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firecall

Can anyone tell from the source code what it took to become Elite?

I got this game when it came out in the UK! I was 11 at the time!

I never got beyond Deadly from memory.

But boy did I sink hours into this game on our BBC model B with those cool analogue joysticks you dont see any more!

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I believe that I have the longest-lived still-played savegame, of possibly any game. I started playing Elite in 1985, and my savegame has survived to this day. I transferred it from the original 5¼" disk to a disk image a few years ago, and occasionally still load it up under emulation.

I am indeed rated "Elite", although I was very disappointed to learn that only kills are tracked to determine this rating. I had hoped that trading, distance travelled, or galaxies jumped would help as well, but it doesn't.

6400 [edit: kills] - http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Elite_Rating

This isn't new knowledge. I remember reading about that goal and the number 6400 in a magazine, probably BBC Micro User.

Right on Commander!

I loved the monthly articles about Elite that let slip various secrets. They were so exciting. I'm not sure many players would have found the missions without them. It's hilarious how anti-user classic games were!

Were there actually any generation ships?

No, but they can be found in Oolite, and Elite Dangerous.

I always thought you had to complete the missions to get to Elite, maybe that was added on later conversions (I played the Spectrum version)?

> I played the Spectrum version

Oh that Lenslok[1] was a massive pain in the arse!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenslok

It sure was! Luckily I used a fairly standard 14 inch colour TV with it so it was about the right size for the Lenslok.

I had one of those Ferguson 11.5" B&W sets[1] that were common in the UK in the 80s, it was very hit and miss.

[1] https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/s4UAAOSwmTVfUWyM/s-l1600.jpg

A lot of vipers died to make me Elite. Its one of my proudest achievements but in truth, I sat outside a space-station and leant a book on one of the buttons of the analogue joystick!

That's a genius method. Pity you can't do it now in Elite Dangerous as there's a no-fire zone around stations.

Here you go:

https://www.bbcelite.com/tape/workspaces/workspace_t_per_cen...

Used here to calculate the current tier:

https://www.bbcelite.com/tape/status/subroutine_status.html

Elite is 6400 kills.

This website is such a tremendous piece of work!

Glad you like the site. It’s been a labour of love, no doubt about it!

(Site author here, incidentally.)

Lots of kills. I even sent off to Acornsoft and received a badge through the post.

Or, there was the hack where you could just rewrite the save file which was published in The Micro User.

You could even tweak the missiles, power of the laser and a few other bits IIRC.

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