Elite Compendium

Bringing all the best Elite hacks together in one feature-packed disc

The Elite Compendium is a collection of the very best of Acornsoft Elite, updated with as many hacks and enhancements as I've been able to fit in. If you're looking to play 8-bit Elite, then this is a pretty good place to start.

The Compendium is for the BBC Master, and it contains the following goodies:

Everything's been updated to run beautifully on the BBC Master, and the extras are all backported from other versions of 6502 Elite, so everything is part of the official Elite canon. Let's take a look at exactly what you get:

Version	Enhancements included in the Elite Compendium
BBC Master 128 Elite	Flicker-free planets have been added, to go along with the flicker-free ships that the BBC Master version already brings to the party (read more about flicker-free Elite) Music has been backported from the Commodore 64, with two different tunes and options to swap tunes, disable music and change the volume (read more about musical Elite) The non-sprite version of the Trumbles mission has been ported from the NES version (read more about the Trumbles mission) Improvements to the docking computer have been copied from the NES version to make auto-docking a bit more enjoyable: The docking computer can no longer kill you The station no longer spawns traders, like Transporters or Shuttles, while the docking computer is activated Once you're inside the station's safe zone and you've activated your docking computer, you can now press "J" to dock instantly There's a fee of five credits for using your docking computer, charged at the point of activation (and if you don't have enough cash, you'll have to dock manually) Fuel scoops will only work when you are moving, as in the NES version Enemies have red lasers rather than cyan, just like the 6502 Second Processor version I have also fixed the following bugs from the original release: Deleting a file no longer breaks the "save commander" option, unlike in the official release The Data on System screen now works for all systems (in the official release, it breaks for some systems - for example, visiting Biarge during the Constrictor mission will hang the game)
6502 Second Processor Elite	Spaceflight has been slowed down to about the same speed as standard BBC Master Elite, as otherwise the game is all but unplayable on the Master's super-fast internal co-processor (though the power of the co-pro still ensures that there is minimal slowdown when things get busy) Flicker-free ships and planets have been added using the algorithm from the BBC Master (read more about flicker-free Elite) Music has been backported from the Commodore 64, with two different tunes and options to swap tunes, disable music and change the volume (read more about musical Elite) Volume control has been added for all sound effects, just like in the BBC Master (pause the game and use "<" and ">" to change the volume of both music and sound effects) I have also fixed the Data on System bug from the original release (see the notes in the Master version above)
BBC Micro disc Elite	The original 1984 release has been updated to run on the Master (read more about BBC Micro disc Elite on the BBC Master) Flicker-free ships and planets have been added using the algorithm from the BBC Master (read more about flicker-free Elite) Music has been backported from the Commodore 64, with two different tunes and options to swap tunes, disable music and change the volume (read more about musical Elite) Volume control has been added for all sound effects, just like in the BBC Master (pause the game and use "<" and ">" to change the volume of both music and sound effects)
Teletext Elite	This is BBC Micro disc Elite, converted to run entirely in teletext mode 7 for peak 1980s nostalgia (read more about Teletext Elite) Flicker-free ships and planets have been added using the algorithm from the BBC Master (read more about flicker-free Elite) Music has been backported from the Commodore 64, with two different tunes and options to swap tunes, disable music and change the volume (read more about musical Elite) Volume control has been added for all sound effects, just like in the BBC Master (pause the game and use "<" and ">" to change the volume of both music and sound effects)
Elite Universe Editor	Create your own universes and "press play" to see them come to life Read more about the Elite Universe Editor, where you can also find full instructions

Because of the extra memory required by all these Elite hacks, the Compendium only works on a BBC Master 128 (or, in the case of the 6502 Second Processor version, a BBC Master with an internal or external 6502 co-processor).

Apart from Teletext Elite and the Elite Universe Editor, all of the hacks included in the Compendium are 100% canon - they are all taken from official versions of 6502 Elite, which means they were all written by Elite's authors, Ian Bell and David Braben (with Aidan Bell and Julie Dunn composing the music). So, for example, the flicker-free drawing algorithm is from BBC Master Elite, the music comes from the Commodore 64 version, the docking computer enhancements are from the NES version, the red enemy lasers are from the 6502 Second Processor version, and so on.

So the Compendium is effectively a Greatest Hits of the original Elite, and in terms of gameplay, nothing new has been added; it's all original Bell and Braben brilliance, just backported to work on the BBC Master.

What else is on the disc?
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The Compendium also contains three commander files on drive 0, which you can load into any version of Elite via the save and load menu (press "Y" on the title screen or press "@" when docked):

• MISS1 is for those who want to play the Constrictor mission; load it, launch from the station, dock once again (you have a docking computer) and the mission will start.
• MISS2 is for those who want to play the Thargoid Plans mission, and you can trigger it in the same way.
• MAX is a maxed-out commander to let you hit the ground running.

If you are playing the Compendium's version of BBC Master 128 Elite and you load any of these files, then you will also be offered the Trumbles mission when you dock:

If you load MISS1 or MISS2, then this will happen on your second docking, as the first docking will trigger the missions shown above.

The Compendium also contains a full collection of universe files on drive 2, which you can load into the Elite Universe Editor. See the Universe Editor instructions for details.