Drew Wagar

I was lucky enough to have joined the 8-bit computer revolution rather earlier than most of my friends of the time. My Dad built a UK101 Compukit machine (based on the 6502 processor that was later to power the BBC Micro) in 1978. So I had a two year head start on my peers, I can remember the astonishment that greeted the acknowledgement that we had a ‘computer’ in the house!

As the 80s dawned the more primitive machines gave way to machines with colour and sound. The main contenders were the BBC Micro, Commodore-64 and the ZX Spectrum.

Originally the Spectrum was the cheaper machine, well supported by software and games. The Commodore was more technically capable, but lacked the software and the BBC was the one used by many educational establishments and, of course, the BBC themselves!

However, in September 1984, a game was launched that redefined the art of the possible on these primitive computers. Up until now, games had had 3 lives, a score and a typical five-ten minute playing time. Suddenly a game arrived with no score, a single life, open ended game play and immersive 3d graphics, its name?

“Elite.”

Here was a game that simply gave you a very basic spaceship, a small amount of money and set you loose in a universe filled with traders, pirates, police and alien warships. You simply ‘made your own way’ from here, trying to amass enough money to upgrade your ship with higher powered lasers, more cargo space, defensive systems, missiles, bombs and more energy. Whether you choose to trade honestly, or enter the blackmarket, or simply prey on other vessels was entirely up to you. Each route had its pros and cons.

Incredibly, there was a universe of systems to explore, 8 galaxies, consisting of 256 systems in each one and all this was, including the graphics, game and universe was crammed into 32k, (32,768 bytes of memory) – that’s about the same as this blog entry.

Originally only available on the BBC, the authors quickly bowed to overwhelming pressure to put this iconic game onto other platforms. I was able to play it shortly afterwards on my trusty ZX Spectrum…

I, along with many other members of the IT community, spent days, months and even years playing this game. Its compelling nature, inviting you to decide who and what you wanted to be, rather than simply shooting, finding or solving things, drove you further into the game, encouraging you to loose yourself in imagination.

In another clever move, the game was promoted with a Novella, called The Dark Wheel, written by Robert Holdstock. You can still read it here. This gave some important background on the social and political universe in which ‘Elite’ existed, giving you reasons why things worked as they did.

This week, Elite has reached its 25 anniversary. Elite 4, the much anticipated sequel has yet to appear, but tens of thousands of people are out there, patiently waiting for it. The interest remains astonishing after so many years have gone past.

Elite has inspired many imitations, but none have really managed to capture the essence of Elite. Today, there are a number of tribute games available in the public domain. My favourite is ‘Oolite‘, which updates the graphics for modern PCs and Macs, yet remains true to the original gameplay.

I have a particularly soft spot for this one, as I wrote a couple of novellas for it myself back in 2006.

Happy Silver Anniversary Elite – and thanks for the fun, games and memories. Looking forward to ‘Elite 4′!

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Living in the dark and distant corner of South-East Kent as I do, we’ve long suffered the long duration travel into London. The fastest trains took an hour and ten minutes, while most took an hour and thirty.

Now we’ve got a super duper high speed train line which has been trumpetted left right and centre as the answer to everyones requirements, including a dramatic lift in house prices – Ashford to London in 37 minutes, wooo!

I’ve been trying it for the last month and it’s definitely “most impressive”. The train stops once on its journey into London, at some place called Ebbsfleet International, which appears to be a ‘Ghost Station’ as no one ever gets on or off here. Spooky.

You arrive in London when you’d normally be expecting to arrive in Tonbridge. It’s almost wierd.

Unfortunately, it’s on arrival in London that the whole ‘high speed’ thing falls apart.

Historically, Ashford trains have arrived at Cannon Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross and (occasionally) Victoria. Three out of four of these Stations are in the South East of the Capital, and service the City areas and down towards Westminster. Most commuters are therefore city types or politicoes of some kind or other. I, for example, have a ten minute walk from Cannon Street.

The high speed lines arrives into St. Pancras (or Kings Cross as most people will know it) and that’s in the North of the Capital.

It’s a mere four or five miles from the CIty or Westminister, but it might as well be fifty because it takes a ridiculous 25 minutes to make the journey by tube or overground train from St. Pancras back to the City or Westminster.

This is made up of 5 minutes (fast) walking from the highspeed platform to the underground, 15 minutes on the tube (on a good day) and then another 5 minutes walking back up to ground level.

Comparing like for like the highspeed service saves only 20 minutes each way door to door, yet costs an extra £110 a month (monthly fare) with the added hassle of switching trains and standing up for the last part of the journey on a sweaty unpleasant tube train.

It is SO frustrating to cover 60+ miles in 37 minutes and then find yourself taking 25 minutes to cover a mere 4.

So in summary the trains are a dream, unfortunately the journey is a nightmare. I’m going back to the old service. It might be slow, but it’s much more pleasant. Right now I can only recommend it for Friday afternoons to get home early.

ps. It may improve when the service to Stratford International opens, but that’s not until the new year. Will keep you posted.

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