Best of Commodore 64: Elite
To this day Elite still boggles my mind. It’s like a flight simulator running on a calculator. How this game was able to run on a Commodore 64, that’s 64 kilobytes of memory, is incredible. Most Word documents take up more space.
Elite is a basically a game about exploring space. You travel between planet systems trading goods, fighting pirates, plus there’s a few built in missions. Mostly, the game is a flight simulator where you fight other space ships and dock at a satellite.
Old Time Graphics
The graphics are as basic as they get. If you’ve played Battlezone then you have some idea. Ships, satellites, planets, and asteroids are all wireframe outlines. It isn’t glamorous, but it gets the job done.
There’s a main view, but it can be switched between front, rear, and either side view. Two mini maps are displayed. The larger one shows objects and their proximity to you. The yellow marks show whether an object is above or below your The V shaped dots represent your field of view.
The smaller mini map in the corner allows you to find the satellite or the planet when you’re farther away. In deep space it’s hard to see where any planets or satellites are. But don’t let the graphics fool you, Elite is a lot of fun.
Great Mechanics
Instead of moving up, down, left, and right. Elite employs pitch up, pitch down, roll clockwise, and roll counterclockwise. I’ve played many games involving flight, and I like these mechanics the best. It takes some getting used to and newer versions of Elite do offer the standard up, down, left, and right controls. Yet, these mechanics coupled with the speed controls feel most like flying in my opinion.
Fighting space pirates really feels like it’s taking place in a 3D space. It takes some practice to match the enemies pitch and roll. After some time picking off pirates gets easy.
Upgrades Galore
Elite also includes many features to help you during your exploration. There are different weapons, gear, and upgrades for your space ship. The four different laser guns are:
- Standard laser – fairly weak and useless
- Beam laser – same strength as standard but extremely fast
- Military laser – expensive but worth every penny
- Mining laser – good for extracting minerals from asteroids but worthless for attacking enemies
The first upgrade should be a beam laser. They are fast and heat up quickly, but are a lot of fun to use. The military laser isn’t as fast as the beam laser but it’s stronger. Definitely worth the excessive price. The mining laser is for mining minerals from asteroids and not attacking.
Your Cobra Mark III ship is also equipped with four missiles, but they are expensive to use regularly. There are also several upgrades available for the ship. You can purchase an ECM system, escape pod, energy bomb, extra energy unit, docking computers, cargo expansion bay, and cargo scoops.
Terrific Gameplay
Every upgrade opens up new features. The cargo bay expansion allows more trade items to fit in your ship, thus making each trip more profitable. Cargo scoops allow you to get free fuel from any Sun. They also let you pick up cargo from destroyed ships or mined asteroids.
The ECM system damages nearby enemies but uses some of your energy stores with each use. An energy bomb takes out all enemies in range, however, it is expensive. The extra energy unit makes shields and power banks restore faster.
Docking computers automate the docking process. It can be a bit tricky to synchronize your ship with the satellite’s movements. Enabling it once you’re very close to docking is best.
An escape pod jettisons your cargo and immediately brings you to a satellite. It’s expensive way to avoid a game over. Not only do you lose your cargo but any upgrades are lost. Saving games often is a better solution.
Even better still is quickly destroying the space pirates before they get you. Trading goods for profit as you hyperspace from planet system to planet system is rewarding. But blowing up those enemies is the best part of this game.
Missions
As you destroy enemies your rank increases. Once you reach certain milestones, missions are triggered. Don’t be tricked into buying Trumbels. They eat all your food, multiply, and take up all the room in you cargo bay. The only way to purge these pests is with fire. Fly close enough to a sun long enough and the trouble with Truffles gous away.
The other missions are much better. Hunting down a stolen prototype and destroying it is a blast. It takes several hyperspace jumps and satellite dockings to complete this mission. Pay attention to the clues given after each docking.
The last mission is to transport blueprints halfway across the galaxy. This is also guaranteed numerous encounters with the Thargoids. They are harder to destroy than standard space pirates. Plus scooping up debris from their ships pays off as alien items at any satellite.
A Remarkable Game for Such a Basic System
Between the fighting, trading, missions, galaxies, and upgrades it’s remarkable to think this game runs with only 64k of memory. It isn’t an action packed, beautiful modern game. Still, it’s a lot of fun for an almost 50 year old game.
Several versions of Elite have been made over the years but the original Commodore 64 game is still fire. Get an emulator or modern Commodore 64, and give Elite a try. You’ll be surprised how fun Elite is for such an old game.
Best of Commodore 64: Elite brought to you by: David M.
I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.
