Ready to Feel Old? Classic Space-Sim “Elite” Turns 25 Today
You know you’re getting old when every day brings yet another anniversary that is hard to believe. Today, the anniversary belongs to one the most influential games of all-time: Elite. It was 25 years ago today that David Braben released the free-roaming, non-linear space combat and trading game on an unsuspecting populace. I was one of the early adopters, picking up a copy for my Franklin Ace computer that I proceeded to play the hell out of for years.
Elite was a game that changed everything, the first real sign-post of what games could do and where they would be heading. Titles like Wing Commander and Freelancer all owe their existence to Elite.
Amiga Version of Elite (Which I also owned)
The original game was co-developed by Mr. Braben and Ian Bell and was an overnight hit, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and influencing game development for years.
Elite was one of the first open-ended games, spanning eight vast universes, where the only real goal was to increase a player’s reputation rating from “Harmless” to “Elite”.
Mr Braben said that they never set out to write a commercial game, but wrote something that they themselves would want to play.
“This was a game we wrote many years ago for an ancient computer called the BBC Micro.
“We did this while we were at university and never expected it to be popular, let alone such a life-changing event,” he added.
Ian Livingstone, creative director at games firm Eidos, said Elite was a “milestone in gaming history”.
“This was one of the premier British titles that put UK development on the map and was very influential in inspiring people to get into gaming,” he told BBC News.
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