Where did we all first find Oolite

milinks · Post by **milinks** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:52 am

Im sure there are lots of people like me who have trawled the web for a decent rendition of the ultimate space trading game. I'm curious to find out how far and wide the word of Oolite has spread. As such, where did we all first hear or find Oolite? was it, like me, by endless trawling the web? or by word of mouth?

I first found Oolite when i was also looking for an up to date version of an old ZX Spectrum game "Lords Of Midnight" which if found here

http://www.remakes.org/

Where did you all come across this master piece?

Post by **winston** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:54 am

On USENET when Giles first posted about it. I didn't have a Mac at the time so I couldn't play it. No, I did not buy a PowerBook _just_ to play Oolite before you ask!

Murgh · Post by **Murgh** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:42 am

in a nostalgic moment, I googled elite space osx back in august 2004, not really having a lot of faith in a fruitful result.

Oolite was at around 1.20 then, and it took me a little time before I discovered the ugrade patches that came abnormally thick and fast (every friday!), had suddenly speeded up the game, and included OoTunes..

not having looked around for this sort of context before, where programmers worked in the open, sincerely considerering incoming advice, and towards a goal of making it easy for a novice to customize the data, I thought this might be the new norm form, with the maturing internet and much reported UNIX brainpower influx to the new OSX etc. so I didn't immediately realize how unique Oolite was/is.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:47 am

Someone in real life told me about it. I got an email from a mate saying "oi, you sad bugger, you like that Elite game, yeah, so look at this Oolite thingy. It's pretty good IF YOU HAVE A MAC HAHAHAHAHA."

Yes, he is a mac user.

I started hanging around here just before the first Windows alpha was put together.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:50 am

Now that the Alzheimers is setting in I can't be too sure, but it was probably Retro Remakes same as Milinks

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:53 am

Selezen wrote:
Someone in real life told me about it.

You're fantasizing again

xaotik · Post by **xaotik** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:12 am

Through the periodic search for elite remakes (happens atleast once a year), first time I had seen oolite it was Mac-only, but still kept checking out the progress once in a while especially when I saw it was moddable. First time I tried it out was in November when I noticed a port of it on freshports.org's homepage and then later on with the recent win32 builds.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:37 am

I first found Oolite via a google search for TNK source (I know, I'm such a rotter). I saw it was Mac OS/X only and my heart sank.

I found it again a few months ago when I was trawling through winstons most excellent http://frontiernews.alioth.net (the only think that kindled my desire for Elite-ness during the dark times, well alioth.net and JJFFE

)... and bugger me backwards if there wasn't a linux version. The celebrations were shortlived, it harboured an unseen evil of GNUstep and I wasted weeks of my life attempting the impossible. I then surrendered to the inevitable and compiled GCC, and the rest as they say is history!

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:01 pm

Was searching for a decent spacesim when I was bored...found a banned Elite-clone and JJ's FFE version.

That got me re-interested in the elite fan pages,
then found a link somewhere(probably Alioth.net) to Oolite, took a look, was dissapointed that is was mac only, but hung around to read a few posts on the BBS.

The active cOomunity attracted me and I got excited about the potential of Oo. So I stuck around making suggestions and eventually started working on OXP.
At first only played around with revamped versions of normal craft and a few myFirstShip type craft.
Then got sucked into the TOGY, did some models for that.
Other running projects are: racers, wrex, BadRep, BH_service, and IS_missions.

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:19 pm

I somewhere bumped into Oolite, don't remember how or where, those days I'd use to do marathon-sessions trawling the intarweb for days in a row, just reading lots and lots of stuff, untill I crashed (Not my computer, I crashed eventually, heehee)

I only remember that it was 1.20, and when I then found the Messageboard, I was overjoyed that there were upgrades coming in thick and fast, .21, .22... Meaning this project was alive and kicking!

Great community, too, helpful advice, jokes aplenty etc...

Wiggy · Post by **Wiggy** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:34 pm

I was playing Original BBC Elite on an Emulator for the Mac, and had got to the first mission.

I googled something like "reesdice mission" and found the board.

I've never looked back since.

NoSleep · Post by **NoSleep** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:10 pm

jonnycuba first brought Oolite to my attention. Despite this, I think I may have been the first person to contact Giles and become a playtester. I wonder if I still have the very first version of Oolite I received knocking around somewhere.

jonnycuba · Post by **jonnycuba** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:15 pm

Being the Elite obsessive that I am I regularly trawled the interweb from when I 1st went online (98/99)? Tried various EMU solutions that never really hit the spot & having the handicap of being a Mac user (luzor)

played the Mac port of TNK for a while, but think the missions were not working in that port!?

Being a regular lurker @ Winston's Alioth Elite BBS I was amazed to see a Mac version being annonced amonst the general madness there...

As NoSleep says, I think he was a very early playtester followed swiftly (hours later) by myself, ha! The arguments over the speed of ships that raged seem so quaint in the context of the rip roaring giant high speed galactic battles that are waged now in Oolite!

Will network Oodeathmatch/racing be the next Biggie

cactuar · Post by **cactuar** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:29 pm

On british tv. Channel 4 has a video game page on it's ceefax and someone mentioned it in the letters page!

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:12 pm