Elite for the BBC Micro

Came also out for:

Acorn 32-bit
Amiga
Amstrad CPC
Apple II
Atari ST
Commodore 64
DOS
MSX
NES
SAM Coupé
Tatung Einstein
ZX Spectrum

Game description:

Elite is a free-form space trading and combat simulation, commonly considered the progenitor of this sub-genre. The player initially controls a character referred to as "Commander Jameson", starting at Lave Station with 100 credits and a lightly armed trading ship called Cobra Mark III. Most of the game consists of traveling to various star systems, trading with their inhabitants, gaining money and reputation. Money can also be gained by other means beside trading; these include undertaking military missions, bounty hunting, asteroid mining, and even piracy. As the player character earns money, he becomes able to upgrade his ships with enhancements such as better weapons, shields, increased cargo capacity, an automated docking system, etc.

The game utilizes pseudo-3D wire-frame graphics; its world is viewed from a first-person perspective. It has no overarching story, though a race known as Thargoids play the role of antagonists: their ships will often attack the player-controlled ship, forcing the player to engage in space combat. Combat is action-oriented, taking place in the same environment as the exploration. The player must use various weapons the ship is equipped with, as well as manoeuvre the ship, trying to dodge enemy attacks. The player can also choose to attack neutral ships; doing so will decrease the protagonist's reputation, eventually attracting the attention of the galactic police.

Elite is notable for its expansive game world, consisting of eight galaxies and 256 planets. The player is free to travel to any of these planets, provided his ship has enough fuel for the trip (the ship's fuel capacity is limited for a journey to the distance of seven light years).

[HDsharp]

This game was simply ground breaking. The first fully immerse 3d world gaming experience at home.

[pauldine]

A great nostalgia trip. Especially the sound of the 5.25 floppy drive clicking away

[GraemeSPa]

Once I realised the "Right On Commander" messages increased your status, I started to shoot up everything that appeared on the scanners - ships, asteroids, cargo containers, life boat pods. I also would switch to rear laser on leaving the station, slow right down and give one burst, then pop every police ship they sent after me as the sights were laid dead on the exit port. Yes, it made you a criminal, but a couple of rapid hyper jumps would clear that and, hey, you're a bad ass, so why worry about bounty hunters? When jumped by pirates, turn right into them and start blasting before they scattered and likely you would destroy them all before they got a shot in. A fantastic game, this was way ahead of its time and was the reason I lost so much sleep in my younger years. Someone made a version for PC, and this transported me back in time. Braben and Bell should have had a knighthood for that game.

[lurkerrekrul]

That's one hell of a forgiving docking sequence!

[camelcase]

Disk version luxury. It took ages to load from cassette but worth the wait.

[puregd]

We had the BBC Micro disc version, amazing ground braking game where you could use your imagination and explore. Me and my brother explored all 8 galaxies, competed both secret missions but never got past Dangerous. Absolutely loved it.

[joelsutton]

I absolutely loved this game back in the Brings back so many memories 🎉🎉🎉

[avengingterrier]

I made ELITE on the BBC Micro version - TAPE EDITION in mid-1985, and actually brought a disc drive so I could load and save faster. GREAT DAYS! RIGHT ON COMMANDER!!

[bomberaustychunksbruv]

I have this game on my original BBC B+ which I still have.   I used to play it at school break on the school BBC's,   when we were allowed - we said to the teacher it was educational due to the trading aspect HaHa!!.  I am 48 this year!. Still gaming on PS4.

[NEMES-S]

The most important aspect of these games was the ‘imagination factor’. You had to believe that you were piloting an interstellar spaceship. If not, these were merely wireframe graphics. As games became graphically better, the developers were doing the ‘believing’ for you. I’m not complaining because the graphics on my PS5 are simply stunning and I can still ‘imagine’ that I’m there, in that world. That’s why the story aspect of modern games is so important.

[alexb]

Absolutely loved this game - so many memories!

[stelley]

i spent hours on this game, it seemed so fascinating back then, like an open world to explore.

[MostlyPennyCat]

I need to put the Interstellar soundtrack over the docking sequence

[leecarroll]

The original No Mans Sky/ Starfield lol

[mikhailalexandrovichrimsky]

Privet! I played this game every day for hours, and weekends from after breakfast until bedtime! I wished ACORN would redesign it to be solid ships with color. I also knew all the cracks, so I had all the weapons and cargo I wanted. Da...less fun working for it, but I'm Russian, my goal was not trading, but getting the weapons and with the cargo, I knew the Pirates (the US, UK, etc...this was cold war era remember and a friend smuggled me a BBC Micro B with a 20MB HDD, mouse, ROMS, hundreds of games, and manual how to program in BASIC and Machine Code! I LOVED this computer until I joined KGB and give it to my brother! I must admit that our UK Partners designed a far better computer for home see than that stupid tiny ZX-80 and 81! My brother only organized the Commodore 64 because he loved to play a "Space Shuttle" game. You put a game cassette into the player and press play, go to the shop and buy the stuff mama wanted, and get back to your room, the game was just loaded. It was a good game. Fun to launch into space.

[camptube]

This was on cassette tape kids. Took about 30 minutes to load. I used to press play on the tape deck and go for tea. I also remember elite cheat, which allowed you to create a save file on a cassette. Good times. To me, this was a PS5 in the day.

[nathanjedrej]

The controls with a bbc competition pro made this game much easier.
My way of getting to elite was to find a democracy or calmer planet near an anarchy and hyperspace between the two. If you got caught in witch space you could hyperspace out.

[Starredmediasoft]

The depth of gameplay still impress me, can't believe it's a 1984 game

[petergeddes]

I played this game and had some kind of glitch which made my screen freeze. The only way I could get past it was by aborting, which I did and saw my credit go up to about five million credits. I went on a spending spree - fully military lasers on all four sides, escape pods, grabbers for scooping cargo after blowing up spaceships and extra shields!!
It also bumped me up to Elite...

[noiseworks]

so your ship doesn't actually move, it looks like the universe and enemies rotates around it?