http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/sho...rst+encounters

Looks like FFE doesn't like DOSBox 0.72, or vice versa. You could try JJFFE.

http://jaj22.org.uk/jjffe/download.html

Yep, it does appear so. :doh2:

I'll try your link once I get bored with playing FE2.

FFE Issues/Advice
 

A lot of hassle to get this running on Vista. Dosbox version will not work so download JJFFE thingy. Even then it will mostly close after disclaimer. Found you can get round this by hiding window and opening it up again. Strange but true...Definitely worth the effort in the end though. What a game!

Best advice is as already mentioned. Trade in the core systems. Upgrade your ship as often as you can (making sure there are crew on the bulletin board). Fit only the bare essentials (nav-com, autpilot) so you can make as much money from cargo as possible. Ultimate goal, get yourself a Panther Clipper or the like (I crew mine entirely with women, just my own little fantasy, one crew member is named Catherine Swallow).

Once you get a ship with gun turrets combat is a piece of piss. As soon as warning flashes up pause the game. Find the little shits with gun turret which is still mobile even when paused. Fire on them and you will see impact/shield glowing red. Restart game. They die. When you perfect this method you can get half a dozen in the space of three seconds. You then switch to external view and watch the fireworks around your ship.

Okay so it takes fun/skill out of the game. I usually leave two and switch to combat computer view and get them fair and square. Pick up worthwhile flotsam with tractor beam and continue on your merry way. One more thing - light blue beams are plasma accelerators and slice through your shields in seconds. Take these gits out first.

Anyone having problems landing the ship (eg for planting mines)? Head for target planet. Once in vicinity set speed to 0 (engines on). Speed up time and cruise in at a couple of thousand k's an hour, keeping level with horizon. Don't get disoriented when sky starts revolving. Once you get altitude reading slow down and make sure undercarriage is down. Keep cruising in and slow down time in stages until you are floating a few hundred metres up. If you speed up ship/time at this point it is fun to see how long you can fly before crashing and burning. Otherwise, land at the slowest speed possible. I have yet to land on a rich seam of anything worth mining. Deploy mine a few times as results vary.

Asassinations - take off on the day of the killing and ascend to 20 thousand k's. Flick into rear view and speed up time.A few minutes before the 'appointment' descend slowly and launch a couple of missiles at target as soon as it appears. Make sure target has been eliminated and not hyperspaced. Pay appropriate fines swiftly and go collect money. Don't be afraid to finish them off with a laser as you should only get fined once. Try not to hit anyone/anything else though...

Map major starports so you can explore remote systems without getting stuck in the interstellar hinterland. I use spreadsheet application, adding comment to each sector which appears when mouse rolls over it. God I'm sad.

How can anyone give only 3 to what is probably one of the greatest and richest game ever is beyond me... :unsure:

Bugs, flight model makes dogfighting quite boring sniper contests.

The reviewer said this is the third Elite game, I looked it up and saw the second Elite was also the first Frontier. I'd like to see that game up for download too.

Also, is there ever going to be a fourth?

David Braben has talked a few times about making "elite 4", but I don't think he's actually working on it right now.

The closest you could come to it would be the (very much work in progress) Pioneer, http://pioneerspacesim.net/

As for me, X3: Terran Conflict quite close to Elite 3. :) Minus endless space, though. :(

32loader runtime error fix
 

I skimmed the 23 pages and didn't see a solution to my problem right off. Now that I've figured it out I thought I'd share my solution.

I came across an error in DOSBox when running this for the first time. What would happen was that the splash screen would come up but when the game started loading it showed an error screen with a "32loader runtime error" message.

I went to the cpu option under the game profile and chose 'dynamic' for the 'Emulation Core' and that seemed to fix it.

interesting... thx