Elite / Frontier Your Elite Memories

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Wow, that's amazing! Someone shared exactly the same experience as me! To the extent that they wrote exactly the same post! (#5 in the thread) What are the chances?? :eek:

This ID fraud's getting ridiculous ;)
 
Get your filthy hands off our forum you damn dirty ad bot! :D

Frontier Developments should really do something about this, change the registration procedure or something.
 
Get your filthy hands off our forum you damn dirty ad bot! :D

Frontier Developments should really do something about this, change the registration procedure or something.
Tactical nuke would be preferable, but yeah, some more involved registration should do.
 
Memories

Many in Elite 2 / Frontier. But I remember 2 of them most funny :)

1 - After killing the guy in our "contract" we found out that our automatic pilot is non functional, also we noticed that we had had no atmospheric shielding. Using the time extends and joystick, we somehow managed to get near the space station with great effort. ( It was very hard to reach somewhere without an autopilot), we had a relief when we saw the small space station and we both screamed when we saw the words : " DOCK OTHER SIDE" :)

2 - My friend Can and I looked at the profit margin of goods and that time we decided that we should smuggle slaves instead of narcotics.
After hyperspace jump :

I : - " Can, we dont have slaves in our cargo anymore, there is only fertilizers"
Can : - " Hmm, and I was wondering why there was a device in this game called Cargo Bay Life Support" :)
 
I remember myself playing Elite until I became "deadly". Then played 3 months, didn`t reach ELITE and.............erased the game from the HDD ;-)

(could byte my ass off: I thought, it must`ve a bug!)
 
I remember getting the Boa for the first time and felt like I had achieved something - so much space for drugs, slaves and able to do new missions.

I also remember the first few systems of Tao Ceti, Arcturus and seeing others a gerzillion miles away that I wanted to explore but couldn't get to.
 
Fond Memories

I remember playing Elite on my Spectrum 48K as a 14 year old, I even devised a way to place my computer and TV within a closet so it felt more like being in a cramped cockpit :)
I played for ages and reached Deadly but never reached Elite.
Then I remember Frontier:Elite 2 and struggling to free enough RAM to run the damn thing, something I eventually managed. I remember feeling how frustrated I was at the new flight style and combat but still managing to overcome it.
I forget how many years passed in between where I forgot the game until I read somewhere on the internet that Elite IV was being made and realeased imminently, 2008 I believed, Play.com even had the release date, so with all the memories flooding back I went out and bought a games PC(much to my wife's displeasure) and I'm still awaiting the the damn game, Elite IV has to happen soon before arthiritis sets in my thumbs :)
 
Wow I last logged in over two years ago :p Anyway some of my best memories playing Frontier (FFE as well) was doing crazy things manually. Like landing on gas giants. Usually what I'd have to do is bring the ship in tail end down so I could use the powerful main engines like landing thrusters. Then at the last moment I'd turn the ship upright to land. Another thing, but I only ever achieved it once, was to manually orbit a planet while not being near a station or moon. 99% of the time when you try to orbit a planet you just crash or eventually get thrown out into interplanetary space.
 
Much like so many others, I first played Elite back when it was first released on the C64, I was lucky enough to have it on Disk. WOW ! The documentation, charts etc. There was NOTHING remotely like it anywhere.

Just about everyone at school with a C64 had to buy it. Lunchtime was spent talking about what equipment to buy, how to dock etc.

I played it all that year and the year after. So many planets and galaxies, I never even got to see ALL of the galactic maps STILL and it is over 28 years ago!!!

Eventually Elite II came out and I bought that on the Amiga but it ran a little slow so I could not really get into it anywhere near as I did on the C64 version. Unfortunately when FFE came out it was very buggy and would not work properly, I didn't buy the fixed version although I still remember to this day being in the shop holding FFE in my hand and the box had a sticker on it showing a squashed bug but for some reason I did not buy it. Fast forwarding to 2009 with Elite's 25th anniversary, I tracked down FFE finally so I could give it a go. I then discovered fan enhanced ones and have been playing them ever since.

Ever since 1984 I always wanted something like Elite and even when X Beyond the Frontier came out, sure it was good nice graphics, expanded play etc...it just wasn't Elite.

I was so happy when Oolite came out!!!!!!! and I still play Oolite to this day.

Yes I still have my original C64 with Elite and have started to collect variants for other platforms whenever I can. I love Pioneer and I still wish I could get the icons to appear in FF3D3D.

There is no game like Elite ! We were all blown away by the 3D graphics NOTHING else had at the time! Simple amazing !

It was also good to see Ian Bell and David Braben on the UK Channel 5 doco Brits that changed the world. You can see it on youtube. 25 minute episode on the making of Elite.

David Braben's talk at GDV 2011 was also brilliant (http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014628/Classic-Game-Postmortem) , I wish there was a way to download that talk. It was outstanding.

I also found it very sad that David and Ian parted company. I sincerely hope they are back on speaking terms.

Now with Raspberry Pi making news, who do I see is a Foundation member ? David Braben! AWESOME !!

I am still playing Oolite, and 7 days does not go past without at least one session of Oolite! I look forward to the monthly releases of Pioneer, I play FFE D3D and FE2 practically on a weeklybasis. Elites is part of my life!
 
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I read somewhere on the internet that Elite IV was being made and released imminently, 2008 I believed, Play.com even had the release date, so with all the memories flooding back I went out and bought a games PC(much to my wife's displeasure) and I'm still awaiting the the damn game, Elite IV has to happen soon before arthiritis sets in my thumbs :)
One day.
frown.gif


I have had two games computers. My ZX Spectrum and the 2 week old PC I am using to write this which my wife bought me so I could play Oolite with all the graphics OXPs installed. :D
 

Rafe Zetter

Banned
Elite Badge and more...

Not sure what but something made me google "Elite Badge" - and not for the first time either, but this time I got a hit to this site and a post by the winner of the competition. So it was you eh? Won't take it so easy next time...Bah *shakes fist*

I was 15 when a BBC B arrived under the tree, and just one game, a game that would change my life, quite literally. Elite; my father says he bought it as it was recommended. I'd been playing games a while - I was lucky enough to get an Intellivision game machine, and most presents after that were new game cartridges (we still have it somewhere), but Elite hit me in a way I could never have imagined.

I was good, real good, even my father; a normally stern man could see on the few occasions he saw me play that I flew that ship like a virtuoso with a stradivarious, fingers flying, everything instinctive. I had earned an Iron Ass trading drugs and firearms through some of the most dangerous systems in the galaxy(s) devouring trade routes and Thargons at every turn, I was killing ships and shooting down missiles before they could even become more than a couple of pixels in size. I would grin with glee when I had a misjump (never knew it could be forced) and relish the thought of more thargons to destroy and alien artifacts to collect (think that was the amiga version).

I was a force, I was the one all feared, I was and still am Rafe Zetter, and Raxxla is my home.

Back in the real world - I failed most of my 0 levels because of Elite, but I don't regret that time, far from it, it gave me the spirit so that I didn't become another clone like my father. Of course we will never know that for sure, I might have become what I am now anyway, who knows. It set a spark though that's for sure, as I've played almost every space sim available and play that online spreadsheet game, waiting...hoping that on day Elite will be resurrected. I've dabbled with Oolite some, but feel my time in that universe has been depleted, I've been to Raxxla and it'll never be the same.

There is one thing I do know for sure, my real life name IS Rafe Zetter, changed by deed poll, I have a Gold Elite badge for reaching Elite status (which will be buried with me unless someone stumps up some serious cash), and I have reached that status on BBC B, Amiga and Archimedes machines. I vow one day to reach Elite in Frontier too, I still have the game and my saves with a ridiculous amount of credits and honors galor from both sides, (double agent). I still have the book The Dark Wheel as well.

Some might call me deranged, some might call me pathetic, but I know that if it was not for me and all my fellow Elite pilots it's very probable the gaming industry would not be what it is now, Elite was THE FIRST serious commercial success and proved beyond any doubt that young guys knocking out code in their basements was not something to be mocked.

Even now that I'm typing this I can see in my mind the younger me sitting in that chair, knowing that I'm about to jump into system carrying a full load of drugs and I'm probably going to have to fight all the way in.

Fly safe Pilots o7.
 
I encountered Elite when an undergraduate in zoology at that other place. I was not having an easy time of it due to health issues which had precipitated an unidentified immune disease later diagnosed as ME, which remains with me still.

A friend who was going on to greater things (I knew I was for the dog house) was trying to offload a boxed copy of Elite for Acorn and a joystick so he could ease his conscience and concentrate on something more conducive to an honourable obituary. I could not see why I should not take the burden from him and help him out and so got both of these and the parallel port joystick adapter for a tenner, which I considered a bargain.

I was fortunate to have a BBC B to use at home and there I eventually played to Elite status in between word processing to finish my degree submissions over an additional year as pilot "Darth" on the grounds that I was secretly a good guy obliged to adopt desperate measures.

It set the precedent for an interest in computer games which has continued to this day and became an important part of my convalescence due to the low stress but mentally stimulating nature of play, which has helped to keep me relatively sane while the rest of my life has been very constrained. I have participated in many beta tests and tried to contribute positively to them and enjoyed them all while gathering various trophies and keepsakes along the way and hope likewise to be able to contribute to Elite : Dangerous in some small way now that the wheel has turned full circle and I am back with the title which started it all.

:smilie: Hi everyone!
 
Frontier

Remember opening the box an reading all the manual, short stories, map etc.

Started playing Frontier on the Amiga, then went on to PC (and FFE).

The game was amazing, and very memorable. I can remember being so excited at being able to get my first ASP and then kitting it out for military missions.

Thanks!
 
Not sure what but something made me google "Elite Badge" - and not for the first time either, but this time I got a hit to this site and a post by the winner of the competition. So it was you eh? Won't take it so easy next time...Bah *shakes fist*

Hi Rafe

Perhaps I shall see you in Elite Dangerous.... shall we battle endlessly or form an alliance, teaming up to explore the galaxies...

A alliance of like minded traders that only those with orginal Elite badges can join ;)
 
Hi Rafe

Perhaps I shall see you in Elite Dangerous.... shall we battle endlessly or form an alliance, teaming up to explore the galaxies...

A alliance of like minded traders that only those with orginal Elite badges can join ;)

NICE!

We never got the Elite Badges here in Australia :(
 
Hi all, first post!

My first memories of Elite are playing the BBC cassette version with my older brother. Waiting (what seemed like) hours for it to load, then drawing the curtains so the room was pitch black and all we could see was the wireframe models :)

Just a shame I was only four at the time and could never get the game to save, so would have to start a new one each time lol!
 
FFE: One of my best memories are:
- hiding behind spaceport buildings waiting for my prey to lift off to shoot him down and escape
- analyzing jump points and going after the target
- pirating random ships on the outskirts of the system and blowing them up (there was always to little cargo left from them which was a pity)

But the best is when I sold everything not needed and filled my cargo with fuel and decided to go as far as I could go.
So I went. I was jumping from one system to another trying to get as far away as possible. When my fuel levels dropped I continued jumping and getting fuel from gas giants.
I was jumping and staying alive for a long time struggling.
Then came my last jump. The ship's computer malfunctioned and sent me somewhere in the middle of no where far away from the closest star system.
I had no fuel to jump again.
There I quit. With no way to continue I left my ship drifting...
Even though I played many times after I still remembered this journey and the ship which was still drifting somewhere out there forgotten.
Best FFE memories ever.
 
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Trying to make an impossibly tight deadline.

Enter system - oh great, it's 30 bloody AU away! Right.

Lock autopilot onto target, then when it's pointing the right way, disable autopilot, jam finger down on thrust button and activate Star Dreamer....

Come on... COME ON!!! FASTER!!! MOVE IT, YOU STUPID PILE OF SPACE-JUNK!! OK... OK... reactivate autopilot... NOW!!!

(Make deadline with an hour or so to go. Or splatter ship against the front of the spacestation - or miss it by miles. :D )
 
Trying to make an impossibly tight deadline.

Enter system - oh great, it's 30 bloody AU away! Right.

Lock autopilot onto target, then when it's pointing the right way, disable autopilot, jam finger down on thrust button and activate Star Dreamer....

Come on... COME ON!!! FASTER!!! MOVE IT, YOU STUPID PILE OF SPACE-JUNK!! OK... OK... reactivate autopilot... NOW!!!

(Make deadline with an hour or so to go. Or splatter ship against the front of the spacestation - or miss it by miles. :D )

There was that glitch where you could keep accelerating and then activate autopilot at the last moment and it would instantly decelerate you. useful when you got the mission timing wrong.
 
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