+Philsan Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 In the last number of RetroGamer (#74) you can read an interesting 8 pages interview with David Baben. Q: Was there an Atari 800 version commissioned? A: No, though we did want to do one. But I think by 1984 it was low on the list, sadly. We had our work cut out doing versions of Elite, both Ian and I, and a number of very diligent contractors working with our ugly code on 17 different platforms. Mark, if you have problems with your port, you can make a phone call to David or Ian! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Problem is, they've moved on and probably have no interest other than seeing how it might turn out. IIRC, at least one of them is/was working on another modern-day space-sim. One area of PC-gaming that's definitely lacking titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 I'm sure they would support an A8 port even 25 years late. There was a documentary on TV last year by the way about David and Ian with what they acheived. You can see it on Five's YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPeA5OhcxQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Blocked due to © ... do you know what the show/ep is? I might find it via alternate sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 (edited) Yea, it was "Brits who made the modern world" Series 1 Episode 3: Computer games. It was actually July 2008 when the program aired originally. Edited March 18, 2010 by Tezz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Cool. Found it, as "Brit's who made the modern world" ep 1.6 from my source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 I'll give contacting David Braben a go. Around the turn of the millennium I had tried via email without return wheras Ian Bell was able to help with some info of the player data structure. Around the time of Elite:TNK being pulled I'd given up some hope of being able to complete this, but these days it seems a little more relaxed and so hence my picking up the BBC port last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Watched the episode last night. A few errors and dubious statements, e.g. the presenter equating a 600 word email to being 22K of text, but pretty good production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Man, it would be way better than the awful Commodore 64 version, whcih is the worst of all Elite games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 I'm sure they would support an A8 port even 25 years late. There was a documentary on TV last year by the way about David and Ian with what they acheived. You can see it on Five's YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPeA5OhcxQ Be VERY careful about contacting that ass-wipe David Braben about this, because he is the one who tried to have Ian Bell remove the free downloads of Elite from his website because he is a greed asshole (who's modern games are utter rubbish too). He will shut you down so fast your head will spin, just do it and release it here and when it has spread to everyone with a passing interest in A8 Elite THEN tell David but not before unless you want all the legal scaremongering that will ensue regarding copyright infringements. PS Ian and David will not even be in the same room as each other, twice they have been asked to document Elite on the BBC and how it came to be and twice they were interviewed in different rooms on purpose so they wouldn't have to talk to each other ever again. Sad but true....Ian is the only person who deserves to know about this thing....anything else by David is viewed as publicity for his never to be released sequel to Elite 4 (after Frontier turned out to be a complete load of rubbish he got bitter about it all) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 And speculation like that is supposed to help endear David to our cause? @high voltage - the C64 port was my main original aim, the BBC port was a side distraction for me last year but some of the lessons learnt in doing it will help me in going back to the C64 port. The only real improvements I see I'd get over the C64 version would possibly be to colouring in the panel and a desire to try and double-buffer the screen drawing to try and eliminate some of the flicker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STE'86 Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Actually i would say that Okys comment is pretty much bang on from reading all previous past history of elite remakes, source and cooperation. i too would say contact Ian Bell by all means. he has always been very keen to help anyone with Elite. and too i would say suggest u shy away from contacting David Braben about anything to do with a project like this. All his previous dealing with people doing things like this have been litigious, it seems from internet sources. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 but Wrathchild would use the "existing" c64 code... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STE'86 Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 err that actually makes no difference at all in law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteD Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 It's an odd one for sure. Bell gives the source away, Braben will sue you if you use it Normally I'd say it was probably worse to use the original code as it's downright intellectual property theft, but the source is freely available. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 The "legal" way around the problem could be to release a patcher program that modifies the existing released source-code to then assemble and run successfully on the A8. Of course the resultant source would be massively different, but in theory such a method could be done, albeit with some level of pain for the person converting Elite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarigmr Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Have you guys seen this? : The Oric seems also that it will have an Elite game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Looks like it's in a very advanced state of development. 6502-based machine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tickled_Pink Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Looks like it's in a very advanced state of development. 6502-based machine too. Uhuh. Like the BBC Micro. Seems a tad slow, though. Looks like the Atmos' CPU was clocked to just 1Mhz, which was almost half that of the Atari and BBC Micro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 You guys need to get out of the A8 section more often http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/155657-elite-3d-graphics/page__view__findpost__p__1945543 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Looks like it's in a very advanced state of development. 6502-based machine too. Uhuh. Like the BBC Micro. Seems a tad slow, though. Looks like the Atmos' CPU was clocked to just 1Mhz, which was almost half that of the Atari and BBC Micro. The game isn't going to be an Elite clone but it is heavily inspired by it. I believe the line drawing routine has been optimized a little more since that video was made so it's a little faster now. It definitely looks better than the C64 version of Elite and without using some of the shortcuts used in C64 Elite. The author is getting ready to release a stripped down beta version of the game for testers. The line drawing code is available for download but it is heavily geared towards the somewhat different Oric screen layout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 You guys need to get out of the A8 section more often http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/155657-elite-3d-graphics/page__view__findpost__p__1945543 Definitely. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/157116-1337-elite-like-game-for-oric-atmos/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteD Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 You guys need to get out of the A8 section more often http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/155657-elite-3d-graphics/page__view__findpost__p__1945543 Definitely. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/157116-1337-elite-like-game-for-oric-atmos/ Or just read a few posts back in this thread Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz atarionline.pl Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Seems a tad slow, though. Looks like the Atmos' CPU was clocked to just 1Mhz, which was almost half that of the Atari and BBC Micro. There are not so huge differences: Oric Atmos - 1MHz C64 - 1Mhz Acorn Electron - 2MHz (but access to memory with 1 MHz speed) BBC Micro - 2MHz Atari - 1.77 MHz (but remember that ANTIC cut it to about 1.3MHz) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 You guys need to get out of the A8 section more often http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/155657-elite-3d-graphics/page__view__findpost__p__1945543 Definitely. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/157116-1337-elite-like-game-for-oric-atmos/ Or just read a few posts back in this thread Pete The thread on the Oric was from January... as in it's already been brought up if you just look around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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