NES Elite

The last version of 8-bit Classic Elite by Bell and Braben was for the NES (Famicon) system. A description of this, and other early versions of Elite can be found on Ian Bell's website NES-Elite.

A number of noticeable changes have occurred by this later version compared to the original BBC disk version. The snapshots here are from the undistributed NTSC

First, a new player has to complete a 'mini-mission' of combat in a simulator before starting the classic game. Three craft fly over-head (Sidewinder, Krait and Mamba), the player has no witchspace fuel, the planet Lave and its sun are rendered in the distance. The time taken to destroy the three craft is reported, and then the classic game starts with Jameson being awarded his own Cobra Mk. III ship, 3 missiles and 100 Credits.

Next, the launch sequence has been enhanced, the ship is accelerated down a long rectangular tube with a electrified force-field at the end, indicating the barrier to outer space.

A docking computer is already supplied with the ship, as a game-skip feature.

Lave_tube.mov (warning 19 Mbytes)