Elite
Screenshots
The Cobra MK III
View of a space station
Short range chart, the circle shows how far you can travel on current fuel reserves
Galactic chart 1
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Most of the ships in the game are named after snakes. There's a few exceptions such as the Moray and Gecko.
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In 2008 Channel Five in the UK released a six-part documentary series series called 'Brits Who Made The Modern World', the series was presented by Peter Snow. Episode 3, just over 20 minutes long, was titled Computer Games. It was aired on the 4th July and was on Elite.
The programme tells the history of the game's conception, development and release and features interviews with co-creators Ian Bell and David Braben.
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Elite (as of 2009) holds fours Guinness World Records. These are for the most format releases for a space trading game, being released on 25 different formats, the first space trading game, the first game to use Lenslok copy protection (the ZX Spectrum version) and the first space game to use procedural generation.
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Reviewer David Fell called Elite "the best game ever" for the BBC Micro in Beebug Magazine in 1984.
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Elite is being exhibited as part of the "Game On" exhibition in places like the London Science Museum. David Braben also gave a lecture as part of the exhibition in 2006.
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The book Game On! From Pong to Oblivion: The 50 Greatest Video games of All Time contains a chapter on Elite.
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Elite was named the "#1 Top Retro Game" out of a list of 100 by Retro Gamer magazine in 2004.
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Elite was named the #3 most influential video game ever by the Times Online in 2007.
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Elite was named one of the 16 most influential games in history at the German trade show, Telespiele, in 2007.
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Elite was awarded "#6 Greatest Games of All Time" by Stuff magazine out of a total of 100 listed.
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Elite was awarded "#1 best game of the 1980s" by Next Generation Magazine in 2008.
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Peter Snow presented a television documentary about the conception, development and the impact of the release of Elite.
Series 1, Episode 3 of 'Brits Who Made the Modern World' was shown on Friday 22nd August 2008 on Channel 5 in the UK and was about half an hour long. The programme featured dramatized scenes with actors playing the younger co-creators and interviews with David Braben and Ian Bell themselves.
At the time of writing the programme is available for UK visitors on Channel 5's on demand website for free.
http://demand.five.tv/Episode.aspx?episodeBaseName=C5134750003
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Ian Bell's brother, Aidan Bell, enjoyed a spell of success writing for musical theatre; sooner or later his muse led him to his brother's enormous success story, which (believe it or not) resulted in 1989's completion of Elite: the Musical, furthering the storyline set forth in Robert Holdstock's novella The Dark Wheel. The book and lyrics, with mp3 recordings, (c) Pink Hippo Productions Ltd, can be perused.
Whether or not this musical has ever been produced on the off-Broadway stage is unclear, though one figures the chances are slim to nil.
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Elite's two creators, Ian Bell and David Braben, were not on the best of terms for a long time, ever since development on Elite 2 was cancelled. This erupted into open confrontation during 1999-2000 when Bell decided to release all versions of Elite as freeware. The dispute was settled and all files relevant to Elite and Braben's version of the matter can be found in Ian Bell's website.
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Two versions were supplied with the DOS release, Shaded and Line Drawn, at the selection screen this message is displayed regarding the shaded version;
"...but unless your machine is powerful (6MHz 80286 or greater) it will not run very quickly and you should select the line drawn version"
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The original version for the BBC Micro system was so successful that its sales total equated around 2/3 of all BBC system in use. This was even more incredible considering that the BBC was mainly used in schools for educational software.
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Extremely popular in the UK when it was released for the BBC Microcomputer. This was apparently the first game, or among the first games, to have a fan club.
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The package came with a novella about how your father sacrificed himself and saved you by dumping you in the lone escape pod in the ship, and how you managed to "acquire" this ship that you are driving at the beginning of the game.
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