Elite

Programmed by Ian Bell & David Braben
Software house Firebird

Reviewed by Shane 'Chain' Mussell

After my terrible attempt at writing a review of PITSTOP 2 I’m back again as it seems none you noticed the spelling mistakes and terrible grammar (wots dat den?). Anyway this time I’ve tried the Big One, your have to excuse the length, but once I’d started I couldn’t stop! It’s just, well, the BEST! ELITE.

Before we continue I’d like to point out that this game changed my life, never again will I be able to stay up late without thinking I should be blasting Thargoids into yesterday and maybe try for the Elite rating. Elite cost me 2 Jobs (I couldn’t stay awake!) and 3 Girlfriends (who needs them when you have Tribbles?).

What’s so good about this game then? Well Elite is massive, not massive as in the millennium dome (or as expensive) [and waste of money], more like, so big you can’t even think about it, because your brains start to ooze out of your ears. But size, important as it is (and believe me it is important, ask any woman), is not what makes this game so great, no something much more subtle. Like nicotine to a smoker, Elite is as addictive a game as was EVER available on ANY platform. Name one other game (e-mail me if you dare) [Dare! Dare!] which has cost so many people their hair. Simulation or game?

One thing that made the game so easy to immerse yourself in was the use of lifelike physics, from the way your ship manoeuvred to the way in which the Space Stations rotated around planets and planets around stars. Many people (myself included) at first thought it was clumsy and fiddly to get on with, but once you’d spent a couple of hours fighting your way through space to make 1 Credit on 20 Tons of Food you were hooked.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this game was the way in which most of the other pilots were actually very good, flying after you for the kill or moving away as a missile chased them. So what’s it about then? Elite came in a nice box (not a cheap one like the one’s you get these days) with a manual and a storybook (The Dark Wheel by Robert Holdstock – which is quite good too). It also had a poster with the various other Ships you could encounter and a handy ‘Quick Key Control Guide’. I’m not too sure but I think it may have also come with a keyboard overlay (anyone?) [Yes, there was a keyboard overlay]. Anyway the idea was to take a Cobra Mk 3 into space and make some money, the ship was left to you in a will along with 100Cr (Credits).

Now the really interesting part was how you could make the your money! You could be a nice little boy and just trade Food etc or you could become a Smuggler and sell Narcotics and Slaves to the highest bidder. Of course playing the game as a Smuggler was a lot harder, as you would find yourself chased by Bounty Hunters, Police and Pirates. But you could always become a Bounty Hunter or perhaps a Miner? Or you could become a Pirate and pick off the smaller ships, making sure not to be too close to a space station, the police gave you hell if you got too close! Most people found themselves starting as a lone trader and upgrading their ship, you could fit quite a bit onto it, before embarking on the more interesting side. What’s the ship like then? The Cobra Mk 3 was equipped with front and rear shields and views, as well as the side views. But an interesting idea was that you could add weapons to these places as well, so you could have a Military Laser on the front and a Mining one on the rear (quite often the case as mining rocks was not there only use). But sometimes you would find people who had placed one on each side too, this was a neat idea as it allowed you to target Missiles when you couldn’t find them with the front or rear views or if you were in a hurry. You could also equip it with various other weapons from ECM devices to Escape pods. The only thing you couldn’t do was trade in your ship which in some ways this was a good thing.

But what else? Once you’d got so far you would start to find ‘other’ areas of the game like the missions to save people and find technology. Of course you’d also run into the Thargoids [spit], which nine times out of ten was when you least needed it. I never did manage to capture one but I’ve been told you can do it! Why call it Elite? Everyone tried for the Elite rank and a few managed it (without cheating). I never did make it but am informed that something showed on the main view screen. To make Elite ranking made you feel as if you’d beaten the local bully into a pile of banana’s on the floor, like a god. I never made it, but I was so close! (HONEST!) Just as a point of interest there was rumoured to be a version of Elite II for the C64 that was released (No, not Elite+) does anyone know anything about it? [YES - I know nothing about it!]

To sum up: Elite is/was the best game ever. In today’s environment with games ten a penny Elite wouldn’t last five minutes. In fact it would never have been developed. Software companies just don’t seem to want these types of game anymore, you can hardly hype something like this by sticking Cobra Mk 3’s all over the telly with words like "Make’s you granny beg for mercy" it just wouldn’t work. With all this talk of ‘the’ great game I feel must go back for another go, and you should too! Now where did I put that disc?

Overall 9.9/10 The only thing that lets this down is the flickery Vectors.