Elite (video game)

Elite
Cover art for Firebird releases of Elite
Developer(s)	David Braben and Ian Bell
Publisher(s)	Acornsoft (Acorn/BBC) Firebird (Ports)
Designer(s)	David Braben and Ian Bell
Platform(s)	BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, IBM PC compatible, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST, Nintendo Entertainment System
Release	1984
Genre(s)	Space trading and combat simulator
Mode(s)	Single player

Elite is a seminal space trading computer 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. Non-Acorn versions of the game were published by Firebird, Imagineer and Hybrid Technology.

Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wireframe 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 which they might aspire to.

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 Eve Online, Freelancer, Jumpgate, Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Wing Commander: Privateer, the Escape Velocity series and the X series of space trading games.

Influences, development and launch

According to Braben and Bell, Elite was inspired by a range of sources. Much of the game's content is derived from the Traveller RPG, including the default commander name of Jameson. The developers also cite 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the original Battlestar Galactica as influences. Braben also cites the works of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert L. Forward, Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card as influences.

When the two developers met at Jesus College, Cambridge, Bell was already working on a game for Acornsoft called Freefall. Braben had started writing a game called Fighter, but had not yet completed it. The two projects were sufficiently similar that Braben and Bell compared notes, and after seeing Star Raiders on the Atari 800 they decided to collaborate to produce what eventually became Elite. The project was initially offered to Thorn EMI, with whom Braben already had a contract, but was rejected. The developers went to Acornsoft instead; although a project such as Elite was very different from the company's usual fare, Acornsoft's managing director David Johnson-Davies liked what he saw and agreed to publish it.

The game took two years to write, during which time Acornsoft set in motion a large-scale publicity campaign and commissioned a presentational package for the game that was far more elaborate than normal. Acornsoft packaged Elite in a box larger than their usual releases, complete with a novella by Robert Holdstock called The Dark Wheel, Space Trader's Flight Training Manual, function key strip, reference card and a ship identification poster. Marketing activities included a launch party at the Thorpe Park theme park (holding such an event for a computer game was almost unheard of at the time) and a competition to be among the first to achieve the status of "Elite."

The game was written in machine code, allowing much tighter control of memory usage than using a compiler, as their computer had only about 14 kilobytes of memory. Much care was given to maximum compactness of code. The last part added was a 3D radar display fitted into the last few unused bytes in their computer.

Elite received very good reviews on its launch and sales of the BBC Micro version were exceptional, eventually reaching 150,000 sold copies, a figure that matched the number of BBC Micros in the world at that point. The great commercial success of the BBC Micro version prompted a bidding war for the rights to publish Elite in other formats, with British Telecom's software arm, Telecomsoft, eventually winning the rights. It was eventually ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system and even to the NES console.

Gameplay

Cover art for The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock included in some releases of Elite, duplicating the box art used for the Acornsoft version

Elite has often been treated as the yardstick by which subsequent space trading games have been measured. However, it was not the first such game; the genre-defining Star Trader had been written as long ago as 1974. The space trading genre combines space-borne combat with a "buy low, sell high" freight transport system and the ability to use the profits to purchase ship upgrades.

File:Elite c64 advert.jpg

Advertisement for the Commodore 64 version of Elite

The player, initially "Commander Jameson", starts at Lave Station with 100 credits and a lightly armed trading ship, a Cobra Mark III. Most of the ships that the player encounters are similarly named after snakes, or other reptiles. Credits can be accumulated through a number of means. These include piracy, trade, military missions, bounty hunting and asteroid mining. The money generated by these enterprises allows players to upgrade their ships with such enhancements as better weapons, shields, increased cargo capacity, an automated docking system, and more.

Instead of planetary systems, there are single planets separated by interstellar distances and each planet has one space station in its orbit. Travel between planets is constrained to those within range of the ship's limited fuel capacity (7 light years) and fuel can be replenished after docking with a space station in orbit around a planet which is a challenging task without a docking computer, as it requires matching the ship's rotation to that of the station. Players can upgrade their equipment with a fuel scoop, which allows raw fuel to be skimmed from the surface of stars - a dangerous and difficult activity - and collecting free-floating cargo canisters and escape capsules liberated after the destruction of other ships. While making a hyperspace jump Thargoid (antagonist race) invasion ships may trap the player, forcing his ship into "witch-space" to do battle.

An extremely expensive one-shot galactic hyperspace upgrade permits travel between the eight galaxies of the game universe. There is little practical difference between the different galaxies. However in some versions it is necessary to travel to at least the second galaxy in order to access the missions.

The game includes several optional missions for the Galactic Navy. One requires tracking down and destroying a stolen experimental ship; the other involves transporting classified information on the Thargoids' home planet, with Thargoid invasion ships doing their best to see that you do not succeed.

Technical innovations

The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each galaxy containing 256 planets to explore. Due to the limited capabilities of 8-bit computers, these worlds are procedurally generated. A single seed number is run through a fixed algorithm the appropriate number of times and creates a sequence of numbers determining each planet's complete composition (position in the galaxy, prices of commodities, and even name and local details — text strings are chosen numerically from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions for each planet). This means that no extra memory is needed to store the characteristics of each planet, yet each is unique and has fixed properties. Each galaxy is also procedurally generated from the first.

However, the use of procedural generation created a few problems. There are a number of poorly located systems that can be reached only by galactic hyperspace — these are more than 7 light years from their nearest neighbour, thus trapping the traveller. Braben and Bell also checked that none of the system names were profane.

Conversions and legacy

Originally there were 3 versions of Elite released: Acorn Electron Tape, BBC B Tape and BBC B Disk. The BBC version used a split screen to show four colours; the upper two thirds of the screen were displayed in mode 4 while the lower part was in mode 5. The Electron version ran entirely in mode 4, and therefore displayed only black and white. The Electron's limitations meant several game features were cut including Thargoids and suns. Neither the BBC nor the Electron tape versions featured missions. The BBC B Disk version, referred to as Classic Elite, would load a new set of ships after every hyperspace jump or space station launch, meaning a larger number of ships were available. The disc version was enhanced a couple of years after release to take advantage of the BBC Micro Model B's successors including the BBC Micro Model B+, Master 128 computers or an optional second processor unit or sideways RAM, if they were fitted. In this case, the game used MODEs 1 and 2 to make more colours available.

Elite was quickly converted to a wide range of home computer platforms, including the Apple II, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX and IBM PC compatible. The only console version was released in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some of the versions had slightly altered gameplay or other characteristics.

The Amstrad CPC conversion (itself a port of the ZX version) has fewer ships than other platforms, lacking the Anaconda and Transport, along with some minor differences in missions and titles.

The Commodore 64 conversion introduced Trumbles (creatures based on the tribbles in Star Trek: The Original Series). Also, when the docking computer is activated in the Commodore 64 version and some other versions, a musical rendition of The Blue Danube Waltz is played, which is a nod to a space docking sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. This music was arranged by David Dunn.

Several police viper ships in the Archimedes version of Elite.

The Acorn Archimedes version of Elite (written by Warren Burch and Clive Gringras) widely regarded as the best conversion of the original game, added intelligent opponents who engage in their own private battles and police who take an active interest in protecting the law. The game world no longer seems to be centred around the player; freighter fleets with escorts go about their own business, pirate formations patrol lawless systems looking for cargo to loot and mining ships can often be found breaking up asteroids for their mineral content. Unlike the mythical Generation Ships of the original, rare occurrences of other non-pirate entities mentioned in the manual really can be found in the Archimedes version: geometric formations of space beacons; hermits living among the asteroids; abandoned ships towed by police (although Dredgers and Generation Ships are confirmed not to exist in Archimedes Elite). The Archimedes version of Elite was originally written to be a space trading game called Trojan - however the obvious similarities eventually meant that to avoid a potential lawsuit Trojan became an official Elite.

Many attempts to develop clones of Elite have been made, but most have been abandoned before completion or have otherwise failed to come to fruition. The open source Oolite is a notable exception. Elite: The New Kind, was developed by Christian Pinder by reverse-engineering the original BBC Micro version of Elite, but was withdrawn from the main distribution at David Braben's request

In 2004, the commercial product Elite Starfighter was released in Germany. Starfighter is an Elite clone that features modern graphics. Since it duplicates the original gameplay, it has been criticized as being somewhat dull by today's standards, but is recommended to Elite enthusiasts who might consider taking a look.

In interviews, the senior producers of CCP Games have cited Elite as one of the inspirations for their acclaimed Eve Online MMORPG. Thorolfur Beck in particular said that Elite was the game that impacted him most on the Commodore 64, and that it was the prime motivator behind Eve Online.

The multi-format magazine Edge posthumously awarded Elite 10 out of 10, together with only 2 other games.

Open release

In 1999/2000, a dispute occurred between Ian Bell and David Braben regarding the former's decision to make available all versions of the original Elite. The dispute has now ended; the various versions are available on Bell's site. The two Frontier games are available for download from Braben's Elite Club website.

Sequels

Cover art for Frontier: Elite 2

Cover art for Frontier: First Encounters

Main articles: Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters

A pseudo-sequel, Elite Plus, was released for DOS in 1991. Whereas the original Elite for the PC used CGA graphics, Elite Plus was upgraded to take advantage of EGA, VGA and MCGA. It was coded entirely in assembly language by Chris Sawyer, who later wrote RollerCoaster Tycoon. Elite Plus had a ninth galaxy and a new title, "Archangel", for the player to earn. Archangel is reached by undertaking a special mission to destroy a space station in a system invaded by the Thargoids. The player's reward for completing the mission is to receive the title Archangel and obtain a device that is capable of emulating anti-ECM broadcasts. The ninth galaxy can only be reached by hyperspacing into Witch Space. Elite Plus was published by Microplay.

A variant of the original BBC Micro Elite with many extra features, originally titled Elite III but now known as Elite A to minimize confusion, was created by Angus Duggan in the late 1980s by disassembling and modifying the 6502 code from the commercial release. It includes many more ship types, more ship types flyable by the player (who begins in the less capable Adder), cargo delivery missions, some extra equipment items and numerous gameplay improvements. Elite A was released publicly in 1997. Like the original game, it can be downloaded free from Ian Bell's web site and played under emulation.

Two official true sequels were created: Frontier: Elite II (1993) and Frontier: First Encounters (1995), both produced by Braben's company Frontier Developments. Bell had limited involvement in the first sequel, and was not involved in the production of the second. Both games were a considerable advance on the original Elite, with filled 3D graphics, missions and a complex economy. This time, the player was not confined to orbit but could land on and explore or mine planets. The number of flyable ships was greatly increased, and a new political backstory was introduced enabling the player to gain ranks in competing interstellar empires. The games appeared on the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC.

Both games were, however, significantly flawed in a number of respects. Both games had many bugs, First Encounters in particular, due apparently to being published in an incomplete state, and First Encounters had to be extensively patched; this became the subject of a three-year lawsuit between the publisher — GameTek — and Braben.

The sequels employed a realistic flight model based on Newtonian mechanics rather than the original arcade-style engine. While this was more realistic, many players also found it frustratingly difficult, particularly in combat. Most space trading games since Elite have stuck to an arcade-style flight model, in which the ships behave as though they are flying in an atmosphere.

A new sequel, Elite 4, is currently in a lengthy development phase which started in 1998 and is 5 years overdue from its original scheduled release date. It is not currently scheduled for release, with Braben stating that full production will commence after the release of The Outsider. The Outsider is expected to be released by Christmas 2009.

See also

• History of computer and video games
• Oolite
• Archimedes Elite remake: 'Mission Elite: The Battle for Birera'

External links

• Elite at MobyGames
• The Elite Home Page by Ian Bell
• The Elite Club
• The EliteWiki project
• alt.fan.elite newsgroup
• Firebird Elite documentation on BirdSanctuary.co.uk
• Firebird's Elite: A Look Back at the Greatest Game Ever Made - article about the game
• Elite at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
• Masters of their universe - an excerpt from Backroom Boys: The Secret Return Of The British Boffin, by Francis Spufford.
• Gamasutra's The History of Elite: Space, The Endless Frontier by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton