Speedy New Elite

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For those who don't already know, Elite is a shoot-'em-up and space trading game where you buy and sell cargo to increase your financial viability.

With your increased store of money you purchase fuel, missiles and other add-ons to give you more cargo space and better kill power.

The complexity of the program allows you to choose your life-style - trader, pirate-killing bounty hunter, pirate preying on innocent traders or even a meteor-miner travelling between planets cutting up asteroids.

But wherever you go and whatever life-style you choose, you cannot avoid the marauding hordes of pirates who will descend on your single Cobra Mk III.

A sample journey runs like this: Using the short range chart, examine the nearby star systems for a suitable planet and compare its technology level with the trade goods available at your present planet.

Choose the planet that will bring you the most profit and with your universal credits buy a cargo hold full of goods.

Launch from the space station and make a hyperspace jump to your target system. Line up on the planet and apply full thrusters towards it. The chances are high, depending on planetary political systems, that you will either get jumped by pirates or face a head-on collision with another trader coming your way or - in this new version - a smash with an asteroid or boulder.

With skill and luck you reach the safe area around the space station, dock and sell off your goods for a handsome profit.

With that brief view of what Elite is about I'll move on to a comparison between the old and new versions. In the new packaging you get a manual, a function key strip and a flippable disc containing the old version on 40 tracks on one side and the new 80 track version on the other.

The new disc version, for B+ and later models, is slower to load, taking a good fifteen seconds. But once there the reason becomes apparent - you now have a stand-alone program.

No more disc accesses during the game, each launch and docking procedure takes less than a second and each hyperspace jump is virtually instantaneous.

The next obvious improvement is in colour. Using shadow ram, the split-mode screen is Mode 2 at the bottom for status using eight colours and Mode 1 on the top for the display using four colours.

While the status display is basically the same with little touches here and there, the scanner comes alive with colour.

For those bred on the original, running Elite on the Master Turbo or with a 6502 second processor is going to be a terminal experience. You'll find it hard to stay alive.

There is virtually no slowdown during combat - even when a planet is on the screen. And while your reactions stay the same, the pirates are now much faster than before.

If you have been using the disc version, get set for the new addition - asteroids. Buy that mining laser first chance you get, mount it on the left or right side of your craft and go chase some minerals.

The best technique is to chase the asteroid, move alongside and match speeds, switch to side screen and give it two blasts from the mining laser, then pick up the pieces.

But watch out for the asteroid hermits - they don't take kindly to having their homes blown to bits and usually have well-armed ships.

Somewhere out there are ships 40 kilometers long and if you are lucky you may get to see one.

The frequency of pirates appearing around the civilized planets has defi nitely been increased and the pirates have moved up to the Fer de Lance as one of their favourite ships, but the Kraits and Mambas are all still there.

The Thargoids are worse and even if you have done the second mission don't be surprised when they pull you out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere.

And finally there's good news for those who don't want to start from scratch - you can load your old Commander file into the new version.

If you have a B+ or better, Elite is certainly worth a look. If you have a second processor or Turbo as well then it is a must.

Commander Lazarus