

David Braben, co-creator of Elite (which is 25 this month) on the games business - anigbrowl
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/braben-it-would-be-mad-for-us-not-to-work-on-elite-4

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jacquesm
Elite was the only game that ever managed to capture me. Everything else I
could put down easily, but Elite was different.

At some point I had played it so much that I looked at a white wall with some
kind of structure paint on it and I swear I saw a viper dodge away. That's
when I realized I had been playing Elite a little much and I stopped.

Another nice little detail about Elite was the way the game state file was
encrypted. We tried to break through that, but when after the sixth layer or
so we came upon this message that read 'does your mother know you're doing
this' we realized that we were probably already on a false trail, and we gave
up.

The 'split mode' screen on the BBC was very impressive, basically in 'flight'
mode what they did is reprogram the vdu on the fly to switch to a different
mode about 80% down on the screen. That way the 3d display was all black &
white and high resolution, the dashboard was in colour.

Elite is what put me on the track of becoming a games programmer for a while,
though - in spite of much more powerful machines - we never managed to put
anything out that could put a dent in it in terms of playability or fun.

Anybody interested in buying some small furry creatures ? I seem to still have
a surplus of them, it started out as one...

~~~
blue1
there is a recent, open source recreation of Elite here:
<http://www.oolite.org>

It is a reasonable compromise between modernity and nostalgia, made me lose
some time again :-)

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draegtun
Article today about Elite on BBC news website:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8261272.stm>

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GeneralMaximus
Rollercoaster Tycoon brings back great memories. I've always loved games where
you were given a blank slate and had to create something from scratch, as
opposed to first person shooters where all you do is shoot the guy wearing a
different colored vest.

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zandorg
Elite with multiple online players (MMORPG?) would rule!

~~~
anigbrowl
If you are not yet familiar with EvE Online - <http://www.eveonline.com/> \- I
now disclaim all responsibility for your imminent loss of productivity.

Quite aside of the game itself (which I finally managed to wean myself off),
it's a very interesting project for everything from the server-side code being
implemented in Stackless Python to the fact that they employ an economist.

~~~
goodgoblin
Are you saying eve online lets you do stuff like buying guns on planet X for
80 and selling them on planet Y for 200? B/c if so, I am going to have to get
it.

~~~
anigbrowl
If anything, Eve gives you too many options and strategies, to the point where
becoming a seriously skilled player means a major investment in time. So yes,
but it's _exponentially_ more complex than Elite, to the point that you should
be able to use a high net worth in EVE to wangle a real job in commodities
trading.

~~~
goodgoblin
WOW! Ok - i know that is not a very thoughtful comment, but I am excited.

edit - my comment, not yours. Yours was thoughtful. In case that wasn't clear

