MarkMoxon
Joined 6 years ago
Karma
189
Submissions
43
Member since
Sep 28
BBC Micro Elite fan, ex-Acorn journalist
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Comment · 1 year ago
Thank you, that's a good point. The site started off with just the BBC Micro version, and I never expanded the book references to be clearer.
Anyway, I have reworded every reference to books in the commentary so they now contain the full title and author list, so hopefully people will be able to find the relevant tomes. I've also linked to the books from my "useful links" page in a more prominent manner:
https://elite.bbcelite.com/about_site/useful_links.html
I hope that helps!
Comment · 1 year ago
Glad you like it! I’ve been working on this for nearly five years, along with my other software archaeology projects - I started in May 2020, back in lockdown. It’s a true labour of love.
Here’s a timeline of the project so far:
https://elite.bbcelite.com/about_site/site_history.html
I’m sure it will keep growing, there’s always something more to write about…
Comment · 1 year ago
Thank you! I came at it from the BBC Micro angle, which was the system I grew up with, and I have to say that analysing Elite been a brilliant way to learn about other 8-bit platforms. I’ve documented the NES version and now the Commodore 64, and the Apple II is next.
It’s the retro equivalent of discovering that if you like the Beatles, you’ll probably like the Stones, The Who and Pink Floyd. :-)
Comment · 1 year ago
I keep a list of everything that isn’t 100% clear in my commentary, here:
https://elite.bbcelite.com/about_site/to-do_list.html
This is not a big list, and these are all pretty subtle aspects of the game. After 4 years of analysis, I think we’re pretty close to understanding pretty much everything, which is nice.
Comment · 1 year ago
Well, exactly. This project is a hobby, and I’d like to try to keep it as my happy place!
Besides, I’ve published PDFs of my travel writing sites, and the thought of trying to keep a code repository, a website and a PDF in sync fills me with dread…
Comment · 1 year ago
Honestly, for me personally and on this specific project with its specific history of copyright issues (look it up!), that would be crossing the line into disrespecting the copyright situation.
Websites are ethereal, in a sense, as they are easy to switch off and hard to copy and distribute. PDFs and books are the opposite. Sure, websites get archived and repos get forked, but I think PDFs and books fall into a different area.
I run these projects very cautiously and very carefully. I don't think publishing a book or PDF containing copyright material is a good idea in this instance, to be honest!
Comment · 1 year ago
Yeah, it's a bit tricky when the code you are documenting is copyright, and you aren't the copyright owner. Website is one thing, but publishing a book? I suspect that is asking for trouble.
Also, books can't be updated, and I update this stuff all the time...
Comment · 1 year ago
This should answer your question:
https://elite.bbcelite.com/about_site/about_this_project.htm...
Some parts of Elite were documented prior to my project, particularly the procedural generation and ship data blocks. But none of it was documented to this level; it's taken time, lots of it!
I love this game, and I figured it deserved a proper homage. Or, to put it another way, this is a labour of love. :-)
Comment · 1 year ago
Oolite is normally quoted at this point. I think it's in Objective C? But exactly how much it relates to the original game's code, I don't know.
Comment · 1 year ago
The original Elite was reverse-engineered into C by Christian Pinder as part of the Elite: The New Kind project. The source is out there. It's a brilliant bit of work.
You can use a search engine to find it.
Comment · 1 year ago
Yes. The original Elite was reverse-engineered into C by Christian Pinder as part of the Elite: The New Kind project. The source is out there. It's a brilliant bit of work.
Comment · 1 year ago
All NOPs should be explained in the commentary, apart from the ones in the fast loader routine in the elite-gma1.asm file. Are these the ones you mean?
If so, I haven't documented the fast loader as it's not really a feature of Elite, but I think the NOPs there are for timing when talking to the CIA1. The fast loader is documented in the Elite Harmless project, here, which might help:
https://github.com/Kroc/elite-harmless/blob/kroc/src/boot/gm...
The long string of NOPs in the elite-firebird.asm source are padding to ensure the vector overrides align with the correct addresses, as described in the commentary.
Most other NOPs are commenting out the checksums if that feature is disabled by the build; again, they should be explained in situ.
If you're wondering about any others, I'd be happy to explain!
Comment · 1 year ago
No, the Cougar is nothing to do with missions (in the 6502 versions, anyway - the other platforms have different mission code). It's just a rarely called part of the random spawning routine. Very rarely called.
The mission-related ship is the Constrictor, which you only bump into at the end of that mission.
Obligatory link: https://elite.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/the_constrictor_missio...
Comment · 1 year ago
It is in-game, but it is astonishingly rare. Specifically, there is a 0.011% chance of spawning a Cougar during each ship spawning routine, which is around 1 in 9000 ship spawnings
And it's got a cloaking device so it doesn't appear on your scanner.
Anyone who has genuinely seen one of these in-game is a really lucky commander!
Lots of details here:
https://elite.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/the_elusive_cougar.htm...
Comment · 1 year ago
Yup. "Never fly without a rebuy", as they say!