All the versions of Acornsoft Elite on this site have had a few different variants released over the years. For example, the BBC Micro disc version was launched with a couple of serious issues (the "refund" and "asteroid" bugs), so Acornsoft quickly released a new variant containing a set of fixes. And then there are the various unofficial variants and source discs put out by the authors, as well as extended versions like Elite-A.
This table lists all the different contemporary variants of Acornsoft Elite that I know about. Note that in the first column, "Cassette" and "Disc" refer to the BBC Micro cassette and BBC Micro disc versions respectively. The links will take you to more information for each variant, where you can also find download links and a detailed list of what makes that variant unique. For officially released variants, the relevant Acornsoft product code is shown.
To avoid confusion, I haven't included any of the modern versions of Elite that are available from this site (such as flicker-free Elite, Teletext Elite or the Elite Universe Editor). The following is a list of variants from the 1980s; see the Elite hacks section for details of more recent developments.
| Version | Variant | Product details | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
- | 1984 | ||
- | 1984 | ||
Acornsoft SBG38 | 1984 | ||
Acornsoft SNG38a | 1984 | ||
Acornsoft SNG38b Acornsoft SNG47 | 1984 | ||
- | 1988-9 | ||
Acornsoft SLG38a | 1984 | ||
Acornsoft SLG38b Superior Software | 1984 1986 | ||
Acornsoft SNG45 Acornsoft SNG47 | 1985 | ||
- | 1985 | ||
- | 1985? | ||
Acornsoft SNG47 | 1986 | ||
Superior Software | 1987 | ||
From Angus Duggan's site | Late 1980s | ||
- | Late 1980s |
a Indicates an original release that contains at least one bug.
b Indicates a subsequent release that contains bug fixes.
This table is not necessarily comprehensive, but it contains every 1980s variant that I am aware of.
I've listed the details of official products, where applicable. Note that different variants can be released via the same product SKU; for example, the original BBC Micro disc version, released by Acornsoft as SNG38, has some bugs in the launch version that were later fixed, so the Acornsoft SNG38 product contains at least two variants. Interestingly, most of the official Acornsoft releases contain what look like version numbers buried in the code; for example the BBC Micro cassette version contains a zero-length file called "V1" at the end of the tape, while the BBC Micro disc version's $.ELITE loader program contains a REM statement referring to "BBC Version 1" (a REM that changes to "Version n" in the multi-version SNG47 release). However, these numbers seem to stay the same for all the different variants of a given version, so they aren't terribly useful when trying to talk about the different variants, as they don't actually represent version numbers.
Note that "TBC" in the above means that I am still working to confirm whether the variant on this site matches an official release byte-for-byte.