Same here. Few times I even carried my C64 with me in case I'm going somewhere for a few days. I was so hooked up on Elite. The feeling was... I gotta find that music I was listening to on audio tape while playing. I loved sequels with bigger background story and options, and then modern space games... but somehow the feeling wasn't the same. I guess it is because of age. You don't need much options and graphics if ther is imagination working, I guess.
I think I reache "Dangerous" status or something like that. Few times I tried "conquering" the planet, actually satelite. Ther was a local legend that you had to destroy some big number of guarding ships from satelite that are spawned if you shoot at it. And then you would get the message that they surrender and you would get lot of resources and something.... Anyway I tried it few times and escaped the system when things get out of hand, so it speeded up my kill count. I think I never went further that dimension 2 or 3 because I couldn't finish the second mission with that army ship. I think of replaying the game but I know that's impossible as adult, too much time is needed.
In all those hours and hours of playing, something happend only once to me. I was on my way to planet after jump and some object appeared. It was yellow in radar so I expected a pirate ship, but it was too small. So I went closer, because I wasn't firing at me... When I got close enough I saw it was some irregular object I never saw before. I spent quite some time flying around it and eventually decided to try picking it up. It turned out to be alien item which I carried for a while not knowing what can I use it for and eventually sold it. The fact that it happend so rarely thrilled me back then.
Awesome, awesome game. Too bad I never got to play MoonFall and Mercenary
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