You can fly a ship in space.
It is a fun game. You can trade goods. You can also fly to many stars. It is a big world to see. Do you want to be an Elite pilot?
You can fly a ship in space.
In this game, you are a pilot. You fly a ship named Cobra. You can trade goods to earn money. You can also fight or mine rocks.
Use your money to make your ship better. You can buy better guns or more space. You can even fly to many stars.
You can jump through space to move fast. Watch out for aliens called Thargoids! They might try to stop you.
This game is a famous classic. It has many sequels. Will you become an Elite pilot?
Elite is a famous space trading game.
It was made by David Braben and Ian Bell. It first came out in 1984 for the BBC Micro computer. The game uses 3D graphics that look like thin lines. This was very new at the time.
You play as a pilot in a ship called a Cobra. You can earn credits in many ways. You can trade goods or hunt for pirates. You can also mine rocks in space. Use your money to make your ship better. You can buy better weapons or more cargo space.
To move between stars, you must use a hyperdrive. This lets you make a jump through hyperspace. Be careful of the Thargoids! These are aliens that might attack you during a jump. The game has eight large galaxies to explore. Each galaxy has 256 planets. A special math rule helps make each planet unique.
Elite is a classic game. It has many sequels. It even holds a world record. It is the longest running space simulation series ever.
Elite is a famous space trading video game that lets players explore a huge universe.
You play as a pilot, often starting as Commander Jameson. Your main goal is to earn credits to improve your ship. You can do this by trading goods, hunting pirates, or mining asteroids. As you succeed, you can raise your combat rank. The highest rank you can reach is called "Elite." This title is where the game gets its name. It is a classic game that helped start a whole new way to play.
Playing the game involves many different tasks and skills.
You start with a small ship called a Cobra Mark III. You can use your credits to buy better weapons or more cargo space. You might even buy an automated docking system to help you land. To travel between stars, you must use a hyperdrive for hyperspace jumps. You have to watch your fuel carefully during these trips. If you run out of fuel, you might get stuck in space. You can also use a fuel scoop to collect energy from stars.
This game has a very long and interesting history.
David Braben and Ian Bell created Elite for the BBC Micro computer. It was first released in September 1984. The developers spent two years writing the game using machine code. They wanted the code to be very small and efficient. At first, one company said the game was too complicated. However, Acornsoft decided to publish it after seeing a demo. The game was so successful that it was moved to many other computers.
There are many amazing facts about the world of Elite. The universe contains eight different galaxies to explore. Each galaxy has 256 unique planets. The developers used a math rule called procedural generation to create these worlds. This allowed the computer to make many planets without using too much memory. While jumping through space, you might meet the Thargoid race. These are aliens that can intercept your ship during a jump. The game series even holds a Guinness World Record. It is the longest running space simulation series in history.
Elite has influenced many other famous games that people play today. It served as a model for titles like Grand Theft Auto and No Man's Sky. The series has grown through many sequels over the years. Frontier: Elite II came out in 1993, and Frontier: First Encounters arrived in 1995. A much newer version called Elite Dangerous launched in 2014. This version added many new things like space colonization. Because of its deep history, Elite remains a very important part of gaming culture.
Elite is a seminal space trading video game that revolutionized the industry through its open-ended gameplay model. Developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, it was originally released by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro in September 1984.
The game is defined by its massive scale and its freedom, allowing players to choose their own paths. The title refers to the highest combat rank a player can achieve, known as "Elite." By offering a universe where players could be traders, pirates, or explorers, it helped establish the space simulation genre. Its success led to ports on almost every contemporary home computer system.
Gameplay revolves around managing a spacecraft and accumulating credits to improve your standing.
Players typically begin as "Commander Jameson" in a lightly armed Cobra Mark III ship at Lave Station. You can earn wealth through various activities like piracy, trade, military missions, bounty hunting, or asteroid mining. These credits allow for essential ship upgrades, such as increased cargo capacity, better weapons, or an automated docking system. Movement in the game requires careful planning, especially when using a hyperdrive for hyperspace jumps. Because ships have a limited fuel capacity, often a maximum of 7 light years, players must manage their energy carefully to avoid being stranded.
Navigation involves both sublight travel and high-speed jumps between star systems. Sublight travel uses no fuel, but moving between stars requires a hyperspace jump. To replenish fuel, players can dock at space stations, a process that requires matching the ship's rotation to the station's docking bay.
Advanced players can purchase a fuel scoop to perform "sun skimming," which involves collecting energy from a star's corona. However, space travel is not always safe. During a hyperspace jump, the antagonistic Thargoid race may intercept the player in "witch-space." This forces a battle with smaller Thargoid invasion ships and can leave a player with insufficient fuel to complete their journey.
The universe of Elite is vast, consisting of eight galaxies, each containing 256 planets. To manage this scale on 8-bit hardware, the developers used procedural generation. This is a method where a single seed number and a fixed algorithm create a sequence of numbers. These numbers determine every detail of a planet, including its name, position, and the prices of its commodities. This technique allowed for a massive, unique universe without requiring extra memory to store every planet's data. While the galaxies are mathematically linked, players can purchase an expensive upgrade to travel between all eight galaxies.
The development of Elite was a rigorous two-year process of coding in assembly language. This is a low-level programming language used to write machine code that is extremely compact and efficient.
Braben and Bell were inspired by many sources, including *Star Wars*, *2001: A Space Odyssey*, and the works of Isaac Asimov. Initially, the project was intended to be a 3D arcade game, but the trading elements were added later. Even the 3D radar display was a late addition, fitted into the final unused bytes of the computer's memory. This dedication to technical precision helped the game overcome early rejections from publishers who thought it was too complicated.
Elite's impact on the gaming industry is measurable through its influence on subsequent titles. It served as a foundational model for games like *Grand Theft Auto*, *EVE Online*, *No Man's Sky*, and *Wing Commander: Privateer*. The franchise has maintained a continuous presence for decades, earning a Guinness World Record as the longest-running space simulation series. The series progressed through sequels like *Frontier: Elite II* in 1993 and *Frontier: First Encounters* in 1995, which introduced Newtonian physics. The most recent major entry, *Elite Dangerous*, launched in 2014 and introduced massively multiplayer elements and space colonization.
Beyond the software, the original release was a significant cultural event in gaming. Acornsoft utilized a large £50,000 promotional budget, which included a launch party at Thorpe Park. The packaging was much more elaborate than standard games, containing a novella called *The Dark Wheel* by Robert Holdstock and a 64-page flight training manual. This manual helped rookie traders understand the complex controls and various aspects of play. Through these combined efforts of technical innovation and deep world-building, Elite became a landmark in digital entertainment.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (3)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.