I’ve at all times had a smooth spot for Elite ever since I performed ‘Frontier Elite II’ on the Amiga in 1993. Though Elite and Frontier Elite II have been very totally different in graphical high quality, they nonetheless provided a sci-fi area simulation expertise like no different! Permitting the consumer to battle in area, commerce, full missions and even in Frontier Elite II land on planets. The truth is, I am not the one one who enjoys Elite, as a programmer named Aleksi Eeben has launched an unofficial model of Elite for the VIC-20 (32K + 3K RAM).
Right here is the whole improvement of the web site. “VIC 20 Elite is predicated on the C-64 supply. VIC 20-specific graphics, textual content, keyboard and joystick enter, and sound routines have been written from scratch to switch the corresponding C-64 code. In fact, the whole Enhanced Elite received.” It doesn’t match inside the restricted reminiscence of the VIC 20, so some options needed to be omitted. Following the unique 1984 BBC Cassette and Acorn Electron model, the VIC 20 model omits prolonged descriptions of planets. particulars (craters and meridians) and quests that seem later within the recreation. Pause mode choices are eliminated and there’s no Discover Planet possibility in Galactic Chart (that will solely be actually helpful throughout missions).
“Three ship blueprints have been eliminated: Moray, which by no means seems because of a bug; Constrictor, which solely seems in a single mission; and Cougar, which is so uncommon that it’s maybe seen as soon as in a lifetime. Ships that seem as pirates and retailers are optimized for sharing blueprints. This made it potential to incorporate 30 totally different ships, 27 of which have a novel design. As well as, there are the Coriolis and Dodo area stations. Acorn Electron solely had 11-13 ships, so the VIC 20 model is arguably larger and higher. Even the suns are saved inside, though they do sluggish issues down a bit!
“This port depends closely on Mark Moxon’s digital archeology undertaking on Elite on varied 8-bit platforms. See his work at https://elite.bbcelite.com. Elite for the Commodore 64 was written by Ian Bell and David Braben and is copyright D. Braben and I. Bell, 1985. Mark Moxon’s totally documented and analyzed supply code is predicated on supply disks posted on the web site Ian Bell employees: http://www.elitehomepage.org“
