I’ve been spending the last few days trying to decide which ship to fly, which is to say, I’ve been researching which version of Elite would be the most fitting vehicle to help me rack up all the kills needed to get that final Right On Commander that has eluded me all these years.
It’s actually a tough decision because while I have a great deal of affection for the “original” BBC B Elite (being the version that got me hooked on the game in the first place), there’s a part of me that would like to fly a different route, one that may be less authentic in some respects, but might be steadier and less likely get me lost in a nebula of apathy from which I’d likely never emerge.
It’s been 25 years since I last played Elite properly, when I was an idle student with a summer to fill and nothing better to fill it with but spaceships and trading, and yet I still couldn’t manage to win the Order of Elite even then. These days, being a grumpy 42-year old with a four-hour daily commute and an increasing inability to stay awake beyond 9pm, my free time is almost non-existent. So while the idea of grinding wire-frame kills has me feeling delightfully nostalgic now, the process will begin to wear me down before too long. Hence I’m veering down the path to Oolite – the rather masterful open-source tribute that is as much a remake as it is a varied collection of add-on packs. I know I’ll be able to lose myself to Oolite quite easily, but then again Oolite isn’t Elite. It’s not the Bell-Braben Elite I’m steeling myself to conquer.
My solution, I think, will be to attempt BBC disk Elite via emulation as well as a vanilla install of Oolite, thus staying to as authentic a path as possible while enjoying the graphical riches of Elite’s most recent (fan) incarnation. I’ll likely give up on one, but hopefully not both. If I do find myself wandering, I can inject a few OXPs and see if that keeps me going.
Right On Commander! 