Frontier: Elite II
Frontier: Elite II | |
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Single player |
Frontier: Elite II is a
The game retains the same principal component of Elite, namely
Frontier: Elite II had a number of firsts to its name.[2] It was the first game to feature procedurally generated star systems. These were generated by the game aggregating the mass of material within an early solar system into planets and moons that obey the laws of physics, but which have slightly randomised material distribution in order to ensure each system's uniqueness.[2]
It was followed by Frontier: First Encounters in 1995 and Elite Dangerous in 2014.
Gameplay
There is no plot within Frontier, nor are there pre-scripted missions (as there are the sequel First Encounters). Instead, players explore space while trading legally or illegally, carrying out missions for the military, ferrying passengers from system to system, engaging in piracy or any combination of the above. As a consequence, Frontier cannot be completed or "won", and players instead decide what to aspire to and set out to achieve it.
In Frontier, the player begins in the year 3200 and assumes the role of one of
Though the plot is minimal, some background information about the universe of Frontier is provided. There are two major factions in the galaxy: The "Federation", based in the Sol system, and the "Empire", based in the Achenar system. These two factions are bitter enemies, but at the time of the game they have established a tense cease-fire, akin to the Cold War. Players are free to side themselves with the Federation, the Empire, both, or neither; the game does not restrict one's political career. Both sides have military forces that a player can run freelance missions for, with successes leading to a military promotion. The ranks of the Federation and Empire are independent of each other. Playing for both sides adds to the difficulty to acquire a rank promotion for either.
As with Elite, much of Frontier is concerned with trading: players can buy and sell a variety of goods—from food and computer parts to guns and slaves—with the aim of making the most profit possible from each trading run. Thus, learning to compare prices in various systems is essential for profitability, and calculating overheads for each trip (such as fuel, missiles, and hull repair) are essential skills. It often becomes apparent that a particular trading route is profitable, such as the Barnard's Star - Sol route. It is worth noting that some trade goods (particularly narcotics, nerve gas, weaponry and slaves) are illegal in many systems and attempting to trade in these can result in a fine from the police, which can often escalate into the police attacking you if not paid. However it is often worth the risk as illegal goods generally carry a very high price on the black market.
Frontier substitutes Elite’s arcade flying style for one based rigidly on
The issue of interstellar navigation is solved by the use of a hyperdrive to travel between stars. The player can select a system from the star map and "jump" to it, provided they are reasonably far from a settlement. They then arrive at the outskirts of that star system and must make their way to their destination. A ship's maximum range is calculated according to its mass, so small, light ships can have impressively large ranges. The time taken to travel the maximum range is always exactly one week, with shorter jumps taking less time. Unlike the rest of the game's travel, these jumps are not experienced in some multiple of real time and appear almost instantaneous (theories range from suspended animation to extreme time dilation). A hyperspace jump leaves a visible remnant, a "hyperspace cloud", at the entry and exit points. These are visible for some hours afterwards, ostensibly making it possible for pirates and assassins to track a ship through hyperspace, arrive at its destination first and attack without police intervention.
Sooner or later the player will run into enemies, most likely in the form of space pirates. The different star systems have differing government and social structures, meaning that some systems are safer than others. The Core worlds are usually the safest, with anarchic systems being the most hazardous ("Riedquat" and "
The game's copy protection was worked into the game in the form of police spot-checks, making sure the player is the legitimate owner of his ship. At certain intervals in the game, the police would ask the player to "please enter the first letter of word X, row Y on page Z" of their ship's manual (which the game manual ostensibly was). If the player entered a wrong letter on three occasions, he would be arrested and his ship impounded, at which point the game ends.
Comparisons with Elite
Frontier has more advanced graphics than
Frontier operates on a very large scale compared to previous games, and most games since. It is, for example, possible to do realistic
Frontier built on Elite differs in other aspects as well. It is possible to freeform seamlessly land on planets, something not possible in the first Elite. Most stars also have a system of planets around them, while in the previous game there would only be a single planet and space station in every system. In addition to this some real stars had been placed in the Frontier universe, mostly near Sol, such as Alpha Centauri and Sirius. Other brighter stars such as Altair, Antares, Betelgeuse and Polaris, which are much further out, are also included. All planets and most major moons in the Sol system can also be visited. On zooming out, other galaxies are visible, although these other galaxies are simply duplicates of the first, and not accessible in any version of the game.
Similarly to the original Elite, Frontier offers dozens of ships, from small but fast fighters like the Eagle, multi-role traders like the Cobra to huge cruisers such as the Anaconda or the Panther. Players may own only one ship at a time, so when a new ship is purchased, the old ship is part exchanged (i.e. traded in with most of its trade value deducted from the new ship's price).
Development and release
Braben originally programmed the game in
Elite II was originally slated to be released in November 1992 for the Atari ST.[4]
Frontier: Elite II was published on a single floppy disk. For the Amiga version, this is a single 880 KB disk (disk 2 was only a selection of interesting saved games), and for the PC/DOS platform a 720 KB double density floppy. For the Amiga version, the actual executable file was only around 400 KB (uncompressed), its small size partly due to the entire game being written in assembly language while its universe was mostly procedurally generated.
With a 9-year
The game featured a famous "
The game features a selection of
The game has since been released as
Reception
Publication | Score |
---|---|
PC Review | 9/10 |
The One | 96% |
CVG | 96% |
Amiga Format | 90%[10] |
Amiga Joker | 91%[10] |
Amiga Computing | 94%[10] |
Electronic Entertainment | 8/10[11] |
Amiga Power | 75%[10] |
Critical response
Frontier received near-universal critical acclaim by the media.[10] Most magazines were awestruck by its sheer scale and accurate depiction of real-world physics, and gave it high ratings.[12] Computer Gaming World in April 1994 favorably discussed the game's "ENORMOUS universe" with "many, many hours of exploratory game play ... less of a game, and more a way of life".[13] A longer review the next month reported that the game compensated for the Amiga version's 16-color palette with "a surprising amount of graphic detail". The magazine concluded that "Frontier should offer months, or even years, of galaxy-trekking fun" as players explored the "incredibly immense" universe.[14] Amiga Computing rated the game 94% and said ""Undeniably another all-time classic in the making from Mr Braben. Great graphics and absorbing play make Frontier the ultimate space experience - ever."[10]
A notable exception was Amiga Power, who viewed the game not as a successor to Elite's throne, but as a space flying game on its own right, and were disappointed by its lack of action; this made them dismiss the game as boring, rating it 65% (75% on the faster Amiga 1200).[citation needed]. Amiga Power later ranked Frontier #100 in the magazine's top 100 games list.[15]
In 2004, readers of
Sales
The official Frontier website puts sales at about 500,000 copies sold. Braben received royalties for 350,000 copies.[1]
Legacy
Frontier was succeeded in April 1995 by
A further sequel,
References
- ^ a b c d "Frontier: Elite II official page". 2007. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ a b "Guinness World Records - First use of procedural generation in a video game".
- ^ "Frontier: Elite II". MobyGames. 30 August 2023. Archived from the original on 27 January 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ Lowe, Andy (September 1992). "Elite 2 set for November release". ST Format. No. 38. Future plc. p. 26.
- ^ "Frontier: Elite 2 review from CU Amiga (Nov 1993)". Amiga Magazine Rack. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Frontierverse > The Game". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- ^ "Frontier Elite 2: Official support". 2001. Archived from the original on 10 August 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
- ^ GLFrontier Project Page!!!1 Archived 10 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine on noflag.org.uk "This WAS the Atari ST version of the game Frontier: Elite 2 [...]. It was disassembled, OS calls and hardware access removed, and originally run on a stripped down ST emulator (Hatari). Now it is compiled to C or native x86, and run much faster without 68K emulation. Most recently it has been modified to draw stuff with OpenGL at any shiny resolution with 8xAA, etc."
- Rock, Paper, Shotgunby Craig Pearson on 6 December 2011
- ^ a b c d e f g "Amiga Reviews: Frontier: Elite II". Amiga Reviews. 27 September 2019. Archived from the original on 3 June 2023.
- ^ Olafson, Peter (March 1994). "Frontier: Elite II". Electronic Entertainment. 1 (3): 82.
- ^ Reviews of Frontier from various Amiga magazines Archived 19 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Taking A Peek". Computer Gaming World. April 1994. pp. 174–180.
- ^ James, Jeff (May 1994). "So Many Star Systems, So Little Time". Computer Gaming World. pp. 18, 20.
- ^ Amiga Power All-Time Top 100 Games for 1994, Amiga Magazine Rack. Accessed on 2 August 2021.
- ^ "Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)", Retro Gamer (9), Imagine Publishing: 58, 1 October 2004,
#20
- ^ "The 101 best PC games ever". PC Zone. 12 May 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
- PC Gamer UK. No. 5. pp. 43–56.
- ^ "Frontier 2: First Encounters : Hall Of Light – The database of Amiga games". Hol.abime.net. 10 June 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2014.