The classic BBC Micro game, updated for two-player action on just one machine
Elite has been crying out for a two-player option since I fell in love with it as a young teenager back in 1984. When friends came around to visit back in the day, we'd jump straight into the greatest BBC Micro game of all, each of us not-so-patiently waiting for our turn at the controls. If we wanted to share the experience then the best we could do was to split up the keyboard duties, with one person flying and shooting, and another on co-pilot duties, manning the missiles and the red function keys while desperately trying to avoid the BREAK key. Indeed, the NES version of Elite officially enshrined this makeshift co-op approach by allowing two pilots to fly together, with one controller each, but none of this was proper two-player Elite, it was just single-player Elite, split between a pilot and co-pilot. And let's be honest, since when did teenage boys want to cooperate? Well, quite...
It would take exactly 30 years for proper multiplayer to be added to the Elite franchise, with the release of Elite Dangerous in 2014. But although I am a great fan of the latter and have played it into the ground, there's still nothing quite like the original 8-bit combat for me, and the dream of proper 6502-based head-to-head combat never left my wishlist. I dabbled with a form of multiplayer with the Elite over Econet multiplayer scoreboard, and although that's a lot of fun, it still isn't head-to-head combat.
So two-player Elite was inevitable. This hack of the original game code adds proper arena combat to the 8-bit original, with a split-screen view and two completely independent commanders flying completely independent ships. Sure, players might still have to share the keyboard and joysticks, but this is real multiplayer Elite, not some pretend co-pilot setup. I've disabled all the parts of the game that don't really make sense in a split-screen context - hyperspace and trading wouldn't really work, if we're honest - and instead this is all about deep space dogfighting between two combat-ready commanders.
Here's a short video showing the configuration screen and a fight between a human player 1 and a computer-controlled player 2:
You can change your ship type and configure your loadout, choosing everything from lasers and missiles to E.C.M. and energy units; and you can either fight to the death, or you can win by being the first to score a specific number of hits. Each player has their own configuration, so you can have a fun match even if your real-life commander skills are wildly different.
If you haven't got a human opponent handy, then you can still play two-player Elite - you just set player 2 to be the AI Pilot. This uses the exact same tactics code from the original game to give you a proper fight, so it's like combat in the original Elite, except the game shows the view from the enemy ship as well as the human player. For those of us who grew up trying to imagine what it was like inside the ships of our deep space opponents, this is quite a thrill.
This first release of the game is based on the 6502 Second Processor version of Elite, as the two-player code is pretty memory hungry and benefits from the faster processor. I'm hoping that it might be feasible to squeeze it into a standard BBC Micro or BBC Master at some point, but no promises.
For one human player, the computer is all you need, as you can play against the AI Pilot on keyboard or joystick. For two human players you will need at least one joystick, although twin joysticks is more fun. And if you want the ultimate 1980s gaming experience, then you can use a pair of 14-button Delta 14B controllers along with a 14B/1 adaptor box, in which case every function you need during combat is on the joystick's keypad. This latter setup really is living the dream - there's no need to share anything except the screen and a sense of awe.
Talking of which, here are my twin Delta 14B sticks, plugged into a BBC Micro B+ that's been signed by David Braben (the second processor is a PiTubeDirect that's tucked underneath). It's the perfect machine for playing a bit of two-player Elite:
As with all my hacks, everything can be run on genuine 1980s hardware, so this game could have existed back in the day. I just wish I could travel back in time and hand it over to my teenage self; but I can't, so instead I hope you enjoy it as much as 1980s me would have done.