Elite
I am Commander Jameson - no, not Jenna Jameson - and I am flying a wireframe 3D spaceship through a vast galaxy trying to make a buck while avoiding the Thargoids. Elite is a space trading or rather exploration video game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro. My starting point is the Lave space station where I invest in different types of cargo to fill the hold of my Cobra Mk III and the figure out where to voyage in space to make my fortune. Elite's wireframe 3D was revolutionary at the time, and using my keyboard bashing skills I accelerate, decelerate, rotate, dive and shoot just fast enough to outwit space pirates and not come a cropper in too many intergalactic dog fights!
Developers Ian Bell, David Braben
Publisher Acornsoft
Platforms BBC Micro
More Info Ian Bell's Elite page
The Hitch-hikers' Guide to the Galaxy
Don't panic, it's not on the Spectrum like almost every other game in this list! I'm old enough to remember Ascii dungeons, so this text-based adventure game based on the famous radio series - and you though it started out as a book... - and helped along by the author may sound like hard work to younger folk but goes surprising well with a cup of tea and a towel. The object of the game is to find the legendary lost planet of Magrathea but I'm going to have to collect and sort through a vast amount of tat to find it. I am still amused and intrigued by Hitchhiker's logic puzzles - just don't mention the babel fish. It's the source material that makes this game fun. Text prompt, type answer and just don't act too clever.
Developers Douglas Adams, Steve Meretzky
Publisher Infocom
Platforms Apple II
More Info The HHGTTG game on the Douglas Adams site
Next page: Hungry Horace
COMMENTS
Jeff Minter
Strangely missing from the list unless I've overlooked something?...
Elite was incredible. I lost months of my childhood to that game. I still play the updated Oolite today.
Getting in on the titles-you-didn't-pick wagon...
Chaos? Xeno? Bruce Lee? Stop the Express? Nebulus? Driller? Exolon? Target: Renegade? Thrust? Splat? Turrican? Dan Dare? Wizball?
I'm confident those were all very good.
Let's not forget that before EA owned nearly all the sports franchises, we had a few sports classics.
Who can forget Daley Thompson's Decathlon? Those poor soft rubber keys on the Spectrum didn't stand a chance.
Re: Whatever.
Okay, we get the impression you're Californian. Most of the games in the article were for the Sinclair Spectrum, an English computer that played a role in our memory of the eighties. If you read between the lines in the article, you might spot a theme: Enjoyment despite lack of graphical prowess by means of imagination and charm. One title is even a pure text based adventure game.
At the same time, many of us would have still been losing skin by falling off BMXs- and have fond memories of doing so. Being told now that someone had a 125cc motocross bike at the time wouldn't dent those memories.
