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129-513: Elite is a space trading video game . It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and was originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. Elite' s open-ended game model , and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system and earned it a place as a classic and

258-471: A Galactic Empire traversed through hyperspace through the use of a "hyperatomic drive". In Foundation (1951), hyperspace is described as an "...unimaginable region that was neither space nor time, matter nor energy, something nor nothing, one could traverse the length of the Galaxy in the interval between two neighboring instants of time." E. C. Tubb has been credited with playing an important role in

387-444: A cloaking device . According to Braben and Bell, Elite was inspired by a range of sources. The developers refer to 2001: A Space Odyssey , Star Wars , The 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 . While Bell has confirmed that some of

516-404: A media franchise consisting of space combat simulation video games, an animated television series , a feature film , a collectible card game , a series of novels , and action figures . Game designer Chris Crawford said in an interview that Wing Commander "raised the bar for the whole industry", as the game was five times more expensive to create than most of its contemporaries. Because

645-627: A source code mirror is hosted on GitHub . In 2020, Christian Pinder also released an upscaled Windows port of the Acorn Archimedes' Elite. On 20 October 2013, the Internet Archive started to offer Elite in the ZX Spectrum version for online playing in the browser via MESS emulation . Space trading and combat simulator Some games in the genre aim to recreate a realistic portrayal of space flight, involving

774-536: A supernova mission not found in the original. The Amstrad CPC conversion has fewer ships than other platforms, lacking the Anaconda and Transport, along with some minor differences in missions and titles. Ricardo Pinto , the programmer for the Amstrad version, explained that his team was given a 6502 hex dump by Braben and Bell, which did not help development: "In the end we wrote our version by playing Elite on

903-463: A world map at one's current location, walking across the map to a different continent, and then stepping off the map to find oneself at the new location—noting that the hyperspace "map" could have a significantly more complicated shape, as in Bob Shaw 's Night Walk (1967). Hyperspace is generally seen as a fictional concept not compatible with present-day scientific theories, particularly

1032-525: A Finger " from 1942). The concept of hyperspace travel, or space folding, can be used outside space travel as well, for example in Stephen King 's short story " Mrs. Todd's Shortcut " it is a means for an elderly lady to take a shortcut while travelling between two cities. In many stories, a starship cannot enter or leave hyperspace too close to a large concentration of mass, such as a planet or star ; this means that hyperspace can only be used after

1161-645: A ROM image of the Mega Drive demo was released online by co-designer Ian Bell. ZX: 37/40 Elite received very positive reviews on its launch and the BBC Micro version eventually sold 107,898 copies. The game's popularity became a national phenomenon in the UK, with reports airing on Channel 4 and elsewhere. Elite was Firebird's best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. Bell estimates that approximately 600,000 copies were eventually sold for all platforms combined, while Frontier Developments' Elite page states that

1290-457: A [BBC Micro] and making ours look the same." This version included the "supernova rescue" and "cloaking device" missions, and refinements to the launch tube and jump drive animations. According to the lead programmer of the 16 bit Amiga/Atari ST and the MSX conversions Rob Nicholson, he did not have access to the source code because of contractual issues and had to write them "blind". All he had were

1419-436: A box larger than its usual releases, complete with a novella by Robert Holdstock called The Dark Wheel , a 64-page Space Trader's Flight Training Manual, reference card and a ship identification poster. The flight training manual was written in a style that took the rookie trader through the controls and various aspects of play. The original Acornsoft version of The Dark Wheel promised on its back cover that "[a] sequel to

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1548-470: A convenient background tool enabling FTL travel necessary for the plot, with a small minority making it a central element in their storytelling. While most often used in the context of interstellar travel, a minority of works focus on other plot points, such as the inhabitants of hyperspace, hyperspace as an energy source, or even hyperspace as the afterlife . The basic premise of hyperspace is that vast distances through space can be traversed quickly by taking

1677-416: A docking computer. Equipment upgrades include a fuel scoop, which allows "sun skimming"—collecting energy from the stars' corona —described by the manual as "a dangerous and difficult activity", but in practice a fairly simple process far easier than manually docking at a space station—and collecting free-floating cargo canisters and escape capsules liberated after the destruction of other ships. While making

1806-431: A genre maker in gaming history. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite". Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden-line removal . It added graphics and twitch gameplay aspects to the genre established by the 1974 game Star Trader . Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel ,

1935-523: A home computer" and gave it a score of 92%, while at the same time it was a best-seller in the Gallup charts. The game was number 16 in the Your Sinclair "Top 100 Speccy Games" in 1992, was voted number 7 in the Your Sinclair "Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time" in 1993 and was voted the 9th best game of all time by the readers of Retro Gamer Magazine for an article that was scheduled to be in

2064-499: A hyperspace jump between star systems, the antagonistic Thargoid race may intercept the player half way, forcing the player's ship to remain in "witch-space" and do battle with the smaller invasion ships of the Thargoid. As the interrupted jump uses the full journey's fuel, the player may have insufficient fuel to subsequently jump to a nearby planet, trapping them in witch-space. They must either use an escape capsule, if owned, or abort

2193-417: A kind of shortcut. There are two common models used to explain this shortcut: folding and mapping. In the folding model, hyperspace is a place of higher dimension through which the shape of our three-dimensional space can be distorted to bring distant points close to each other; a common analogy popularized by Robert A. Heinlein 's Starman Jones (1953) is that of crumpling two-dimensional paper or cloth in

2322-464: A mail-in tape-replacement service to upgrade to v1.1 (marked as such on the tape label) that fixed this bug. A version for the BBC Micro with the 6502 Second Processor was announced by Acornsoft on 25 July 1985, this new version added several extras over the standard BBC version, including 18 ships in the player environment (up from 10), no loading from disc when leaving/arriving at a space station,

2451-440: A mix of different methods. The ship the player controls is generally larger than that in pure space combat simulator. Notable examples of the genre include Elite , the X series , Wing Commander: Privateer , Freelancer , and No Man's Sky . In some instances, plot plays only a limited role and only a loose narrative framework tends to be provided. In certain titles of the X series , for instance, players may ignore

2580-577: A month or two later" the Acorn Electron tape version was released. The Electron's limitations meant the game was in black and white only, and several game features were cut including Thargoids and suns. Neither the BBC nor the Electron tape versions featured missions. Additionally, the original tape version for the Electron contained a bug that stopped Galactic Hyperspace from working. Acorn provided

2709-454: A multinational cast of pilots from the " Terran Confederation " flying missions against the predatory, aggressive Kilrathi , a feline warrior race (heavily inspired by the Kzinti of Larry Niven 's Known Space universe). Wing Commander (1990) was a best seller and caused the development of competing space combat games, such as LucasArts ' X-Wing . Wing Commander eventually became

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2838-485: A novella by Robert Holdstock which gave players insight into the moral and legal codes to which they might aspire. The Elite series is among the longest-running video game franchises . The first game was followed by the sequels Frontier: Elite II in 1993, and Frontier: First Encounters in 1995, which introduced Newtonian physics , realistic star systems, and seamless freeform planetary landings. A third sequel, Elite Dangerous , began crowdfunding in 2012 and

2967-496: A number of means. These include piracy, trade, military missions, bounty hunting and asteroid mining . The money generated by these enterprises allows the player to upgrade their ship with enhancements such as better weapons, increased cargo capacity, an automated docking system, an extra energy bank and more. In the game universe, stars have single planets , each with a space station in its orbit . Stars are always separated by interstellar distances which cannot be crossed using

3096-467: A significant source of inspiration for later games in the genre as well as being influential upon gaming as a whole. In interviews, senior producers of CCP Games have cited Elite as one of the inspirations for their acclaimed MMORPG , EVE Online . The developers of Jumpgate Evolution , Battlecruiser 3000AD , Infinity: The Quest for Earth , Space Rangers , Hard Truck: Apocalyptic Wars and Flatspace have likewise all credited Elite as

3225-462: A source of inspiration. Similar praise has been bestowed elsewhere in the media over the years. It has been named as one of the most influential games in history, and has been credited as being the first truly open-ended open world game and opening the door for future online persistent worlds such as Second Life , World of Warcraft and EVE Online . Elite is one of the most popularly requested games to be remade , with some arguing that it

3354-631: A special Your Sinclair tribute issue. Similarly Zzap!64 gave the Commodore 64 version 97%, stating that it was "a brilliant game of blasting and trading and is certainly the best game I've seen this year" in 1985 and the Amiga version 98% in 1989. In 1984, Elite received the Golden Joystick Award for "Best Original Game". In 1985 the game was awarded the "Best Game Overall" for that year by readers of Crash magazine, and "Game of

3483-467: A star map with multiple ports buying and selling 6 commodities. It was written in BASIC . Star Raiders was introduced in 1980 for the then-new Atari 8-bit computers and became the killer app for the system. Doug Neubauer created the game as a combination of Star Wars and the text-based Star Trek mainframe game. Using smoothly scaled 2D sprites and 3D particles to mimic a first person view of

3612-457: A starship gets to the outside edge of a solar system , so that it must use other means of propulsion to get to and from planets. Other stories require a very large expenditure of energy in order to open a link (sometimes called a jump point ) between hyperspace and regular space; this effectively limits access to hyperspace to very large starships, or to large stationary jump gates that can open jump points for smaller vessels. Examples include

3741-407: A volume of space, Star Raiders simulates clearing sectors of enemy ships while managing resources and damage to the ship's different systems. In addition to forward and rear views from the ship, the game provides both a galactic map and sector scanner to show enemy and friendly starbase locations. The game does not pause while these displays are active; they keep updating in real-time. It is one of

3870-507: A well-armed- and armoured spaceship), Alex encounters the basics of the Elite universe—including combat, hyperdrive and hyperspace and the deadly aliens called Thargoids. Finally Alex discovers the truth about his father and his combat rank. He also acts as an acceptable face of trading as his female co-pilot, Elyssia Fields, is an alien and wanted in several systems. Alex wants to avenge his father's death, but must exercise caution in tracking down

3999-486: A window is opened into a new "hyperplane of hyperspace" containing those who have already died on Earth, and similarly, in Bob Shaw 's The Palace of Eternity (1969), hyperspace is a form of afterlife , where human minds and memories reside after death. In some works, hyperspace is a source of extremely dangerous energy, threatening to destroy the entire world if mishandled (for instance Eando Binder 's The Time Contractor from 1937 or Alfred Bester 's " The Push of

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4128-439: Is FlightGear 's Space Shuttle project, whose simulation is backed by NASA windtunnel data and is the most detailed and accurate simulation outside of NASA's internal ones. Kerbal Space Program can be considered a space simulator, even though it portrays an imaginary universe with tweaked physics, masses and distances to enhance gameplay. Nevertheless, the physics and rocket design principles are much more realistic than in

4257-486: Is free and open-source - the project receives development from people with scientific and engineering backgrounds, and is open to contributions from any source. FlightGear can accurately handle speeds from subsonic, transonic , through to high hypersonic or re-entry regimes with a flight dynamics engine that can incorporate windtunnel data or computational fluid dynamics , and uses a 3d model of gravity used for spaceflight based on spherical harmonics which can simulate

4386-454: Is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel . In its original meaning, the term hyperspace was simply a synonym for higher-dimensional space . This usage was most common in 19th-century textbooks and is still occasionally found in academic and popular science texts, for example, Hyperspace (1994). Its science fiction usage originated in

4515-525: Is a notable exception. Another successful adaptation is 1337 (meaning "Elite" in Leetspeak ) developed by Jose Maria Enguita for the Oric machines , that won the 2010 Oldschool Gaming Game Of The Year Award . Contrasting with these conversions, around 1999 Christian Pinder developed Elite: The New Kind as a modern PC port of the original BBC Micro version. He achieved a faithful port by reverse-engineering

4644-461: Is described as a higher dimension through which the shape of our three-dimensional space can be distorted to bring distant points close to each other, similar to the concept of a wormhole ; or a shortcut-enabling parallel universe that can be travelled through. Usually it can be traversed – the process often known as "jumping" – through a gadget known as a "hyperdrive"; rubber science is sometimes used to explain it. Many works rely on hyperspace as

4773-420: Is generally limited to dockings, landings or orbital maneuvers. The reward for the player is on mastering real or realistic spacecraft, celestial mechanics and astronautics . Classical games with this approach include Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space (1982), Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation (1982), The Halley Project (1985), Shuttle (1992) and Microsoft Space Simulator (1994). If

4902-489: Is often called a "hyperdrive", and navigating hyperspace is typically referred to as "jumping" (as in "the ship will now jump through hyperspace"). A number of related terms (such as imaginary space, Jarnell intersplit, jumpspace, megaflow, N-Space, nulspace, slipstream, overspace, Q-space, subspace, and tau-space) have been used by various writers, although none have gained recognition to rival that of hyperspace. Some works use multiple synonyms; for example, in

5031-464: Is often left to the reader's imagination, or depicted as "a swirling gray mist". In some works, it is dark. Exceptions exist; for example, John Russel Fearn 's Waters of Eternity (1953) features hyperspace that allows observation of regular space from within. Many stories feature hyperspace as a dangerous, treacherous place where straying from a preset course can be disastrous. In Frederick Pohl 's The Mapmakers (1955), navigational errors and

5160-465: 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 broadcast. Versions for 32X and Sega Mega Drive were in development but cancelled due to Sony backing out of the project and lack of publisher. However,

5289-721: Is sometimes referred to as a "living universe" – a dream some have held since the genre's early beginnings. Also with massive battles , Star Citizen , a title in development by Cloud Imperium Games (headed by Chris Roberts , who was involved in Freelancer and Wing Commander ), aims to bridge the gap between the EVE -like living universe game and the fast action of other games in the genre. An additional sub-class of space trading games eliminate combat entirely, focusing instead entirely on trading and economic manipulation in order to achieve success. Most modern space flight games on

Elite (video game) - Misplaced Pages Continue

5418-451: Is still the best example of the genre to date, with more recent titles—including its immediate sequel—not rising up to the same level. In November 1999, on the game's 15th birthday, Ian Bell released many binaries and source code of several versions of the original game on his website. A dispute arose between Bell and David Braben regarding Bell's decision to make available all versions of the original Elite . The dispute has since ended and

5547-468: Is still under development. Elite: Dangerous was also successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in November and December 2012. The game was completed and released in 2014, and expansions are being released in stages, or "seasons". Born Ready Games also closed a successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2012, having raised nearly $ 180,000 to assist with the completion of Strike Suit Zero . The game

5676-649: Is used for storage. In George R.R. Martin's FTA (1974) hyperspace travel takes longer than in regular space, and in John E. Stith 's Redshift Rendezvous (1990), the twist is that the relativistic effects within it appear at lower velocities. Hyperspace is generally unpopulated, save for the space-faring travellers. Early exceptions include Tubb's Dynasty of Doom (1953), Fearn's Waters of Eternity (1953) and Christopher Grimm 's Someone to Watch Over Me (1959), which feature denizens of hyperspace. In The Mystery of Element 117 (1949) by Milton Smith ,

5805-559: Is used professionally in aerospace engineering and research, with a flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) that is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to the standards of the space industry . FlightGear simulates orbital and atmospheric flight, but as of 2021 does not cover flight between planets (although its flight dynamics engine supports Mars and has been used to model the NASA ARES glider ). The simulation has been continually developed into modern times, as FlightGear

5934-468: Is usually explained through the existence of magic . While mainly designed as means of fast space travel, occasionally, some writers have used the hyperspace concept in more imaginative ways, or as a central element of the story. In Arthur C. Clarke 's " Technical Error " (1950), a man is laterally reversed by a brief accidental encounter with "hyperspace". In Robert A. Heinlein's Glory Road (1963) and Robert Silverberg 's " Nightwings " (1968), it

6063-601: The Star Trek franchise, the term hyperspace itself is only used briefly in a single 1988 episode (" Coming of Age ") of Star Trek: The Next Generation , while a related set of terms – such as subspace, transwarp, and proto-warp – are employed much more often, and most of the travel takes place through the use of a warp drive . Hyperspace travel has also been discussed in the context of wormholes and teleportation , which some writers consider to be similar whereas others view them as separate concepts. Emerging in

6192-653: The 6502 microprocessor were ported by either Bell or Bell and Braben. The Commodore 64 conversion introduced Trumbles (creatures based on the tribbles in Star Trek: The Original Series ). 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, as a nod to a space docking sequence in Stanley Kubrick 's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey . The ZX Spectrum version, programmed by "Torus" included

6321-511: The Atari 800 they decided to collaborate to produce what eventually became Elite . They first approached Thorn EMI; the company's rejection letter stated that the game was too complicated and needed to be finishable in 10 minutes with three lives . Braben and Bell then met with Acornsoft; their demo of Elite' s combat and docking sequences impressed managing director David Johnson-Davies and other Acornsoft executives. The company agreed to publish

6450-696: The London Science Museum in the " Game On " exhibition organized and toured by the Barbican Art Gallery . Elite was also named #12 on IGN 's 2000 "Top 25 PC Games of All Time" list, the #3 most influential video game ever by the Times Online in 2007, and "best game ever" for the BBC Micro by Beebug Magazine in 1984. Elite ' s sequel, Frontier: Elite II , was named #77 on PC Zone 's "101 Best PC Games Ever" list in 2007. Similar praise has been bestowed elsewhere in

6579-482: The NES console and arcades in 1985, featured a cockpit view, a radar displaying enemy and base locations, the ability to warp anywhere, and a date system keeping track of the current date. Another notable Apple II game by developer FTL Games was SunDog: Frozen Legacy (1984) which allowed the player to fly through many systems, choose multiple planets to land on in several of those systems, and even walk around on

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6708-494: The Thorpe Park theme park (holding such an event for a video game was almost unheard of at the time) and a competition to be among the first to achieve the status of "Elite". The story tells of a young starship pilot named Alex Ryder, whose father Jason is killed when their merchant ship is attacked by a notorious pirate. In trying to understand and avenge his father's death and achieve an "iron ass" (a space-trader's term for

6837-606: The Vega Strike engine, and the latter has reached the stage where it is offered as a working title to the public. In 2013 a hobbyist space flight simulator project was realized under usage of the open source Pioneer software. Hyperspace Black holes in fiction • Portable hole • Teleportation in fiction • Wormholes in fiction • Stargate • Warp drive • Hyperspace • Time travel in fiction In science fiction , hyperspace (also known as nulspace , subspace , overspace , jumpspace and similar terms)

6966-402: The theory of relativity ). Some science fiction writers attempted quasi-scientific rubber science explanations of this concept. For others, however, it is just a convenient MacGuffin enabling faster-than-light travel necessary for their story without violating the prohibitions against FTL travel in ordinary space imposed by known laws of physics. The means of accessing hyperspace

7095-658: The "jump" technology in Babylon 5 and the star gate in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Just like with the very concept of hyperspace, the reasons given for such restrictions are usually technobabble , but their existence can be an important plot device . Science fiction author Larry Niven published his opinions to that effect in N-Space . According to him, an unrestricted FTL technology would give no limits to what heroes and villains could do. Limiting

7224-533: The "space trading" and flight sim genres. Elite was highly influential upon later games of its type, although it did have some precursors. Games similar to Elite are sometimes called " Elite -clones". Space flight games and simulators, at one time popular, had for much of the new millennium been considered a "dead" genre. However, open-source and enthusiast communities managed to produce some working, modern titles (e.g. Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator ); and 2011's commercially released Kerbal Space Program

7353-661: The 1980s" by Next Generation in 2008. In 1996, GamesMaster ranked Elite 11th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time." The game was retrospectively awarded 10/10 by the multi-format magazine Edge —together with only 2 other games — and is being exhibited at such places as the London Science Museum in the " Game On " exhibition organised and toured by the Barbican Art Gallery . Elite is also featured in Game On! From Pong to Oblivion: The 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time by authors Simon Byron, Ste Curran and David McCarthy. In 1991, PC Format placed Elite Plus on its list of

7482-430: The 50 best computer games of all time. The editors called it "a classic game that mixes solid 3D space combat with trading to create a universe in which you can spend many a happy half-hour bushwhacking the dastardly Thargoids." Elite has often been regarded as defining the genre for space trading games. Since its release Elite has been credited as being the title that defined the modern space flight simulation genre,

7611-486: The BBC disks that are compatible with the WD1770 . In addition to this, self-modifying code was used as part of the protection system, created by Rob Northen. This BBC disk-copy-protection was also used by Superior Software in its Exile game. 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

7740-595: The December 1984 issue of Micro Adventurer "A masterpiece such as this is difficult to describe within existing parameters" and "By any standards, Elite is an excellent game, certainly in the Top Three this year. By BBC standards, it is simply the best game that has ever been written for the machine". Crash magazine said about the Spectrum version " Elite is one of the most imaginative ever to be designed to run on

7869-493: The Galactic Navy. One requires tracking down and destroying a stolen experimental ship; another involves transporting classified information on the Thargoids' home planet, with Thargoid invasion ships doing their best to see that the player does not succeed throughout the duration of the mission involving multiple interplanetary jumps. Rewards differed depending on the mission - from cash and gems to esoteric hardware such as

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7998-493: The Year" by Computer Gamer . In a 1992 survey of science fiction games, Computer Gaming World gave the title two of five stars, stating that its "popularity was largely a result of being one of the first space games with a 'large' universe to explore". The magazine gave Elite Plus two-plus stars, describing it as "More detailed and complex, it is also more tedious than the original". A 1994 survey of strategic space games set in

8127-509: The ability to save screenshots and print screens to an Epson compatible printer. It also boasted over double the frame rate and a MODE1/MODE2 split screen vs. MODE4/MODE5 giving a full colour game for the first time. https://elite.bbcelite.com/6502sp/ The great commercial success of the BBC Micro version prompted a bidding war for the rights to publish Elite in other formats, which British Telecom 's software arm, Telecomsoft , eventually won. Contemporary versions for home computers based on

8256-420: The assassin. By trading commodities, he slowly improves the arms and armour of his ship. When he is competent at using the spaceship for combat, but before he feels ready, he makes a trade that is sure to bring his father's killer to him. Alex also learns what the "Dark Wheel" is and what it takes to join its ranks. The first version of the game was released for the BBC Micro, model B on tape and disk and "about

8385-476: The behaviour of the spacecraft, but not orbital mechanics. Space combat games tend to be mission-based, as opposed to the more open-ended nature of space trading and combat games. The general formula for the space trading and combat game , which has changed little since its genesis, is for the player to begin in a relatively small, outdated ship with little money or status and for the player to gain in status and power through trading, exploration, combat or

8514-606: 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. As well as such gameplay enhancements, the version also exploited the more modern hardware by using polygon mesh graphics in place of the wire-frames. 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

8643-482: The calculation of orbits within a more complete physics simulation than pseudo space flight simulators. Others focus on gameplay rather than simulating space flight in all its facets. The realism of the latter games is limited to what the game designer deems to be appropriate for the gameplay, instead of focusing on the realism of moving the spacecraft in space. Some "flight models" use a physics system based on Newtonian physics , but these are usually limited to maneuvering

8772-525: The code. The last part added was the 3D radar display fitted into the last few unused bytes in their computer. The original BBC version used a novel split screen approach to show four colours (five, including the black background) onscreen simultaneously; the upper two thirds of the screen were displayed in Mode 4 while the lower part was in Mode 5. The subsequent Electron version ran entirely in Mode 4, because

8901-415: The core gameplay elements of directly controlling the flight of some sort of space vessel, generally armed, and of navigating from one area to another for a variety of reasons. As technology has improved it has been possible to implement a number of extensions to gameplay, such as dynamic economies and cooperative online play . Overall, however, the core gameplay mechanics of the genre have changed little over

9030-451: The craft in its direct environment, and do not take into consideration the orbital calculations that would make such a game a simulator. Many of the pseudo simulators feature faster than light travel . Examples of true simulators which aim at piloting a space craft in a manner that conforms with the laws of nature include Orbiter , Kerbal Space Program and Microsoft Space Simulator . Examples of more fantastical video games that bend

9159-728: The definition is expanded to include decision making and planning, then Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (1992) is also notable for historical accuracy and detail. In this game, the player takes the role of Administrator of NASA or Head of the Soviet Space Program with the ultimate goal of being the first side to conduct a successful human Moon landing . Orbiter and, to an extent, Space Shuttle Mission 2007 , provide more elaborate simulations. They have 3D virtual cockpits and external views. Orbiter has been continually developed into modern times including having modern graphics, while others above have not been. FlightGear

9288-514: The desired configuration, or in setting autopilots . Real time hands on piloting can happen, depending on the simulated spacecraft. For example, it is common to use a joystick analog control to land a Space Shuttle (or any other spaceplane ) or the Apollo Lunar Module (or similar landers). Dockings can be performed more precisely using the numerical keypad . Overall, the simulations have more complex control systems than game, with

9417-703: The development of Elite (the main character in Traveller is named "Jamison"; the main character in Elite is named "Jameson") and Jumpgate Evolution . The Wing Commander (1990–2007) series from Origin Systems, Inc. was a marked departure from the standard formula up to that point, bringing space combat to a level approaching the Star Wars films. Set beginning in the year 2654, and characterized by designer Chris Roberts as " World War II in space", it features

9546-404: The development of hyperspace lore; writing a number of space operas in the early 1950s in which space travel occurs through that medium. He was also one of the first writers to treat hyperspace as a central part of the plot rather than a convenient background gadget that just enables the faster-than-light space travel. In 1963, Philip Harbottle called the concept of hyperspace "a fixture" of

9675-417: The early 20th century, within several decades hyperspace became a common element of interstellar space travel stories in science fiction. Kirk Meadowcroft 's "The Invisible Bubble" (1928) and John Campbell 's Islands of Space (1931) feature the earliest known references to hyperspace, with Campbell, whose story was published in the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories Quarterly , likely being

9804-475: The finished game, although they feared that it was too ambitious for Braben and Bell, and was uncertain about the merits of two developers instead of one on a single game. The programmers were given a £1,000 advance from the company and a royalty rate of 7.5% was agreed. The game took two years to write and started out as a 3D arcade game without the trading element. It was written in machine code using assembly language , giving much care to maximum compactness of

9933-452: The first truly open-ended game. It is to this day one of the most ambitious games ever made, residing in only 22 kilobytes of memory and on a single floppy disk. The latest incarnation of the franchise, titled Elite: Dangerous , was released on 16 December 2014, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Though not as well known as Elite , Trade Wars is noteworthy as the first multiplayer space trader. A BBS door , Trade Wars

10062-703: The first writer to use this term in the context of space travel. According to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction , the earliest known use of the word "hyper-drive" comes from a preview of Murray Leinster 's story "The Manless Worlds" in Thrilling Wonder Stories 1946. Another early work featuring hyperspace was Nelson Bond 's The Scientific Pioneer Returns (1940). Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series , first published in Astounding starting in 1942, featured

10191-422: The first. Braben and Bell at first intended to have 2 galaxies, but Acornsoft insisted on a smaller universe to hide the galaxies' mathematical origins. 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, and, being low-tech, are unable to replace

10320-414: The galactic hyperdrive, thus trapping the traveller. Braben and Bell also checked that none of the system names were profane - removing an entire galaxy after finding a planet named "Arse". The developers did not spend much time playing their creation, and the quality testing was mostly performed by Acornsoft's managing director David Johnson-Davies, who also planned the packaging and marketing campaign at

10449-399: The galaxy, prices of commodities, and name and local details; text strings are chosen numerically from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions, such as a planet with "carnivorous arts graduates"). 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

10578-561: The game and reload. An extremely expensive one-time 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 to access the game's missions. The planetary layout of the galaxies is different, and many players have discovered trade routes between closely positioned planets with fortuitous economic combinations. Most versions of Elite included several optional jobs for

10707-425: The game for Beebug Magazine in 1984, David Fell called Elite "the best game ever" for the BBC Micro. In Personal Computer Games Shingo Sugiura said " Elite is vast, complex and very, very absorbing. I've got bulging, red eyeballs from staying up into the early hours but I don't care. I'm going to continue playing until I am ranked Elite ... or at least Competent ... or even Average ... Buy it!". John Cook wrote in

10836-435: The game that impacted him most on the Commodore 64. Developers of Jumpgate Evolution , Battlecruiser 3000AD , Infinity: The Quest for Earth , Hard Truck: Apocalyptic Wars and Flatspace likewise all claim Elite as a source of inspiration. Elite was named one of the sixteen most influential games in history at Telespiele, a German technology and games trade show, and is being exhibited at such places as

10965-502: The game to be a "Game by Frontier" to be part of its own back catalogue and all the rights to the game have been owned by David Braben. The player initially controls the character "Commander Jameson", though the name can be changed each time the game is saved. The player 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

11094-417: The game was highly successful, other publishers had to match its production value in order to compete. This forced a large portion of the video game industry to become more conservative, as big-budget games need to be an assured hit for it to be profitable in any way. Crawford opined that Wing Commander in particular affected the marketing and economics of computer games and reestablished the "action game" as

11223-546: The game's content was derived from the Traveller tabletop role-playing game , including the default commander name Jameson, Braben has denied this several times. When the 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

11352-616: The games that inspired Elite and the Wing Commander series. It also resulted in direct clones, including Space Spartans for Intellivision and Starmaster for the Atari 2600, both from 1982. Elite has made a lasting impression on developers, worldwide, extending even into different genres. In interviews, senior producers of CCP Games cited Elite as one of the inspirations for their acclaimed MMORPG EVE Online . Þórólfur Beck , CCP's co-founder, credits Elite as

11481-561: The genre is very popular, but some people have complained that, in some titles, the leeway given to the player too often is only superficial, and that, in reality, the roles offered to players are very similar, and open-ended play too frequently restricted by scripted sequences. As an example, Freelancer has been in one reviewer's opinion critiqued as being rigid in its narrative structure, being in one case compared negatively with Grand Theft Auto , another series praised for its open-ended play. All space trading and combat games feature

11610-445: The hypothetical Alcubierre drive , but this is implemented in a realistic method to complement the more realistic elements of the game. Most games in the space combat genre feature futuristic scenarios involving space flight and extraplanetary combat. Such games generally place the player into the controls of a small starfighter or smaller starship in a military force of similar and larger spaceships and do not take into account

11739-416: The keyboard and mouse combination (or gamepad if such is the case). The lack of uptake among the majority of modern gamers has also made joysticks a sort of anachronism, though some new controller designs and simplification of controls offer the promise that space sims may be playable in their full capacity on gaming consoles at some time in the future. In fact, X3: Reunion , sometimes considered one of

11868-439: 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. 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

11997-406: The limit being the physical reproduction of the actual simulated spacecraft (see Simulation cockpit ). Early attempts at 3D space simulation date back as far as 1974's Spasim , an online multi-player space simulator in which players attempt to destroy each other's ships. The earliest known space trader dates to 1974's Star Trader , a game where the entire interface was text-only and included

12126-534: The lunar surface in a craft resembling the Apollo Lunar Module , while Perilune (2019) is an example of a lunar landing simulation with realistic physics designed for Android mobile devices. The game/program SpaceEngine includes a realistic space flight simulator within its full scale representation of the universe (including both real and procedurally generated astronomical objects), utilizing realistic orbital mechanics and an atmospheric model for certain flyable shuttles. It also includes interstellar travel using

12255-483: The magazine Amazing Stories Quarterly in 1931 and within several decades it became one of the most popular tropes of science fiction, popularized by its use in the works of authors such as Isaac Asimov and E. C. Tubb , and media franchises such as Star Wars . One of the main reasons for the concept's popularity in science fiction is the impossibility of faster-than-light travel in ordinary space, which hyperspace allows writers to bypass. In most works, hyperspace

12384-407: The media from time to time. Elite is one of the most popularly requested games to be remade, and some argue that it is still the best example of the genre to date, with more recent titles—including its sequels—not rising up to its level. It has been credited as opening the door for future online persistent worlds , such as Second Life and World of Warcraft , and as being

12513-455: The more cumbersome and difficult series to master within the trading and combat genre, was initially planned for the Xbox but later cancelled. Realistic simulators feature spacecraft systems and instrument simulation, using a combination of extensive keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks on virtual instrument panels . Most of the maneuvers and operations consist of setting certain systems into

12642-483: The most lucrative type of computer game. The seeming decline of the space flight simulators and games in the late 1990s also coincided with the rise of the RTS , FPS and RPG game genres, with such examples as Warcraft , Doom and Diablo . The very things that made these games classics, such as their open-endedness, complex control systems and attention to detail, have been cited as reasons for their decline. It

12771-524: 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

12900-466: The novella is planned for publication in 1985", but no direct sequel was ever written. A second novella, Imprint by Andy Redman, was included with the IBM PC release of Elite Plus , but apart from being set in the same universe it is in no way connected to the original story. Marketing activities included a £50,000 promotional budget from Acornsoft, including television advertising and a launch party at

13029-400: The numbers are around a million units. Elite ' s technical breakthroughs reportedly amazed the BBC Micro's developers, with Sophie Wilson calling it "the game that couldn't have been written". However, many players found gameplay difficult and unfamiliar; the game was so controversial that The Micro User devoted its April 1985 letter column to readers debating it. In his review of

13158-425: The original assembly written BBC Micro version and recreating a platform neutral C code variant from it, but at David Braben's request this version was withdrawn from distribution in 2003. In September 2014, on Elite ' s 30th birthday, Ian Bell blessed Elite: The New Kind and re-released it for free on his website. Since then, Elite: The New Kind is also distributed again in version 1.1 by Christian Pinder;

13287-921: The perils of hyperspace are one of the main plot-driving elements, and in K. Houston Brunner 's Fiery Pillar (1955), a ship re-emerges within Earth, causing a catastrophic explosion. In some works, travelling or navigating hyperspace requires not only specialized equipment, but physical or psychological modifications of passengers or at least navigators, as seen in Frank Herbert 's Dune (1965), Michael Moorcock 's The Sundered Worlds (1966), Vonda McIntyre 's Aztecs (1977), and David Brin 's The Warm Space (1985). While generally associated with science fiction, hyperspace-like concepts exist in some works of fantasy , particularly ones which involve movement between different worlds or dimensions. Such travel, usually done through portals rather than vehicles,

13416-491: The personal computer allow a player to utilise a combination of the WASD keys of the keyboard and mouse as a means of controlling the game (games such as Microsoft's Freelancer use this control system exclusively ). By far the most popular control system among genre enthusiasts, however, is the joystick . Most fans prefer to use this input method whenever possible, but expense and practicality mean that many are forced to use

13545-507: The physics of space flight, often citing some technological advancement to explain the lack thereof. The prominent Wing Commander , X-Wing and Freespace series all use this approach. Exceptions include Independence War , Independence War 2 and the Star Trek: Bridge Commander series, which model craft at a larger scale and/or in a more strategic fashion. I-War also features Newtonian style physics for

13674-458: The places a ship can appear in, or making them more predictable, means that they will meet each other most often around contested planets or space stations, allowing for narratively satisfying battles or other encounters. On the other hand, a less restricted hyperdrive may also allow for dramatic escapes as the pilot "jumps" to hyperspace in the midst of battle to avoid destruction. In 1999 science fiction author James P. Hogan wrote that hyperspace

13803-456: The player ship to rotate, and Ginga Hyoryu Vifam , which allowed first-person open space exploration with a radar displaying the destination and player/enemy positions as well as an early physics engine where approaching a planet 's gravitational field pulls the player towards it. Following Elite were games such as The Halley Project (1985), Echelon (1987) and Microsoft Space Simulator (1994). Star Luster , released for

13932-419: The plot for as long as they wish and are even given the option to disable the plot completely and instead play in sandbox mode . Many games of this genre place a strong emphasis on factional conflict, leading to many small mission-driven subplots that unravel the tensions of the galaxy. Games of this type often allow the player to choose among multiple roles to play and multiple paths to victory. This aspect of

14061-408: The rules of physics in favor of streamlining and entertainment, include Wing Commander , Star Wars: X-Wing and Freelancer . The modern space flight game genre emerged at the point when home computers became sufficiently powerful to draw basic wireframe graphics in real-time. The game Elite is widely considered to be the breakthrough game of the genre, and as having successfully melded

14190-504: The science fiction genre, and in 1977 Brian Ash wrote in The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction that it had become the most popular of all faster-than-light methods of travel. The concept would subsequently be further popularized through its use in the Star Wars franchise. In the 1974 film Dark Star , special effects designer Dan O'Bannon created a visual effect to depict going into hyperspace wherein

14319-546: The ship shapes and the procedural generation code for the galaxies. Elite Plus was released for DOS in 1991. Whereas the original Elite (1987) 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 . The Acorn Archimedes version, ArcElite (1991), written by Warren Burch & Clive Gringras and regarded by Stuff magazine as

14448-445: The ship's sublight engines. Travel between stars is accomplished by hyperspace jumps, and is constrained to those within range of the limited fuel capacity (a maximum of 7 light years ) of the ship's hyperdrive. Sublight travel uses no fuel. Fuel can be replenished after docking with a space station, which requires matching the ship's rotation to that of the station before entering the docking bay—a task that can be avoided by purchasing

14577-441: The space combat or trading subgenres. Mods for the game such as Real Solar System, Realism Overhaul and Kerbalism can be installed to add more realism to the game by replacing the standard in-game solar system with a 1:1 replica of the real Solar System as well as adding more realistic rocket engines, radiation, life support and other elements to make the game more realistic. The game Lunar Flight (2012) simulates flying around

14706-663: The stars in space appear to move rapidly toward the camera. This is considered to be the first depiction in cinema history of a ship making the jump into hyperspace. The same effect was later employed in Star Wars (1977) and the "star streaks" are considered one of the visual "staples" of the Star Wars franchise. Hyperspace is typically described as chaotic and confusing to human senses; often at least unpleasant – transitions to or from hyperspace can cause symptoms such as nausea , for example – and in some cases even hypnotic or dangerous to one's sanity. Visually, hyperspace

14835-535: The surface within the cities. Many other space sim games have allowed the player to exit their ship on planets, but the "walking" is just clicking on a location such as "Bar," "Ship Dealer," etc. The game also featured a unique story line involving cryogenics . SunDog: Frozen Legacy was also released on the Atari ST in 1985. Some tabletop and board games, such as Traveller or Merchant of Venus , also feature themes of space combat and trade. Traveller influenced

14964-558: The third dimension, thus bringing points on its surface into contact. In the mapping model, hyperspace is a parallel universe much smaller than ours (but not necessarily the same shape), which can be entered at a point corresponding to one location in ordinary space and exited at a different point corresponding to another location after travelling a much shorter distance than would be necessary in ordinary space. The Science in Science Fiction compares it to being able to step onto

15093-613: The time. The original BBC Micro disk version uses a non-standard disk-format for copy protection . This relied on specific OSWORD &7F DFS opcodes in the Intel 8271 floppy-disk controller to directly access the disk, and produce a non-standard sector/track-layout. This causes issues for legitimate customers that use the Western Digital 1770 disk-controller (DFS) ROMs from third-party manufacturers such as Watford Electronics . Acorn subsequently released alternative versions of

15222-555: The twisting force caused by gravity varying over a craft. It has an accurate celestial simulation that also feeds star tracker instruments for navigation. FlightGear has the ability to accelerate time supported by the fact that the physics simulation runs on a separate clock than the visuals - this is very important to simulate long space missions. Being modern, FlightGear has realistic graphics and an orbital renderer that can handle calculations of light scattering and auroral emission with huge distances involved. Of particular note

15351-422: The various versions became available again on Bell's site. In the late 1980s a variant of the commercial BBC Micro Elite release was created by Angus Duggan by disassembling and modifying the 6502 code from the existing with many extra features, originally titled Elite III but now known as Elite A to minimise confusion. It includes many more ship types, more ship types flyable by the player (who begins in

15480-443: The video chips were not 100% compatible and therefore were in black and white only. The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each with 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

15609-586: The year 2000 and later gave Elite and Elite Plus three stars and two-plus stars, respectively. In 1993, Commodore Force ranked the game at number four on its list of the top 100 Commodore 64 games. It was ranked #14 top game of all time by Next Generation in 1996, #12 on IGN 's 2000 "Top 25 PC Games of All Time" list, the #3 most influential video game ever by the Times Online in 2007, #6 "Greatest Game" by Stuff magazine in 2008, #1 "Top Retro Game" by Retro Gamer in 2004, and #1 "best game of

15738-480: The years. Besides the array of space-themed trade and combat games, there also exist a small number of games with similar mechanics, but with a less traditional historical setting. These include the Sid Meier's Pirates! and Mount and Blade franchises. Some more recent games, such as 2003's EVE Online , have expanded the scope of the experience by including thousands of simultaneous online players in what

15867-439: Was believed that no major new space sim series would be produced as long as the genre relied on complex control systems such as the keyboard and joystick. There were outliers, however, such as the X series (1999–2018) and Eve Online . Crowdfunding has been a good source for space sims in recent years, however. In November 2012 Star Citizen set a new record, managing to raise more than $ 114 million as of May 2016, and

15996-520: Was completed and released in January 2013. Lastly, the non-linear roguelike-like space shooter Everspace garnered almost $ 250,000 on Kickstarter, was released in May 2017. The open source community has also been active, with projects such as FS2 Open and Vega Strike serving as platforms for non-professional efforts. Unofficial remakes of Elite and Privateer are being developed using

16125-484: Was launched on 16 December 2014, following a period of semi-open testing; it received a paid-for expansion season, Horizons , on 15 December 2015. Elite proved hugely influential, serving as a model for other games including Wing Commander: Privateer , Grand Theft Auto , EVE Online , Freelancer , the X series and No Man's Sky . Non-Acorn versions were each first published by Firebird and Imagineer . Subsequently, Frontier Developments has claimed

16254-596: Was named the #10 best PC game by PC World Magazine . Other notable early examples include Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space (1982), Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation (1982), and Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (1982), which featured five different controls to learn, six different enemies, and 40 different simulation levels of play, making it one of the most elaborate vector games ever released. Other early examples include Nasir Gebelli 's 1982 Apple II computer games Horizon V which featured an early radar mechanic and Zenith which allowed

16383-401: Was notably well-received, even by the aerospace community. Some more recent games, most notably Elite: Dangerous , have brought new attention to the space trading and combat game subgenre. Realistic space simulators seek to represent a vessel's behaviour under the influence of the laws of physics . As such, the player normally concentrates on following checklists or planning tasks. Piloting

16512-424: Was originally written to be a space trading game called Trojan - however the obvious similarities eventually meant that to avoid a potential lawsuit Trojan had to become an official Elite conversion. ArcElite was one of a number of games released for free by The Icon Bar website in 2006. Some versions feature a new title, " Archangel ", for the player to earn that substitutes the rank of Commander. Archangel

16641-470: Was released in 1984 as an entirely different branch of the space trader tree, having been inspired by Hunt the Wumpus , the board game Risk , and the original space trader, Star Trader . As a pure space trader, Trade Wars lacked any space flight simulator elements, instead featuring abstract open world trading and combat set in an outer space populated by both human and NPC opponents. In 2009, it

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