A happy new year everybody! After more than 20 years I'm proud to announce a new Elite128 release. The release notes are attached below. You can grab this or any of the older releases from here: ftp://ftp.musoftware.de/pub/uz/elite128 Please be sure to read the "Required hardware" section in the release notes below. Regards Uz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- ELITE 128 --- Version 2.0 by D.Braben & I.Bell (mostly) This is the long awaited version 2.0 of Elite 128! Ok, maybe not long awaited, but definitely version 2.0. Elite 128 version 1.0 was released in 1998 (over 20 years ago!). I worked on the code for about another year at that time adding new features and improving the code, then stopped without a new release. In 2005, I acquired a Commodore DTV, placed it into a nice case with connectors for keyboard, floppy and so on. Then I wanted to have some software for it and decided to port Elite 128. About one year later I had stripped out support for other hardware, added new features and - lost interest. I didn't touch the code for another 13 years. After that time I was contacted by some elite enthusiasts with questions. To answer them, I had to remove the dust from the old code. I reviewed the changes, recompiled the code and saw it was good. Or at least I thought so, because it didn't crash immediately. So I decided it would be a pity to have the code unreleased. The first plan was to spend a few hours and have a new release. The revised plan was to spend a few days to add support for more hardware. Just supporting the DTV means a very narrow user base after all. After finding several bugs, omissions and realizing that quite some testing is needed, the revised version of the revised plan was to spend a few weeks on the 2.0 release. Fortunately, christmas was in sight, so I decided not to revise the plan again and make it a few months, but to release version 2.0 as a christmas 2019 version. Then, reality kicked in and I found bugs when testing on the real machines that weren't present in the emulator. And some bugs that were only present in the emulator. Christmas came and passed while I tested and fixed bugs. Then I remembered that the plan was something about weeks, not months. So I decided to release this version as it is. You may think of it as the "too late for christmas" release, and if you find bugs, please let me know. Required Hardware ================= First and most important: This version of Elite 128 will no longer run on a stock C64! The new features require more memory so some sort of memory extension is required. Here is a list of the supported hardware, ordered by coolness: * SuperCPU with RAM card. Elite 128 will run the 65816 in 20MHz native mode and deliver a constant 12fps frame rate on this hardware. Tested with Vice: Runs. Tested with real hardware: Hangs when saving/loading. * Commodore DTV (version 2 or better). Elite 128 makes use of the additional memory, the DMA capabilities and the improved speed. With a DTV, the game will give 12fps in most situations. This results in a very smooth gameplay, even in close dogfights with many enemies. Tested with Vice: Strange DMA bug. Tested with real hardware: Works. * Other 65816 cards: This is completely untested but may work, provided the card has more than 64K RAM. Performance depends on the clock speed. So the game *may* run on a Turbo Process or Flash8 card in 65816 mode, but as said before, this is untested. Untested with Vice. Untested with real hardware. * C128 with REU. Elite 128 makes use of the REU including it's DMA capabilities and switches the CPU into 2MHz turbo mode whenever the VIC doesn't display data. The latter will give ~30% speed increase. Tested with Vice: Works. Tested with real hardware: Doesn't work but probably faulty power supply. * Stock C128. Elite 128 makes use of the VDC memory to store additional data and switches the CPU into turbo mode whenever the VIC doesn't display data for a ~30% speedup. Tested with Vice: Works. Tested with real hardware: Works. * C64 with REU. Elite 128 makes use of the REU including it's DMA capabilities for some speedup. Speed is comparable to that of the 1.0 release on a stock C64 (without REU). Please note that this is the slowest configuration and you will have more fun with better hardware! Tested with Vice: Works. Tested with real hardware: Works. Elite 128 uses some sort of driver that is loaded depending on the hardware of the systems it runs on. More hardware may be supported by just writing a driver and a short piece of hardware detection code that can be added to the loader. Using a GeoRAM extension card for example is possible with a new driver, but this configuration will be slower than C64+REU. I will probably release the driver sources shortly. Versions ======== Because of the additional complexitiy introduced by different hardware and extended memory, it is no longer possible to switch character set, language or video in the loader. Instead, the new charatcer set is always used and for the other things, three different versions are provided. Please use the one that matches your hardware: - English, PAL - German, PAL - English, NTSC I don't own NTSC hardware, so this version was only tested on an emulator and may contain errors where the emulator doesn't show the same behavior as the real machine. New Features ============ This sections doesn't list the new features separated by version, so if you want to know what is new in 2.0 vs. 1.0 you have to look through the list. Hardware -------- * Hardware support as described above. * Joystick/keyboard handler changed to allow parallel working of both. No need to take your hands from the joystick when accelerating, activating a missile or similiar things. The original version did not accept any keys when the joystick was active. * Will run in 2MHz mode on the C128 while outside the visible area of the screen. This means that the CPU will run with 2MHz for about 30% of the time, giving an increase of 30% in speed. * A frame rate limiter will make the game playable on systems faster than a standard C64. It is always enabled and limits speed to a minimum of 4 VIC screen refreshes (12.5fps for PAL, 15fps for NTSC). Display stuff ------------- * Flicker fix. This is probably the most noticeable difference to version 1.0. A second display page is used to completely remove flicker in the space window of the screen. The change is also responsible for a slowdown because clearing the screen alone needs about 25ms on a stock C64. This is the reason why the REU gives a noticeable speedup: The driver uses DMA to clear the screen. * Reworked the status display. It looks somewhat better now (I think). * Reworked the "ship destroyed" screen. The game waits now for a keypress before continuing. * New font: One of my +4 machines has a nice second font. I could not resist, ripped it and put it into the Elite code. The old C64 font was designed with low res TV sets in mind - and it looks like that. * Because of the greater equipment count, I had to remove the equipment display from the Commander status screen and put it into a screen of it's own. It will also show the Extra Cargo Bay (see below) and the count of missiles, you have. Press '0' (that is, zero) to access the ship equipment list. * Reworked the inventory screen. It will no longer show the available fuel and money (since this is duplicated from the status screen), but type and destination of any special cargo carried and the current ship capacity. The latter is displayed as follows: Full capacity/Useable capacity/Capacity left were - Full capacity is the full weight, your ship can carry. - Useable capacity is the capacity left for cargo. - Capacity left is the capacity currently free for cargo or new equipment. * Many minor changes: Single dot stars, speedup of text output, improved line routine, "Target lost" is only dispayed if there are no other on-screen messages, ... New/removed equipment --------------------- * New device: Autopilot. The autopilot is an advanced version of the docking computer and availabe on worlds with tech level 10 and above. Autopilot specification: The LiCorn SpaceLock S&F System is a much improved version of the Xexor/Hikan docking computer. It is mainly a software upgrade based on the famous L** operating system. The fast and bug-free base system allows the control of the ship even when flying with full speed. Advanced Sens-O-Grape pilot interaction allows the software to disable itself as soon as the human pilot touches the controls. When equiped with an autopilot, the ships compass display may be switched between sun and planet (use the 'F' key in flight mode to toggle). The flight to the sun may also be done unter autopilot control. This feature is disabled for security reasons when in station range. The autopilot device is a must for the serious combateer! Note: You can only have one of both, the autopilot or the docking computer! If you have the docking computer and want to upgrade, you have to sell if first (see below under "Selling Equipment"). * New device: Hyperspace unit. This piece of equipment was developed on some pirate world, but became common in the known universe very quickly. It is a small additional circuit that connects to the hyperspace drive and will force it to mis-jump when activated. That is, it will activate the drive without proper setup, forcing a jump to a random location in the galaxy. This will *not* work without fuel, and will blow up any fuel you have. Control-J will trigger a hyperspace mis-jump. Beware: This device may rescue your life (and your cargo), but it's use is inherently dangerous. Hyperspace drives are very complex and an abuse (as with the hyperspace unit) may cause them to fail or even to explode. There are also interferences between the hyperspace unit and the drive that may destroy the hyperspace unit. Use this device at your own risk. You have been warned! * New device, I.F.F. system. This is available on worlds with tech level 10 or higher. The unit will establish a TS ComDirect connection to the nearest Federal GalCop Space Authority Database. Using the data link, it is able to identify nearly all known ship types. The names will be displayed in the lower part of the screen when the object is in the crosshairs. This may help you to adapt your tactics to the capabilities of your enemies. In the flight grid scanner screen of a ship equiped with the I.F.F. (Identification Friend or Foe) system, the display will change according to the type of the object. For ships, the legal status of the owner will be looked up in the GalCop Database. The scanner display will show the information using different colors for head and tail of the bar: Object Head Tail --------------------+---------------+---------------------- Missiles | Green | Green + Red Station related | Green | Green Debris | Green | Yellow + Green Police/Military | Green | Yellow Clean | Yellow | Yellow Offender/Fugitive | Yellow | Yellow + Red Most wanted | Yellow + Red | Yellow + Red Asteroid/Boulder | Red | Red Unknown | Yellow | Yellow + Red Hints: - Ships shown as clean may occasionally be bounty hunters or viper police ships and may attack you. This is even more true if your legal status is not clean. - Ships marked as offender/fugitive are often pirates. Danger! - "Most wanted" ship owners are wanted by the police for terrorism or other highly criminal acts. They often hide near worlds where law enforcement is weak and human life is cheap. Some of them are known to have modified shields and/or laser equipment. Even if GalCop police pays a high bounty for a kill, you are strongly advised to flee (if you can) and to notify the nearest police headquarter. * New device: Military drive. This expensive high tech device is only available on worlds with tech level 15. It increases your flight range but needs a special sort of fuel which is priced considerably higher than standard fuel. It is especially useful when delivering special cargo. Beware: Fuel for this drive may be difficult to come by! It cannot be scooped by flying closely over a sun. And it is usually very expensive or even unavailable on low tech worlds giving you no other option as to leave with the remaining fuel or sell the drive. * Removed device: The energy bomb has been removed for symetry reasons. No one else in the Elite Universe has an energy bomb, so why should you? * New feature: Ship encyclopedia. While docked, your computer has access the Federal Space Authority Database and is able to display any known ship model together with the most important data. You may select the ship encyclopedia using Control-0. Gameplay -------- * More music. The data for the third music theme is taken from an old german C64 book named "Beherrschen Sie Ihren Commodore C64" by C. Lorenz (Hofacker Verlag 1983) and converted to Elite format by me (of course). * Additional "mission". You may be able to help Nigel out of a somewhat critical situation. * Enabled three previously hidden keys that control music and sound. 'B' --> Allow sounds *and* music. Do you remember your enemies killing you because you did not hear them while the docking computer was active? 'C' --> Continous music. The music starts when leaving the station. Rather boring but you may give it a try... Both keys are toggle keys. Press them once to enable the feature, press them a second time to disable it again. * Cheats: God mode cheat is available. * While approaching the station under docking computer or autopilot control, other civilian crafts are not permitted to leave the station to prevent collisions. Note: This is not true for military crafts or viper police ships! * It is possible to pay a small docking fee (25 credits) to be allowed to stay in the station until market prices change. Triggered by Control-7. * Ship equipment may be sold if no longer needed. Since the equipment was in use for some time, you will not get your full money back. However, it's a fast way to get some money if you need it. Prices for used equipment are not controlled by the GalCop, so the offers may vary. It is usually better to sell high tech equipment on worlds with a low tech level, but your mileage may vary. Note: Since selling equipment is now available, equipment is no longer quietly replaced when buying new stuff (e.g. pulse laser got replaced by beam laser in the original Elite). You have to sell old stuff to make room for new things. This is true not only for the lasers but also for docking computer vs. autopilot. The list of offers does only show equipment you have and equipment you can sell. Sometimes you cannot sell some pieces equipment, for example the extra cargo bay cannot be sold if not at least 15 tons of cargo capacity are free. Beware: Think twice before selling anything! For several reasons, you may not be able to get the equipment back if you need it! Press Control-3 to get offers for your used equipment. * Preparation for hyperspace jump will deactivate all controls and the autopilot, since the ship computers are dedicated to calculating the jump parameters. For this reason, a hyperjump is not a good way to get out of trouble. Use the hyperspace unit instead (see above). * Other ships and space junk do no longer appear in fixed positions (in original Elite there were only 4 positions, where pirate ships could appear). All space objects now appear randomly somewhere in front of your ship. * The legal status is now calculated differently. Several things that were accepted by the authorities in the original Elite will now get you into trouble. Shooting harmless traders or ramming ships are two examples. In the original Elite, no one cared if you shot dozens of innocent traders to raise your combat rating. In Elite 128 all this is considered a crime by the Federation Crime Monitoring Authority (as it should be). In addition, criminal acts accumulate (this was not true in original Elite) and will get you into trouble very fast. So be careful! Maybe, shooting peaceful family fathers for breakfast was fun in Elite, but it's definitely not the way to go in Elite 128! * If your reputation is *really* bad, the space station will launch fighters for attack if you come in sight. * New chance to earn money: Special cargos. These are low bulk cargos like photos or tapes that have to be delivered to their destination as fast as possible. Press Control-1 for a list of contract offers. You may only carry one special cargo at a time. The inventory screen shows the type of the cargo and the destination. If you have a special cargo contract, you may use the 'W' in the charts to place the cursor on the destination system for the special cargo and display the current distance to the target. The deposit for the contract is 25% of the contingent fee that is shown in the offer screen. If you take too long to deliver the cargo, you won't fulfill the contract, loose you deposit *and* gain a criminal record for contract breaking. Here are some recommendations for new pilots regarding special cargo: - You have to pay 25% of the contingent fee for the contract as a deposit, but you get this money back, when (and if) you deliver the special cargo. - Be sure to plan your route *before* signing the contract! Some routes are much more difficult than others. Have a look at the systems that you plan to visit. Systems heavily infested by pirates will cost you time and - maybe - your life. - Some cargos are illegal. Randomly, drugs or spy films are offered for transport. Unfortunately, it is not always clear from the offers, which cargo is illegal. If the payment offered is unusualy high, the cargo may be illegal - or the offer is a bargain. Be careful! Fighting police ships all your way long will not speed up delivery. - You get payed to deliver the cargo as quickly as possible. So don't even think about doing a little trading at the same time (there's one exception to that: You may take some other goods with you to to sell at the destination of your journey). Avoid space stations. All the bureaucracy involved when docking costs time, and hanging around in the space station bar may be fun, but won't speedup delivery. - Sell your extra cargo bay if you have one. This will make your ship faster (see below). - If you stay in the station for some time (Control-7, see above), other contract offers may become available. - If the cargo is overdue, you will be notified and the cargo is dropped. You will loose your deposit in that case, earn a criminal record for contract breaking, and - if the cargo was illegal - the criminal elements that were your contract partners may get upset. - The prices paid seem to be high. But remember that you take several risks when signing a contract: * The cargo may be illegal. * You may not deliver in time and loose your deposit. * There's not much time to visit space stations, so you cannot save your game often. * Changed the trigger and working for the constrictor mission. You may get this mission now in 4 of the 8 galaxies, but the trail in galaxy 1 is gone (as far as I could tell, it did not work anyway in the german version - some of the messages were not even translated). * On worlds with tech level 8 and above, the Rent-A-Dock service is available. When in station range, you can request this service for a mere 25 Credits by pressing Control-C. The station will establish a DockDirect connection and control your ship using its own docking computer devices. This is a nice feature and useful for ships that got damaged in combat. It may even be better to sell the docking computer, freeing one ton of cargo space and to use the Rent-A-Dock service instead. Note: This service is suspended during attack. * Ship equipment now has a weight. In original Elite, you could load tons of equipment into your ship without loosing cargo capacity. This is no longer true. Have a look at the following table to determine, how much precious cargo space each item will take: E.C.M. System 1t I.F.F. System 1t Fuel Scoops 2t Hyperspace Unit 0t Energy Unit 1t Docking Computer 1t Autopilot 1t Galactic Hyperdrive 2t Escape Capsule 2t Extra Cargo Bay 0t Military Laser 1t Other lasers 0t Missile (each) 1t This means that selling or buying equipment when preparing for a special job (trading, special cargo delivery) is much more an option. Note: It may be impossible to buy new equipment, if you have no space left for the new device. You have to sell cargo or other equipment first. * The extra cargo bay now causes a slowdown of your ship. Equipped with an extra cargo bay, it will now reach only ~65% of it's speed without the cargo bay. The cargo itself does not influence the maximum speed (as before). For missions, where you need the full power of your ship (special cargo delivery, bounty hunting), it is now advisable to sell the extra cargo bay. * Missiles do no longer destroy other ships on the first hit but cause severe damage (that is: a missile will kill one of the small ships but the bigger ones need several hits). * Most wanted pirates: These mean guys come in different ships and have often modified shields and or lasers. If today is your lucky day, you get a few seconds to pray before you die. Other ----- * Removed the cassette code. Default device is the disk. * From the diskette menu, you can now go back to BASIC. * Commander file is scratched before saving, so the old file gets overwritten automatically. Beware: This means that *any* file with the same name is scratched from disk. All filenames on the disk except the loader (named "elite128"), and the "fatty" commander start with a funny character to avoid overwriting them when saving commander files. * When your ship gets destroyed, you start over at the last system visited with all equipment you had, when you left the station (not at the last save position as before). This means that you have to save your game less often. * Corrected some minor problems with the graphics/text and some obviously wrong code. Keys ==== Here is a summary for the keys to control Elite 128. Most are identical to original Elite, but some have changed or have been added. 1 Buy cargo (only when docked) 2 Sell cargo (only when docked) 3 Buy equipment (only when docked) 4 Galactic map 5 Local map 6 System data 7 Market prices 8 Commander status 9 Inventory 0 Ship equipment Ctrl+1 Available special cargo contracts (when docked) Ctrl+3 Sell equipment (only when docked) Ctrl+7 Stay in station until market prices change (when docked) Ctrl+0 Ship encyclopedia (only when docked) F Find planet (in one of the maps) O Reset cursor to current system (in the maps) W Show special cargo destination (in the maps) D Display system distance (in the maps) _at_ System/disk menu (only when docked) , Rotate left . Rotate right S Nose down X Nose up Space Accelerate - Decelerate C Enable docking computer / autopilot (flight mode) Ctrl+C Rent-A-Dock service (if available/flight mode) F Toggle compass between sun and planet (flight mode) P Disable docking computer / autopilot H Hyperspace jump Ctrl+H Galactic hyperjump J Short inter system jump Ctrl+J Force hyperspace misjump (only with hyperspace unit) A Activate laser T Ready a missile M Fire missile U Deactivate missile E Activate E.C.M. system if available ← Use escape capsule if available F1 Front view or leave station if docked F3 Rear view F5 Left view F7 Right view The game can be stopped using Inst/Del and continued using Clr/Home. When the game is stopped, some more keys are available. Most of them are toggles: Run/Stop Keyboard damping A Centering F Blinking controls Y Reverse joystick Y direction J Reverse both joystick directions K Use keyboard/joystick M Docking music on/off C Continous music B Allow sounds while music is playing X Extensions enable If extensions are enabled, two other keys are available: D Show cycle frames in upper right corner G God mode: Ship becomes invulnerable Suggestions =========== I've played many many hours testing the new and/or changed features and better hardware. What follows are my personal suggestions. Subjective of course, but you may give them a try. * The best hardware to play Elite 128 is the DTV. Yes, the SuperCPU is faster, but this feels a bit too "sharp" at times. With the DTV, gameplay is very smooth and fast. It is much more fun compared to, say, C128+REU and it is also easier, because the game doesn't slow down as much in fights, which allows for better aiming (and killing :). * Use the "fatty" commander for a little head start. * When you have reached a certain level and game play starts to get boring, try special cargos. It adds a strategic element to the game, since you have to plan your route ahead and have a mid term goal. When trying special cargos the first time, choose a destination that is just one or two hops away. Delivering in time is not easy, so try to get a feeling what is possible and what not before delivering stuff to the other end of the galaxy. When planing a route to the destination, make sure it is reachable with the fewest hyperspace jumps and fewest fights possible, because every jump and every fight counts as time. Avoid intermediate systems with unstable regimes because that attracts pirates, which means fights which result in delays. Avoid the exra cargo bay, because it makes your ship slower. Enable extensions (X when game is stopped). This will show the remaining virtual time until the package has to be delivered. There should really be a "in time"/"delayed" display, but I wasn't able to deliver that in time. Avoid docking at the station because the bureaucracy involved takes precious time. Instead, scoop some fuel by flying over the sun, then jump to the next system. The autopilot is helpful here, since it can be switched to fly to the sun once you're out of station range. With the military drive this changes slightly. Because of the larger range, and because scooping fuel doesn't work, docking is your only option. But military fuel is awfully expensive on low tech worlds, so try to avoid them. Otherwise the expenses for fuel may eat up your profits from delivering the special cargo. Some cargos are easy, others are really difficult (or even impossible) to deliver in time. Beware of illegal goods, because they have an impact on your legal rating, which in turn may attract police or pirates. Start with easier (lower priced) cargo and try to get a feeling for it. Sometimes there's also a parcel to deliver to the system next to you, which may be easy earned money. So keep an eye on the special cargo screen. Sounds like an awful lot to consider? Yes, but this is what I like about special cargos. Not just dumb fighting but having to do some planing. * Using the "display frame rate" key mentioned above, it is possible to compare the performance on different hardware. Known Bugs ========== The following problems are already known and might or might not be addressed at some time. * Anything listed in the hardware section above. * Local chart: For stars to the left of the current system, the cursor is positioned one pixel too far to the right. * For special cargos, a display if delivery is still in time would be helpful. * Menu headers aren't centered. * On the C128, the uppermost visible screen line is not yellow. This is a result of the third raster interrupt. Thanks ====== My special thanks go to: * Ian Bell and David Braben for writing the original game. * Andreas Gerstlauer for the original translation of the mission texts. Have fun! -- Ullrich von Bassewitz uz_at_musoftware.de Encrypted email preferred PGP Key-Id: 29D93B10Received on 2020-05-30 00:08:42
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