Oolite Bulletins

I am only new to this BB and although I have been playing Elite since its inception I found this site fairly intimidating.... It's hard to get a conversation going on with so many Ooolite experts on this board. Not that I am, for one moment, critising them... Nay I bless them for keeping the concept alive....

It's just that - maybe - you could cut some of us older "Noobs" who haven't played the game since the Beeb original - some slack....

A gentle introduction "area" or "section" might make the rest of us "lurkers" more able to come out of the Hyperspace...

An "Introduce Yourself" thread would be there for new members to tell us a little about who you are, where you are from, why you came to this forum and why you like to play Oolite.
Just a thought....



SHOULD I START OFF?

Well I guess I had better start by setting a good example....


Back in 1985 I played this stupid game called "ELITE" on my boss's BBC Micro. It was crap.

In 1989 I played "ELITE" on my CPC6128 with a RAM DELTA joystick.... It was multiple-orgasms heaven...

In 1991 I played "ELITE" on my Amiga 500+.... It was crap....

In 2003 I played some other version of "ELITE" and it was crap.

In 2006 I played "Ooolite" but it was not a "serious" version as far as I was concerned.

In 2013 I played "Oolite 1.77" and it is everything I could expect and then some more...


My first home computer was a ZX81 which I built myself.

Second was the CPC6128.

Third was the Amiga 500+

These days I build my own PCs...


Anyone else out there who is an old "ELITE" but suddenly a "Newbie" to this board?

Hi SevenT, and welcome here - I know you've already found the chatroom
I think you're the first person who has ever confessed to finding us intimidating We're a lovely, friendly bunch, really.
On a serious note, Noobs often ask if there is an 'introduction' thread, and probably for no particular reason there isn't. Or at least there wasn't until now. Starting this was a great idea I think.

Darn: post-stolen by Smivs!

I didn't think we ever needed one of these, to be honest. We're all members of the friendliest board this side of Riedquat, after all!

In the spirit of being more approachable, though, HI! I'm Dave.

I played Elite in 1985 on a Spectrum. It was awesome.

I played Elite on an Amiga 500. It was awesome.

I played Elite+ on a PC. It was crap.

I played Frontier and First Encounters on Amiga and PC respectively. They were crap.

I play Oolite now. It's awesome. And it has an awesome community.

I tried fish custard. It was crap.

Hi SevenT

we were all Noobs to the forum once...

Came across Elite in 1985 in my local video shop which also rented out computer games - as I'd owned a C64 since Christmas '84, I hired this game for week after week, until I realised that somebody else might buy it, so the nice man at the shop agreed to put it behind the counter, and I'd keep "hiring" it, until I'd actually bought it - 3 weeks of no Elite and no pocket money was torture (but worth it!!)

When I bought my first A500 in 1989 (saved up for a year) I bought Elite on that too.

I got hold of an old work 486 in 1995 when I started working for the MOD and put the old DOS version of Elite on that, I was also (still) playing Frontier then as well (having bought it while at Uni the year before when I got my second Amiga (A500+))

I played my Elite clones over the years (FOFT? Anybody remember that) and of course C. Pinder's excellent Elite:TNK.

I then stumbled onto version 1.65 of Oolite back in 2006 and have been hooked ever since - I don't play much any more - but I still like contributing to the game in the form of Fiction, Newsflashes for Snoopers and Ads for YAH.

Occasionally I have a brilliant idea that I mention on here that inspires an OXP.

As others have already said, welcome to the forum. The reason there's no intro area as the whole forum is effectively a soft play area. Enjoy.

Hi SevenT,

I've only been on the forums myself for a few days now, and I can say the folks here are a pretty damn nice bunch, even when I've been asking obvious and dumb ass questions I don't get flamed or abuse.

I'm Paul,

first played Elite on my mates BBC back in 85.

Then went on to play it on my Commodore 64.

After that I played it on my Amiga 500 which I loved but always flt it was missing something.

Played Frontier on my Amiga, loved the concept but hated the flying.

Tried Elite+ on my PC but never really enjoyed it.

Found Oolite several weeks ago and have been playing and installing mods like there's no tomorrow since!

I'm JazHaz, aka James Haslam.

I played Elite at school on their BBC Micros in 1984 (with a pirated floppy disc), was blown away. I played it as often as I could, blowing lunchtimes and breaks playing it until I got to Deadly.

Had a Spectrum at home and bought Elite as soon as it came out. Was equally blown away, didn't even mind using a Lenslok...

Bought an Atari ST in 1986 and got Elite for that, and later in 1993 Frontier too. In 1996 I bought the 32 bit Atari Falcon and found Frontier was a joy to play on that (on the ST it was merely "meh").

Played Elite:TNK after I got a second hand PC in about 1998, and then in 2009 discovered Oolite, where I have been ever since.

Looking forward to Elite: Dangerous, where I already have god-like powers as a member of the DDF...

Hi SevenT!

I'm Diziet Sma, aka Dizzy.

I first played Elite on the Commodore 64, back in '85, when I was 25yo (which makes me a seriously old fart around here) That was *serious addiction* time. (8 months off work with a smashed lower left leg helped!)

I briefly looked at Elite on the Amiga, but couldn't get past the clunky-looking icon-driven screen.

Having had an Amiga, the PC version made me want to puke.

I discovered Oolite in 2009, and haven't looked back. Serious addiction doesn't even begin to describe it!

SevenT wrote:

... I found this site fairly intimidating.... It's hard to get a conversation going on with so many Ooolite experts on this board.

Aye, I can see how it may appear that way at first - we need more dumb pilots like me. Welcome aboard, SevenT.

Selezen wrote:

…

I tried fish custard. It was crap.

There's one important item missing: What about marmite?

Commander McLane wrote:

Selezen wrote:

…

I tried fish custard. It was crap.

There's one important item missing: What about marmite?

And where's the ketchup?

Thanks for the welcome peeps.

Wow! So many old Amiga500 users out there. How reassuring. I used to be the deputy editor on the JAM (Just Amiga Monthly) magazine back in Commodore UK's heyday in the early 1990's.

Back then the Amiga universe was a fairly tight bunch (tight in both senses of the word!)

It brings back some good memories... Protext, Prospell and Promege from Arnor, Jolyon Rolph's Almathera, Deluxe Paint, The World Of Commodore Shows, the All Formats shows, the Ram Delta Joystick, the Amiga500+ 50Mb hard drive that cost about a squillion pounds but looked cool, Keith Rose selling modems and then going to jail - escaping - and going back to jail.... Ahh... Happy days...

IMHO PCs and Macs have sucked the sheer marrow of enjoyment out of computing these days. It's probably how the first car drivers felt - in the early days of motor innovation - once Henry Ford came along and started mass producing cars... "Any colour you want, as long as it's black!"

I love the concept of Oolite because - apart from the game-play itself - it's like Firefox... you get the core program and then you can bolt all these add-on goodies onto it and fettle it to suit your own needs.

It's almost like programming in BASIC used to be - except other people have already done the really clever stuff by coding the OXPs. Ahhhhh..... BASIC, there's a Blast From The Past... something you never hear about these days. Do school children actually learn programming these days or does IT education merely involve knowing which icon to click and which WP to use?

Has anyone else noticed that most GUI programs use the "floppy disk" icon to save a work in progress? Anyone else realised that most teenagers have probably never seen a floppy disk in real life and probably don't know what the icon actually represents?

OMG - I am starting to feel a deep melancholy descending upon me... I must immediately go and imbibe of the fermented fruit!

SevenT I still have have two working A500s (OK an A500 and an A500+) I had a third but it was stripped for parts to keep the other two going. Also have a 20MB A590 with an extra 4MB side installed in it (I used to do a lot of 3D renders using Raylab and I needed the memory and the storage space!)

I still also have two working C64s (with 1x 1541 floppy drive and 1x Excellerator plus floppy (Evesham Micros) and of course the pristine condition boxed copy of Elite...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

SevenT I still have have two working A500s (OK an A500 and an A500+) I had a third but it was stripped for parts to keep the other two going. Also have a 20MB A590 with an extra 4MB side installed in it (I used to do a lot of 3D renders using Raylab and I needed the memory and the storage space!)

I just came...

Evesham Micros... gosh that brings back mammaries (and memories!)

S'rsly though - nobody else on here ever own a CPC?

Smivs wrote:

Hi SevenT, and welcome here - I know you've already found the chatroom :wink

Yup, I also managed to get banned from it on my first night!

After you left the bar a deep chill descended upon the room!

Evidently "free-speech" is not tolerated in the chatroom!


Never mind - I am sure the bar won't miss me...

Hi SevenT and welcome to the Oolite forum (I'm Chris by the way).

I first played Elite on a BBC model B which had reduced ships, equipment etc as it was a tape version. I remember reading the manual and being constantly reminded of what I was missing out on with the note disk version only.

Still managed to spend a huge amount of time playing though.

I then managed to get the game for my Amiga 500 but for whatever reason I wasn't particularly keen on that version.

Next came Frontier which had a great concept behind it but failed miserably on the gameplay front due mostly to its flawed flight mechanics.

After that came the wilderness years where the concept of space simulation style games all but disappeared until last year when I came across Oolite and this great online community.

As some of the earlier posts state we are a friendly bunch always willing to help so for anyone out there who hasn't yet posted a message my advice would be ask/post away.

Though I still play Oolite on a regular basis I have now been tempted by what we refer to on the forum as the dark side which is basically working on OXPs (expansions).

There is very little more rewarding than the feeling you get when you see your own creation come to life in game. And for those of you out there tempted I suggest you give it a go. You'll find lots of help and advice available here and it is not as hard as you probably imagine. I have released a number of OXPs myself but wasn't even a member of the forum this time last year.