From SOSG: Elite (ships)

Om ram, All! :) For lovers of English. :) ===cut=== (C) 1997 by Sergei Novikov ELITE The Review ran through all sorts of lies that there is an incredible cool 128th version with space platforms, which is in the signature The 128th version had 7 (6?) secret missions, etc. That's what it means reads about this in THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE: ELITE PUBLISHER: Firebird AUTHOR: Torus YEAR: 1985 SEQUELS/PREQU!LS There are several versions of Elite on the Spectrum, most notable a 48K and 128K version, although there is very little difference between the two. SN> That is. 128 was almost no different. Elite was followed up with Frontier (written by Elite's original author David Braben), although not on the Spectrum. There was also the *original* ELITE Tuner, which was written by the same block who wrote the WHAM Music Box. I forget his name though. Elite Tuner had some superb 2-channel music - Waltz of the Blue (Danube. (funnily enough!) SN> That is. there was some other program from the author of WHAM, I scrolled - branded "elite Mouzon" by Musorgsky. ELITE is possibly the most well-known computer game ever. When it made it's appearance on the Spectrum, it was thankb to Firebird Gold - the full-price range of their software, andprogrammed by a team called TORUS (who also coded the Amstrad version, hence why apart from added colour, the two look & play the same.) All the space trading tactics were faithfully translated from the BBC original, and there were new missions for the format - SuperNova, Cloaking Device & Thargoid Invasion, and many of the spacecraft made it to the 'humble' Spectrum. Many of the rumours also made it across - there was, alas, no space dredge" in the ZX ELITE... SN> Короче, все началось с BBC MICRO. ELITE was also one of the first games to be found not compatible wit (the brand new 128k Spectrum. A patched version was released almost immediatly, although it was rather sad that with all the extra memory, nothing new was added to the enhanced machine. SN> Вкратце, "Элита" вышла в 85-м, когда появился Спектрум-128, и на неи она не шла. Вот почему вышла 128-ая, которая, однако, от 48 ничем не отличалась. When Elite was first released, it waв part of a competition to see who the first person was to become elite. The winner was supposed to get some prize or other. This was to do with all the secret missions and what have you. In fact, this may even have been from the original Beeb release, but I think it was for the Spectrum. Anyway, the publishers got cold feet about it becauseit was alleged that people had hacke$ in and found it out the 'easy' way, so it was cancelled and anyone who entered was fobbed off with a badge or something. It caЁsed quite a bit of controversy at the time as I recall. SN> Просто для эрудиции. :) Does the Speccy version include any of the secret missions, such as destroying the secret ship, the rogue space-station, etc? Yes. The first mission, is 'Nova' and r quires you (to manouvre down this trench... sorry - wrong game!) rescue the crew of a Space Station whose sun is about to expl*de. When you arrive in the system, the screen is red, not white, you get a 'Fuel Leak!' warning (A cunning way of making sure you don't chicken out, and witchspace outta there,) and you only have a short time to get to the space station. Your reward is 00g of gems, and to trigger the mission you need to be ranked competent or above, and have purchased a galactic hyperspace - When you activate your space drive, (presumably) the radiation from the Nova bumps you into the next Galaxy. Mission 2 involves a(bunch of ships that flicker in and out of vision. They're quite easy to kill though. Eventually, you'll come up against a single ASP II, which when (finally) destroyed will release a single cargo canister, as opposed to the 2 alloysnormally released asаdebris. Scoop this cargo, and you'll find yourself automagically cloak-capable. Pressing "Y" will activate the cloak - your s"reen goes blue, and all other ships float/ drift, power-down, including Thargoids. The Cloak has a pretty hefty drain on the energy units though... Mission 3 you get to destroy a Space Station! The Space navy equips you with an ECM Jammer, which replaceb your standard ECM unit, and off you go to have a bish at a Space Station over-run by Thargoids. You can make a fortune on this mission by blasting Thargoids, and scooping Tharglets. SN> Hу это все ясно и так было. :( ZX Elite only has the one type of eкergy unit. The reason for the Military Energy unit was from BBC Elite, where a mission was to hunt a new type of ship - The Constrictor - which was equipped with the Military Energy unit, and was thusly imper- vious to anything less that Military lasers. Constrictor mission isn't present in ZX Elite, so no Military Energy unit. SN> Military Energy Unit!!! Хочу! :) Даже на BBC MICRO был такой корабль - Констриктор, который обладал этим дeвайсом. The following are approximate shapes drawn based on the bards supplied with the Archimedes version (Darren Salt): SN> Hеужели все это было на Спекки? :-? И где? Adder Anacoda Asp Boa __________ / _______ /\n | ______ | //\ / / \n | |______| | //\ // \ / \n | | //__\ // \ / / \n |__________| / / /_/_ __ / / \n || || // \ ----_____---- / / / / \n || /|| || / / /| / / / / \n || ||/ || / / \ / | // (________\n ||__________|| _/_______/ \/____|____// |________| Cobra MK 1 Cobra Mk 3 Fer-de-Lance Gecko ______ __ / _____ /__== | / / \n | |-_ / // \ | | --_ / // | | \ | | ( -- / / / / | | \n | _- | | _- / /| | / / /| | \n | _- ||| | - | / / | | / / /| | \n | -_||| | / -_ | / / | | / / /| | \n | -_| | / - / / /___| |___ _/____________/ | / | / _--/ /___ ___\n | / | /_-- / ---______--- / |___ / |/- / __-- --__ / __==__/ |__/ ==__________==/ Crate Mamba Moray . . . / ________ | /| | //\ / \n | / | | // \ / / \ n | / | | / /[] / / \n | / | | / / / / \ n | / | | / / /___/_______________n |/ | | / / ---________-- --__ | ___- /___/__________________________________ --__and__-- - Orbit Shuttle Python Sidewinder ____ /| ______________ _==----==_ / | / /\n | / | / | / / \n | / | / | / / \n | / | / | / / \n | / | / | /________/_________n | / | / _|_ \n | / | / __-- --__ Thargon | / ( /_==___________==____ | / | / | | |/ | \ // | | |//________| / / | |_| | __ /__/ | |_| | --_/-- --___- Thargoid Transporter Viper (Police)________ ___ /\n / / __-- /--__ //\ / ____/ ==_____V_____== // \ /_ / _ | | | / / \n | --/ -- | | | /| | / / / \n | | | | | ==== | | / // \ \n | | | | | ___ | . | / // \ \n |__-- /--__| | |/ | /_ | / / \n ____ / / | | | --/________-- / / |_______|_______| /______ / Worm _____ /|/_|\n | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ( | | | | | --|_______|-- SN> That's all! ===cut=== Best regards, Arthur/JEDI █▓▒░ [ZX-News][Stonehege] >e-mail: Artur_Podtelkoff.sp0899@zxnet.spb.ru -= DISCOVERY =-