Elite

File:Elite.jpg

Elite

Elite is a space trading video game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite". It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, who had met while they were both undergraduates at Jesus College, Cambridge. Versions of the game for other platforms were published by Firebird, Imagineer and Hybrid Technology.

Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden line removal. Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which influenced new players with insight into the moral and legal codes to which they might aspire.

Elite's open-ended game model, advanced game engine and revolutionary 3D graphics ensured that it was ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system, and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. Elite was a hugely influential game, serving as a model for more recent games such as Space Rogue, Eve Online, Freelancer, Jumpgate, Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Wing Commander: Privateer, Pardus, the Escape Velocity series and the X series of space trading games.

Gameplay

The player starts at Lave Station and pilots a Cobra MkIII. The default pilot name is Commander Jameson, whom the station Jameson Memorial is named after in Elite Dangerous.

Trading is considered the primary way to earn credits, but bounty hunting, piracy, asteroid mining, illegally salvaging cargo found in space, and illegal trading are available as more dangerous alternatives. Credits can be spent on upgrades to improve the ship's capabilities.

Thargoids can interrupt Hyperspace jumps, forcing the player to fight them in witchspace before attempting to finish the jump.

Further Information

• Original Elite manual
• The Dark Wheel novella