Elite Compendium (BBC Master) - the best Elite hacks, all in one place

[MarkMoxon]

I'm delighted to announce the release of my latest Elite-related project: the Elite Compendium for the BBC Master.

The Compendium is a collection of the very best of Acornsoft Elite, updated with as many hacks and enhancements as I've been able to fit in. If you're looking to play 8-bit Elite, then this is a pretty good place to start.

I've had quite a few requests to combine multiple hacks together, and I hope you like the result! There are also some Compendium-specific features - see below.

Here are some links:

• You can find out more information on bbcelite.com here

• You can play the Compendium in your browser here (or if you want to try the 6502 co-pro version, here)

• You can download a disc image from the downloads page here

• You can read more about the extra features in the Compendium here

This is the Elite Compendium disc menu:

The Compendium contains four full versions of Elite - BBC Master 128, 6502 Second Processor, BBC Micro disc and Teletext Elite - plus the Elite Universe Editor. All have been updated to run beautifully on the BBC Master.

• All four games have been updated with flicker-free ships and planets, music, and volume control for both music and sound effects

• The BBC Master 128 version also has a collection of features backported from the various other 6502 versions, such as the Trumbles mission, improvements to the docking computer, red enemy lasers, bug fixes and more. These are exclusive to the Compendium version.

• I've also slowed down the 6502 Second Processor version so it's actually playable on the Master's super-fast co-pro. I quite like it now.

I am sure there will be a few bugs with this; squeezing multiple hacks into Elite is like herding cats! If you have any problems, do let me know and I'll look into it.

Right on Commanders!

Mark

[Cruxinc]

celebrate good times come on!

[bob147]

Excellent, I look forward to giving this version a try, I've never played any of the trumbles versions before so that'll be a nice treat. I swear your greatest achievement from your entire Elite exploration is that you haven't become hopelessly confused and disorganised from managing all of the different versions, features and hacks. A testament to the website design for the sure

[MarkMoxon]

Excellent, I look forward to giving this version a try, I've never played any of the trumbles versions before so that'll be a nice treat.

The best way to do the Trumbles mission is to go in blind. I will say no more.

I swear your greatest achievement from your entire Elite exploration is that you haven't become hopelessly confused and disorganised from managing all of the different versions, features and hacks. A testament to the website design for the sure

Well, it is almost all automated behind the scenes, so that helps. If you're interested, I explained how it works in this post.

Without the automation, this would be way harder!

Mark

[bob147]

Hi Mark, I'm at it again with a (possible) bug. If I'm to understand the description of the compendium's new features, I should have the docking computer enabled even with the default commander? Pressing C doesn't seem to be working for me. This is the vanilla BBC Master version (alas no copro). I do like the red enemy lasers, it makes them stand out a bit more.

[MarkMoxon]

Hi Mark, I'm at it again with a (possible) bug. If I'm to understand the description of the compendium's new features, I should have the docking computer enabled even with the default commander? Pressing C doesn't seem to be working for me. This is the vanilla BBC Master version (alas no copro). I do like the red enemy lasers, it makes them stand out a bit more.

No, the default commander doesn't come with a docking computer (that's a NES feature that I didn't backport). You have to load the MAX, MISS1 or MISS2 commander files to get the docking computer.

I've reworded the section in the technical information page to make this a bitg clearer, but if it's still confusing, let me know!

Glad you like the red lasers. They're great.

Mark

[tnash]

Mark your work on all this is fantastic and it's fascinating reading the writeups.

Which version would you recommend for me please, as

a) an Elite newbie ( the original at least, I played frontier and ffe to death but I've never gone further than the initial launch on the original)
b) playing on a BBC B with pitubedirect and 32k swram

Many thanks in advance
Tom

[MarkMoxon]

Hi Tom.

Good question!

Personally, I would recommend flicker-free BBC Micro disc Elite, available from here:

https://www.bbcelite.com/hacks/flicker- ... loads.html

This is the original 1984 disc version, but with flicker-free graphics.

You could opt for the flicker-free 6502 Second Processor version instead, as you have a co-pro, but while this version has more colours, it's brutally fast and difficult to play. Personally I'm not that convinced by the garish dashboard - I prefer the original black-and-white space view and four-colour dashboard myself. And for a first Elite experience, this version is flashy, but it's just too hard.

You could also go for the musical version of Elite, as you have SWRAM, but that would be at the expense of the flicker-free graphics, and I think the latter is a much bigger improvement. I haven't been able to combine both on the Beeb, unfortunately, so you have to pick one over the other.

The good thing is that you can load your commander files into all these different versions, so once you've got the hang of the game, you can mix and match as much you like. But I'd definitely go for the original disc version with flicker-free graphics as your first experience, as it's an absolute classic, and the flicker-free mod does make it look quite a lot nicer.

Oh, to be to able to play Acornsoft Elite for the first time again! You're really in for a treat...

Mark

[james]

Mr Moxon, sir. I've just downloaded the Compendium disc image and ran the Master version. At Zaonce, the space station looks distorted. Mostly it's OK, but often enough bits stick out (or in). Is this to be expected?

NB: This Master is running MOS 3.50 release "B" https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewt ... 63#p407563

[MarkMoxon]

Mr Moxon, sir. I've just downloaded the Compendium disc image and ran the Master version. At Zaonce, the space station looks distorted.

Oooh, no, that's not expected at all! I'll see if I can take a look at some point, it looks like the station blueprint is getting corrupted.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll see if I can track down the cause...

Mark

[MarkMoxon]

Mr Moxon, sir. I've just downloaded the Compendium disc image and ran the Master version. At Zaonce, the space station looks distorted.

Oooh, no, that's not expected at all! I'll see if I can take a look at some point, it looks like the station blueprint is getting corrupted.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll see if I can track down the cause...

Hi James.

I've fixed that issue. There was an incorrect address in the rotation routine (my fault!), so rotations will have been a bit wonky throughout, but it's all good now, I hope.

You can download the new version from my site:

https://www.bbcelite.com/versions/elite ... endium.dsd

You can check the version with *TYPE README on the disc, just to make sure your browser isn't cacheing the old one.

I hope this works for you - let me know if you're still having problems!

Mark

[james]

Thanks Mark. The latest version seems to have regularly-shaped space stations again

This version seems to have much more passing traffic than the BBC disc version of my youth. Is there a difference or am I mis-remembering?

[MarkMoxon]

Thanks Mark. The latest version seems to have regularly-shaped space stations again

Great! I'm glad that's fixed - thank you for letting me know.

This version seems to have much more passing traffic than the BBC disc version of my youth. Is there a difference or am I mis-remembering?

There is definitely more traffic in the Master and 6502SP versions, but interestingly the spawning logic is identical to that of the disc version:

https://www.bbcelite.com/compare/main/s ... enhanced-3

However the disc version doesn't have shuttle and transporter blueprints in many of the ship blueprint files, so although the spawning code is the same, quite a few of those spawnings will fail due to a lack of available blueprint in the currently loaded file:

https://www.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/shi ... rsion.html

This isn't true in the Master and 6502SP versions as all ship blueprints are in memory at the same time, so this means we see lots more shuttles and transporters than in the disc version.

It’s quite common for a transporter to follow you out of the slot - you can’t hang around in this version!

Mark