197: An Elite Presence

[Dean Reilly]

An Elite Presence

Dean Reilly talks to one of the founding fathers of British game development, David Braben, about reaching audiences, how bedroom programmers revolutionized the industry and what it's like to create a legendary game.

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[L.B. Jeffries]

It's been great to learn about the British gaming scene's trials and tribulations, but I have to admit that teaser about Elite at the end got the blood flowing. Its been so long since someone nailed the whole open-world space trader/flight sim format, arguably the original Privateer was the last, and I'd love to go back.

 

[Falien]

I am also old enough to remember playing Elite on my Amstrad CPC6128. It was probably the first game which required prolonged playtime, but rewarded it with a genuine feeling of progression. I remember competing with friends who played the game on their machines - we were all wondering how cool it would be to fight each other with the ships we piloted. These days, all the things promised by Elite are widespread features, yet none of today's games seem to offer the same kind of experience.

Funnily enough, when trying to come up with games offering a comparable experience to that of Elite, the only ones that come to mind are Captive and its sequel Liberation, by Antony Crowther, ie. another British programmer. Coincidence?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Elite IV outdoes Duke Nukem Forever as longest waited for sequel.

 

[Morghus]

Thanks for the article. Even as a guy born as "late" as '83 I've played all the Elite games, and no other games have truly encompassed everything I want in a game as much as those.

I have to admit, my real relationship with British studios is Psygnosis, though. I had no idea, until years and years later, that Elite was Brit-made.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Bedroom programmers definitely helped out the games industry we know today. Heck, some of those games got turned into amazing franchises today. Take Prince of Persia for example. A marvel of a game, which was so ludicrously hard to complete, but some did, and it was hailed a technical dream thanks to an amazing game play premise, realistic gameplay, and smooth graphics.

Also some of the text based games of the time helped improve vast imaginations of the time, which not only helped people think of better stories when playing "dungeons and dragons", but also would have broadened the imaginations of the game developers we know and love today, and who do we thank for all this? The brave souls who worked in their bedroom making games with the change in their pocket.

 

[DrLilo]

I feel a "Hey, hey 16k" moment coming on... http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

Y'know speaking of Elite, I've actually ordered a Commodore 64. I've got a knackered old grey moniter to hook it up to and Elite's definately on the software shopping list.

 

[Dean Reilly]

That's quite admirable. Although I was always more of a Spectrum man myself

 

[uzo]

Ever since Elite I've been a mad sandbox nut. Pirates, Freespace, Mount & Blade ... I just love the freedom. And I owe it all to David Braben. A new Elite would be great ... it'd probably be a mummorpurger however.
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