jmdavis@ihuxy.UUCP (Davis) (11/27/86)
Since the buying season is upon us I thought I would write of my
opinions on a few computer games. Below is a review of ELITE.
Elite from FireBird software in England is a space adventure game
of the highest quality. Saying that it is an adventure game is
perhaps a bit misleading but it has much of the feel of an adventure
game. You start as a lowly space merchant with a poorly equiped (sp?)
ship 100 credits to spend on either upgrading your ship or buying
tradable goods. You then select a destination star system (after
having started out at a starbase in the current system) and hyperspace
to the vicinity of the starbase. You have to fly the ship the rest
of the way in. This is where the fun starts.
The flight controls are very well done, joystick left and right roll
you appropriately, and up and down climb and dive. There is 3-D radar
display giving positions of enemy ships and asteroids (and jettisoned
cargo) relative to your current position. There is also a "compass"
which aids in navigating to the starbase. The out the cockpit view
is incredible, the objects (enemy ships, asteroids, cargo cannisters,
and starbase) are just line drawings but with hidden lines removed.
The dog fight action en-route to the base is just incredible. But
once near the starbase your piloting is not over yet. Docking is
next. Ever try to dock with a rotating starbase?
The detail of the game is unbelievable. There are about 20 goods
to trade in (any or all carriable at once) ranging from food and
narcotics to computers and furs. The best finiancial (sp?) rewards
are reaped by trading between agricultural and industrial worlds.
There are about 20 tyoes of enemy ships.
There are about 6 types of local governments (which determine how
many pirates will be in the neighborhood of the planet waiting to
steal your cargo and how much the locals will be willing to pay for
goods). There are about 100 stars per galaxy to visit and 8 galaxies
in the game (all this loads in from the disk at one time!!!).
If you get tired of trading you can become a pirate yourself and
shoot down others and atempt to take their cargo, or mine asteroids.
The rule book perpetuates the adventure game concept since it is
written as a owner's manual to the starship (with some hints on
how to trade effectively).
The game is great, hours of fun, WEEKS of fun, I give it a 10
despite the fact that I have a few negatives to say about it.
1. it is a bit dull being super rich, would be nice to buy
a different type of ship. (However extra suprises await the
super rich)
2. there is not enough variation between the galaxies, (perhaps this
is a bit hasty I have only been to three of them.)
3. the manual suggests asteroid mining or piracy as alternatives
to trading, but I find that trading (being a bit dull after
intensive play) is MUCH more profitable than the other methods.
DON'T GET ME WRONG, I love this game anyway and highly recommend it
if you like space type stuff.
Mike Davis
ihnp4!ihuxy!jmdavis
pauer@crystal.UUCP (11/28/86)
In article <1699@ihuxy.UUCP>, jmdavis@ihuxy.UUCP (Davis) writes: > The game is great, hours of fun, WEEKS of fun, I give it a 10 > despite the fact that I have a few negatives to say about it. > 1. it is a bit dull being super rich, would be nice to buy > a different type of ship. (However extra suprises await the > super rich) > etc. > > Mike Davis > ihnp4!ihuxy!jmdavis > I would also add that the save game option doesn't work (at least on the c-64). Specifically, I am not able to save/replace an old captain name. When saving, I have to use a different name than any on the save disk, otherwise when I restart, it is obvious the last save did not take effect. This is not too frustrating except that i cannot get above the first level in the game because it assumes I am a different player each time. If I am doing something wrong, maybe someone could clue me in.
lishka@uwslh.UUCP (a) (11/28/86)
In article <1699@ihuxy.UUCP> jmdavis@ihuxy.UUCP (Davis) writes: >Since the buying season is upon us I thought I would write of my >opinions on a few computer games. Below is a review of ELITE. > > > YES! I agree with every word, including the drawbacks! This game even comes coupled with a lighting-fast booter for itself which only engages when you don not have another booter installed. The details are nice, but I would have preferred a disk-accessing game which has more details and aspects of play (like letting extraneous details such as race figure in to the overall game play). But those are just minor gripes. If you really want a game that pushes the 6502 to the limit, get this one (the flying is as good as Flight Sim. II). Question to those who have played: yes, I've got a lot of money. Yes, I've got a "loaded" ship, and I have enough cash to jump to another system. Yes, I am finally rated as competent. But now what? Is there any thing else to work towards BESIDES being "elite?" Does anybody know if that mystery planet mentioned in the boof actually exists? Please mail me some hints...anyone else interested in the replies can mail to me too. -- Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka
lishka@uwslh.UUCP (a) (11/28/86)
To resave a game in Elite over a previous game (i.e. to save the current
game under an already existing captain name), use the "@0:" format.
Therefore, if the captain's name is "chris", just save the captain as
"@0:chris" . I've used this system for months now, and although your
captain's name is changed to "@0:chris" for the rest of the game, it
works fine. Note: if you are loading a new captain, do NOT use the "@0:".
--
Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu
\{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishkastaiger@ncrcae.UUCP (Kurt Staiger) (11/30/86)
In article <1699@ihuxy.UUCP> jmdavis@ihuxy.UUCP (Davis) writes: >Since the buying season is upon us I thought I would write of my >opinions on a few computer games. Below is a review of ELITE. > > > > >Elite from FireBird software in England is a space adventure game >of the highest quality. Saying that it is an adventure game is etc.... > > super rich) >2. there is not enough variation between the galaxies, (perhaps this > is a bit hasty I have only been to three of them.) >3. the manual suggests asteroid mining or piracy as alternatives > to trading, but I find that trading (being a bit dull after > intensive play) is MUCH more profitable than the other methods. > > Mike Davis > ihnp4!ihuxy!jmdavis > I totally agree with Mike's review. This is one game where I felt I really got my money's worth. However, I would add one more thing this is not a game for the impatient. It has been my experience that I loose more ships trying to manually dock than I do to pirates. Fighting is considerably easier to trying to line up perfectly on the station axis, avoid the outgoing shuttles, and then match your spacecrafts rotation to the entry tunnel with nothing visual to guide you. Kurt Staiger