Another Sunday means another episode of 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, the (hopefully) weekly series where I play through all of the games listed in the book - 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. If I played the game before, then I will share my memory of the experience. If I haven't played the game before, then I find an online version or an emulator and I play the game (for at least 30 minutes). This is a book every gamer should have in their library, and if you're interested in purchasing it, you can find it here.
Last week was a struggle as I played Bomb Jack., a game I never heard of or played. I say struggle because it wasn't all that entertaining to me and I questioned why it was in the book. But I soldiered on and played the game so I could mark it off the list. I noticed the game this week didn't include a picture like most of them do, so that made me a little nervous. But let's jump in with both feet first and see what this week has in store for us.
Elite
Elite is a seminal space trading video game, written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in 1984. Elite's open-ended game model, advanced game engine and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system, and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of"Elite".
Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden line removal. Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which gave players insight into the moral and legal codes to which they might aspire.
The game proved hugely influential, serving as a model for later releases including Wing Commander: Privateer, Grand Theft Auto, Eve Online, Freelancer, the X series and No Man's Sky. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)
I read the description for this game in the book like I always do, and I was a bit skeptical when the author states, "No game before or since - except, perhaps CCP's luminous Eve Online - has dared to treat science fiction with such seriousness."
Don't know if I'd agree with that comment or comparison, but after looking the game up and seeing some of the games it influenced, I started getting skeptical of my skepticism. Some of my favorite space games from the past like Privateer and Freelancer were influenced by a game I've never heard of or played? Okay, you've got my attention. The first thing I needed to do was find a place to play it online, which I did. You can play it here. The good thing about this site is it also includes a manual.
Okay, I played the game and I admit it isn't a lot to look at, by any stretch of the imagination. And I only played it for about 30 minutes - it would take much longer to truly get into the game and experience everything it has to offer. When you read the manual and see everything you can do - combat, economy, ship building...you quickly realize this little game from the 80s was indeed groundbreaking.
I'm actually interested in learning more about this game and have to say I'm somewhat fascinated by it. Apparently it is highly regarded by many folks in the industry and has a number of cool features I'd like to explore more.
The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each with 256 planets to explore. Due to the limited capabilities of 8-bit computers, these worlds are procedurally generated. A single seed number is run through a fixed algorithm the appropriate number of times and creates a sequence of numbers determining each planet's complete composition (position in the galaxy, prices of commodities, and even name and local details- text strings are chosen numerically from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions for each planet). This means that no extra memory is needed to store the characteristics of each planet, yet each is unique and has fixed properties. Each galaxy is also procedurally generated from the first.
Not bad for a game from 1984, eh? Even the whole Dark Wheel storyline seems intriguing to me. Did I just discover a gem in 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die? I think I did. The fact the game was ported over to practically every system available back in its day, continued to receive sequels over the years including a crowd-funded initiative in 2012 scheduled for a beta release in 2014...hey wait, that's this year? Apparently I need to go look up Elite: Dangerous and check out the status.
Overall, I'd say this was a great week for this feature. This is sort of the reason why I undertook this project in the first place. I think its important to be aware of great games from the past that had such an impact on influencing so many others. And apparently Elite was one of those games. I have no idea what game is up next week and whether it can top this week or not...but I'll be back to find out.
Until then, hope you had a wonderful weekend.
Cheers.
Episode 60 (here)
Episode 61 (here)
Episode 62 (here)
Episode 63 (here)
Episode 64 (here)
Episode 65 (here)
Episode 66 (here)
Episode 67 (here)
Episode 68 (here)
Episode 69 (here)