So when was your First Encounter (fnarr, fnarr) of Elite

[Commander McLane]

C64 for me. I think I got my own copy in 1985 as part of some Gold Collection, which had advantages and drawbacks. Advantage: no lenslock , drawback: no gimmicks , not even a proper manual. So I did what we always did those days: figured out the keyboard-layout myself.

Although at the end of the day the "no gimmicks" means that I read The Dark Wheel only after someone on this board pushed me to it.

A couple of years later it was the same again, this time on an Atari ST.

And then a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time nothing, until I discovered Oolite in late 2005 or early 2006 (the official release being 1.58 at the time). Man, was I excited! Exactly up to the moment when I started the game on my iBook G3 (Blueberry), 288 MB Ram, OS X 10.3, and found it completely unplayable. With 3-4 fps I couldn't even turn around and dock again at Lave.

Which was, by the way, one of the reasons to lay this still well-functioning, seven-year-old computer finally to rest, and get myself a MacBook Pro (my very first not-low-end Mac).

[DaddyHoggy]

@ Cmdr McL - wow I'm impressed - to upgrade a machine for the chance to play ONE game (even Oolite) now that's dedication to the cause (I did buy an extra 512MB ram but not even in the same league!)

[Captain Hesperus]

@ Cmdr McL - wow I'm impressed - to upgrade a machine for the chance to play ONE game (even Oolite) now that's dedication to the cause (I did buy an extra 512MB ram but not even in the same league!)

I am planning to get a thoroughly new PC once I've qualified, fully specced to run Oolite at an fps I've never known (anything above 20-30). It'll be teh Bizznizz!!

Captain Hesperus

[DaddyHoggy]

Current machine is built from 2nd hand parts - XP2800+, 1GB RAM, 128MB FX5900XT - not too many oxps - get about 60fps - as I have a 6yr old and a 1yr old and I'm spending £12K a year on childcare this will be my main PC for some time to come...

How's the (nursing?) training coming along?

[JohnnyBoy]

This is what the "spirit of Elite" is all about. After all these years, we are grown up adults, have jobs, families, etc. and we are still entranced by a simple kids' dream about flying a spaceship, visiting worlds and fighting space pirates.

I think that you've hit the nail on the head there, AC.

And then I had to pirate my own bought copy of the game to deal with the whole Lenslok trauma...

Lenslok! Jeez, how the memories start to flood back....

[DaddyHoggy]

Ah yes Lenslok - hmmm. A protection system designed to punish the genuine purchaser of the game (a lesson Sony failed to learn 20yrs later).

Also at the time Lenslok came out I was reading EE 'Doc' Smith's Lensmen series - ah halcyon days.

Now can somebody knock-out some tear-drop shaped ships...

[Selezen]

I was a Spectrum child... Got to Elite on the Spectrum with the POKES. Yes. I cheated.

I got an Amiga after that and got to Elite legitimately. From there I went to PC, tried Elite + and was greatly vexed. I just didn't like it.

Frontier and FFE followed (Frontier on both Amiga and PC) then I discovered emulators and went back to Spectrum version, then tried all the others from BBC to ARCElite.

Then...Oolite... I don't think I've looked back since.

Teardrop shaped ships?

Easy.

[Lestradae]

C64/Elite --> PC Frontier --> PC FFE --> Oolite

[TGHC]

1985 - on an Amstrad CPC 6128, much later bought Elite plus for PC and then grabbed TNK, and even better still Xelite. I often trawled for Elite clones playable on a PC, and one day I found Oolite which was only available for Mac but looked absolutely brilliant. Then some nice chap called Nic in his words "threw together" an installer for PC, and that was it.

[Gareth3377]

Acorn Electron for me. Spent ages looking for a sun (which didn't exist) and being very disappointed when I reached my first ROC and didn't get the constrictor mission. I had followed the Micro User guide to the letter as well

A while after got the Speccy version, which had various missions and stuff, but it didn't have the same feel to it. Would have loved the 'leccy's graphics and sounds on the Speccy version.

Still one of the best games I've ever played.

Tried Frontier. It was crap.

[The Dreamcatcher]

I remember my mate from school telling me about this new game that he'd got for his birthday that was really like flying through space. "It's like being in Star Wars" he said. Several days later we were doing quite well and determined to be Elite before the end of the summer holidays.
One afternoon we were glued to the screen for a mammoth session when his mum piped up "Are you two still cooped up in the dark in here? Why don't you go outside to play like normal kids?"
So we took her word literally and moved the entire speccy setup out into the garden, powered by three extension leads chained together. Later that evening we got called in for tea and while we were inside eating the heavens opened and killed everything. Oops.

[Cmdr. Maegil]

I've once downloaded an acorn emulator and spent the best part of fifteen minutes playing Elite on it... I think I might have become spoiled.

[DaddyHoggy]

@Selezen - cool - thank-you.

[dalek501]

BBC B for me too. A bootleg tape if memory serves. Photocopied instructions I think too that had some pages missing, so I don't know for months that you could press J to skip!

Oh the hours I used to play this game. I think someone above summed it up perfectly. The freedom of the game was great. You could just do what you wanted and not have to follow a set path all the time. So much more 'realistic' than other games.

I think I only ever made it to deadly on that version.

I think from then I bought the disc version when I upgraded to a BBC Master. Oooh colour! Then to the Arc version, which was brilliant. BUt due to the short lived time of themachine we changed to a PC fairly quickly which means I didn't get to be elite again!

So then there was the PC version, and various emulated versions beofr stumbling across Oolite a few weeks ago. I am determined to get to Elite this time!

[Captain Hesperus]

Current machine is built from 2nd hand parts - XP2800+, 1GB RAM, 128MB FX5900XT - not too many oxps - get about 60fps - as I have a 6yr old and a 1yr old and I'm spending £12K a year on childcare this will be my main PC for some time to come...

How's the (nursing?) training coming along?

Come January, I'll be set loose upon the world of the sick and ailing to mop fevered brows, soothe knotted brows and perform sick and sadistic experiments on innocent victims so forth.

Captain Hesperus