Post by: welchbloke on July 11, 2009, 06:05:47 PM
Post by: Haegan2005 on July 11, 2009, 08:14:28 PM
Post by: welchbloke on July 11, 2009, 08:38:47 PM
Quote from: "Haegan2005"
I am not even sure what Elite is. May I have a link?Certainly, this is a link to the Oolite Wiki that has all the necessary links:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page
Elite was a classic space trading/fighting game that was released in 1984 for the BBC model B originally followed by versions for the Spectrum, C64 and others. It was originally a 3d black and white wireframe game.
Post by: xtfoster on July 12, 2009, 06:22:19 PM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Title says it all really. Anyone play the object orientated freeware game Oolite? I'm currently reliving my teenage years playing it (its a freeware version of the classic game Elite). So many games so little timeI remember playing Elite (all those many years ago) on my C-64. I remember the Copy Protection was a little plastic thing you would put up against the screen to "translate" an image into a couple of letters that allowed you to play the game. Was quite a problem at the time because I was using a 35-inch television as my monitor and I would have to be a couple of feet away from the screen to get the image correct...would still take 3 or 4 tries before I could get in.
Post by: sloanjh on July 12, 2009, 10:21:04 PM
John
Post by: welchbloke on July 13, 2009, 04:09:23 AM
Quote from: "xtfoster"
Quote from: "welchbloke"Title says it all really. Anyone play the object orientated freeware game Oolite? I'm currently reliving my teenage years playing it (its a freeware version of the classic game Elite). So many games so little time :D I've played Oolite a few times now and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
Post by: welchbloke on July 13, 2009, 04:10:10 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Elite TOTALLY rocked. I remember looking for years (and never finding) such a good 3D space shooter GUI.So did I, which is why I was chuffed to find this freeware version.
John
Post by: Shinanygnz on July 13, 2009, 11:25:05 AM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Title says it all really. Anyone play the object orientated freeware game Oolite? I'm currently reliving my teenage years playing it (its a freeware version of the classic game Elite). So many games so little time :D
Post by: mavikfelna on July 13, 2009, 04:02:53 PM
--Mav
Post by: welchbloke on July 14, 2009, 07:20:32 AM
Quote from: "mavikfelna"
I never played Elite so when I took a look at it, I couldn't figure out anything on Oolite. I used to love playing Privateer on the 386 but I haven't played anything like it since then.I know the online manual and instructions are a bit difficult to find and then understand; I can't see this as a game that appeals to new players but to people like me on a nostalgia trip. I remember privateer(vaguely) and it was games like that and Elite that hooked me on space games (ultimately leading me to Aurora amongst other games) and also fueled my interest in space ultimately leading to me taking an honours degree in astrophysics. So a simple wireframe game on the Spectrum 48k has a lot to answer for
--Mav
Post by: TrueZuluwiz on September 13, 2009, 09:45:30 PM
Post by: welchbloke on September 13, 2009, 10:09:12 PM
Quote from: "TrueZuluwiz"
My game was Red Storm Rising on the C128D. Won the war several times, ended up in a Siberian labor camp once or twice.Played that too, there was another WWIII game like that which always ended up in a nuclear exchange(the way I played it as a14 yr old!) but I can't remember what it was called now. I used to love the SSI WWII strategy games as well. Sorry, came over all nostalgic there
Post by: Shinanygnz on September 14, 2009, 11:48:48 AM
Edit: Rummage, rummage, rummage in box of old C64 games. Here it is... NATO Commander.
I loved Red Lightning on the Amiga for a WWIII game. Combat checked to individual vehicle level, an interesting air war and you had to send troops to Iceland & Norway to influence the battle for the Atlantic. I managed to find a download of it for PC too.
SSI did produce some fine games.
I'm currently um-ing and ah-ing over buying Harpoon Commanders Edition from Matrix Games.
Post by: welchbloke on September 14, 2009, 04:08:39 PM
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 14, 2009, 05:36:55 PM
Quote from: "Shinanygnz"
Might have been NATO on the C64. Nukes usually ended up being thrown around.I remember that one. After you used a nuke there was a small crater on the map :)
Edit: Rummage, rummage, rummage in box of old C64 games. Here it is... NATO Commander.
SSI did produce some fine games.[/quote]
Played that too, although I think it might have been on the Atari
Quote
I'm currently um-ing and ah-ing over buying Harpoon Commanders Edition from Matrix Games.I bought the first few versions of Harpoon, although I haven't bought that particular one. Please post a review if you do. One of my most memorable gaming experience was the first scenario in the first Harpoon PC game where you had to escort a pair of cargo ships and got attacked by some missile boats. Aurora is strongly influenced by my Harpoon gaming.
Steve
Post by: sloanjh on September 14, 2009, 10:11:41 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
I learned about Harpoon (the minatures rules) from the reference to it in the forward of Red Storm Rising (the book). I bought the game, and most of the expansions (*sniff* I miss GDW *sniff*). I actually decided to learn C by coding Harpoon up on my C64 while I was in grad school. I got it up to the point where I ran a few missile engagements (all text based - no gui) of a Backfire strike on a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. Then, IIRC, I heard that someone was writing a computer version and my motivation waned :-)Quote from: "Shinanygnz"I'm currently um-ing and ah-ing over buying Harpoon Commanders Edition from Matrix Games.I bought the first few versions of Harpoon, although I haven't bought that particular one. Please post a review if you do. One of my most memorable gaming experience was the first scenario in the first Harpoon PC game where you had to escort a pair of cargo ships and got attacked by some missile boats. Aurora is strongly influenced by my Harpoon gaming.
John
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 15, 2009, 08:54:21 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
I learned about Harpoon (the minatures rules) from the reference to it in the forward of Red Storm Rising (the book). I bought the game, and most of the expansions (*sniff* I miss GDW *sniff*).I used to enjoy GDW games as well. Looking at games collection (which is always close to hand
), I can see Harpoon, the four WWIII games (The Third World War, Southern Front, Arctic Front and Persian Gulf), the Assault games (Three copies of Assault, two of Chieftan, Bundeswehr, Boots and Saddles), Twilight 2000, Traveller 2300AD, Star Cruiser, Battle Rider, Brilliant Lances and Traveller: The New Era. There are probably some more in storage as well. Harpoon was a great game but I think my favourite GDW games are the WWIII collection. I have set the whole thing up (all four games at once) and played it through twice, although the last time was many years ago.Steve
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 15, 2009, 08:57:19 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Even so, I think Red Storm Rising (the C64 game) was one of my all-time favorites, along with Elite.Was that called Red Lightning rather than Red Storm Rising, or am I thinking of a different game?
Elite was certainly one of the most memorable games of all time. It was also my first game on a floppy disk instead of tape and I remember being massively impressed by the 1-2 second load time instead of 7-8 minutes for many of the tape games.
Steve
Post by: Shinanygnz on September 15, 2009, 01:09:04 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "sloanjh"Even so, I think Red Storm Rising (the C64 game) was one of my all-time favorites, along with Elite.Was that called Red Lightning rather than Red Storm Rising, or am I thinking of a different game?
Elite was certainly one of the most memorable games of all time. It was also my first game on a floppy disk instead of tape and I remember being massively impressed by the 1-2 second load time instead of 7-8 minutes for many of the tape games.
Steve
Different games I think. Played RL through several times, but never has RSR even though I loved the book.
The Harpoon Commander's Edition is a fully up to date version of the original Amiga game it seems. with all the battlesets and more. They also do the updated wireframe Harpoon 3 one. Harpgamer.com has more info. I am weakening. Credit cards nearby...
Post by: welchbloke on September 15, 2009, 04:40:32 PM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Thanks to Welchbloke, I finally broke down and downloaded Oolite last week - been spending way too much time in nostalgia-land with it since :wink: I've had to take a rest from Oolite for a couple of weeks (I sure I was becoming obsessed). All of this renewed discussion, suddenly makes me want to get the laptop out again......
Post by: sloanjh on September 15, 2009, 11:12:42 PM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Quote from: "sloanjh"Thanks to Welchbloke, I finally broke down and downloaded Oolite last week - been spending way too much time in nostalgia-land with it since :wink: I've had to take a rest from Oolite for a couple of weeks (I sure I was becoming obsessed). All of this renewed discussion, suddenly makes me want to get the laptop out again......
I've had to limit my play because my right wrist is starting to flare up
John
Post by: sloanjh on September 15, 2009, 11:23:06 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "sloanjh"Even so, I think Red Storm Rising (the C64 game) was one of my all-time favorites, along with Elite.Was that called Red Lightning rather than Red Storm Rising, or am I thinking of a different game?
Elite was certainly one of the most memorable games of all time. It was also my first game on a floppy disk instead of tape and I remember being massively impressed by the 1-2 second load time instead of 7-8 minutes for many of the tape games.
Steve
Different game. It was an early submarine simulator, similar to 688 attack sub, silent service, dangerous waters, etc. The title came from the USS Chicago thread of the book. The nice thing about the game was that it got a really good balance between abstracting away micromanagement details and having various stations where you performed interesting tasks. IIRC, it had a waterfall sonar station where you'd first acquire possible contacts - you'd have to sprint a ways and look for the contact again to get some idea of the range. At some point you'd go to a narrow-band station where you'd see a contact's spectrum and try to match it against a library to figure out which class the contact was. I think it had the computer (i.e. your plotting staff) handling all the Target Motion Analysis, so that was a bit of dull complexity that you weren't forced to manage. A lot of the excitement came when trying to evade detection or attack (you could give engine and heading commands, and drop decoy noisemakers) - I have a vague memory of hours of fun trying to thread my way through lines of sonobouys and dipping sonars (although I may be getting that part mixed up with Harpoon).
I went googling for it a few years ago in the hopes that someone had ported it to the PC, but no such luck. Maybe I'll see if I can find an old C64 that still works on EBay - I probably still have the old floppies around somewhere.
John
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 16, 2009, 12:28:50 PM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Quote from: "welchbloke"Quote from: "sloanjh"Thanks to Welchbloke, I finally broke down and downloaded Oolite last week - been spending way too much time in nostalgia-land with it since :wink: I've had to take a rest from Oolite for a couple of weeks (I sure I was becoming obsessed). All of this renewed discussion, suddenly makes me want to get the laptop out again......
I've had to limit my play because my right wrist is starting to flare up :)
Steve
Post by: sloanjh on September 16, 2009, 11:34:29 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
I am so glad you included a quote with that post
LOL