Elite / Frontier Your Elite Memories

Neo1967

N
Elfstedentocht

After seeing a large review on Frontier: Elite II, I later bought the game (combined with some other games, Lemmings and Civilization). I was and still am impressed by the opportunity to roam around space and visit other planets. At that time our computer was in a spare room. I remember moving it to our living room so I could play and at the same time watch the TV-report on the "Elfstedentocht" (famous Dutch skating tour, but since then not repeated by lack of frost and ice).
 

OlloZ

O
A belated thank you!

On Christmas day 1986 (when I was 9 years old) I was given a Sinclair Spectrum +2 to replace my aging 48k Spectrum whose "J" key (on which was the LOAD command) had packed in from overuse.

I was distraught to discover that Elite, my favourite game, would not run on my shiny new computer! My Dad suggested I write to Frontier and tell them of my anguish - which I did. Shortly after, I received a package from Frontier containing a cassette on which was a version of Elite that ran on my +2! Interestingly it also no longer needed the Lenslok.

How about that for customer service!
 

Neil_Madfly

N
Elite!

Oh, 1984 - I was working in the RAF, well training.

I waited for the release of Elite and purchased it from a small shop in Lowestoft, Suffolk - it was the longest drive home! I consider the BBC B computer as one fantastic machine, and Elite just pushed the boundaries of it (to extremes). There are very few games with this 'wow' factor, so my thoughts of Elite are sitting back, in a darkened room, BBC B on, one hand on keyboard - the other flying my ship through the debrie of an exploded Thargoid and that message we all loved to receive - 'Right On Commander!'

I still play it today on the BBC B, 25 yrs later!!! :D

Another I'd love to share - I still own 2 BBC B's, one a master - and I had great pleasure in loaning my machines to an Acorn gavouring last year and DB actually played the disk version of Elite on one, docking it first time of course!

I waited also for First-encounter and Frontiers - and wait patiently for Elite 4. One day it would be nice to meet David and thank him for one of the best computer games todate!!
 

Sci-Fi Gene

S
More than a game

Elite was also one of the first games to develop a player community - not least in columns and correspondence in the computer press that continued long after the launch of the game. Columnists exchanged favoured trade routes or Thargoid-fighting tips and debated whether Elite was an arcade or adventure game. There were ripples of excitement as the first few players discovered the two secret missions and wrote in about them, and constant speculation (and hoaxes) about the existence of Generation Ships and Space Dredgers, both of which were mentioned in the manual, or of the Mystery Ship which was supposedly seen and sketched by several players.
 

Werty

W
This seems to be the appropriate location for this first post.

I was first introduced to Elite around 1986 on a friend's BBC Micro (disk version). I loved it so much I bought it for my Amstrad CPC (tape!). I remember being a bit disappointed in the reduced ship set - IIRC there was no Cobra MkI, Fer-de-Lance, Boa, Adder or Anaconda - but I played enough to become "deadly". I remember freaking out the first time every star in the galaxy went nova!

Fast forward 10 years, I didn't get a PC until 1995 so missed out on FE2. I first played FFE when a demo version was included on a magazine cover (PC Gamer?), this started you in Old Blackelk as usual but everywhere was out of hydrogen fuel so all you could do was fly around Gateway for a bit. After buying the full version, I played through the Thargoid missions a couple of times and one of my commanders reached Prince/Dangerous.

I happened to come across some screenshots of FFED3D and playing it has brought all those memories back. I'm playing again from the beginning and still can't believe how well the core game has stood up for 14 years. This time I've decided to work for the Federation, just did my first classified photo mission last night :D
 

dartmoorchillifarm

D
ELITE = Best game of all time. Full stop

Elite IV coming out for the PS3 - I can't wait.

I'm of the generation who first played Elite on my Acorn Electron complete with wire frame graphics.

My main memories of Elite were trying to dock on the space station without a docking computer! or perhaps sitting within reach of a space station and picking off traders either docking or exiting and scooping up all their lovely goods - and then trying to hyperspace out of there before the police ships shot me down.

Eventually i upgraded to a Atari ST and then a Commodore Amiga which had filled in ships (not wireframe) and music. I eventually managed to get to deadly status after months and months of playing but never obtained that elusive Elite status.

For those people too young to understand, Elite was simply the best! It was just sooooooo addictive.

Even now, when I hear the Blue Danube being played or see anything about snakes on tv (all the ships were snakes - Cobra, Viper, Adder etc) , I think of Elite!

Elite on PS3.... bring it on.
 

windgiver

W
Furballs

I kinda stumbled across elite on my C64 somehow and was instantly drawn in to the world of Lave and ... I loved going to different galaxies and trying to get to the 'hard to reach' systems, picking the best trading routes based on the type of planet... The best name for any weapon ever - the Military Laser, I felt safe with one of those on each side.

One time I had these furry things crawl all over the sceen which made my ship just fly off into space. After all that there were missions to do and Thargoids to survive, could you scoop up the Thargons or was that just me dreaming? I did not know what to expect with Elite but it delivered and kept on delivering on so many levels.

Over the years the little story book of different planets keeps popping up - takes me back like that bit in Ratatui, you know what i mean. Good times.
 

GBrundage

G
Liquilla said:
Greetings,

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Elite we want to get people remembering their experiences of the game - be it something in-game, how you first found Elite or who you used to play it with - we want to hear it. We've opened a section on the Elite website for peoples Memories of Elite, so tell us yours and have it featured here!

We all look forward to hearing about some of the great times you've had in Elite!
Click to expand...

Crashing while landing. Reload. Crash again. Reload. Crash again...

Then the exquisite joy of figuring it out...!
 

1stBiker

1stBiker
I've played Elite for the first time on the C64 when I was 16. There are memorys I'll never forget. I did play Elite on Amiga and PC as well .. of course.

There are tons of other games since then, but Elite is still the #1 on my top10 of all Games ever and I think it will be forever my number one on my whishlist to come back on my screen.

Reading in the Forums of Frontier let me feel to be not alone which is always a comfortable feeling. I'm pleased to meet other ppl from time to time in mmo's such as LOTRO remembering Elite as their no1 Game as well.

These old days .. as a kid growing up in faszination with the NASA-Missions and Starwars, David gave us a way to live parts of our dreams.

Thanks so much for this.
<<<1stBiker, switzerland
 

Ulysses3d

U
Memories of my old Beeb..

Hello, I'm new here, and this is my first post.
Im 39 now but was just 14, when I first played Elite.

I was the only kid in my year to have a BBC-B, and I would say that Elite was the absolute BEST game on it! It worked very well with those strange hand grip joy sticks....I managed to make it to Elite...and I've never enjoyed a game so much....Until playing Frontiers on an Amiga 1200...and that just blew me away...
Recently, I have played many pc space sims claimed to be a modern Elite....but they simply aren't....
looking forward to Elite 4...

DB is a Genius...:)
 

potsmoke66

potsmoke66
seems i lived in a dark and very deep valley:mad:
until i started with FE2 lately around '95
it kept me playing 'til ....
what more can i say:)
 

RoC

R
looking forward to Elite 4.
Click to expand...

I've been looking forward to it for decades it seems. but now as a 47 year old with serious medical issues I want to play it before I kick the bucket. so listen up David, get moving and get it released asap or I'll haunt you :D

oh and please please please please no console versions. I like them lots and own a ps3 and xbox but I fear that if theres a pc and console version of Elite 4, the game will be dumbed down for the masses. please dont.
 

RoC

R
A little of my Elite history.

I owned a BBC Micro but struggled to get decent games, my speccy owning friend was swamped in good games, then one day the local computer shop owner who I was friends with, told me he was getting a game the next day which would be a 'brilliant' of course it was Elite and it was expensive but I bought it (BBC model b tape version) and was instantly hooked. even my speccy owning friend loved it, we played together for hours and hours, I was the pilot and he did the trading. it was great..apart from docking, without a docking computer my friend used to leave the room as we approached a station as it was 50-50 if we'd dock. hehe

I learned the Disk Version was better, had more ships, missions etc. so come my birthday I asked for it, of course my BBC had to be upgraded to take a disk drive and in that day it meant taking it in and having them soldering new chips into it :D

over £200 it cost in total, DFS (disk filing system), drive and copy of Elite. but I loved it. Since then I've played many versions of what I class as the best game of all time.

Speccy, C64, NES, Archimedes, PC, Amiga, etc.

Then moved on to Frontier which I enjoyed but it seemed to lack something Elite had, not sure what but it wasnt as good. I first made Elite status on my BBC disk version, even sent off and got a gold badge from Acornsoft which sadly I lost about 10-12 years ago.

These days my gaming is mainly RPG's on consoles and World of Warcraft on my PC but I long for a decent space game and I pray one day I'll play Elite 4.
 

Dirk

D
ELITE is THE game!

the first time i played elite was in 1989, i was 12 years old and just got a brand new amiga (lucky me!). before trying elite, i thought computer games were all like what they had in arcades, space invaders, pacman, barbarian, designed to let you die three times and then forcing you to put more coins into that red flashing slot, giving you ten seconds before you had to play from the beginning again. but THIS was different! yes, you could still die, it's part of the excitement, but here you could actually save your progress on a floppy! you just keep on playing! you'll never really die!!! BWAAHAHA!!! :D
(cue worried parents looking at each other strangely; "did we buy the right thing for our son?")

ELITE is THE game that changed my life! without elite i wouldn't be the gamer i am today.

it showed me that games can be so much more, and as engrossing as a good book or movie. and that at a time were people thought computers make bleepbleep and steal peoples' jobs.
soon i was playing elite together with my best friend. i was the captain (hey, it's MY computer), he was the weapons officer in charge of ID'ing hostiles, missiles and ECM system.
(cue puzzled parents watching us in amazement; "how can this bleeping thing promote team work AND excitement?")
later i found in a computer magazine, if you enter SARA as your password first and then the real thing, you can open a cheat console! oh my god, a backdoor! enter 04 in sector 21 and you've got 4 missiles again! fire them all at the closest coriolis station, do the same again and again until dozens of missiles fly towards your target, straining the tiny processor of your amiga, blowing up in ridiculously large fireworks!
(cue annoyed parents; "why is he hacking that keyboard so fast?!")
and a money hack! enter F4240 and you'll have 100000.0 creds! quick, get my cousins scientific calculator to get some more hex numbers! aha, enter 989680 and you'll have 1000000.0 creds! BWAAAAHAHAHAAA!!!
(cue worried but proud parents upon telling them this; "this kommputah made a genius out of our son! what ARE hexadecimals?!?!")

ELITE is THE game that changed my life! without elite i wouldn't be the cheat console user i am today! :D
 
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