Information on the self-playing version of Elite
The 1984 release of Elite on the BBC Micro was a big deal, big enough for Acornsoft to produce a dedicated Elite Demonstration Disc to send out to shops to promote the game. This disc contains a self-playing variant of the cassette version of BBC Micro Elite that was designed to be left running on a BBC Micro to show people exactly how groundbreaking this epic game was.
Although it loads from floppy disc, the demonstration is based on the cassette version, with various routines disabled (such as the save and load code), and various routines added (such as the autopilot code, which uses the docking computer code from the disc version). This means that the whole thing fits into memory, so once it's loaded it doesn't need the floppy disc again, unlike the more advanced disc version, so shops could fire up the demo and then hide the disc somewhere safe, to prevent anyone slipping away with this most precious piece of gaming history.
The demonstration starts with the iconic title screen with its rotating Cobra, and then runs through the various game screens, stocking up with fuel and missiles and buying a random selection of cargo before launching from the space station. It then brings up the Short-range Chart and sets a course for Riedquat, the nearest anarchy system, and jumps into hyperspace to take on the inevitable influx of pirates. There's an autopilot that takes over and tries to fight off any attacks, and when it's peaceful (which it isn't very often), the ship turns and heads for the planet and the distant safety of the space station. Spoiler alert: the chances of it getting there are incredibly slim as the autopilot is pretty useless, so when the pirates inevitably win, the whole cycle starts again.
If I had seen this running in a shop, I'd have been blown away. It's still an entertaining bit of viewing today, as you can find out in the links below.
Here are some suggestions for exploring this version of Elite:
- Navigate the codebase using the map of the source code, A-Z index and source code cross-references.
- Find out how this version works under the hood with over 130 deep dive articles covering every aspect of the game.
- Play the Elite Demonstration Disc in your browser.
- Download a disc image of this version from the downloads page, which you can load into an emulator or real machine.
- See the code statistics for this version.
- Download the game disc from the Stairway to Hell archive.
- Build this version from the source code with the accompanying GitHub repository.
- Visit Frontier Astro to see more about this version of Elite.