What defines Elite for you?

[JeffRyan]

Just came up in a welcome post and it got me thinking.

Other games have followed the Elite-model through the years, and for many of us, we've tinkered, gone in, played but these games didn't quite match up. What is it that defines Elite for you? Whether that's Elite, Frontier or First Encounters.

As I mentioned in the other post, other games have done the trade or the combat or the exploration. But you can take the gameplay and it's missing something... the rankings, the coriolis stations, the cobra mk 3s, the sidewinder, kraits, anacondas.

What is it that makes Elite Elite for you?

No poll on this one since it would limit the answers I think.

For me, it's the ships and the stations that put me in the universe.

 

[kilvenny]

Only really played original Elite
Three elements for me
Manual Docking - Seemed so hard but what a sense of achievement.
Hitting witchspace for the first time and being bounced by a fleet of Thargoids
The rankings - so totally different to anything before - Elite sounds so much better than level 1000

 

[Commander Maugham]

Loading from cassette...

 

[JeffRyan]

Loading from cassette...

I was lucky enough to have the C64 disc version.

 

[Kemo]

Freedom!!

For me, it's the freeroam element. I loved the way in both Elite and more so in Elite 2 / FFE that you could hyperspace jump pretty much at any point, you could navigate around planets, fuel scoop, expand and explore. (No g jump gates, loath those, gives the impression of flying around in a big room with exit doors)

I adored the galaxy and solar system mechanism in FFE, landing on planets blew me away. My most anticipated feature of ED is how they will implement the galaxy and system map and the in system travel, if it turns out how it has been spec'd - it has the potential to be genre defining (again)

Add to that the universe back story, thanks to the novella and fan fiction, the ship design, and the way everything meshes together.

 

[Frank]

Red lollipops on the oblique-view scanner.

 

[Ixnatifual]

A huge universe and the freedom to explore it.
Hands-on control of your ship (not point n' click like EvE).
No loading screens while roaming the stars.
Planets that aren't just unreachable images on a skybox.
Double-barrelled shotguns and demons (or is that one another game? I forget.)

 

[izzy]

I played FE and FFE, Elite is freedom, do what you want in a huge universe

 

[Maxeren]

The freedom i had when leaving the station to go anywhere i wanted, taking risky ventures to earn a bigger buck, finally being able to buy that spanking new anaconda that i had saved up for. Thinking mostly FE2 here...

I think it was a question of not being confined like other space games have done after elite (jumpgates, sectors etc.) you had the wide open space and the means to go where you pleased.

 

[Patrick_68000]

The feeling of total freedom and the pleasure of gratifications in the game. The immensity of the playing surface and the unknown. And at the time there was no multiplayer. It will be amazing now.

 

[deusx_ophc]

the sheer scale and utter freedom of that game, unprecedented!

obviously there we sooo many things to do, but 2 things are burned unto my biological hdd

1) trumbles

2) hitting crtl+x (don't recall the key sequence) to make sure i landed in witchspace with a bunch of thargoids for shooting practice

 

[Oss133]

The obvious one for me was the go-anywhere-do-anything aspect of the game. The less obvious was the sense that the galaxy was alive and didn't need me to be there to exist. I watched ships leave a station and followed them to see where they were going.

 

[Sir.Tj]

For me FFE was "my Elite" and the scale of the game and the ability to land on planets manually really defines the game and what set them apart from all the rest.

 

[Ceeege]

Elite = You + your ship + Universe + Your imagination

 

[Chock]

The 'here's 100 credits and a ship, now go for it' aspect of it is of course massively appealing in comparison to many games where you are 'on rails' and clearly it is a big part of the magic. But that's not what defines it for me, because other games have done that too.

What made Frontier special was that it was set in our universe, extrapolating what we know into a believable expansion based upon sensible theories, so you really did get the sense that you were 'going from the known into the unknown' in a convincing manner. That was enhanced with nice touches too, such as naming stellar objects and stations after places and people we know, and doing that sometimes in a tongue in cheek way, all of which lent a rather colloquial 'English' feel to the entire thing, which is cool when we are so used to everything being 'americanised' in many such games. It was very evident that a British creator was at the helm of Frontier's development.

Those aspects created a feeling that was somehow 'a bit more real' than other such games that have tried the 'off you go' sandbox gameplay style where you are more typically plonked in a much smaller fictional galaxy or fictional star system. So for me, it really was the fact that Frontier was based in our galaxy in a believable fashion, as opposed to a fictional one 'far far away'.

I really do think it is difficult to understate how much that 'grounded in a believable world' aspect added to the appeal of Frontier. It's really never been bettered.

 

[FrodoHobbits]

Reading the review in Zapp64 and sending my order to Special Reserve there and then for the disk version.
Elite is the only game I've owned (C64 and later Atari ST) that has ever kept my imagination alive for so very long.
Can't wait for ED

 

[Stormprooter]

Original Elite:
The sense of danger when exiting hyperspace with a full cargo hold and wondering if you'd make it to the space station without getting jumped by pirates, and you need to sell your cargo to get a beam laser because you still only have the pulse laser.

Remembering that you must sell those illegal goods you scooped up when you destroyed those pesky pirates, before leaving the space station - otherwise you get a record with the space rozzers

Combat in general - having to resort to using the energy bomb when overwhelmed (damn there goes 900Cr)

Searching for the easter-egg 'special missions' - always a good talking point with friends at school back in the day.

Frontier:
Scale of the galaxy is really impressive - so in this game it is the virtually endless exploration that really stands out.

 

[Hamerstein]

It was the first game I remember that I could "save" and come back to later. We can't imagine having a game without a save facility today, but in 1984 it was unheard of.

 

[Juniper]

Freedom.

 

[JohnStabler]

I started with FE2.

For me it was the sheer size of the universe, the realistic physics and star systems. Although trading was simply a glorified spreadsheet, it was made fun by being able to do it in a space station orbiting the earth.