But back before Elite..

[Ganelon]

Almost a decade before Elite, there was this:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detai ... me_id=9782

A vid of the gameplay can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-4LcD95 ... r_embedded

I spent plenty of quarters on it back in the day. It was just what there was available some years before Elite, but I've always kind of wondered if it might have been an influence on Elite. Similar "rushing through space" first person perspective, similar twin beam weapons.. But the one bit that makes me wonder is how the torpedoes worked. They killed everything on your screen, rather like the energy bomb.

It was just a "run and gun" game though, no docking or trading.

So, did anyone else ever play this "Blast from the past"?

[DaddyHoggy]

Wow! Good find - and you get to blow up the USS Reliant again and again and again...

[Griff]

One of those enemy sprites looks like a slightly slimmer Jabba the hut, i suppose makes sense if the game came out in 1977 and he didn't get his first break in the movies untill ROTJ in 1983!
I never saw that arcade game but i do remember i had something similar on the atari2600, it came with some sort of extra button controller you plugged into one of the joystick ports and it had buttons for shield and warpdrive on it and stuff

[Disembodied]

I think this might have been the first arcade game I ever played ... it was either that or Sea Wolf.

[Killer Wolf]

I never saw that arcade game but i do remember i had something similar on the atari2600, it came with some sort of extra button controller you plugged into one of the joystick ports and it had buttons for shield and warpdrive on it and stuff

Star Raiders! i had that, was pretty good, for the time, though the graphics were as usual a bit Teletext. i could never understand why Atari always had the best looking arcade games but sub-par home computer games, i thought their tech abilities etc would've been able to build a far better home puter system.

[Matti]

i could never understand why Atari always had the best looking arcade games but sub-par home computer games, i thought their tech abilities etc would've been able to build a far better home puter system.

Atari has made lots of different computers and game consoles. Some were good and prices were relatively high. Do you know why Atari Jaguar failed? Its games were in memory cards (or modules) which cost whole lot more than CD-ROM discs.

And Atari 2600 is game console, not computer. Atari ST, that's computer. Atari has made PCs too and I had opportunity use one. I toyed with GEM and played Lemmings. OS was MS-DOS 3.something.

[Killer Wolf]

"And Atari 2600 is game console, not computer"

tell that to Atari then, cos it was known as the VCS, Video COMPUTER System.

[DaddyHoggy]

You could also by an expansion pack that plugged in the cartridge slot of the 2600 and to that you could connect a keyboard...

[JensAyton]

tell that to Atari then, cos it was known as the VCS, Video COMPUTER System.

The Nintendo Entertainment System was also called the “Family Computer”, but no-one would dispute that it was a console.

[Killer Wolf]

did it compute things to show graphics on screen etc? if so, end of story.

[drew]

[tugs oldtimer beard]No one disses the Atari 2600![/tugs oldtimer beard]

Cheers,

Drew.

[JensAyton]

did it compute things to show graphics on screen etc? if so, end of story.

I’m sorry, but languages don’t work that way. Life would be conceptually simpler yet a lot more difficult if they did.

[Killer Wolf]

i'm sorry but it does, otherwise go sue them for misrepresentation.

[Makandal]

First 3D space game I had was the incredible 3D Defender of Ere Informatique on ZX 81. It was a fantastic game for this time

[CommonSenseOTB]

Do you remember Gauntlet at the arcade in the mid 80's?

Best video game day I ever had. Grade 9. Saturday morning, 9:30AM. Went to the local video game room in a gas station next to Famous Players Cinema IV movie theatre 2 blocks from where I lived. Put in 1 quarter and selected the Elf(Hehe!). Played until about 7:30PM and had all the power potions and over 20000 health points. Sold it to some guy for 5 bucks. Best video game day I ever had.