I don't think that there is any game that has managed to touch so many people and inspire generations of games programmers. Without a doubt, Elite was one of the most important games to have ever been written. Truly ahead of its time when released, it allowed total freedom with no goal, on the Electron version, other than becoming one of the "Elite". Nothing at Elite's release came close to it in terms of sheer quality of game, graphics and idea. I still have fond memories of not believing my friend who was playing Elite that he was actually using an Electron computer. I thought the graphics were just too good! After many months of playing, and never getting bored, I achieved Elite status. The format has been copied many times and improved upon with additional features but nothing ever came close to the experience of playing the original in the mid Eighties. I understand moves are afoot to bring it to the Elk on disc format soon too although the .uef format version is just peachy.

I was never a great fan of arcade adventures on the Electron. The samey puzzles and graphics years after the release of Citadel didn't inject the new life that the genre needed. So imagine my surprise when Exile came out. An arcade adventure game for the next generation. On the face of it, Exile appears to be a vast, scrolling arcade adventure with great graphics and sound. But it is much more than that. Not only does the game contain a vast map but the enemy are intelligent. Where games such as Citadel have enemies that simply home in on you (the monks for instance) and others just walk pre-defined routes, the Exile enemies were much more intelligent!

The enemy in Exile would investigate nearby noises, they had a true line of sight through the caverns and, more impressively, they could remember where their target was last seen. Couple this with puzzles that had no 100% fixed solution, squeeze it all into 32K and Exile, in my opinion, was an instant classic. Such was the success and appeal of Exile it was converted to a variety of formats, including the Commodore 64 and Amiga. To this day I have yet to complete Exile [Why not sit down with John McHugh's full solution (EUG #16, #17 & #18) sometime? - Ed] but I am still drawn to its cavernous depths many years on. A Turbo Electron with the ADFS disc version on it is astounding!

Originally Repton was little more than a rather obvious flickery Boulderdash clone. I found Repton 2 to be overly complex and I didn't have the patience to attempt completing the game. When Superior released Repton 3 I wasn't convinced I was going to enjoy it. I was wrong. I spent the best part of six months' worth of evenings beating Repton 3 when I should have been doing homework. In fact, my addiction to Repton 3 was partly to blame for my average GCSE results! The additional levels and new graphics of the later offerings never held my attention the way that Repton 3 had. I always felt the Repton 3 incarnaion had the best maps and puzzles out of all of the Repton series. It kept me glued to the screen until I had completed it. Happy to say it's available from www.stairwaytohell.com!

And that's it! It's been hugely enjoyable writing for EUG over the past few years. Coincidentally, the following cheats also exhaust my archive so the end has been timed perfectly. Always love to talk Elk though so all of you please keep in touch via Christian.Weber@ntlworld.com and, of course, keep on playing those Electron games!

For infinite lives in the Electron's best version of Skramble, just put the cassette into the recorder and type the following:

      >*LOAD GAME
      >?&1930=&FF
      >CALL &1900

To play things a little easier in Micro Power's Swoop, enter the following with the tape ready to go:

      >*LOAD PICTURE
      >*LOAD MEMORY
      >*LOAD GAME
      >?&1B47=&EA
      >?&1B48=&EA
      >CALL &1900

Here's the full set of level codes to Superior Software's Tactic:  

Level	01		=	00000	Level	51		=	00000
Level	02		=	38926	Level	52		=	00000
Level	03		=	36878	Level	53		=	00000
Level	04		=	38927	Level	54		=	00000
Level	05		=	45071	Level	55		=	00000
Level	06		=	47118	Level	56		=	00000
Level	07		=	45070	Level	57		=	00000
Level	08		=	47119	Level	58		=	00000
Level	09		=	45071	Level	59		=	00000
Level	10		=	47114	Level	60		=	00000
Level	11		=	45070	Level	61		=	00000
Level	12		=	47115	Level	62		=	00000
Level	13		=	36879	Level	63		=	00000
Level	14		=	38922	Level	64		=	00000
Level	15		=	36878	Level	65		=	00000
Level	16		=	38923	Level	66		=	00000
Level	17		=	53255	Level	67		=	00000
Level	18		=	55302	Level	68		=	00000
Level	19		=	00000	Level	69		=	00000
Level	20		=	00000	Level	70		=	00000
Level	21		=	00000	Level	71		=	00000
Level	22		=	00000	Level	72		=	00000
Level	23		=	00000	Level	73		=	00000
Level	24		=	00000	Level	74		=	00000
Level	25		=	00000	Level	75		=	00000
Level	26		=	00000	Level	76		=	00000
Level	27		=	00000	Level	77		=	00000
Level	28		=	00000	Level	78		=	00000
Level	29		=	00000	Level	79		=	00000
Level	30		=	00000	Level	80		=	00000
Level	31		=	00000	Level	81		=	00000
Level	32		=	00000	Level	82		=	00000
Level	33		=	00000	Level	83		=	00000
Level	34		=	00000	Level	84		=	00000
Level	35		=	00000	Level	85		=	00000
Level	36		=	00000	Level	86		=	00000
Level	37		=	00000	Level	87		=	00000
Level	38		=	00000	Level	88		=	00000
Level	39		=	00000	Level	89		=	00000
Level	40		=	00000	Level	90		=	00000
Level	41		=	00000	Level	91		=	00000
Level	42		=	00000	Level	92		=	00000
Level	43		=	00000	Level	93		=	00000
Level	44		=	00000	Level	94		=	00000
Level	45		=	00000	Level	95		=	00000
Level	46		=	00000	Level	96		=	00000
Level	47		=	00000	Level	97		=	00000
Level	48		=	00000	Level	98		=	00000
Level	49		=	00000	Level	99		=	00000
Level	50		=	00000	Level	100		=	00000

Here's the full set of passwords to Superior Software's Uggie's Garden:

Here's the full set of passwords to Superior/Acornsoft's Vertigo: