Oolite Literature

From Elite Wiki
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For stories about Oolite: see List of Oolite stories

Overview

Blame Robert Holdstock! Instead of a manual telling a new player how to play Classic Elite (load game, save game, etc.), he wrote a manual telling new pilots how to fly their new ship! You don't press keys on a keyboard, you press controls on an astrogation console! Brilliant! And it all grew from there.

In terms of immersion, Holdstock was spot on! The combination of his manual with his short novel The Dark Wheel helped create a world in the imagination which built on the brilliant game created by Bell & Braben and the overall effect left a lasting impression on so many people. This eventually led to Aegidian creating Oolite, twenty years later.

This is the current state of play...

Elite Books which you can actually read

Books mentioned in Elite

  • GC Orbit and System Space Code, (Federation Planet Bureau) (see the above Manual p.22)
  • PsychoHistory and Economic Theory in the GalFederation, Kroweki & Carr (2845) - analysis of government types and affect on trade (Manual p.47)
  • Jane's Galactic Ships and Remote Colonial Construction (5th edition, 3205, Trantor House) - the complete reference guide (Manual p.52)
Jane's Galactic Shipset OXP tweaks the vanilla game shipset to conform to this in terms of size, speed etc.

Oolite Books which you can read

A racing special issue of What Spaceship?

Books mentioned in Oolite Wikipedia articles

Poetry mentioned in Oolite Wikipedia articles

  • Scrolls of the Poet Lexegez: The work of Lexegez is said to be the finest and most accurate poetic description of the universe, with their Quanteisrion cycle, describing all of the 2,040 worlds known during their time, probably the most famous. These are first generation facsimiles, believed by the most pretentious of galactic society to be the best way to experience the poems. Most people just buy the book. (from New Cargoes OXP)
  • Poetry: Xesoon in Chart 3 counts as Communist mostly because it had to be filed somewhere. The citizenry communicates entirely through poetry, and the Constitution is a fifty-thousand word epic. Government business is carried out through an annual song-poem, to which any citizen may append a verse to set out and approve of their business for the year. While private enterprise is technically allowed, the locals prefer to add their work to the song-poem, and outsiders who can compose poetry to the standards required to do business are extremely rare. (from Ship's Library OXP).
  • Poetry: Famous Planets introduces Lexuq, the Xequerinian lobstoid poet whose death in the fourth galaxy on Sector4/Dienon allegedly gave birth to the Coomunin.

Classic Elite, of course, contains innumerable references to Edible Poets, Evil Poets & Mountain Poets, not to mention the eccentric love of poetry which DrBeeb morphed into a regretful support of poetry!

Magazines existing in Oolite

In a category of their own

In-game advice with a difference:

See also