Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

[Charles Buckingham]

Never a big gamer but discovered this in 1986 and spent the summer playing it and wearing out our VHS copy of Aliens with my brother and cousin. Got to 'Dangerous' and then got interested in girls so never completed it. So can anyone answer me a few questions?

1. How did you use your fuel scoops? They worked just fine for recovering cargo containers but I never could find a way to use them to refuel and normally ending up crashing into the sun trying? My mum threw away the control's guide so was there a button you had to press?

2. At one point I amassed enough money to be contacted by someone offering to sell me the 'most precious thing in the universe'? This turned out to be some sort of teddy bear like creature. Was I just conned or did this have some use?

3. Did it matter if you journeyed between the universes or was it fine to stay in the one as long as you made enough kills?

4. Did anyone ever actually use their rear or side lasers? I tried but it was impossible to hit anything, I did use the rear sight to target missiles occasionally?

[Richard1978]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

I remember occasionally using the rear laser to shoot other ships, but the side ones were too hard to aim to be any use, & it was easy to just turn round to use the front one.

Sorry I couldn't help you with the other questions.

[catflap]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Never a big gamer but discovered this in 1986 and spent the summer playing it and wearing out our VHS copy of Aliens with my brother and cousin. Got to 'Dangerous' and then got interested in girls so never completed it. So can anyone answer me a few questions?

1. How did you use your fuel scoops? They worked just fine for recovering cargo containers but I never could find a way to use them to refuel and normally ending up crashing into the sun trying? My mum threw away the control's guide so was there a button you had to press?

2. At one point I amassed enough money to be contacted by someone offering to sell me the 'most precious thing in the universe'? This turned out to be some sort of teddy bear like creature. Was I just conned or did this have some use?

3. Did it matter if you journeyed between the universes or was it fine to stay in the one as long as you made enough kills?

4. Did anyone ever actually use their rear or side lasers? I tried but it was impossible to hit anything, I did use the rear sight to target missiles occasionally?

Ah remember this well! - mainly on the C64 and then Amiga. Played Elite the New Kind (while it lasted) on the PC and later Oolite, but somehow I'm not tempted by Elite Dangerous.

To answer your queries:

1. To refuel you had to skip along the edge of the sun at minimum speed. Was quite tricky as you could easily get it wrong and be destroyed. No special buttons needed.

2. Ah you had a visit from Prince Thrum (I think it was)! - this was only on the C64 as far as I know. There was no use for the Trumbles but they were quite fun. Nice Star Trek Tribbles reference.

3. As far as I know you didn't have to go between universes unless a mission required it (I think it was the Constrictor mission). But you could always go anyway - felt more like you were exploring. After 8 galactic hyperdrive jumps you got back to the 1st universe again - felt like coming home when you saw Diso and Leesti again!

4. Yep, side lasers were useless, but rear laser was good for missiles as you say (still not easy to use as joystick was reversed) and also but blasting the space station after you left it. I think I read somewhere one of the missions required you to have all military lasers on all 4 sides, but that may have been a myth - there were plenty of them floating around!

Thanks for posting this and triggering my memories. I think I may have got to Deadly, but I definitely made Dangerous. As I recall you needed double the kills to get to Elite as you needed to get to Deadly, so no chance of me sticking with it as long as that!

[Charles Buckingham]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Ah remember this well! - mainly on the C64 and then Amiga. Played Elite the New Kind (while it lasted) on the PC and later Oolite, but somehow I'm not tempted by Elite Dangerous.

To answer your queries:

1. To refuel you had to skip along the edge of the sun at minimum speed. Was quite tricky as you could easily get it wrong and be destroyed. No special buttons needed.

2. Ah you had a visit from Prince Thrum (I think it was)! - this was only on the C64 as far as I know. There was no use for the Trumbles but they were quite fun. Nice Star Trek Tribbles reference.

3. As far as I know you didn't have to go between universes unless a mission required it (I think it was the Constrictor mission). But you could always go anyway - felt more like you were exploring. After 8 galactic hyperdrive jumps you got back to the 1st universe again - felt like coming home when you saw Diso and Leesti again!

4. Yep, side lasers were useless, but rear laser was good for missiles as you say (still not easy to use as joystick was reversed) and also but blasting the space station after you left it. I think I read somewhere one of the missions required you to have all military lasers on all 4 sides, but that may have been a myth - there were plenty of them floating around!

Thanks for posting this and triggering my memories. I think I may have got to Deadly, but I definitely made Dangerous. As I recall you needed double the kills to get to Elite as you needed to get to Deadly, so no chance of me sticking with it as long as that!

Cool, thanks. I tended to stick to Ra/Ralaes to make money (the secret was to buy computers/machinery on Industrial worlds and sell them to rich agricultural planets) and when I had enough head off to an anarchy planet close enough that you could jump back when the odds got too tough.

[Richard1978]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Cool, thanks. I tended to stick to Ra/Ralaes to make money (the secret was to buy computers/machinery on Industrial worlds and sell them to rich agricultural planets) and when I had enough head off to an anarchy planet close enough that you could jump back when the odds got too tough.

I also found pairings of planets to do a swap trade with, though the poorer ones were more likely to have space pirates around. I used to make a list of prices at one planet, & compare it with a nearby one with different demographics, then buy what was cheaper at each one & sell it at the other.

At least once I lost a shipload of cargo by having to eject.

[catflap]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

I loved the myths that got spread around by Elite players. There's a list of some of the more common ones here:

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Legends_of_Elite

I remember a mate of mine swore he'd seen a generation ship once.

[Richard1978]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

In all the time time I played it I never encountered any Thargoids, I guess they were in at the edge of one of the far galaxies.

The manual has a few red herrings among the useful tips that seem to be throwaway references.

A few times my missile launcher jammed in spite of the claims it hardly every does this.

[catflap]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

In all the time time I played it I never encountered any Thargoids, I guess they were in at the edge of one of the far galaxies.

Really? - did you never find yourself in Witchspace?

As well as the occasional random hyperdrive malfunction, as I recall for one version of the game at least, you just had to pull back on the joystick as you entered hyperspace to divert to Witchspace and you got more Thargoids than you could shake a beam laser at!

[Richard1978]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

I never managed then even when I had to do a quick hyperspace jump.

Then again the Acorn Electron version what stripped down, though the handbook did state the Thargoids were in the game.

[catflap]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Shame you missed the Thargoids as they were tough opponents - when you killed them their little remote fighters became inert and you could scoop them up. They went into your cargo bay as alien items.

Docking was fun - so difficult to start with. I remember you had to align the planet behind you and get the station in front, then make the final approach dead slow. If you were really lucky another ship came out while you were going in and that was the end of that....

[Richard1978]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

I remember the Thargons being mentioned in the manual, with the hint that the Galactic Navy would pay for any captured examples.

Docking was really hard to master, but thanks to Cheat It Again Joe I managed to upspec the ship to have all the add-ons, including docking computers to make things easier.

[catflap]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Docking was really hard to master, but thanks to Cheat It Again Joe I managed to upspec the ship to have all the add-ons, including docking computers to make things easier.

Cheating??!!

Turn in your Commander's pips immediately!

Another random Elite memory - these ads appeared scattered throughout a magazine so you saw them one at a time. I thought they were great at the time:

[demonstapler]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

There was a cheat I to use, I can't remember if I read it somewhere or discovered it way back in the spectrum days, it was jumping between space stations without travelling in space. How to do it was to fill the ship with anything that could make a profit, select your next destination, leave the space station then stop, turn around to face the station, start turning your ship to the speed of the station making sure your lined up with the docking slot ,once lined up hit hyperspace and bingo your in the next space station.

[Cartimand]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Loved this game! Played the Spectrum 128 version, Amiga and finally PC. Would like to play Elite Dangerous, but my current PC isn't a high enough spec.

The easiest way to use the fuel scoops was to fly directly at the sun until you saw the temperature gauge start to rise, then execute a 180 degree turn and slow to a dead halt. Once your fuel was maxed out you then accelerate directly away from the sun before your ship gets too hot.

The special missions varied somewhat between platforms - my favourite one was having to rescue someone from a remote system before the star went supernova. I remember docking, picking up my passenger, launching and then hitting hyperspace just before the expanding star engulfed me.

[Mulletino]

Re: Anyone answer my questions about 'Elite'?

Loved this game! Played the Spectrum 128 version, Amiga and finally PC. Would like to play Elite Dangerous, but my current PC isn't a high enough spec.
.

If you have an Xbox One I recommend getting Elite: Dangerous on that, it's so good and brings back many happy memories. Even still has teh Blue Danube when using a Docking Computer. Lave also has a wireframe station.