Elite

THE COBRA'S huge engines moan into life as you sit tensely at the controls waiting to be shot out of the space station.

Your ship is the best of the medium-range, medium capacity, fighter traders and is ideal for transporting legal and illegal cargoes across the universe. It incorporates defensive screens, pulse lasers and missile launch facilities, while also being able to handle the jump to hyperspace.

Once you have cleared the Coriolis space station, orbiting around the planet Lave, you can look out into space, turning your 3D display window to look at the star fields.

The game is so complex it seems that you have entered a completely different system. Everything is so detailed: planets, buy different things for different reasons, pirates carry the cargo that they would have bought in the nearest station and every piece of equipment has a make and trade history. Once you start getting into the game you find yourself learning all the makes! All the refinements that have been made since the 8-bit versions mean that the original trade and combat game has lost none of it's appeal. It's even better than Starglider 2.

I broke into a sweat as Elite loaded into the 64. Would it live up to expectations? Could I survive in the murderous space lanes? As I settled down in my executive class comfy swivel chair I knew I was about to experience the game of a lifetime.

One of the best Nes games ever! It's easy enough for anyone to play but tough enough to keep you at it for months. Elite is simply brilliant!

Starting life on the BBC, Elite was converted for the Commodore and, has just appeared for the Spectrum, a mere three months late. It will go down in history as the first major piece of software to be supplied with the Lenslock protection device - a cunning way of preventing piracy by supplying a plastic decoding lens which is used to discover the encrypted access code for the game. In essence, after loading you need to look through the lens onto the screen in order to see the code letters which must be input before the program will RUN. The cassette is also accompanied by a slim novella which sets the scene.

The music and sound effects have been considerably improved. Otherwise very similar to the ST and glorious to play.

Dieses Spiel wird jeden begeistern, der sich auch nur im entferntesten für Strategie- oder Actionspiele interessiert, denn ELITE bietet für jeden was und zeigt eindrucksvoll, wie intelligent Computerspiele sein können. Toll!

A classic computer game makes the transition to the NES perfectly! A truly original game, Elite offers months of excitement packed gameplay.

The basic format is still the same - and as wonderful as ever. It's got much more competition these days and no longer looks leading edge in terms of gameplay or programming, but it still has the essential addictive ingredients of a great game.

The latest version plays much the same as its predecessors, but there is one important difference - instead of using vector graphics to display the proceedings, everything is presented in solid, shaded 3D.

Unsurprisingly taking next to no time to convert from the ST, Elite scales new heights with probably the definitive version of the original 1984 game. In graphics and play this is no different to the ST version. The only exception is that Mr Micro have made use of the Blitter, hence slightly faster moving 3-D solids. The Amiga's extensive colours are conspicuous by their absence - shades of blue being the main order of the day. And unfortunately not enough is made of the machine's power.

Still a classic among classics, Amiga owners should not hesitate to buy, but there is still the feeling that better use could have been made of the machine's facilities.

"Elite" braucht man eigentlich nicht mehr vorzustellen. In dem Klassiker findet man alles, was einem Spielefreak Spaß macht: ein paar Quadratmeilen Weltraum, eine Prise Handel und vor allem viel, viel Action. Wer die ST-Version gesehen oder den Test in POWER PLAY 12/88 gelesen hat, kennt auch schon die Amiga-Version.

Elite war schon immer der Klassiker der Software-Branche, ein Programm, von dem man immer nur in Ehrfurcht sprach. Bis heute ist es eines der komplexesten 8-Bit-Spiele – über 2000 verschiedene Planeten sprechen für sich. Die ST- und Amiga-Umsetzungen sind spielerisch dem Original fast identisch nachempfunden. Die Programmierer haben lediglich ein paar neue Spezial-Missionen hinzugefügt. Technisch hat sich aber vieles verbessert: Bunte, ausgefüllte und dennoch flotte 3D-Grafik macht den Flug durch die Galaxis um Klassen schöner als auf dem C 64. Außerdem haben die Programmierer den 16-Bit-Versionen eine flotte Benutzerführung verpaßt, die mit gut gezeichneten Bildchen und einprägsamen Menüs den Griff zum Handbuch fast überflüssig macht. Das 60 Seiten starke, toll geschriebene Handbuch ist übrigens in Deutsch. Wer sich Weihnachten nur ein einziges Spiel für ST oder Amiga kaufen will, sollte zuerst einmal an "Elite" denken - dieses Programm wird Sie auch noch Ostern in Atem halten.

Eines der definitiv besten Computerspiele aller Zeiten liegt jetzt endlich für MS-DOS-PCs vor. Das Warten hat sich gelohnt, denn in den letzten Jahren hat Elite kaum etwas von seiner Faszination verloren. Das komplexe Spielprinzip wird hier mit der schnellsten Grafik aller bisher erschienenen Versionen gewürzt, die vor allem auf PCs mit schnellem Prozessor für viel Weltraum-Feeling sorgt. Man bekommt bei Elite auch viel Dokumentation fürs Geld: Ein dickes Handbuch, ein Kurzroman (beide in Englisch), ein Poster und eine Referenzkarte, auf der die umfangreiche Tastaturbelegung zusammengefaßt ist, liegen der Packung bei. Alles in allem eine faszinierende Mischung aus Handels-, Abenteuer- und Action-Spiel, die eigentlich in jede gute PC-Spielesammlung gehört.

My first impression of Amiga Elite was of disappointment. Apart from being filled-in, and having the dubious addition of some gaudy static graphics, the game hasn't been progressed any since the 32k BBC program of 1984. There is so much you could do with the game on a 16-bit machine, yet it's potential remains untapped. However, it is not all doom and gloom: this is without doubt the best version of the game to appear so far, and is even more entertaining than is predecessors.

The ST version of Elite is excellent, and boasts superb presentation, fast and smooth gameplay, great graphics and five new missions. Purists will be pleased to know that none of the basic 8-bit gameplay has been changed, and the action is even more enthralling than the original versions. Trading and fighting is a highly enjoyable experience, although the going does get occasionally tedious when you can't use the jump drive due to the presence of other craft. This results in the player having to locate the space station manually, which can take over a quarter of an hour! Another gripe is that the sound is rather feeble - I'm sure the effects could have been a little more meaty. That aside, Elite has enough depth to keep budding space traders engrossed for many months.

I was looking through my great list 'o NES games when this one caught my eye. "Surely it's not the Elite," thought I. The BBC Micro original is a legend among space sims. How would you ever port it to the piddly old NES? But of course, it was done; otherwise this review wouldn't be here. And though I suppose no one should be surprised that it fit on a cartridge (the original Elite took up just one 5 1/4" floppy after all) it is a bit of a wonder that it runs on the NES, and runs so well.

Despite the poor graphics and sound, the playability of the game is enormous... Just consider that this game created (in 1983!) the "space exploration" genre of games. With the exception of better graphics, more enormous galaxies, and more missions and enemies, all the games of the same genre (like Frontier and Privateer, and even more modern ones) are based on Elite. Anyone who likes this type of game should play Elite, at least to see where it all began.

How on earth do I sum up a game as big and as impressive as Elite in a hundred or so words? Easily – just use that old reviewer's cop-out cliché: ”buy it!” The graphics have been brought right up to date; with some of the fastest filled objects ever, and the sound also is well done. With the five missions the task ahead is long and hard, and it is not a game you can just pick up and get straight into. Time must be spent reading the instructions and getting used to the controls, but it will be worth it. Although twenty-five quid is an above average price for an ST game, it will be a wise investment, as Elite is a very above-average computer game!

You can't help feeling a sense of nostalgia as Elite boots up and you scan the galaxy for the best deal to be had. If you've never played it before then it's worth buying just to find out what you've been missing all these years. Otherwise it's time to move on.

I really didn't enjoy the game as much as I should have, it didn't feel like Elite because it was all too pretty - with the BBC version the graphics were stark and added to the realism of the whole thing, but here we have all these colourful features that leave nothing to the imagination - sorry gang, I know most people consider this the game of the year for the Amiga, but it was a let down - perhaps less hype next time Firebird? Oh, and will you please stop converting these crappy Atari ST programs. I may have liked this game a bit more if you had at least made an effort to improve the facilities of the game. Thank you and good night.