Frontier First Encounters - your thoughts?

hamster

I have been living under a rock regarding this game. I played the original Elite a lot but never it's sequels (or the bug problems).

I finally got FFE and using the re-engineered .exe (JJFFE) which kills most of the bugs and allows flawless play in Win9x, XP. Downloaded the manuals etc. FFE is now shareware btw. Go to http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/ for the patch.

Wow. This is a big game. Where do I start? I need some vets here to tell me what they think of game (even today). I find the idea of trading in a vast space system exciting (and not in a small limited sphere (effectively in each system) that was elite).

What did you like about it?
What did you hate about it?
And how much of your life have you (or are you!!!) wasted on this?

phoenix2181

played frontier for a solid 2 years when it came out on the amiga... supposely Elite 4 is in dev at the momentbut its been there for the last couple of years...anyone else have any news from it

hamster

Last word is that it is a "long way off". But what did you think of Encounters? What compelled you to play it for 2 years?

po0k

Originally posted by hamster
Last word is that it is a "long way off". But what did you think of Encounters? What compelled you to play it for 2 years?

He played Elite II: Frontier for two years, not Frontier: First Encounters.
I got Frontier and Micro Machines for Christmas about 9 years ago.
Bloody loved it.

I picked up FE in Smyth's in Tallaght a few years ago for a fiver on floppy disc, but disc 3 or 2 got corrupted.
Would anyone care to pass on the installed directories to me?
I remember seeing the JJFFE .exe, but never got a chance to ty it.
Any changes to the engine?
Pure 32-bit now I take it?
Does it run under 2K?

Has anyone come across linux binaries for any of the Elite games?

hamster

Get the linux binaries for JJFFE here

get FE2 or FFE here

get the John Jordan's version of JJ-FFE here

If you're running Win95, Win98, WinME, Win2000 or WinXP, the best version is generally the Win32/DirectX5 version. This won't run on WinNT4 - you need to download the Win32/DirectX3 version instead.
The download page for JJFFE is here but remember you need one of games above. This just replaces the main .exe

Hope this helps? I can run it full screen (crtl+F12) or windowed (which looks smooth).

hamster

Just playing it now in a window and very smooth - All the faqs are saying... save often... save after you save. Did you save? The new .exe reduces the bugs to a minimum.

I often mix elite 2 & 3 as the name confuse. As I said I played Elite but for some reason I never got around to the others. I remember reading the review in PC Format in early '94 but I only had a 486DX2 then and the P90 beasts could not really handle it (smoke trails?) but Faqs say that P120+ it flies... Now we need Speedbrake and Slomo

Here's a piccie with links in XP.

phoenix2181

this might sound like a stupid question but is there any games like Elite 2 frontier at there at the moment.....someone said that X2 was similar... I've played freelancer & edge of chaos but there no were near as good as Frontier?

po0k

Eve Online is apparently like a giant Elite MMORPG.
Dunno how ture that is though.

IWar2:EOC was great I thought.
Really atmospheric.

amp

I played the various Frontier games starting with what ever first came out on the Amiga. Got it for the PC, got the sequel (remember the ads they put out with the squashed cockroach ). I got the re-engineered version a while ago and played it solid for about 4/5 months until I had an Imperial Trader, did the various missions and stuff.

I loved it then, to the extent that I had a notepad with the names of Traders who were actually cops instead and various stations that sold wierd stuff.

These days it's a bit boring and ugly but it's still in my top 5 favourite games of all time.

phoenix2181

I think the thing that drew me to Frontier was that you could become almost anything in the game...pirate, trader etc..& the game for the most part was totally open which was a new quite a new idea at the time, the graphics engine was also totally new & I was always amzed that they could fit so much on to 2 floppies especially compared to the bloatware at there at the moment

po0k

Originally posted by phoenix2181
I think the thing that drew me to Frontier was that you could become almost anything in the game...pirate, trader etc..& the game for the most part was totally open which was a new quite a new idea at the time, the graphics engine was also totally new & I was always amzed that they could fit so much on to 2 floppies especially compared to the bloatware at there at the moment

Wasn't it more like one floppy on the amiga version?
The other disc for for savegames.

phoenix2181

yep your right....I was having a senior moment...

Kali

Frontier (Elite 2) was excellent.. I can remember many a day playing it when i was 14.. the only problem with it was of course that after a couple of months of working your way up the Imperial rankings, having the best ship and kitted to the max you sorta went "err theres really nothing more to this game is there?" and abandonded it

MiCr0

how many pc games these days last serveral months of game play in single player??

Kali

Originally posted by MiCr0
how many pc games these days last serveral months of game play in single player??

and all that without any plot or storyline...

MiCr0

Originally posted by Kali
and all that without any plot or storyline...

there's loads of games that have no plot or storyline :rolleyes:

hamster

Well... I never played Elite 2 or 3 but I am trying First Encounters now as described at the beginning of this thread. But here's what I tried so far... a quiet start!


Captain Ship's Log:

---

Start Date: 1-Jan-3250 12:00:00 at
S= Star, P=Planet, M= Satellite, C=City, SP= SpacePort

---

S(RG)= Gateway[-1,4], P= Hope (3rd), C= Old Blackelk

Initial Ship Specs:
Saker III fighter (43 KCr, 28t, 23t capacity)
Class 1 Hyperdrive (10t, 10.71 ly)
Scanner (1t)
Automatic Pilot (1t)
Atmospheric Shielding (1t)
Navigation Computer (-)
Front Gun: 1MW Pulse Laser (1t)
LV111 Smart Missile (x2) (2t)
Remaining Cargo Space: (7t)
Inital Cash: 1000Cr

Buy:
Medicines (2t, 473.2 Cr),
Grain (3t, 37.4 Cr)
Minerals (2t, 7.1 Cr)
Hydrogen Fuel (1t, 10.4 Cr)

Launch Date: 1-Jan-3250 12:15:00
Hyperspace to Soholia

---===== END LOG =====---

Log: After Hyperspace 6-Jan-3250 01:00:00
Target:
S(M,faint)= Soholia[-1,5], P= Simpson's Hollow (1st), C= Casablanca park..
Industrial and Mining System

Arrive at Soholia[-1,5]. 7.842AU out from Simpson Hollow (1st).
Engaged the Autopilot. After one hour, continuous maximum thrust has accelerated the ship's velocity to 680 km/s! At about 5.5AU out the main rear thrusters cut out at when ship's velocity reached 100,000km/s and the front retro rockets fired to slow the ship down. Probably reach the small barren sphere of rock that is Simpson Hollow around 8-Jan-3250 06:00. At 15,000 Km out, the ship's autopilot engaged in a series of complex thrust combination as it slingshots around the planet. It burned the back thrusts again facing the planet to bleed off the forward momentum overshoot down from 100 km/s! It's back out at 60,000 Km before the net acceleration is towards the planet again. Casablanca Park is on the monitor at 06:50. Auto pilot do not land until 12:11. It has 3 glass domes, 2 are green and 1 is city like. I dock underground.

Did well on selling the medicines on the BBS system.

Buy:
Fertilizer (1t, 12.2 Cr)
Computers (2t, 330 Cr)
Air Processors (1t, 156.9 Cr)
Robots (2t, 533.8 Cr)
Farm machinery (1t, 59.5 Cr)
Metal Alloys (1t, 20.6 Cr)

Launch Date: 8-Jan-3250 12:40:00
Hyperspace to Gateway

---===== END LOG =====---

Log: After Hyperspace 13th-Jan-3250 01:00:00
Target:
S(RG)= Gateway[-1,4], P= Hope (3rd), C= Turner
Outdoor jungle, Tourism and agriculture

Arrive at Gateway[-1,4]. 14.085AU out from Hope. May take 4-5 days to reach Hope.

Jan 14th 20:48. I am fired upon by a craft labelled IQ-843 (Cobra MkI I suspect). I put 294km between it and myself. No visual identification as I am still heading to Hope which is now 3.992 AU away. Arrive and land at Turner on the 16th at 15:06 on landing zone 6.

Buy:
Medicines (8t, 784.2 Cr)

Launch Date: 16-Jan-3250 15:40:00
Hyperspace to Soholia

---===== END LOG =====---

Log: After Hyperspace 21-Jan-3250 04:00:00
Target:
S(M,faint)= Soholia[-1,5], P= Bradley's Legacy (3rd), C= New Wicca.
Industrial and Mining System

I arrive 10.451 AU from Bradley's Legacy. Autopilot proves troublesome wanting to crash into the planet. January 23rd 17:50, I dock at New Wicca. After selling medicines I have 27,000 Cr in cash. Bought 8 tons of Robots at 531.9 Cr each.

23-Jan 19:10, dock at spacestation Berlin. Impressive! Very 2001-que!

30-Jan 13:25, hyperspaced to Alioth, heading to Edinburgh on Turner's world.
Hmmm.... Alioth is the Capital of Alliance... and Turner's world orbits a Gas Giant!


What I like is the Physics of this thing... you get a feel for what it takes to speed and slow down eventually...! Very realistic trading. I am not concentrating on the combat aspect at the moment. The idea of a Mammoth Trading ship is class. I can't wait to visit the Sol system.

Scruff

Elite2: Frontier is definitely in my top 5 games ever. Played for about 2 years solid on my amiga 1200. The bigges gripe i had was that if you were doing a military recon runand had to fly low over a planet surface is that some times i'd only get 1fps...terrible altogerther.
Tried playing it again on the pc last year but for some reason the combat was impossible on the p.c., auto pilot would never lock on on time to a target so i couldnt even shoot one enemy down. ended up going back to the amiga version on an amiga emulator. much better imo.
Spent a good while looking to see if anyone have done a mod with upgraded graphics like hasbeen done for old classics like quake etc but didnt find anything. has anything been done since? i think that kind of mod would give Frontier and First Encounters a whole new lease of life.

shurl

Feckin love that game.

Had elite for the PC, but really got into it with Frontier Elite.
I spent countless hours tweekin the damn autoexec and config to get the blasted 580k mem

Got First Encounters when it came out. (insert could not wait for it to hit shelves)
Sorry i did though, was very pissed off at the state of the game (alpha build anyone)
Really felt like Braben was just throwing something out knowing full well that all the fans would snap it up. (or maybe to be fair it was the publishers puting the heat on)
Kick in the teeth.

Played it for a bit, but the state of the game/bugs and also machine spec/OS going up, got to a stage where I stopped playing it.


Now thanks to that re-engineered version (cheers Hamster!!!!) I'm back in the cockpit. (ignoring the bugs) :rolleyes:

Anyone got any more Info on Elite 4? had a look but everything I've seen says its being released in 2002??? with no more info?


Cheers
Cmdr Simo

phoenix2181

scruff

Spent a good while looking to see if anyone have done a mod with upgraded graphics like hasbeen done for old classics like quake etc but didnt find anything. has anything been done since? i think that kind of mod would give Frontier and First Encounters a whole new lease of life.




Thats a great idea, as scruff says it would give the game a whole lease of life & introudce it to a whole new generation of gamers, anyone out there brave enough to give it a shot or know of anyone doing it?

phoenix2181

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.fan.elite

Here's the link to the http version of the elite newsgroup with links to current elite 4 projects etc :ninja:

Vuk

Man, I loved FFE, Frontier and Elite(speccy), despite bugs in FFE it pushed the boundaries on many fronts for PC and Amiga games, then again in those days many boundaries were broken. Right now I feel that the rapidly developing scene of graphic cards leaves most games just a show case for beauty, X2 anyone?
Anyway back to topic, the idea of being a bounty hunter and chasing people through hyperspace, dodging police, doing the odd bit of smuggling and landing,mining, surveying of planets fired so much imagination in my teenage mind, hell even my dad and I, had to draw up a roster just to keep the peace.
At the mo, I'm happy to be playing Eve, i know it lacks some of the content of FFE and is entirely an point and click affair, but in a MMO enviorment it wouldn't be possible, however there is no reason that the original formula cannot be re invented for the single player scene. Honestly, the amount of times I've heard "Elite" of the new decade, centuary, millenium and fails to deliver, makes me sick, bring on a true contender for the FFE of the new "insert time period here" and I'll be queing to buy!


Thanks for bringing back the memories of a frontier that has yet to be fully explored.