Do Any Of You Remember Elite

[Strong]

It was perhaps my favourite game back in the day when I had time to play. It was a work of genius. A whole game within 22K, yes 22K of RAM.

Well it is coming up to the 25th anniversary of the game's release.

Article: BBC - Gaming milestone for Elite game (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8261272.stm)

David Braben says he is working on a new version. I'm as excited as a chihuahua that can smell next door's chihuahua on heat.

[Muddy]

Programmers used to write stuff nice and neatly to save space, but then as capacity for memory grew they just got sloppier and sloppier. Now we have games and programs that take hundreds of Mbs! Of course in fairness, the graphics have improved too. But that doesn't apply to business applications etc.

[Strong]

Yeah in those days they were creating programs in assembly language and trying to save every byte of space they could. These days you can have string constants larger than 22K.

[Zap]

Never even heard of it until today. :sqerr:

[julien_simon]

me neither.

This is the confirmation that Strongy and Muddy come from another planet and don't even know about it.

or is it us Zap??

[Zap]

me neither.

This is the confirmation that Strongy and Muddy come from another planet and don't even know about it.

or is it us Zap??

It just might be us, dude. :sqerr:

[ewomack]

I've never heard of it either, but it looks like a combination of Starmaster and Ultima II.

[ewomack]

That was pretty impressive for 22k...

[ewomack]

Ah... remember the days...

http://www.videogamecritic.net/images/2600/phaser_patrol.png

[ewomack]

Post your favorite blocky pixellated jumble...

http://www.adamantyr.com/crpg/images/ult2.png

[Strong]

I've never heard of it either, but it looks like a combination of Starmaster and Ultima II.

I remember Starmaster! Elite pre-dates both. It was the first game to use 3D graphics. When it first came out it was specifically for the BBC Micro (a computer produced by Acorn specifically for the BBC, who had a series about computers. They would broadcast games that you could record onto audio tape at the end of the program. You would then load the game onto the BBC micro by plugging the recorder in I think. They also had listings you like credits that you could record and then type into the computer. The really flash guys had 5 1/4 inch floppy drives back up stuff. It was perhaps the first true home computer in the UK after the Spectrum.)

Later Elite was released for the PCs, Amiga, Atari. It was a ground breaking game in a number of ways. The 3D graphics I mentioned, but also it wasn't a points and lives based game. It was the first free format game, you could do what you wanted within the Elite Universes, trade, space piracy, exploration, make first contact with aliens, go alien hunting. You tended to start off trading to make enough money to upgrade into bigger, faster more sophisticated space ships. If you got enough money together and you went to the right planet you could eventually by a ship that looked remarkably like the USS Enterprise (Original series).

Of course like the guy playing the spoons it has been surpassed by more sophisticated games and graphics, but in it's day it was the bee's knees, the peak of sophistication in the games world.