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Elite on the BBC Micro and NES

About the 6502 Second Processor version of Elite

Information on the fastest and most colourful version of Elite

BBC Micro 6502 Second Processor Elite screenshot

For those of us who cut their teeth on the original 1984 version of Elite, the announcement of the 6502 Second Processor version on 25 July 1985 at the Acorn User Show was pretty exciting. The only problem was that you needed a pretty pricey system to run it, which put it beyond the reach of the vast majority of people, though that only made it feel even more exotic for those of us without access to a Second Processor.

Originally known in the Acorn press as Elite II (a name that didn't make it to the final product), this souped-up version has all the features of the BBC Micro disc version, but with a four-colour space screen, an eight-colour dashboard, and no waiting around for things to load from disc. It also supports more ships in the local bubble (up to 18 ships, compared to a maximum of 10 in the BBC Micro cassette and disc versions) which it can handle due to the faster 65C02 processor, and it has some unique features that aren't found in the other official versions, such as a scrolling text demo, printer support and the ability to take screenshots.

Here are some suggestions for exploring this version of Elite: