Elite had its 25th birthday yesterday. The milestone in space-combat and trading games and predecessor of our mighty EVE. I can still remember when I was 14. I bought the game for my Amstrad CPC and initially got addicted to that sheer endless world that unfolded in front of me. I pew pewed, traded nearly every night after homework was done (and sometimes not). EVE had the same impact on me, except that now I’m significantly older with the first grey hairs, but also more experienced when it comes to girls. grinnn… So here is an original news-post from Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
…if you’re reading this in Honolulu and within 35 minutes of me publishing this. Otherwise, it was released 25 years ago yesterday. On the 20th September of 1984 David Braben and Ian Bell’s Elite shocked an shy world of 8-bit videogame heads. Really, it doesn’t get more seminal than this. Frontier Development have celebrated by making a micro-site featuring assorted Elite memorabilia plus a forthcoming interview with Braben on the 23rd (Via twittering them questions). Go See! I suspect one of RPS may weaken and do a retro piece before the week’s out. But until then, here’s something that’s testament to Elite’s majesty.
Edit: Inspired by the anniversary, I was surfing through the net in order to find a C64 Emulator just to have that little ELITE experience on my work-computer. And it worked! Here are the ressources for your gaming pleasure and a little screeny I just took a few moments ago:
The Emulator: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/c64/c64emulators.html
The game on the official Ian Bell page: http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/c64/ (funny enough cracked by The Dynamic Duo – can anyone remember them? Rofl)
By the way. Ian’s Brother Aidan (with lyricist Brian Phillips) wrote a musical about it:
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September 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
My that goes way back. 25 years ago – that was 1984?
How computer games have changed since then. Never could have imagined what we have now … not me.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:25 am
After playing Elite on an emulator yesterday and jumping into my Stabber in the evening, I can just underline what you said. Games have evolved! ^^