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

[Goomsnargh]

One of my brothers bought our 464 after a particularly naff Christmas (we needed cheering up hehe) and I talked him into getting the colour monitor over the "green screen" (blech!).

I really liked it, and it worked like a dream until my big sister spilled her bacardi and coke into it >.<

G

[gogz69]

C64 man meself (voted in poll) & a little piccie for all too.

The box front has too much damage to show here.

[JohnnyBoy]

I really liked it, and it worked like a dream until my big sister spilled her bacardi and coke into it >.<

Oh, man! I'm sure you "expressed your displeasure" after that happened!

[Divas Kind Imps]

Spectrum.

I recall it first on an acquaintance's Spectrum and wondering what the hell the point to it was. Alas, it is true, but back then there was far too much Cyndi Lauper, Night Ranger, beer, and other things simply getting in the way of the truth that was Elite.

Much, much later I had a chance encounter with Mr. Pindar's E-TNK and a host of other Space-Trading games.

With Oolite, aaaahhhhh... it's good to be home.

[Killer Wolf]

First played it on the BBCs at school. remember seeing the spinning Cobra in a shop demo and just *had* to play it, then finally got the chance and loved it. i've played quite a few versions. Had an Electron first, think it only had about 6 different ships or such, then i got my own BBC (tape). at college we spent some breaks playng the disc version, then i got myself an amiga, then i got an amiga 1200, played Elite to the death on both of those. guy's bro had a version on a PC at the time (one of the old IBM ones, can't recall it's designation, but it played too fast to be controllable, even w/ the frame rate turned way down i didn't like it. i think the current PC is the only one i've not bought Elite for - found a d/l version on the main elite site but could never get it to work right :-/ Oolite was a godsend, especially w/ the ability to add ships etc.

[Zbond-Zbond]

BBC B (tape) when it came out, then BBC disk a couple of years later. I picked up a C64 for next to nothing in the early 1990s and played the C64 version. I never got to play ArchElite though, which seems regarded as one of the best of the orginal Elite conversions. Emulators for the Arch are easy to download but the copies of the files you need to run them seem unavailable.

BBC cassette version on 24K (I think) ..how we laughed as it loaded, reading the box our new kettle had come in from someplace afar where spelling was a sort of ad hoc arrangement of the alphabet & words meant nothing at all. We were several Australians living in a Midlands town one of us working in avionics one in music one not at all. Two of us played Elite as pilot/co-pilot and what a shock we got when a disk drive arrived - - no time to read kettle boxes then!

[JameSpal]

A friend of mine had it on an Apple ][ some time around 1984. We played it a few times but could never dock.

I was on vacation with my family and I found it for the C64. I wore it out playing it on my Commie, but never made it to Elite rank.

In the early '90s I bought an IBM Compatible. I saw a copy of Elite+ at a used book store and was so excited. It was like a visit from an old friend.

Elite+ was almost completely unplayable on a 486. I guess it was programmed for a 386 or something because everything happened so fast - nobody has reflexes that fast.

A few years ago I ran across Oolite. I've been playing around with it from time to time ever since. It's really nice seeing all those things I imagined about the Elite universe brought to life.

I also have a Sony PSP modded to run homebrew software specifically for the purpose of running old Commodore games. Elite is pretty fun on the tiny screen, but navigating the menus when you are docked is a pain because every keystroke involves using the pad to point and click on tiny letters on a tiny on-screen keyboard. Still, it's fun to get out and heat up the old lasers a bit.

[mostly rubbish]

Lordy, looks like I'm in good company here.

I first saw Elite on a friend's Spectrum - complete with that unnecessary and annoying lock thing. I spent quite a lot of time helping him bash them rubbery keys to destruction (along with Fighter Pilot and some chopper thingy).

When I finally got to own a CPC6128, I naturally bought Elite and became a troglodyte of the first order, marvelling at how the disk drive made loading sooo much easier.

When the CPC died and RL intervened, I forgot about Elite for a long time, until a recent disk crash saw me loading Ubuntu (I just can't handle XP any longer). What's this? Oolite? what a silly name for a game. Oh well, let's have a look at - holy shit, it's Elite! Open Source! Lots of mods! Game on!!

[wackyman465]

So are we saying that OOLITE is now being played by 40 something nostalic blokes recapturing the teenage years ...........?

Beg pardon! 13 on wednesday! Retract your comments!

[0235]

wow, this makes me feel so young. i found out about Elite last year because there was a TV program about it on BBC i think, so i then explored, got it on PC, then got "elite newkind" and finaly got Oolite. i swear i am the youngest person who like elite, i dont even class as an adult legaly

[Commander McLane]

i swear i am the youngest person who like elite, i dont even class as an adult legaly

Well, that very much depends. You are by far not the only person around here who doesn't class as an adult legally. (Have a look at the various 'How old are you?' polls.) The guy who posted just above you, for instance, has just turned 13 (as he is writing). Not adult either. In order to beat that you would have to be quite far from let's say voting age.

Which by the way leads to the question, what about your signature line? You shouldn't be old enough yet to crash anything?!?

[KZ9999]

As my sig says, I'm Acorn Electron Elite'r first and foremost. It was one of the few 'legal copies' 8 bit games I ever bought. I didn't even care that there were no suns, missions, or a limited ship set. I'm proud to say I've still got my original copy in mint condition (along with the Electron to play it on.)

I went to a PC a couple of years later, so I had to get Elite for that too. So I spent a lot of time killing ships in 4 colour CGA and beep sfx. When the Plus version came out, naturally I obtained a copy of that too for MGA and Soundblaster joys.

I'll confess that I have 'sinned' with First Encounters. Luckily for me by the time the game made it to New Zealand it was the patched version, so it actually worked. (As much as First Encounters ever worked. <sigh> To this day I think Mr Braben fumbled the ball on this one.) I've crossed the ditch and beaten all three of the the Privateer games. I've put serious hours in to X, and X3.

In the end, I still come back to the original. So when I discovered Oolite 1.69, I have to have it and I've been playing it ever since.

It's nice to see that many of the old classics, not just Elite, are being updated by the fans of the orginal. I've also enjoyed Cholo, Outcast (Exile) and Xor remakes from Ovine By Design and Rockz (Repton) by the original creator.

I know it's off thread, but what other remakes have you folks really enjoyed?

[DaddyHoggy]

I enjoyed Freelancer although it was too scripted.

And of course in my Amiga A500 days I played (and still own (the game and the computer)) the original bugged to high heaven Frontier.

Oh and also on the Amiga I played (and still own) FOFT. (with it's own built in programming language!!)

I lost my copy of E:TNK when a PC died and I discovered my backup of the HD for some reason didn't include TNK...

[0235]

So are we saying that OOLITE is now being played by 40 something nostalic blokes recapturing the teenage years ...........?

Beg pardon! 13 on wednesday! Retract your comments!

woah, didn't notice that, wow, another young person, and i thought i was the youngest.
its quite funny, i have an account on "playfire" which is aimed at games such as Halo 3 and COD 4, but i typed in Elite to games i have, and it recognised it! amazing

[Erai]

C64 for me, and I think it was "85. I had an illegal copy first, played until the pooter could not read the tape anymore. Second tape ditto. The third tape I actually borrowed from the library- no idea why they had it on the shelves, I never found another game there... must have been because of the Dark Wheel novella or something.

Still have three ordners full of "ship logs" from those days, for a while Elite totally absorbed me. To the point where I would almost be drenched with sweat after a couple of tough battles (or simply playing for hours on end). Only computer game ever that forced me to take a shower after playing, otherwise I would not be allowed at the dinner table. Good times