FrontierAstro

@ericksonklod400 You can download it via this link:- web.archive.org/web/2017101404…

@FrontierAstro Hey. Do you have the source code for the glFrontier port? I'd like to tinker with it.

Amstrad Action magazine very kindly gave away the complete #AmstradElite game with the January 1994 edition. I can't help wondering how many Amstrad gamers hadn't already encountered Elite in the 8 years since release though! 🤔

Ok, the Gameboy Advance is quite old now, but if you still have one, you can play a great version of #Elite on it. Visit Quirky's GBA Remakes or tinyurl.com/GBA-Elite to play or emulate it! 😎

@exQUIZitely If the Michael Howard interview was JP's finest hour, this must be the worst! 😄

David Bowie's 1999 BBC Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman who tells Bowie the internet is "hugely exaggerated". Bowie's response is eerily accurate, and genuinely one of the most perceptive things ever said about the digital age. The man literally predicted the culture we're living in now. Listen to the end, it's genuinely worth it.

@SharpworksMZ @exQUIZitely 112k! Massive!

@exQUIZitely What about the disk version of the BBC Elite?

An average picture that you save on your phone or PC has a size of around 800 kilobytes. It doesn't do anything, it's just a static image. Now take a game like Elite which had a size of 22 kilobytes on the BBC Micro, or 82 kilobytes on the C64 - and now think about what Braben and Bell turned those 22 kilobytes (or 82 kilobytes) into. A universe with eight galaxies, each containing 256 star systems (for a total of 2,048 planets/systems). Each system also featured unique details: government type, economy, technology level, population, commodity prices, and even descriptive text (e.g., a planet known for "carnivorous arts graduates" or similar quirky combinations). If you still need a bit more help to contextualize that, try this: Elite was smaller than many modern text files or desktop icons, yet it contained (and let you freely explore!) a multi-galaxy-spanning universe that felt vast and limitless. By the way - for thos who will argue "but the universe and stars were created randomly, so that's easy" - I think you wil find that the word is procedurally (with structure), which is not random... and anything but easy. Oh, and by the way, the game also rendered 3D wireframe ships, stations, and planets in real time on processors with 2 MHz. Impressed yet? This is no slight on today's game designers. They work with what they have, and that's okay. But when you think about the worlds that some programmers created with the tools they were given, it sometimes breaks my brain trying to understand how they did it. Elite is a true masterpiece on so many levels. I played the C64 version back in the day, and even 40+ years later it still feels like one of the most incredible programming wonders ever.

Still true, and probably always will be! 😍

Did you know there was a demonstration program for #BBCElite sent by Acornsoft to retailers in 1984? This was for shop displays, to entice buyers. Now Mark Moxon has incorporated flicker-free graphics to make it even better! Download it now, from elite.bbcelite.com/demo/

@RedFive1243 I have!

@FrontierAstro seen this?

@Gnomosapien I don' know. I didn't play the Einstein (or Speccy) version a great deal BITD.

@FrontierAstro Did it have the spectrum 48k bug (?) where the longer you played the more likely you were fighting wave after wave of pirate ships, even in corporate systems?

Elite for the #TatungEinstein received a very positive review in the June 1987 edition of Einstein User magazine. The game looks suspiciously like the #Spectrum version, albeit with a few unfortunate flaws. Very playable though, and probably the best game for that machine.

@NebularNerd @louksd Nothing really. The game itself had a couple of changes, mainly just to accommodate playing with a gamepad rather than keyboard and mouse.

@FrontierAstro @louksd Sorry tired brain. Did they add anything to Frontier?

#FrontierElite2 was converted for Commodore's #CD32 and was nicely reworked to use the controller. Due to the machine only having 1KB of non-volatile memory, the game could only be saved when in space, not when docked at a space station! It did run quickly and smoothly though.

@NebularNerd @louksd That was Frontier First Encounters, the follow-up to FE2.

@louksd @FrontierAstro They added some FMV stuff I. The menus and CD Audio tracks

@jump_drive_flyr Strange, because I have a very clear memory of only being able to save after hyperspace. This seems to be backed up at gamefaqs.gamespot.com/cd32/971966-fr… so maybe you were able to save the game to another device? 🤷‍♂️

@FrontierAstro Not sure of that, as I have both the CD32 & that game and saved loads of times at Space Stations, on planetary surfaces or underground ports with no problems. I did note however that the small amount of memory meant you could only do 1 save of this game with no room for another

@TonimanGalvez @RedFive1243 Yes, due to their similar hardware, MSX games can be ported to Einstein fairly easily, but not run directly.

@FrontierAstro @RedFive1243 But, if this computer runs MSX games, could run MSX Elite as well?

@RedFive1243 Three main ones: very limited sound (as referenced in the interview) e.g., beeps for lasers firing; ships disappearing rather than exploding; police Vipers refusing to attack you when you fire at the space station.

@FrontierAstro What kind of flaws?

FrontierAstro has been online for exactly 25 years today! 🎂 This is how the site looked around 18 months after launch. The look hasn't really improved but the content has expanded considerably. Probably the longest running regularly updated Frontier website in the galaxy!

@TommiSairo There's a brief description of Oresrians in The Dark Wheel, who superficially resemble Thargoids until you check the shape of the fourth joint on each hind leg, and they're tall as well. So I guess if they're bipedal, they'll need arms, and hands... and fingers?? 🖖🤓

@FrontierAstro Those fingers look more like a vogon to me - I thought thargoids were some sort of insectoids?

For some reason, when #FrontierFirstEncounters was released in the US in 1995, it sported much improved box artwork compared to the UK and European versions. The Frontier wording was dropped; the game simply being known as First Encounters. A curious decision, given FE2s success!

@SancastleAir @Zaphod2042 Ah, ok! Missed the reference there 🤦‍♂️

@FrontierAstro @Zaphod2042 I was referring to this 😉 youtu.be/6DQHJ-hoP38?si…

"I hear those things are awfully loud..." "...It glides as softly as a cloud" "Is there a chance the track could bend?"