Information on Angus Duggan's extended version of Elite
Elite-A is Angus Duggan's epic extended version of Elite, and is a must-play for fans of the original.
In the late 1980s, only a few years after the original game was launched, Angus took the BBC Micro disc version, decrypted it, and disassembled it using his own hand-rolled assembly ROM fitted to a BBC Micro with a 6502 Second Processor. He then reassembled it (again with his own ROM), but only after adding an impressive array of extra features, including a unique set of new ship designs, the ability to buy and fly a selection of different ships, special cargo transport missions, an encyclopedia packed full of Elite lore, a faster version that runs on the 6502 Second Processor, and more.
It's an 8-bit coding tour de force, and comes highly recommended. Ian Bell, co-author of the original Elite, has this to say on his website:
Also available here is Angus Duggan's Elite-A, a comprehensive enhancement of BBC Elite. He created this by disassembling the object code and then reprogramming the resultant source. A significant achievement for which respect is due.
Angus used Acornsoft's VIEW word processor as his IDE, and built the whole thing without the benefit of modern tooling. A significant achievement, indeed.
I am very grateful to Angus for giving me permission to analyse his work on Elite-A, and for providing me with the original source files.
Here are some suggestions for exploring this version of Elite:
- Play Elite-A in your browser, in either the original or the flicker-free version (read more about the latter).
- Download a disc image of this version from the downloads page, which you can load into an emulator or real machine.
- Find out how this version works under the hood with over 100 deep dive articles covering every aspect of the game.
- See Angus's Elite-A site for a complete run-down of all the game's features and modifications over BBC Micro disc Elite.
- Navigate the codebase using the map of the source code, A-Z index and source code cross-references.
- See comprehensive details of all the different variants of this version.
- Download the game disc from Angus's Elite-A site.
- Build this version from the source code with the accompanying GitHub repository.
- See this game in the BBC Micro Games Archive.