''Elite'' is a space trading

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

series created by

David Braben David John Braben (born 2 January 1964) is a British video game developer and designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the '' Elite'' series of space trading video games, first published in 1984. He is also a co-foun ...

and

Ian Bell Ian Ronald Bell (born 11 April 1982) is an English former cricketer who played international cricket in all formats for the England cricket team and county cricket for Warwickshire County Cricket Club. A right-handed higher/middle order batsm ...

Games

The first game in the series was ''

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

'', released in 1984. Three official sequels have been created: '' Frontier: Elite II'' (1993) and '' Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III)'' (1995), both produced by Braben's company

Frontier Developments Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park Construction and management simulation ...

. A third sequel, ''

Elite Dangerous ''Elite Dangerous'' is a space flight simulation game developed and published by Frontier Developments. The player takes the role of a pilot (colloquially referred to as "Commander" or "CMDR") of a spaceship, and explores a realistic 1:1 scale, ...

'' (conceived in 1998, provisionally titled ''Elite 4''), was successfully

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

initially through a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign in late 2012, and released in December 2014. Bell had limited involvement in the first sequel, and was not involved in the production of the second. Both ''Frontier'' games featured many technical advancements and new features on the original ''Elite'', including filled 3D graphics, missions and a complex economy. This time, the player was not confined to orbit but could land on and explore or mine planets. The number of flyable ships was greatly increased, and a new political backstory was introduced enabling the player to gain ranks in competing interstellar empires. ''Frontier Elite II'' appeared on the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

, and

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...

s whilst ''Frontier: First Encounters'' was only released for

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

. The two ''Frontier'' games were considered significantly flawed in a number of respects. Both games had many bugs, ''First Encounters'' in particular, due apparently to being published in an incomplete state. ''First Encounters'' was extensively patched, then reissued and finally withdrawn from sale. This was followed by a lawsuit brought by Gametek against David Braben. The two games employed a realistic flight model based on

Newtonian mechanics Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in motion ...

rather than the original arcade-style engine. While this was more realistic, many players also found it frustratingly difficult, particularly in combat. Most space trading games since ''Elite'' have stuck to an arcade-style flight model, in which the ships behave as though they are flying in an atmosphere. ''

'', which was released over twenty years after ''First Encounters'', added multiplayer and extended the use of procedural generation, allowing players to fly to and survey every non-atmospheric planet of a certain size range and temperature range in a galaxy containing billions of stars. ''Elite Dangerous'' also offers both a Newtonian flight model as well as an arcade one, with the player being able to choose between them using 'flight assist.'

References

{{Elite Video game franchises introduced in 1984