Quick Guide to Elite on the BBC Micro

CLOWNBOSS'S QUICK GUIDE TO ELITE


Ahoy boy, you wanna play Elite? The seminal 1984 BBC Micro game? The first sandbox space simulation? This guide should hopefully get you up and running to the essentials.
But even so, I REALLY recommend reading the manual from the game should you find one.
Another very useful FAQ and Wiki: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Alt_Fan_Elite_FAQ

Q: Which version of the game do I play?
A: Since I'm mostly familiar with originals, for the purposes of this FAQ I am going to assume you're playing the BBC version. I play it emulated on a B-em emulator. You can grab a nifty disk image of the BBC Micro original from Ian Bell's own webpage.
http://www.elitehomepage.org/bbc/index.htm
Where it says "Click here to download Master 128 & "Executive" 2ndPro Elites [disk image]", you'll want to grab that image file, because it's actually a compilation of four different versions of Elite for the BBC Micro, each successive one coming with small graphical and performance enhancements, but all being mechanically the same game. Take a look at all of them and pick whichever one looks the best to you.


Q: What about DOS, NES?
A: The DOS version of the game is cool too, but you'll have to set a comfortable cycle count on your DOSBox before you get it to heavy duty. Ian Bell recommends the NES version, but I personally think it's very clunky, slow, and an all-around terrible and uncomfortable port. A game such as Elite demands a keyboard to play with to gain its fullest potential. Shame the NES version starts with a docking computer installed, though.


Q: Any remaster or something I can play easily on the PC?
Try Oolite! It's an open-source adaptation of the game for modern configurations, which also has a big modding scene that provides add-ons such as new ship models and missions! The base game itself is a perfect 1:1 replica of the original game, so you won't miss anything.


Q: How do I save on the BBC Micro version?
First of all, don't use save states, because they can tamper with your disk images. You'll have to save using the old-fashioned way, by creating separate disk images. On the B-em, select Disc > New disk: 1/3(this is assuming you mounted Elite.img on drive 0/2), and name it whatever. When you dock, you may press the "[" key(@ on the BBC) to access the save menu. Name your character something short and snappy, and save him on the disk on drive 1(the save disk). This is where you're going to call back your character from every time you restart the emulator. Just make sure you don't exit the emulator during the saving processes(the emulator's clicking noises) or else you might damage not only the save disk, but also the game!


Q: Okay, so what's the goal of the game?
A: Officially, it's to attain the ranking of "Elite", but that's nearly impossible without commiting years and years of play to actually do it. You need to kill at least 6400 ships in order to be Elite. Unless you have time on your hands, try setting up your own goals, such as amassing a certain amount of money, reaching a certain planet, or killing such and such number of enemies. Or, you can try my own especially devised Elite Tour scenario!(see it at the bottom)
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Ranking


Q: What are some basic controls for navigating the ship?
S/X - Descend/Ascend
</> - Roll left/Right
Space bar/? - Speed up/slow down
A - Shooting with your lasers, per every view where laser guns are mounted
J - Quick jump, for covering long distances
H - Hyperspace jump, for traveling from planet-to-planet
Ctrl+H - Intergalactic jump, made only possible by getting a hypergalactic drive
T, M, U - Targeting with a homing missile, firing it, and unarming it, respectively.
Tab - Energy bomb, blasts all ships in your vicinity.
Esc - Launch from an escape pod, you get back to the planet's space station with basically the same ship and same upgrades, but lose all your cargo.
C - Activate docking computer near a space station. These things do wonders!


F10 - Front view of your ship, and launching out of a space station
F1 - Aft(back) view
F2 - Left view
F3 - Right view
F4 - Large galactic chart
  D - Tells you a planet's name under a cursor
  F - Searches a planet by a particular name
  O - Centers cursor back to where you are
F5 - Local galactic chart
F6 - Information on planet-under-cursor
F7 - Trade prices of the system you're currently on
F8 - Current status


Q: What about some trading/boring spreadsheet controls and windows?
A: In a space station, you use F1 for the commodity buying menu, F2 for the commodity selling menu, and F3 to buy ship upgrades.


Q: How do planets differ from one another?
A: The most important distinction is between agricultural planets, and industrial planets, where one group of planets can make several types of commodity that sell well on the other group. For example, food is cheap on poor agricultural planets, but score high in rich industrial planets. Luxuries are cheap in industrial planets but pay for a lot on agricultural planets.
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Trading_Goods_Profit_Table


Q: What are the richest and poorest planets in the galaxy?
The richest industrial planet in Galaxy 1 is Ceesxe. The poorest agricultural planets are(equally) Maesin and Qudira. Theoretically, trading between these two planets should yield the highest profits.
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_planet_list/Galaxy_1


Q: What sells where?
Agricultural-to-Industrial: Food, Liqor, Radioactives, Furs, Textiles, Minerals, Gemstones, Platinum, Gold, and(don't quote me on this), Narcotics, Slaves, and Alien artifacts.
Industrial-to-Agricultural: Firearms, Computers, Machinery, Luxuries, Alloys.


Q: What do governments mean?
A: As far as I know, the only gameplay variable they offer is how well guarded or infested by pirates the systems are. Those leaning towards anarchic not only have a greater tendency to be filled with aggressive ships, but also have a greater tendency to be economically poor and primitive.


Q: What does a tech level of a planet mean?
A: It usually only means which particular ship upgrades the station has for offer. Primitive planets don't have docking computers, for example.


Q: How do lasers differ?
A: Pulse, beam, and military lasers are all just progressively more powerful and quicker lasers. Mining lasers are, power-wise, somewhere between beam and military lasers, but have a much slower firing rate. To its credit though, it is also the only laser that can cut asteroids into small chunks which you can scoop(for minerals). You can only do this with mining lasers though, because all the other lasers just utterly destroy asteroids leaving no resources behind.


Q: Is there a difference between destroying an enemy ship with a laser, missile, or bomb?
A: Yes. With lasers, there is a good chance the destroyed ship would leave some cargo behind, which you can scoop. Missiles and Energy bombs are much more infaillable and powerful, but as a result you also destroy their cargo. Also it's very easy to accidentally destroy a police ship with an Energy Bomb, giving you an offender/fugitive status.


Q: Aren't there like, any campaigns, or missions in here?
A: There are, but there are only two in the entire game, they are incredibly ellusive, and you can only get them after attaining the 'Dangerous' ranking. You can read more about them here:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/AFE_FAQ2#2.4.29_Missions


Q: Any cheats for the game?
A: The BBC Micro version does in fact, have a cheat disk! Search "Elite Cheat (19xx)(-)[h TSTH][bootfile]", and give it an extension of "ssd". If you boot it into drive 0, and the save disk in drive 1, you can set stuff like your money, ship's equipment, fuel, cargo, and even status and ranking!


Q: Is docking meant to be this hard?
A: Yes, and I won't hold it against you if you cheat and give yourself a docking computer right at the start. However, with enough practice, I eventually stopped finding manual docking hard.


Q: A mysterious merchant prince from Thrun is offering his most treasured possession for 5000 credits. Should I take it?
A: Please refuse, otherwise you're in for a world of hurt.  They're called Trumbles and the prince is trying to get rid of them. They're little furry creatures that can multiply fast and eat everything in your cargo hold. The only way to get rid of them is to eject from the ship or burn them to a crisp by flying close to a star.


Q: How do I experience all there is to be had in the game without devoting hours and hours of play and no campaigns?
A: Finding yourself utterly lost and want to see all there is in Elite in a jiff? Don't worry, try my own custom-made Elite Tour scenario series of self-imposing goals! They also have a "rewards" system which you can only add to yourself with a cheat disk, or if you decide to spend your own money by being a very commited trader. You can follow this guideline but alter or impose any rules of your own.

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ELITE TOUR
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Objective 1: Exit and then manually re-dock the Lave space station.
Reward yourself with 100 extra credits and(optionally) bump your ranking with every completed objective.

Objective 2: Trade resources to Zaonce and back to Lave.
Reward yourself with 200 credits, and try to buy a Large cargo bay.

Objective 3: Go to Leesti and blast at least two pirates with homing missiles.
Reward yourself with 500 credits, 255 missiles, and buy a Fuel scoop.

Objective 4: Travel to Tionisla, and destroy at least one ship with your lasers and scoop up his cargo.
Reward yourself with 800 credits, and try to buy an ECM, and a Mining laser.

Objective 5: Travel to Isinor, and destroy and scoop at least one asteroid.
Reward yourself with 1500 credits, and try to buy Beam lasers and(optionally) an Energy bomb.

Objective 6: Reach the star's outer atmosphere and scoop up fuel, then return to the station(or any neighbouring station you prefer).
Reward yourself with 2000 credits, and 25.5 fuel with each subsequent time you travel to the sun to scoop fuel(in-game you can't attain more than 7 fuel, but the cheats allow you to surpass that).

Objective 7: Travel to Ceesxe and trade.
Reward yourself with 3000 credits, and buy an Escape pod.

Objective 8: Travel to Sotiqu, and destroy at least ten pirates with whatever means.
Reward yourself with 5000 credits, buy a Docking computer, and an Energy unit.

Objective 9: Travel to Maesin and buy at least one illegal good to trade someplace else.
Reward yourself with 10,000 credits, and buy Military lasers.

Objective 10: Raid civillian ships, attack policemen, attain fugitive status, then run to Isveve.
Reward yourself with 20,000 credits and buy a Galactic hyperdrive.

Objective 11: Hyperspace go Galaxy 2 and enjoy the new galaxy and your maxed-out ship at your leisure. Basically by this point you've tried all the activities you could in the game.


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If you think I should add anything, feel free to tell me on Glitchwave, or send suggestions at [email protected].