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[ziran]

Games Press via gamesindustry.biz

...David Braben, founder of one of the UK's leading independent game development studio's Frontier, scooped the prestigious Development Legend Award at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

In his 23 years in the industry Braben's contributions include early successes like Elite, Zarch, Virus, Frontier all acclaimed as masterpieces of game design and programming; more recently extending the worldwide success of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series with Chris Sawyer (also a shareholder in Frontier); creating the innovative Dog's Life on PS2 and forming a successful collaborative partnership with the UK's leading animation studio Aardman Animations to bring the much-loved multiple Oscar winning characters of Wallace & Gromit to life in videogames, both in their 2003 outing in "Project Zoo", and the much anticipated "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" game, to be launched early next month by Konami. Braben continues to innovate both creatively and technically and is expected to soon reveal new and exciting plans for the forthcoming next generation consoles, i.e. Xbox 360, PS3 and Revolution...

i think elite by braben [and ian bell] was an incredible achievement back on the bbc in the mid 80s. it was my first experience of a 3d game [albeit wireframe] and i was blown away. i remember the thrill of hyperspacing to another planet only to be intercepted on route and find yourself in the midst of battle. the whole experience was amazing!

good to see him winning this award.

 

[Vennt]

Right On, Commander!

BTW, I hear Elite IV now has a tentative release date, sources close to Frontier suggest it'll come out "...sometime between the release of Duke Nuke'm Forever and the heat-death of the Universe" - Elite fan Vennt E. Chancer stated he felt this date was "overly optimistic, at best".

 

[Izzy]

Virus and Zarch are zee one and zee same. Zarch was the superior, Archimedes rev - I really loved that one.

 

[DECK'ARD]

Well deserved.

Elite is still arguably the best game ever made.

 

[ziran]

Right On, Commander!

BTW, I hear Elite IV now has a tentative release date, sources close to Frontier suggest it'll come out "...sometime between the release of Duke Nuke'm Forever and the heat-death of the Universe" - Elite fan Vennt E. Chancer stated he felt this date was "overly optimistic, at best".

:lol :lol :lol

 

[Dachande]

A member of these boards works for Frontier. Maybe if he'll out himself he'll see what he can spill about Elite IV.

 

[djtiesto]

Well deserved.

Elite is still arguably the best game ever made.

I notice a lot of UKers love this game (Nash you're from the UK, right? Or was it NYC?)... but did this ever get big in the States? If it wasn't for the Internet I would have never heard of this game.

 

[DECK'ARD]

I notice a lot of UKers love this game (Nash you're from the UK, right? Or was it NYC?)... but did this ever get big in the States? If it wasn't for the Internet I would have never heard of this game.

Yeah, I'm from the UK. Elite was originally written for the BBC Micro, which was a home computer developed for UK schools. So that's why it's so UK-centric. It did see lots of ports, there was a good Commodore 64 version, but I'm not sure how much of a release they got overseas.

As a game it was ridiculously ahead of it's time. And not just technically, it had so much more depth compared to everything else that was out back then. To this day, no game has impressed me as much or got me so involved as playing Elite for the first time.

 

[Vennt]

I think Elite was the "Nintendo" of the UK, period.

It was almost like a religious movement, no hyperbole, if you knew someone with a "beeb" - you made sure you were on friendly terms with them and visited them after school just to play Elite, if you owned a beeb, well, you gained friends QUICKLY

Then came the rash of ports, some good some bad, but I think this game alone kickstarted videogaming in the UK like no other, comparable only to Sonic and Mario. (Although not even really comparable to Mario here, Nintendo wasn't that big in the UK until the SNES, and then they we're pretty much the "also-ran".)

 

[Tain]

Man...

What ever happened to Elite IV? I used to be soooo pumped about that.

 

[Lord Error]

I notice a lot of UKers love this game (Nash you're from the UK, right? Or was it NYC?)... but did this ever get big in the States? If it wasn't for the Internet I would have never heard of this game.

Wow that's weird... I'm from Europe, and even though I never got into playing Elite all that much, that game is a Legend, at least in Europe, no questions about it. If you had passing interest about games, or computers in the 8 or 16 bit days there, you knew about it.

That reminds me of my real life friend Mario, who's a computer programmer, and a very good one at that. When I first met him (we were both maybe 20-ish years old then) I made a breaking-the-ice joke saying how me must've seen no end of "super-Mario" jokes in his lifetime. He looked at me and said he had no idea what I'm talking about. When I ellaborated, he said he's not in the loop with video games, and only played stuff like Tetris and such on a PC. That's the Europe for you.

 

[COCKLES]

Elite DS

Top Screen = 3D cockpit environment view.
Bottom Screen = Tactical display / sensor grid.
Persistant Nintendo WI-FI online universe.

=

TEH SALE!