used to play Elite together - well, taking turns. We talked many times about how good it would be to be able to play together. Largely this was in order to find out who would win in a dog-fight (a common kind of argument for siblings).
So when the option came up for an NPC name, it had to put him in there. I have not managed to find him yet, I know the chances are against it really, but this is encouraging! I am not sure that I want to find out who could win now though...
Elmasri