Yep, I used that all the time.
Edit: First time I successfully ambushed a target - sitting out in space by the hyperspace cloud, waiting for my victim to come through.... ah, there you are. Right on time.
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Elite / Frontier Your Elite Memories
- Thread starter Callum Rowley
- Start date
Yep, I used that all the time.
Edit: First time I successfully ambushed a target - sitting out in space by the hyperspace cloud, waiting for my victim to come through.... ah, there you are. Right on time.
Fond days re-kindled...
I used to play Elite on the ZX Spectrum. Usually with a friend and we'd take turns in co-piloting. The character got to Deadly by the time I was 16 in '90 (I played it a lot in spurts normally - many other interests too). That character got taped over (probably) with heavy metal music, as I started to discover pubs, clubs, and hair-sprayed rock chicks. Happy days.
Memories of Elite: getting to an anarchic system, getting blown to pieces, using the energy bomb, then finally the escape pod, limping back to civilisation with 30 or so kills under the belt; the amazing graphics of the time, rotation of objects; arguing about where we'd go next and the places that would be the best trade routes; laughing when you're in combat and you kill the last enemy inches from you and their cargo cannister trashes you
Anyway, I made an mild effort to start it again back in '91 when I realised I'd lost my original Deadly character. The character got to competent, with 30K credits, then it got left in the attic for 20 years. This month I resurrected the character and used a line out/in from Spectrum to laptop, and used a tape utility to convert the audio strream to .TZX format. It was rather bizarre that I was sat there, playing a character save from over 20 years ago, on my emulated Spectrum on my laptop.
Interestingly, one of the first saves is in galaxy 2. The next one is in galaxy 3 and the character has 100g of gem stones. I went back to the previous save, hoped a few planets and on the second you encounter the Super Nova mission. Captured on tape one of the first missions
So I've played it on and off - I do not play games, have none installed and other than an Atari 2600 and 48K/128K Spectrums, have no game consoles. So it's my nice little time to play it again.
I'm making regular TZX and snapshot copies of the game as I progress, so the cloaking device mission can be played again, for example. I never knew about the cloaking device in the original - thought ships flashing in and out were the graphics playing up... Daft, I know. Having found out about that, I've since got the cloaking device and it will make becoming Elite far easier.
So that's my goal - to take this character from over 20 years ago and finish the job of becoming Elite. 1300 kills in, absolutely mopping them up with very strategic use of the cloaking device. Almost a quater of the way to Elite, too. I reckon with a few hours a week I'll get there by next year quite easily. I know it sounds sad but it's such a great game. When I am just short of becoming Elite, I am going to take the TZX file, write it to a cassette tape, load it up on the Spectrum and...
Well, you know what will happen next, right
I used to play Elite on the ZX Spectrum. Usually with a friend and we'd take turns in co-piloting. The character got to Deadly by the time I was 16 in '90 (I played it a lot in spurts normally - many other interests too). That character got taped over (probably) with heavy metal music, as I started to discover pubs, clubs, and hair-sprayed rock chicks. Happy days.
Memories of Elite: getting to an anarchic system, getting blown to pieces, using the energy bomb, then finally the escape pod, limping back to civilisation with 30 or so kills under the belt; the amazing graphics of the time, rotation of objects; arguing about where we'd go next and the places that would be the best trade routes; laughing when you're in combat and you kill the last enemy inches from you and their cargo cannister trashes you
Anyway, I made an mild effort to start it again back in '91 when I realised I'd lost my original Deadly character. The character got to competent, with 30K credits, then it got left in the attic for 20 years. This month I resurrected the character and used a line out/in from Spectrum to laptop, and used a tape utility to convert the audio strream to .TZX format. It was rather bizarre that I was sat there, playing a character save from over 20 years ago, on my emulated Spectrum on my laptop.
Interestingly, one of the first saves is in galaxy 2. The next one is in galaxy 3 and the character has 100g of gem stones. I went back to the previous save, hoped a few planets and on the second you encounter the Super Nova mission. Captured on tape one of the first missions
So I've played it on and off - I do not play games, have none installed and other than an Atari 2600 and 48K/128K Spectrums, have no game consoles. So it's my nice little time to play it again.
I'm making regular TZX and snapshot copies of the game as I progress, so the cloaking device mission can be played again, for example. I never knew about the cloaking device in the original - thought ships flashing in and out were the graphics playing up... Daft, I know. Having found out about that, I've since got the cloaking device and it will make becoming Elite far easier.
So that's my goal - to take this character from over 20 years ago and finish the job of becoming Elite. 1300 kills in, absolutely mopping them up with very strategic use of the cloaking device. Almost a quater of the way to Elite, too. I reckon with a few hours a week I'll get there by next year quite easily. I know it sounds sad but it's such a great game. When I am just short of becoming Elite, I am going to take the TZX file, write it to a cassette tape, load it up on the Spectrum and...
Well, you know what will happen next, right
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I had many fond memories of playing Elite and FFE. Sometimes if I was a bit bored I would attack the space station and see how many vipers I could destroy before I got overwhelmed.
Back with the original Elite, loading the game from tape, meant a good five minutes sitting around staring at a the spectrum loading effect and listening to the high pitched squeaks. To use the time more effectively I remember habitually reading the space traders flight manual - which helped fuel the imagination and fill in the bits that were missing from the game.
I occasionally played FFE with a friend. The two of us would sit in-front of the computer discussing what stuff to buy, where we should go, and take turns in piloting the ship and then get into a bit of a strop when the other player messed up. Ah, good times.
Back with the original Elite, loading the game from tape, meant a good five minutes sitting around staring at a the spectrum loading effect and listening to the high pitched squeaks. To use the time more effectively I remember habitually reading the space traders flight manual - which helped fuel the imagination and fill in the bits that were missing from the game.
I occasionally played FFE with a friend. The two of us would sit in-front of the computer discussing what stuff to buy, where we should go, and take turns in piloting the ship and then get into a bit of a strop when the other player messed up. Ah, good times.
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.
Not referring to Alpha Centauri are you? Never take a mission there!
I remember the review in some UK magazine before it came out in the netherlands.
I waited and waited and when the game was released in the netherlands i was posting myself a hour before opening at the gaming shop only to find out that he didnt have the game yet , traveled the same day 50KM to the next city by train and visited 10 shops before i found anyone who had it in stock , tho it just came in .. he had to rummage and wrestle through the pile of boxes and games to find it and i paid 85 gulden for it (would be about 85 euro i guess/ 60 pound) , it costed me a fortune since i was just 16 or 18 , cant remember well, i had to work my ass off to get it.
I just had bought an msx-1 with a 3'5 floppy drive , so thankgod no elite on tape for me , tho i had played many games from tape.
I waited and waited and when the game was released in the netherlands i was posting myself a hour before opening at the gaming shop only to find out that he didnt have the game yet , traveled the same day 50KM to the next city by train and visited 10 shops before i found anyone who had it in stock , tho it just came in .. he had to rummage and wrestle through the pile of boxes and games to find it and i paid 85 gulden for it (would be about 85 euro i guess/ 60 pound) , it costed me a fortune since i was just 16 or 18 , cant remember well, i had to work my ass off to get it.
I just had bought an msx-1 with a 3'5 floppy drive , so thankgod no elite on tape for me , tho i had played many games from tape.
I started playing Elite properly on the ZX Speccy 48K. Before that, I dabbled a little on the Electron, and the schools BBC B.
I was 16 or 17. I had started playing Elite already and was talking about it with a close friend at school (6th form) and he suggested we should collaborate and play it together. Most of the time, I did the dog fights while he worked out which planets we should jump to and trade with.
One evening, after school, we started playing non-stop. No dinner or TV (obviously the speccy was connected to the TV). When it was close to midnight, we decided to play a couple of more planets, then save and go to sleep. This was the plan, though at about 7 in the morning, we were still telling each other, "One more planet, save and switch off"
It was around 11am when another friend (who'd also played with us on the same game) turned up and wasn't even shocked that we'd been up for almost 14hrs, playing non-stop.
Feeling like a zombie, cold, hungry, half asleep, something blinked on the screen and radar in some part of the galaxy (don't remember where) and blinked off the radar and screen. This happend a few. By about the 4th time, we looked at each other and said... "It's the damn cloaking Asp ship". Sleep ment nothing, food ment nothing. All that mattered was to kill this Asp and get scoop up its cargo.
It took us a good 20-30 mins to catch it and engage. Frisky little so and so. He kept cloaking and we'd loose it. Eventually we got it in sight, and I rain down the military laser on it. Quickly flipping the Cobra and swapping to the back military laser to whack it some more, while the front laser cooled. It was hell. But we killed it.
Holding our breaths while fuel scooping the cargo and trying very hard not to crash into it. And there it was. Cloaking Device.
The fun we had with it afterwards was endless, and reaching Elite after being Dangerous for a long time was an amazing feeling. I only wish I had read all the manuals and papers that came in the box, to send off for my Elite badge.
After we got the cloaking device, we were permanently on the wanted list. Attacking Vipers and trading Slaves, Narcotics and weapons. We didn't care, we were literarily invisible
Thanks David and Ian for some of the best times on a computer.
Tape and Copy Protection
Original Box, today
I was 16 or 17. I had started playing Elite already and was talking about it with a close friend at school (6th form) and he suggested we should collaborate and play it together. Most of the time, I did the dog fights while he worked out which planets we should jump to and trade with.
One evening, after school, we started playing non-stop. No dinner or TV (obviously the speccy was connected to the TV). When it was close to midnight, we decided to play a couple of more planets, then save and go to sleep. This was the plan, though at about 7 in the morning, we were still telling each other, "One more planet, save and switch off"
It was around 11am when another friend (who'd also played with us on the same game) turned up and wasn't even shocked that we'd been up for almost 14hrs, playing non-stop.
Feeling like a zombie, cold, hungry, half asleep, something blinked on the screen and radar in some part of the galaxy (don't remember where) and blinked off the radar and screen. This happend a few. By about the 4th time, we looked at each other and said... "It's the damn cloaking Asp ship". Sleep ment nothing, food ment nothing. All that mattered was to kill this Asp and get scoop up its cargo.
It took us a good 20-30 mins to catch it and engage. Frisky little so and so. He kept cloaking and we'd loose it. Eventually we got it in sight, and I rain down the military laser on it. Quickly flipping the Cobra and swapping to the back military laser to whack it some more, while the front laser cooled. It was hell. But we killed it.
Holding our breaths while fuel scooping the cargo and trying very hard not to crash into it. And there it was. Cloaking Device.
The fun we had with it afterwards was endless, and reaching Elite after being Dangerous for a long time was an amazing feeling. I only wish I had read all the manuals and papers that came in the box, to send off for my Elite badge.
After we got the cloaking device, we were permanently on the wanted list. Attacking Vipers and trading Slaves, Narcotics and weapons. We didn't care, we were literarily invisible
Thanks David and Ian for some of the best times on a computer.
Tape and Copy Protection
Original Box, today
Fond Memories
I remeber saving for my first ever disc drive for a computer, specifically to play Elite on a BBC Micro without the frustration of waiting for a tape to load, or not, as was just as likely. I also remember that the disc interface uniit and disc drive, which used 100k 5.25 inch one sided floppies, cost as much as the computer itself, as did a monitor, and only a graphics drawing program used a mouse interface. Those were the days.
I remeber saving for my first ever disc drive for a computer, specifically to play Elite on a BBC Micro without the frustration of waiting for a tape to load, or not, as was just as likely. I also remember that the disc interface uniit and disc drive, which used 100k 5.25 inch one sided floppies, cost as much as the computer itself, as did a monitor, and only a graphics drawing program used a mouse interface. Those were the days.
My first contact with Elite was weird. When I've saw this game first time, I can't understand, what the heck is it? I hadn't any idea, what I should do in this game, I hadn't instruction, any description...really I hadn't nothing except game itself. Next months was really pain in the ass. I knew some English, so I try to play. First I've launched from the station, and then I've tried to dock it. All we knows, what's happened - big crash! And next and next...two years (with pauses, of course) I've tried to dock with station. Finally, I've did it. It was very excited to me, because I thought, there's no way to dock with this station. Now I've learnt how buy the cargo, and I've made my first successfully trading course. Of course, the best way to gain more money was buying narcotics or firearms. When I 've gained 5000 CR, I've received my first mission - Trumbles. When I've landed on Larais, I've saw "INCOMING MESSAGE" instead of a normal Inventory Screen. I was surprised and curious. But I haven't any idea what I have to do with the Trumbles, and I was forced to load my old save game....
After one battle I've received message "RIGHT ON, COMMANDER!". And when I've landed on one station I've received next "INCOMING MESSAGE". This time I've get a Constrictor mission. This was hard. Especially because I hadn't any idea, where I have to search this Constrictor. When I went to Planet Description Screen I've saw a weird text in capitalized letter, "LOOKED BOUND TO AREXE". I've tried to find it on G1, but without success. I've realized, this planet must be in the other Galaxy. I had Galactic Hyperspace drive, so Ive used it. After six jumps I've caught Constrictor. This battle was very hard, but I've won.
Now I'm Dangerous and I'm waiting to become ELITE...
Moderators- feel free to edit my post and corrected any language errors - English isn't my native language...
When I 've gained 5000 CR, I've received my first mission - Trumbles. When I've landed on Larais, I've saw "INCOMING MESSAGE" instead of a normal Inventory Screen. I was surprised and curious. But I haven't any idea what I have to do with the Trumbles, and I was forced to load my old save game....After one battle I've received message "RIGHT ON, COMMANDER!". And when I've landed on one station I've received next "INCOMING MESSAGE". This time I've get a Constrictor mission. This was hard. Especially because I hadn't any idea, where I have to search this Constrictor. When I went to Planet Description Screen I've saw a weird text in capitalized letter, "LOOKED BOUND TO AREXE". I've tried to find it on G1, but without success. I've realized, this planet must be in the other Galaxy. I had Galactic Hyperspace drive, so Ive used it. After six jumps I've caught Constrictor. This battle was very hard, but I've won.
Now I'm Dangerous and I'm waiting to become ELITE...
Moderators- feel free to edit my post and corrected any language errors - English isn't my native language...
I am still trying to find the Spectrum version because of the Lenslok thing. I was reading a lot about it.......very interesting......
My first contact with Elite was weird. When I've saw this game first time, I can't understand, what the heck is it? I hadn't any idea, what I should do in this game, I hadn't instruction, any description...really I hadn't nothing except game itself. Next months was really pain in the ass. I knew some English, so I try to play. First I've launched from the station, and then I've tried to dock it. All we knows, what's happened - big crash! And next and next...two years (with pauses, of course) I've tried to dock with station. Finally, I've did it. It was very excited to me, because I thought, there's no way to dock with this station. Now I've learnt how buy the cargo, and I've made my first successfully trading course. Of course, the best way to gain more money was buying narcotics or firearms.
After one battle I've received message "RIGHT ON, COMMANDER!". And when I've landed on one station I've received next "INCOMING MESSAGE". This time I've get a Constrictor mission. This was hard. Especially because I hadn't any idea, where I have to search this Constrictor. When I went to Planet Description Screen I've saw a weird text in capitalized letter, "LOOKED BOUND TO AREXE". I've tried to find it on G1, but without success. I've realized, this planet must be in the other Galaxy. I had Galactic Hyperspace drive, so Ive used it. After six jumps I've caught Constrictor. This battle was very hard, but I've won.
Now I'm Dangerous and I'm waiting to become ELITE...
Moderators- feel free to edit my post and corrected any language errors - English isn't my native language...
Osh, your English is EXCELLENT. Please, there is no need to apologise.
Those were amazing days, I still relive them as I still play them to this day.
I have a memory of one particular ELITE session on C64 which I'm very fond of:
This happened around 1988-89. I was playing ELITE in my room as usual, lights off, maybe a candle or two to give some light in addition to the TV screen. My room's window was giving south (3rd, which is top floor of the building), I got an excellent view of the night sky above the neighbouring house - there were some trees blocking lights from that house's windows.
That night the sky was clear, and I saw the familiar constellations of Orion, Taurus & Pleiades that are prominent features of the southern sky during winter here. Also the Moon was up and full, but this time no Aurora Borealis.
Okay, so I was playing ELITE, decided to do some sun-skimming and blast some pirates while being able to see a spectacular night sky with just a twist of my head. Then I noticed that a chunk of the Moon had turned dark, deep brownish-red colour - whoa, a lunar eclipse!
I continued my gaming session, escorting a lone Boa near the system sun, having to defend it (my ship of course, but I wanted to think the pirates had come for that Boa) every now and then, and all the time checking the Moon. The feeling was eerie and awesome simultaneously, it was even slightly moving experience to be able to witness a total lunar eclipse right beside me and doing something slighty out of norm in the game too.
Not once have I been moved during and/or because of a game this way before or after this experience.
This happened around 1988-89. I was playing ELITE in my room as usual, lights off, maybe a candle or two to give some light in addition to the TV screen. My room's window was giving south (3rd, which is top floor of the building), I got an excellent view of the night sky above the neighbouring house - there were some trees blocking lights from that house's windows.
That night the sky was clear, and I saw the familiar constellations of Orion, Taurus & Pleiades that are prominent features of the southern sky during winter here. Also the Moon was up and full, but this time no Aurora Borealis.
Okay, so I was playing ELITE, decided to do some sun-skimming and blast some pirates while being able to see a spectacular night sky with just a twist of my head. Then I noticed that a chunk of the Moon had turned dark, deep brownish-red colour - whoa, a lunar eclipse!
I continued my gaming session, escorting a lone Boa near the system sun, having to defend it (my ship of course, but I wanted to think the pirates had come for that Boa) every now and then, and all the time checking the Moon. The feeling was eerie and awesome simultaneously, it was even slightly moving experience to be able to witness a total lunar eclipse right beside me and doing something slighty out of norm in the game too.
Not once have I been moved during and/or because of a game this way before or after this experience.
Played Elite on the PC with CGA graphics (thats 4 colours on screen at once! for you young people) and then later the EGA (16 colours) Elite Plus version.
Overall played it on and off over several years and while my friend seemed to get missions regularly I don't think I ever came across one and only ever met the Thargoids once when I still had a relatively weak ship so just died in seconds. Despite that made Elite at least once. Played it so much could correctly identify every ship when it was still just one or two pixels.
We even came up with our own late 80's multiplayer Elite, three of us gathered around one keyboard, one would fly, another take control of weapons and a third the ECM. Cliff Richards Mistletoe & Wine will forever be connected to scooping up Liquor and the Blue Danube with docking in Elite.
Played FE2 but just was not the same, the universe seemed so empty, never met anyone except pirates or mission craft. It also did not feel like an Elite game, all it had in common (besides the genre) were a few ship types, more like a little bit of Elite tacked onto an unrelated game. Never played long enough to get very far in rankings.
Overall played it on and off over several years and while my friend seemed to get missions regularly I don't think I ever came across one and only ever met the Thargoids once when I still had a relatively weak ship so just died in seconds. Despite that made Elite at least once. Played it so much could correctly identify every ship when it was still just one or two pixels.
We even came up with our own late 80's multiplayer Elite, three of us gathered around one keyboard, one would fly, another take control of weapons and a third the ECM. Cliff Richards Mistletoe & Wine will forever be connected to scooping up Liquor and the Blue Danube with docking in Elite.
Played FE2 but just was not the same, the universe seemed so empty, never met anyone except pirates or mission craft. It also did not feel like an Elite game, all it had in common (besides the genre) were a few ship types, more like a little bit of Elite tacked onto an unrelated game. Never played long enough to get very far in rankings.
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Memories
Elite has many memories for me, but the clearest (apart from the frustration of using the Lenslok system to actually get it to run) was the social aspect I had when playing. This may sound unusual for a single player game, but a group of us played the game and would visit each other and sit for hours watching each other play our own Commanders and generally try to make sure our "competition" didn't progress to far in terms of credits or rank in our presence! It was amazing now, that a game with such limited functionality, due to the very small memory footprint on the ZX Spectrum, continued to hold my attention for such a long time - but I don't believe any of us made it to elite as the "grind" for points and simply visiting anarchy planets to gain reputation from Dangerous to Elite was too much.
I think the game had huge potential - selective missions, mining asteroids, collecting fuel from stars and upgrading your ship to carry huge cargos were all things that were touched on to make life more interesting but due to limited scope simply detracted from the single, and ultimately too timely goal of becoming elite.
I really look forwards to seeing these core features of the origonal game being developed and expanded for those of us who prefer not to see just another shoot-em-up game with a bit of stuff to do in between.
Elite has many memories for me, but the clearest (apart from the frustration of using the Lenslok system to actually get it to run) was the social aspect I had when playing. This may sound unusual for a single player game, but a group of us played the game and would visit each other and sit for hours watching each other play our own Commanders and generally try to make sure our "competition" didn't progress to far in terms of credits or rank in our presence! It was amazing now, that a game with such limited functionality, due to the very small memory footprint on the ZX Spectrum, continued to hold my attention for such a long time - but I don't believe any of us made it to elite as the "grind" for points and simply visiting anarchy planets to gain reputation from Dangerous to Elite was too much.
I think the game had huge potential - selective missions, mining asteroids, collecting fuel from stars and upgrading your ship to carry huge cargos were all things that were touched on to make life more interesting but due to limited scope simply detracted from the single, and ultimately too timely goal of becoming elite.
I really look forwards to seeing these core features of the origonal game being developed and expanded for those of us who prefer not to see just another shoot-em-up game with a bit of stuff to do in between.
So many memories of Frontier on the Atari STE. The one that pushes its way into my mind first is looking for systems thousands of light years into the outer rim to jump to and mine. I can't recall where I heard about doing this, but I discovered that if you looked far enough out of your range, some systems would become mysteriously accessible. I remember jamming down the right arrow key on my keyboard with a knife for forty minutes or so on the map screen until something came up.
Of course, when I got there it was nothing special - just another rock to land on - but that sense that there could be anything round the corner is what made Elite special for me. I'm hoping that Dangerous will be the same, but with plenty of surprises up its sleeve.
Of course, when I got there it was nothing special - just another rock to land on - but that sense that there could be anything round the corner is what made Elite special for me. I'm hoping that Dangerous will be the same, but with plenty of surprises up its sleeve.
I remember seeing a rather underwhelming review of it in Computer & Video Games (as it was then) for the BBC (7 out of 10 for gameplay if I remember ). I must have been 10 years old at the time. Then I think I then saw it on TV - Making the most of the Micro, probably, seeing the Cobra mk III revolving on screen while the presenters talked about something else. I'm really dredging my memory now! I ended up with the BBC tape version for Christmas and was instantly captivated, playing it endlessly. I remember the glow I felt at school the day after I finally managed to dock at Leesti for the first time!
When I found that so many features were missing from the tape version I saved all my pennies for the disk version, and must have played it practically continuously until I got the C64 version a year or so later. As much as I loved playing the game I was as fascinated by the manual and the novella, which I've read many times. Very sad that Robert Holdstock died recently - it was The Dark Wheel that directed me towards Mythago Wood, one of my favourite novels. I still had hopes that he'd write the long-awaited sequel.
I had Amiga and PC versions after that, but they were a bit of a disappointment - too gaudy - and the PC version of Elite plus was far too easy. I got to Elite in double quick time, something I never managed on any other version. Still, I had the boxes of all my various versions on my desk (pride of place BBC Disk version) until I left for University and my parents threw them out....
While I was at University I remember reading a review of Frontier Elite 2 and of course the obsession began again!
). I must have been 10 years old at the time. Then I think I then saw it on TV - Making the most of the Micro, probably, seeing the Cobra mk III revolving on screen while the presenters talked about something else. I'm really dredging my memory now! I ended up with the BBC tape version for Christmas and was instantly captivated, playing it endlessly. I remember the glow I felt at school the day after I finally managed to dock at Leesti for the first time! When I found that so many features were missing from the tape version I saved all my pennies for the disk version, and must have played it practically continuously until I got the C64 version a year or so later. As much as I loved playing the game I was as fascinated by the manual and the novella, which I've read many times. Very sad that Robert Holdstock died recently - it was The Dark Wheel that directed me towards Mythago Wood, one of my favourite novels. I still had hopes that he'd write the long-awaited sequel.
I had Amiga and PC versions after that, but they were a bit of a disappointment - too gaudy - and the PC version of Elite plus was far too easy. I got to Elite in double quick time, something I never managed on any other version. Still, I had the boxes of all my various versions on my desk (pride of place BBC Disk version) until I left for University and my parents threw them out....
While I was at University I remember reading a review of Frontier Elite 2 and of course the obsession began again!