Elite is all grown up

I find it hard to believe it was really 25 years ago! Sat at the kitchen table with my Sinclar Spectrum and a pile of games on tape. I get back from the shop with a black cardboard box. On opening it I discovered the tape and instruction manual but also to my surprise a book and a weird red bit of plastic with an odd looking window?

The book was a short story giving you the back story to the game. (I still have this book) The red plastic do-hicky is a anti piracy device, that you have to place on the screen and read a code. After this and the normal long load time of the Spectrum you are greeted by a wire frame 3D rotating image of a space ship. This is one of those wow moments when you discover that your computer is a pure powerhouse! I can remember getting all excited and shouting at my dad to come see this spinning spaceship!

All of the games I had ever played have been liner. You went there and did this, you killed the bad guys and moved forward. You unlocked the puzzle to open the door to move forward. This is the way of computer games they were sequential, liner. Elite was different! With Elite you had laid before you a whole universe. You could travel, trade and fight. You could be a drug runner or a bounty hunter. you could be a law abiding citizen or a brigand. These were not options to choose from a menu, these were the reflection of you personality and playing style. There was no right way to play the game or wrong way either. It was just there, a universe to explore, an alternative world to have fun in.

It's hard to over state how different this game was, and how important it was. It's not that it was a space game, they were popular back then. It's the freedom, of movement, of story, of completion. There was no ending, there was no path, no right or wrong way to play. There had not been a game like it before and very few since that give you what Elite gave you. Freedom within an alternative universe.


So happy birthday Elite!