Elite classic video games remake seeking backers

[pwsincd]

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20165344

Snippet :

Classic video game Elite is getting a 21st Century makeover.
David Braben, one of the creators of the original, is seeking £1.25m ($2m) via Kickstarter to fund the updated version.
Called Elite: Dangerous it will involve the same mix of interstellar travel, trading, piracy and spaceships as the original 8-bit game.
Those who pledge cash to the project will also get a chance to shape the development of the updated version.
"Elite is a game that I've wanted to come back to for a very, very long time," Mr Braben told the BBC. "It's the sort of game that I would very much like to play today."

For those who dont know the game :​

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Loved this game when it came out changed my view on computer games entirely , really hope this sees the light of day .... well i donated my £10 .. hope it helps.​

 

[Deleted User]

I played this game for hours and hours when I was younger. It was pretty basic. I hope they remake it.

 

[KidIce]

"If you pay me two million dollars I will make a sequel to this game... And then sell it to you and everyone else for $49.99. Collector's editions will be $79.99 and come w/a limited and numbered beer mat." But, hey, your ten dollars just bought you a lottery ticket so that you MIGHT be able to "get a chance to shape the development of the updated version."

Elite was a great game. Braben really sealed a spot for himself in the "best game makers of all time" w/ it... But this is just bombast and exploitive. I'd love to play an updated version of Elite, but I'll start playing Freelancer before I start donating to this commercial project.

 

[FAST6191]

He seems have been floating the odd Elite themed project for years and I had kind of wondered if he would kickstart something.

Either way there is not what one could call an abundance of such games nowadays.

Edit- I imagine most reading the thread would know anyway but there are GBA (AGB and tnk) and DS (just agb) homebrew versions. It seems copyright concerns have since taken the project out (something I was unaware of until just now) but tracking down stuff should not be hard.

 

[Deleted User]

There's Evochron Mercenary which I'd say got inspiration from the Elite type games. You can get it on Steam for cheap.

 

[raulpica]

I really respect Mr. Braben since I'm an Amiga fanatic (I still have to play Elite and Frontier, though) - but isn't $2mil a BIT too much?

Oh well, I hope he reaches them nonetheless. We need more real commercial games.

I mean, innovative stuff. Not FPSes getting rehashed every year.

 

[ferofax]

Never knew this game, but I loved the genre. One game in particular, was X - Beyond the Frontier (or XBTF). It's a game series now, I think, and the entire premise is basically the same. You're a small ship, given a small amount of credits and some equipment like shields and basic lasers (or loaned, which you have to pay back with interest) and then you go around the sector buying and selling stuff, pimping your ship, until the point where you can travel from one sector to another (of which there are many), and basically push the story along. Lots of quests, lots of alien races to trade with and do battle with, pirates galore, and basically a shitload of armaments to turn your tiny ship into one that eats battleships (of which there are many).

You can also be filthy rich, buying infrastructures (like shipyards, factories, etc) and you can have them running for profit, earning you more credits which you can use to buy more weapons of war. You can also hire alien ships to fly under you, from freighters to carry your goods, to fighters that guard your facilities (or join you as wingmen), or hire big ass battleships that will guard you for a set amount of time/distance. You can pimp them up too, turning them into efficient and reliable allies. After which, you can go storm an enemy sector with all your lackeys and have a fun little war in space.

It's a full scale space tycoon with X-Wing VS TIE Fighter combat intact (and quite fun too).

tl;dr If you're interested in a modern Elite, give the XBTF series a look.


Oh yeah, the first game was back in the late '90s, when WindowsME was the new thing. It's fugly now compared to some, but the ambient is still pretty nice. Super long intro that you can't skip though, and the first few hours are slow and tiresome, but it picks up.

 

[pwsincd]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20897768

Seems they have reached their financial target.