The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each with 256 planets to explore. Due to the limited capabilities of 8-bit computers, these worlds are procedurally generated. A single seed number is run through a fixed algorithm the appropriate number of times and creates a sequence of numbers determining each planet's complete composition (position in the galaxy, prices of commodities, and name and local details; text strings are chosen numerically from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions, such as a planet with "carnivorous arts graduates"). This means that no extra memory is needed to store the characteristics of each planet, yet each is unique and has fixed properties. Each galaxy is also procedurally generated from the first. Braben and Bell at first intended to have 2^48 galaxies, but Acornsoft insisted on a smaller universe to hide the galaxies' mathematical origins.
281,474,976,710,656 galaxies! Wouldn't that be neat! Although you'll spend a fortune on Galactic Hyperdrives...
It also meant they only had to check eight galaxies to make sure they had workable layouts, and to make sure none of the planets had inadvertently naughty names …
"I remember thinking it was very wasteful," Braben says. "You'd type in a number, a birthday or something, and see what galaxy that came out with. 'No, I don't like that. No, I don't like that. That cluster looks horrible'." They also decided they had better check the 256 system names in the galaxy where the player would be plunked down, in case any of the four-letter words were actually four-letter words. "One of the first galaxies we tried had a system called Arse. We couldn't use the whole galaxy. We just threw it away!"
in 80th: we have too low computer memory to store really interesting game universe, so we need procedure generator to create it.
Now: we have too high computer memory to fill it with really interesting game world, so we need procedure generator to fill it.
