Elite: Dangerous

I guess this is still part of an introductory post thing, as it's part of my shortish list of interests.

Having grown up with computers - well, until 1981 without computers as it was then that I got my first, a Sinclair ZX81 with all of, wait for it, 1kb of memory - I've always been keen on computer games. I've played loads and as the computers got better, of course the games got better.

Around 1984 a game came out that I really fancied, it looked like my sort of thing. It was called Elite, and initially it was only available on the BBC Micro, which I didn't have. As always I'd gone the more esoteric route - to put that in to perspective, when the Amiga was the most popular machine, I had the Atari ST. And now, with PCs dominating the computer market, I'm a Mac owner/user.

(Image taken from Google Images)

Anyway, so Elite looked great, but I couldn't play it until it turned up on the ZX Spectrum which I admit I was going to buy anyway, but that Elite was available for it kind of accelerated the process.

Unsurprisingly Elite did, indeed, tick every box for me, it was and still is my favourite game. I played every version on numerous different computers, then it disappeared.

Fast forward to 2012 and I came across a Kickstarter for Elite: Dangerous and I was straight in there. "What was this all about then?" I wondered. It turned out it was David Braben's vision of how Elite should really be, or even have been. Only it wasn't until the extreme power of modern computers, in comparison to those old machines the original Elite ran on, that the vision could become reality.

(Image taken from Google Images)

I'd missed the boat for the initial Kickstarter and the project was underway. However there was a chance to buy a 'Premium Beta' pass which gave access to the very limited Beta Elite galaxy, and free updates for life. I knew I'd love the game, and I knew I'd want every update, so it wasn't a difficult decision to pay in to the Premium Beta and I did so, and there began my Elite: Dangerous 'career'.

The game has now been through a few updates, some major, and is about to enter another (2.4 The Return) which will be very, very interesting and could well increase the importance of the word 'Dangerous' in the game's name.

Of course in travelling the galaxy, as I have been, I've had some adventures and there are tales to tell, which I'll look at writing up another time. Until then, here's a picture of a black hole I visited.

(Image taken in-game by me)

Some of you may be familiar with the game, and might even be playing it - o7 to you! Others may just find it intriguing. And, of course, it could easily be seen as a sad waste of time by this oldish bugger! No matter what, to me, it's amazing!

If you are in game, or interested, by all means ask me questions, or share tales. See you in the black! Perhaps ;-)