Frontier: First Encounters

aka: Elite 3, FFE
Moby ID: 351

Description official description

Frontier: First Encounters is the third part of Elite series. You are a space pirate and you fly around through the universe in your space craft to fulfill different missions. You can also earn money by trading cargo with other races.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

45 People · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 30 ratings with 7 reviews)

An Elite Fan from the Beginning

The Good
The immense universe, realistic, hand coded missions, alot of different of ships to pilot, Actually have to work to get somewhere in it., Millions of stars to explore., Can do what you want to (open ended). be a Pirate, Trader, Military, Bounty Hunter Etc., great graphics (for when it was made.) JJFFE (Google it.) Lets it run in windows with direct X support., Jades FFE Page (Google this one also.)

I've spent many evenings exploring the galaxy in this huge universe in my Imperial Explorer (my favorite ship) and I worked at it from the bottom up getting killed many times in my smaller ships, while learning the ropes for controlling and fighting the bad guys, learning the trade lanes and seeing what could be done. I've followed the missions from the beginning and until Jade's came around never finished them. With Jade's aid finally finished the missions (woooo hoo) and am working towards elite status. This is one of those games that has basically never left my hard drive since I installed it. Along with Doom, Civilization II, Total Annihilation, Master of Orion 2, Homeworld.

 If you expect to jump into the ship here and own the universe don't bother, but if you like a challenge and working towards an end in a HUGE game universe worth the effort in gaming fun.

The map and manuals are great and come with quite a bit of good imaginative fiction and are well worth the read.

See you on the Frontier, Stim

The Bad
I found Frontier and First Encounters by accident in a bargain bin and I've been an elite fan from the beginning the no advertising part stunk, not letting your fans know it's out there doesn't help.

 Initial release of the title was very buggy, but I called Gametek and was immediately sent the 1.06 remastered version which is alot more stable, so no complaints. It's still a bit buggy some of the hand coded missions still don't work right or you have to do them a particular way, basically what could've been an awesome release was killed by rushing the developer with the product out the door.

The station personnel videos are cool at first but get on your nerves after awhile .....

The Bottom Line
Open ended space simulation, be a trader, pirate, assassin, military officer. Realistic controls and space physics. Lots of different ships to own and pilot; from the lowly Saker Mark 1 to the Thargoid Warship if you can find it! Can be frustrating at first but if you learn it loads of fun.

DOS · by StimuL8 (1) · 2005

Quite a bit better than Frontier : Elite 2 after you patch it. A lot.

The Good
Frontier: First Encounters is not quite the exact same game as FE2, but the similarities are enough to warrant it being more of an update than a separate game (indeed, FFE was going to be an expansion pack for FE2, but David Braben could not integrate the updates into FE2 smoothly and therefore decided to release this game as a stand alone product). So, that being the case, what has been updated? Quite a lot, as a matter of fact.

For starters, combat is much more reasonable, as it sets the enemy craft you are dogfighting as the object you are "relative" to (yes, the game still uses newtonian physics), so you no longer have the old 1000 km/s "jousting" duels and the combat is now much more close quarters. That's quite a bit of an improvment, if you ask me.

Also the sound and music is not longer of poor quality or ripped off from other games in the series, and actually have been redone rather well in places. The new sample based sound system instead of the old "Elite Plus" FM-based sound is a massive improvment to the enjoyment of the game, though you probably will tire of these new sounds after a bit anyway and will turn them off regardless. The remastered musical pieces from FE2 that are present in this game sound much better than they did originally. And the new music pieces done for this game, which were rendered by the Quality Quartet, are also very good and easy to listen to.

Apart from the said major changes, the minor ones make quite a bit of a difference as well. New features like newspapers you can subscribe to, various new ships (some of them very good and enjoyable to fly around in, the others being quite average) and items (like the Tractor Beam Cargo Scoop), plus a new political super power makes it feel like the game's universe really has progressed 50 years since FE2. Which it has. In the game, that is.

All and all this is a very solid update indeed.

Oh, and the Thargoids are back, but not in the way you imagine.

The Bad
Well, it's famous (or is that infamous) for being quite buggy. The only games that come to mind that are more buggy than this game in particular are the Battlecrusier games and eXtreme Paintbrawl, and those were heavily crippled due to the bugs! FFE narrowly manages to avoid this and remain playable, but only just. Even after these many years, it still doesn't work with Windows boxes in a natural sense, and only recently did a fan, John Jordan, manage to reprogram the executable file so that it would run in a Windows environment. While the fan made hacks do fix many of the problems the game had when it was released, it would have been nice to have it work properly in the first place.

The Bottom Line
This is a worthy update to FE2. In fact it is quite a good standalone game, and is worthy of your time and energy. However, you will have to search around the Internet a little bit for John Jordan's webpage with his fixed version of the executable file for FFE. Unless you don't want to play it in Windows.

DOS · by Longwalker (723) · 2002

Fascinating and complex

The Good
It was real fun looking at the starmaps, spinning and turning them around in 3D mode and look where to warp to next. If you have enough motiviation you can go and on, it's real fun exploring a whole universe that fits on only 3 disks! Also that trading stuff and the different missions are nice features.

The Bad
The problem is your motivation: if it isn't high enough, you won't get very far and you'll be disappointed soon. Also the controls are a bit complicating.

The Bottom Line
If you don't get lost too soon in games and a bit complexer controls don't disturb you and you're fascinated by this huge universe, then this is your game!

DOS · by robotriot (9015) · 1999

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Credits

David Braben and Ian Bell were the original authors of the first Elite back in the 80s. Braben made this third game without giving Bell credit or royalties for the space ships and other ideas he created that were reused. Bell had to sue Braben for payment.

Development

Frontier: First Encounters was originally intended to be an add-on disk for the second game, Frontier: Elite II. However, because they rushed that game, its engine could not handle expansion disks effectively. The engine was rewritten and the game was released standalone. Unfortunately, it was also rushed and filled with numerous bugs that made its initial release unplayable.

Awards

  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1996 - Most Annoying Bugs in 1995

Information also contributed by woods01 .

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

First Battalion
Released 2006 on Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2
Elite
Released 1987 on DOS, 1988 on Amiga, 1991 on NES...
Elite Soldier: Shooter 3D
Released 2017 on Android, 2019 on Windows, 2022 on Nintendo Switch
Super Trux
Released 1989 on Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army
Released 2013 on Windows
Sniper Elite 5: France
Released 2022 on Windows, Windows Apps, PlayStation 4...
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2
Released 2013 on Windows
Panzer Elite: Special Edition
Released 2001 on Windows
Combat★Elite: WWII Paratroopers
Released 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox

Related Sites +

  • Frontier: First Encounters FAQ
    First Encounters Frequently Asked Questions (Answers from David Braben)
  • JJFFE Central
    A conversion of the game for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, which additionally includes minor improvements and bug fixes.
  • Space: The Final Frontier
    An elite fansite covering everything elite.
  • The Elite Club
    Where you can download Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, now released as shareware

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 351
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Additional contributors: Brian Hirt, Cravo, Rebound Boy, Longwalker, Indra was here, Crawly, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 1, 1999. Last modified December 4, 2023.