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Elite on the BBC Micro and NES

Index of all Elite hacks

A list of all the Elite hacks on this site

When exploring the source code for seminal games like Elite, one often gets to thinking about what might have been, about what still could be. The following Elite-related hacks are exactly the kinds of thing that happen when, as a coder, you decide to take the detour.

As one Elite fan to another, I really hope you enjoy the treasures on this page. They are all made with a great deal of love - for the original game, and for the joy of coding. Right on, Commanders!

Elite Compendium
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The Elite Compendium brings together the very best Elite hacks. Exclusively for the BBC Master, it contains features from multiple versions of 6502 Elite and packs them all into one disc. If you want to start somewhere, start here.

The menu for the Elite Compendium

Elite Universe Editor
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I always wondered what it would be like to fly my Cobra Mk III through the iconic screenshot on the back of the box, so I wrote the Elite Universe Editor to find out. Turns out it's quite the experience...

The screenshot from the back of the box

Flicker-free Elite
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The BBC Master's flicker-free ships are a thing of beauty, so I just had to backport the algorithm to the original BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Commodore 64 versions. The results are super-smooth...

Teletext Elite
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Love Ceefax? Me too! Adore Elite? Sure do! Want to see what happens when we squish them together? Yes, you do, because Teletext Elite turns out to be something really special...

Teletext Elite rear space view

BBC Micro Elite... with music!
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The Commodore 64 version of Elite includes two pieces of music: a catchy title track, and the classic Blue Danube that plays when the docking computer is engaged. Thanks to some technical wizardry from the Bitshifters, I've been able to backport both tunes to the BBC Micro, in all their 8-bit glory...

BBC Micro disc Elite on the BBC Master
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The BBC Master is a wonderful computer, but did you know it can't run the original 1984 version of Elite? This simply will not do, so I've converted BBC Micro disc Elite to work on the BBC Master, because everyone knows space should be black-and-white...

BBC Micro disc Elite screenshot

Elite over Econet
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Acorn's Econet networking system was popular in schools, providing a cost-effective way to share expensive resources like printers and disc drives between multiple workstations for entire classroms. But tragically, Elite doesn't load over Econet... until now! Teachers, you may want to look away...

The classroom at the National Museum of Computing