The Space Traders Flight Training Manual
The original 64 page Instruction Manual.
Created by Robert Holdstock, Ian Bell & David Braben for the very first game, Classic Elite.
Contents:
*1 Introductory Data
- Interior of a Cobra Mk III
- Your rating as a combateer
*2 Navigation and Flying
- Flying and navigational controls
- Leaving the space station
- Making for your target world
- Travelling to other galaxies
- Docking procedure
*3 Interplanetary Travel
- In-flight combat
- Controls and tactics
- Likely enemies
- Equipping the Cobra Mk III
- Weaponry and non-combative equipment
- How to buy the equipment for your ship
- In-flight combat
*4 Intergalactic Trading
- How to trade
- Advice to traders
- Alternatives to Trading
- Piracy
- Bounty hunting
- Asteroid Mining
- Free Space Cargo
- Illegal Trading
*5 Political Profile of the Universe
- Consequences for Trade (not all political states are detailed here)
- Corporate States
- Dictatorships
- Anarchy Planets
- Alien races (not all are detailed here - eg reptiloids)
- Bird-forms
- Amphiboids
- Felines
- Insectoids
- Consequences for Trade (not all political states are detailed here)
*6 Observer's Guide to Ships in Service
- Adder
- Anaconda
- Asp Mk II
- Boa Class Cruiser
- Cobra Mk I
- Cobra Mk III
- Fer-de-Lance
- Gecko
- Krait
- Mamba
- Moray Starboat
- Python
- Orbit Shuttles
- Sidewinder Scout Ship
- Thargoid Invasion Ships (with remote controlled fighters)
- Transporter
- Viper (Police Ship)
- Worm class Landing Craft
*7 Pilot's Log
You can download your own copy from here.
Commentary
Holdstock's version of the Instruction Manual was a great innovation. It was written for newly-qualified pilots, not for teenage players of a computer game. And it made references to all sorts of things not part of the game itself. Generation ships. Deep space dredgers. Other versions of lasers. Government bodies and other publications. In effect, it became a major source of Lore for those who bought the entire boxed game and read all the contents. It was a major factor in creating the immersion which engulfed so many of the original players.
Well worth reading!
OXPs
- Lore Collection (Classic Elite) includes the relevant oxz's from the Expansions Manager to help transform Oolite into a lore-laden Elite (but see the wiki page for details of unincluded oxp's)
