Jeremy Parish
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NES Works Gaiden #16: Elite
🕑 Added 2020-10-28 18:00:00 +0000 UTCA patron request episode this week, which takes us across the galaxy and across the Atlantic to look at a European exclusive for NES: Imagineer's conversion of Braben & Bell's Elite. This is the sort of game that demands an entire summer vacation... I had a couple of weekends and nine minutes of video. This overview probably doesn't entirely do the NES port justice, but hopefully you get the idea! And hopefully the PAL video doesn't look too wonky through my NTSC-oriented setup...
Thanks to Jon for the request!
Comments
BILL BULL
For a very, very, very in-depth and detailed look at the original Elite, I highly recommend Jimmy Maher's article on his excellent blog, The Digital Antiquarian (direct link to the article here: https://www.filfre.net/2013/12/elite/) I haven't played the NES version of Elite (or any version, for that matter), but I have watched someone stream it on Twitch, and I marveled at just how impressive it was for a game of this magnitude (in breadth, if not in depth) to exist on the NES. It's a shame it had such a limited release, being PAL-only, but in retrospect it makes sense, as that's where people would be more familiar with the original incarnation of the game.
Kevin Bunch
The main thing I know about Elite is that years ago when I was dating someone whose family was from the UK, their father talked to me at great length about how much time he sank into this game on his BBC Micro back in the 80s. That may have been my first exposure to British microcomputer gaming, come to think of it.
