Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"

Comments · 4.2K

• AL

  @Alexander-the-ok · 2 years ago (edited) · pinned

  The BBC Micro ran at 2MHz, not 2GHz. It wouldn&apos;t be an &apos;Alexander the OK&apos; video without a units error. Thanks @MegaCadr<br><br>A stack is last-in-first-out, not FIFO as I stated. Thanks @skonkfactory<br><br>At <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4YLMLar5I&amp;t=1821">30:21</a> I simplified how branching operations work. Only a single byte is updated in the program counter for a branch - not two as shown. I didn&apos;t think anyone would notice this simplification but it&apos;s been pointed out enough times that It&apos;s best I clarify it here.<br><br>The third row on the XOR table at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4YLMLar5I&amp;t=3167">52:47</a> is incorrect. This is a case that isn&apos;t applicable for writing to the framebuffer, hence me forgetting to change it (the second column should be black).

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• EL

  @elfboy29 · 2 years ago

  Still remember the aghast looks on my parents faces when I went downstairs and asked my parents what narcotics were as they had amazing prices.

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• MI

  @mickdriver3942 · 2 years ago (edited)

  My best friend and I volunteered to set up a database on the brand new BBC in our school library. We were given a note to skip PE so that we could do this in school time. We got on very well with the librarian. she was a lovely lady, and we were always quiet and respectful, and in truth I think that our help in the library was actually useful to her. It took us maybe two full periods to set the database up. Thereafter we spent every PE lesson for the rest of our time at that school, two full school years, playing Elite in the library. If a teacher walked in the librarian would always speak to them so that we knew to quickly restart the BBC and make it look like we were busy. It&apos;s only looking back that I realise that she might have been doing it deliberately.

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• ME

  @meronamsamho · 1 year ago

  nowadays we abuse the hell out hardware capabilities and general purpose game engines to run unbelievably unoptimized games all the time

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• IA

  @IanBell-gi7rr · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m Ian Bell, coauthor of Elite. Believe that as you choose. I fully endorse this video. Factually (apart from Braben&apos;s Raspberry Pi cofounding), &nbsp;technically (apart from the 2GHz,FIFO, and (IIRC) unit normals), and politically.

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• RO

  @rogerbennett · 2 years ago

  I loved Elite in the mid 80s and I&apos;m currently the technical lead on its successor, Elite Dangerous. It&apos;s still really great to see historical breakdowns like this, love your engineering passion and the historical context.

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• TO

  @TomorrowSalad · 2 years ago

  I’ve played a lot of Elite Dangerous and I’m frankly ashamed I hadn’t heard of the original Elite before this. It’s incredible to see such recognizable ships and stations in the original 1984 graphics

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• LA

  @lawrenceredmacher4382 · 2 years ago

  as a kid I rented this for the NES. it came with a note on the game case: &quot;Warning: hard.&quot; There was no manual. It was the worst rental choice I ever made, I had no idea what I was doing 😂

  114

• GE

  @geekmirthology · 1 year ago

  One big thing that was missed in this video is that Elite was one of the first games I remember that you could save your progress. All the other contemporary games mentioned that were about high scores, were that way because every game was just starting again from the beginning. Elite allowed you to load your commander and continue your game each day. This was huge, and the game would have been pointless without it.

  63

• ID

  @idlehands1238 · 2 years ago

  My dad was 43 in 1984. I once came down for breakfast before school and he was still playing this on my ZX. He even reached &quot;Elite&quot; level. I was baffled as he&apos;d never shown interest in gaming before or since.

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• R3

  @r3cy · 2 years ago

  I tried showing this to my grandma when i was a kid, I was so excited by the idea of being able to create and explore a whole universe. &nbsp;I later heard from my dad (who was in the room watching) that my grandma was visibly scared of the computer, which I was completely oblivious to, being a small excited kid. &nbsp;Imagine being born before cars existed, and then seeing shit like this in your lifetime!

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• CA

  @CanONuke · 2 years ago

  I remember the first time my father saw me playing Elite: Dangerous. He asked me what I was playing and I went like &quot;It&apos;s a space simulator called Elite: Dangerous&quot; and he immediately went &quot;That&apos;s ELITE? You&apos;re joking. No fucking way! Look at the graphics and the detail!&quot;. I was at first confused and then excitedly he started telling me about how it was the most impressive game of it&apos;s time, how amazing and revolutionary it was, you should&apos;ve seen his face. You could see the same excitement he probably had when he was 14-15. This wasn&apos;t the excitement of a man who has 30+ years of experience in IT and programming but the excitement of his childhood. Thank you for this video. Now I understand and relate to his excitement even better. o7

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