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David Braben and Ian Bell’s Elite is possibly the most famous and popular game ever written – in Britain at least. The original BBC B program soon spawned versions for the other eight-bit micros, and the 64 version has been in and out of the charts ever since it was released way back in the first half of 1985.
In those days, when I was still a gamesplaying civilian, I was one of the many thousands who trooped out and bought Elite - and I played it to death (well, I got as far as ‘Deadly’ anyway).
News of a version for the 16-bit machines came then as a source of some interest. True to form, Firebird have taken their sweet time over it but, better late than never, Elite has arrived on the Amiga.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it is a space combat/trading simulation displayed using 3D vector graphics. Starting with nothing more than a standard Mk III Cobra ship, the player is launched into the wild black yonder in order to trade goods between planets (or rather, between their orbiting space stations) while blasting anyone who gets in his way. As money is earned by buying and selling a number of commodities (food, computers, textiles and so on) the player can equip his ship with all manner of bolt-on goodies, ranging from powerful lasers, to homing missiles, an automatic docking computer and the all-important escape pod.

As the player’s Cobra becomes the ultimate hard machine, he can then start trading with the more dangerous systems, which inevitably means falling foul of hordes of vicious space pirates; attack other traders and steal their cargo, which draws the attention of hordes of vicious police craft; and also indulge in running some profitable contraband, which means having to fend off both greedy space pirates AND nosey police. As more and more ‘kills’ are notched up, so the player’s rating progresses from ‘Harmless’ to the supreme accolade of ‘Elite’- which is no mean feat, by the way. Fortunately, the Amiga game features both disk and RAM save options.

With eight galaxies and a total of around 2,000 systems to visit, potential Elitists are not short of places to go. And while there is plenty of hyperspacing, docking, launching and fruitless journeys to be endured, there are also one or two surprises to be discovered along the way, adding some variety and incentive to the task in hand (watch out for secret missions, Thargoids and Tribbles…).

My first impression of Amiga Elite was of disappointment. Apart from being filled-in, and having the dubious addition of some gaudy static graphics, the game has not progressed since the 32K BBC program of 1984. There is so much you could do with the game on a 16-bit machine, yet its potential remains untapped.
However, it is not all doom and gloom: this is without the best version of the game to appear so far, and is even more entertaining than its predecessors. Dogfighting – which always suffered because of the louse update on the 64 – is now smooth, colourful and enhanced by a pleasing thud when the lasers hit home. It is also the most appealing aspect of the game, since trading does become a (necessary) chore after a while. Mind you, as Ford Prefect might say, the Cobra Mk III still looks like a fish and steers like a cow!

I suppose the purists would say (in Ben Elton-style pseudo voice), ‘But you cannot change Elite – it is a classic!’. Well, we are not really on about some bit of coloured rag in the Louvre, are we? It is only a game after all, and anyone who has already had a taste of the action (that should include most of you) might be advised to wait for Gremlin’s Federation Of Free Traders to appear before going for a second helping. Steve Jarratt

Title Elite
Game Type 3D Combat Sim
Players 1
Compatibility All
Submission Angus Manwaring Profiled Reviewer

Review
Elite really was the biggie as far as computer games go. Written for the
BBC as a university project by David Braben and Ian Bell, it combined a
first class space shoot-em-up with adventure, simulation and arguably RPG
elements. It's release on the 16 bit machines was awaited with great hope
and perhaps a little too much optimism. The bad news was that very little
in terms of substance had been added, there were Wolf ships, and obviously
we'd moved on from wireframe to filled vectors, but basically it was pretty
much the same game. Yes, it was a huge lost opportunity, after all we'd
gone from 8-bit to 16, dropped our Speccies and 64s for a machine with
512k for heavens sake. Surely there'd be landing on the planets, there'd be
boarding crippled ships, getting readouts on other ships energy
readings, there'd be....... Nope, none of it. But the good news is, it was
a great game, and it still is, so if you've not played it, you should
certainly check it out.

Title Elite plus
Game Type 3D Combat Sim
Players 1
Compatibility All (floppy only)
Submission Isaac Abraham

Review
I'm reasonably confident that you've heard of this game (I know that Angus
has =), and after hearing everyone rave on about it since the dawn of time
I decided to get a copy of this to see what it was all about. Bear in mind
that, in a Star Wars like fashion, I'd already gotten the sequel to this,
Frontier. Now I knew that Elite was a simpler version of Frontier, and
that it was supposed to be more fun that the "drudgery" of Frontier, so
when I got home from HMV after buying it with Wing Commander and
MegaTraveller (for the grand total of just 9), I played it straight away.
Well, actually I played WC first, but it was too slow on my A500 at the
time, so I plonked Elite+ in the floppy drive.
It loads up with some reasonably chirpy music, and places you at Lave
station. The idea is to fly from star system to star system, selling goods
for profit, killing the occasionally pirate along the way, and boosting
your reputation into the bargain. A lot like Frontier, I thought. Only
there are several annoying things about this game. Firstly, there's no way
to find out what goods other systems import and export! If you don't know
this, how do you know what to buy and sell? Trial and Error, unfortunately.
As a result of this, you tend to stick to systems that you know about,
because there's less risk of ending up with cargo that you'll make a loss
on. Admittedly, the game give's hints by saying what type of society they
are, but it's all a bit vague. Second problem. Docking. It will take you
about 5 minutes to dock your ship.
Consider that you spend about 2-3 minutes buying and selling goods on a
typical trip, plus 3-4 minutes travelling from system to system (and having
the occasional fight), and that about 50% of game time spend docking. This
mind numbingly boring problem can be alleviated by buying a "docking
computer", but this requires you to have a fair amount of money (probably
about 50 trips worth = 250 minutes of docking time). Thirdly, the game
often randomly decides to make you a fugitive, and send the police after
you. Invariably, you get killed, and have to reload the game, for no
reason. Now that that's out of the way, I can get onto the plus points.
The combat is at least more engaging than Frontier, and it runs fairly
smoothly. And those pesky Thargoids that occasionally have a pop at you
liven things up too. But probably the game's strongest thing in it's favour
is the actual genre of the game - starting off as a nobody and building up a
reputation, with better weapons and shields is very appealing. However,
having said that, it only takes about a week of solid gaming to get the
ultimate craft. Once that's done, all that remains for you to do get the
"Elite" ranking by shooting god knows how many ships down. But certainly it
got boring withing a fortnight of playing. And anyway, Frontier does this
much better IMHO. I must admit, I was disappointed with Elite+. People raved
on about it like it was the next best thing to sliced bread, but I found
Frontier much more engaging, it had better long term appeal, and Elite just
didn't really get me going. Sorry Angus, call me a heretic if you like, but
for me, Elite wasn't half that it was cracked up to be.