Talk:Elite (computer game)
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[edit] Live actor clips
I almost feel that the live actor movie clips (for station commanders and other message screens) that where used in First Encounters deserve mention too. Though only because they where most likely the worst ever acting performance ever seen in a computer game (wich says a lot).
I seem uneable to formulate a newtral way to describe the lack of any kind of quality in those clips tough, so I won't edit the article myself.
--213.225.64.72 07:52, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Space Dredgers and Generation Ships
What was the story with these? I wasted a ridiculous amount of time searching for these things. Bastie 20:30, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
These are verified not to exist, by fans who have gone through the code with a fine-tooth comb, by engineers who have reverse-engineered the source code, and by the developers of the original versions (most notably Birch and Gringras for the Archimedes version, who once stated so in an interview). filecore
[edit] Influences and References
The phrases "Harmless" and "Mostly Harmless" from Douglas Adams' Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The Monty Python-esque planetary database which used a phrase generator to provide descriptions such as "The planet Leesti is reasonably fabled for Zero-G cricket and Leestian evil juice."
Appearance of Star-Trek Tribbles, introduced in the Commodore 64 conversion.
- I got suckered into buying *One* tribble... Pitty i couldn't sell the thousands i ended up with...Fosnez 13:34, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
Edit: these are 'Trimbles', not 'Tribbles' (or else you have copyright violations against Paramount). But I thought I'd post here instead of editing the commnet so people notice; after all, it's quite a common mistake.
- actually, just to be pedantic, they're Trumbles :) Xmoogle 17:35, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
There should also be reference to X, X2 and X3 for the PC in there, do you think ? Considering the X series is so similar ?
Trade Wars vs Elite
I would like to see some research into the relationship between Elite, which was released in 1984, and Trade Wars (tradewars), which was also released in 1984. From my discussions with the original author of Trade Wars, its primary influences were Star Trader, which first appeared as a BASIC game in 1974, as well as Hunt the Wumpus (1972) and the boardgame Risk. Trade Wars is quite different from Elite, since it was developed as a BBS door and was a competative multiplayer game. But I believe the statement that Elite is the original space trader overlooks Star Trader and the Trade Wars series of games. Elite is clearly the first graphical space trader/simulation game, but the space trader genre needn't necessarily be graphical. Both Star Trader and Trade Wars were text-based.
I'm convinced that Trade Wars and Elite were developed independently, especially given the very different platforms. I also believe that neither should claim the title of "first space trader". That destinction belongs to Star Trader, unless this can be proven wrong.
Also, in regard to the X series, I was approached by X author Bernd Lehan of Egosoft back in 1999, and he told me that X was at least partially inspired by Trade Wars, which he had enjoyed years before. Clearly Elite was another influence.
Since I'm biased (I'm the current owner of Trade Wars and continue to support the classic game), I'll leave it to others to sort out the relationship (if any) between these two games. The history of Trade Wars development can be found at http://www.eisonline.com/twhistory . If anyone wishes to contact me, my email is jpritch at eisonline.com
[edit] Expand Mission section (or create subarticles for them)
First, what the goal actually is; and then navigation info on how to achieve them. Jon 13:24, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
All the info you need is on the AFE FAQ or on the EliteWiki pages; for example, the EliteWiki ArcElite page is completed. --Filecore 16:04, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Atari ST version
My memory is a bit hazy, but i'm sure an Atari ST version of Elite did appear, although it's not currently listed on this page, it had improved 'Solid' graphics, but was basically the same as the BBC version. Anyone remember it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bornagainst (talk • contribs) .
- I believe I remember it, being both a BBC Micro and an ST owner, and an avid Elite fan. Unfortunately memory is tricky thing. I think I remember seeing the first Apollo moon launch (man, I'm old) but I can't now be sure if that's a real memory. We'd need to dig up a reliable source for the ST version before adding it to the article. If I find anything I'll let you know... Gwernol 12:40, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
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- yeah, quick bit of googling shows an Atari ST version from 1988 developed by 'Mr. Micro'? although there's no information regarding any differences, at least my memory isn't failing me quite yet. born against 12:55, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
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- Yup, Elite ST (and Amiga) were developed by Rob Nicholson of Mr Micro - if memory serves me correctly the one major difference was a bug in the random number generator which led to the planet descriptions being different to the 8 bit versions. Paulie 21:06, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Frontier copy protection system
Is there any reason why the Frontier copy protection system is described as "even more user-unfriendly than the infamous Lenslok device"? According to the Frontier article, the copy protection system was a standard for the time read-the-manual type one. Did it malfunction in some way? 212.54.218.146 01:54, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
- From what I remember, it just didn't work worth a damn. I have vague memories that it gave different page numbers to those used in the manual, and didn't explain which words it included in the count (e.g. whether section headings counted or not). I certainly remember it being painful, I think almost everyone got a crack to remove it before long. Mark Grant 22:39, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
- According to http://amigareviews.classicgaming.gamespy.com/frontier.htm, "The game has a very nasty copy protection system. At certain points you have to enter letters from the manual, but the program does not tell you if you have input the right one. If you get it wrong, you are thrown out of the game later on, which is very annoying if you have just saved your position." It's years since I played Frontier, but that does sound somewhat familiar, and doubly annoying because it was so hard to tell whether you'd found the right letter in any case. Another page said it asked every twenty minutes, which would be very stupid. Mark Grant 22:47, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] CGA or EGA?
I'm not going to chime in with any opinions on this one for now, but could any of the editors involved in the repeated CGA/EGA changes please point me to the verifiable evidence they are using as the basis for their edits? Cheers --Pak21 15:13, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
- Short of inspecting the code, http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/pc/index.htm should be verifiable enough. :-) I'm reverting back. --Frodet 19:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
- But here are some screenshots of CGA *and* VGA versions: http://www.birdsanctuary.co.uk/elite/s.php - anyone care to re-re-re-revert back again? ;) --Gaunt 20:40, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- I played the game again just now and it does really look like 320×200 at high intensity palette 2 CGA.... I'm confused. :-/ --Frodet 21:35, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- Just to add more confusion to the fray, I give you the Elite FAQ from Frontier, which states (Q2) that Elite (non-Plus) is CGA and Elite Plus is EGA/VGA. I remember playing Elite in 4-colour mode on my PC, but this was a good few years ago, so... I believe at this point that Bell is probably wrong here, and we should state CGA in the article, but I won't change it unless Frodet is happy with this. Cheers --Pak21 22:10, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- And just to throw some more oil on the fire, the alt.fan.elite FAQ here: http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/bbc/doc/games/EliteFAQ.htm states in section 3.18 that the original PC Elite was CGA only, and section 3.19 importantly also states the use of MCGA mode (256 colours) *as well as* the 16 colour EGA and VGA modes. --Gaunt 23:33, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- Well, that was one of the clever effects of the original BBC code. It changed resolution during the video scan, so the top part of the screen was in a high resolution 2-color mode and the bottom part was in a lower resolution 4-color mode. IIRC the same technique was used on the IBM PV version, so both MCGA and EGA were used simultaneously to build the screen image. A neat little trick. Of course this recollection absolutely needs verification before it could be included in the article. I may be very wrong... Gwernol 22:36, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- But with the PC versions there was no need to cleverly build up the display with two different modes (only used originally on the Beeb to save on precious RAM yet still have a decent resolution for the main display), so when it's talked about PC Elite running in CGA, EGA, VGA and MCGA modes then it's running in *one* of those modes exclusively and not doing anything fancy to switch between two separate modes. Here's some screenshots of Elite Plus in MCGA mode: http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/elitep.htm --Gaunt 23:42, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
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- I've added some more to your edit. Hope it's OK. --Frodet 19:47, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
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- The BBC mode switch doesn't strictly speaking allow high resolution while saving RAM, since if it had been unavailable the alternative would have been an all-mode-4 display with the same resolution and same RAM usage but only two colours. This was done on the Electron version. However, I believe that another 6845 hack did save RAM: notice (see the screenshot) that the display is only 128px wide in the lo-res scanner and 256px wide in the hi-res front view (as opposed to the expected 160 and 320). It looks as if the row length was shortened from 40 6845 characters to 32 for a 20% RAM saving. This also became a popular technique on the BBC, though it may have been original in 1984. Can anyone confirm? —Blotwell 23:40, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
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- The split screen mode hack is quite well known - you'll come across it if you write a Beeb emulator and try to run Elite on it. I've added it to the article with a {{citation needed}} template since I can't find any good references on the web. I'm fairly sure I have an issue of Acorn User at home that mentions it in this context - if I find it I'll put it up. Hairy Dude 20:03, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
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hi, hope not to break anything here; instructions about adding contributes are not very clear. i've edited the "EGA bit" about graphic resolution. There were two versions of the first original elite: a line-drawn version (very similar to the original 8 bit computer version) and a shaded one (requiring a "powerful machine: at least a 6mhz 286). but both of them were for a CGA machine; here you can have a look at some screens http://www.abandonia.com/games/113/download/Elite.htm
hope it helps, dave/Dave4mame 17:33, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
- NP. Just make sure that you site some sources when editing, especially something controversial.
- I was not aware of two PC versions, only the filled vector one. Interesting - can you site sources? The URL you gave did only have the latter version as well. --Frodet 19:47, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
you can play the "linedrawn" version by running ELITEL.EXE or by running ELITE.COM and then choosing option 2 via the menu.
- OK. I was not aware of that. It's not available on my the version I have (only elite.exe there). --Frodet 20:28, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Cancelled categories
Please see Category:Cancelled computer and video games (BTW how do I link to a category without putting the page in the category). This says it was released in 1984, however the description there says the catgories like this are for games cancelled before release. WikiSlasher 13:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
- Elite was released on the BBC in 1984. It was cancelled on other platforms (apparently; I hold no actual knowledge as to this). For linking to a category, use [[:Category:CATEGORYNAME]] (note the prefix colon). Cheers --Pak21 13:07, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
- Thanks --WikiSlasher 13:28, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Recent edit - infobox
Not sure that last edit improved the article. Any thoughts? --Oscarthecat 22:04, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
- After checking the example Infobox_CVG usage, I've rolled back the edit and invited the contributor of that last edit to discuss here. --Oscarthecat 22:20, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
- There is no set guideline for arranging platforms within the infobox, but if wrapping becomes an issue than by all means include line breaks. Combination 22:32, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] To do in order to raise quality
What specifically is on the top of the list in order to improve the assessment of this article? Any thoughts on coordinated strategies? Murgh 13:24, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
- First of all we should start adding sources. --Frodet 23:13, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Number of planets
The article says there are 256 planets in each galaxy, and the Elite wiki concurs. But the original Elite manual claims there are 2040 planets altogether, which suggests 255 in each of eight galaxies. Which is correct? —Blotwell 22:33, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
I would believe the orignal authors - you reference the Oolite planet list from the EliteWiki, but Oolite is developed seperately and may have been altered from the original Elites. filecore
[edit] Mobile Phone Version
Believe it or not, there appears to have been a mobile phone version of Elite, published in '05 by Elite Systems (weren't they the guys who ruined Ultimate Play The Game's reputation?), called Elite Star Warriors[1]. I suppose it's worthy of a mention. I'm not in the mood to do it myself, so any regular editors want to follow this up... Beeromatic 15:54, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The introduction
The third paragraph of the introduction troubles me a bit. While it is very well written, it reeks of WP:OR. Can we substanciate the claims there, or rewrite it to be more WP:NPOV? --Frodet 23:12, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
