Oolite: a brilliant remake of Elite, the classic game of space trade and exploration
Submitted by Travis on October 29, 2009 – 11:51 pm
Oolite is an open source remake of the classic space simulator Elite. This non-linear title puts the player in control of their own experience. Trading, piracy, and mining are just a fraction of what you can do in this expansive universe.
[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his new blog here].
Captain Jensen had traveled three systems to make this run. His cargo hold full of radioactives would fetch a hefty sum on this rich industrial planet. But the swarm of blips fast approaching on radar didn’t look like innocent freighters. The only policed sector surrounding the station was on the far side of the planet. This is what you get for trading with a lawless system…
Oolite takes something old and makes it new again. This open source remake of one of gaming’s great classics Elite is solid gaming gold. In this incredibly non-linear space simulator players can fly around the galaxy trading, fighting off pirates, pirating, or taking intergalactic taxi missions. With no story except the one you make for yourself, Oolite is a member of a dying type of game.
Oolite is a space sim game, inspired by Elite, powered by Objective-C and OpenGL, and designed as a small game that is easy for users to pick up, modify and expand upon. Almost every aspect of the game can be changed by using simple, free graphics packages and text editors.
Originally written for Mac OS X, and under continuous development for over five years, Oolite is available for Mac OS X (10.3.9 and higher) and PCs running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Linux. It requires at least a 400 MHz processor, 256 MiB of memory, and a graphics card capable of accelerating OpenGL graphics.
Guess I'm getting old, but this one could not capture me like the (rotating wire-frames from the) Commodore 64 version. That one I played for quite some time. Never got that far though :(-Shades (November 01, 2009, 11:26 PM)
I thought I had posted on DC about Oolite before, but maybe I was mistaken...-Innuendo (November 02, 2009, 01:28 PM)
I remember playing Elite on the C-64 (Every version for every platform was different with different features. I think the C-64 version was the version with the most features at the time).-Innuendo (November 02, 2009, 01:28 PM)
Anyone manage to get version 1.73.4 to run on a GeForce 7 series card? I have updated the drivers and it still doesn't work.
The earlier version (1.6x) works fine.-Carol Haynes (November 03, 2009, 03:28 AM)
I ran a search for "Oolite" on the entire forum before I posted. Did you maybe call it something else or spell it differently? :)-40hz (November 02, 2009, 09:46 PM)
I always thought the C64 version was the best. The Elite opening theme song was particularly good on the Commodore.
Hey, Elite worked first on the ZX - Spectrum ! With a clever optical device to copy-protect the game...-MerleOne (November 02, 2009, 01:59 PM)
Indeed it was and I was just weird enough to load up Elite even when I didn't want to play it just so I could hear the theme song.-Innuendo (November 03, 2009, 09:50 AM)
The High Voltage SID Collection - Commodore 64 music for the masses
The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore
64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike. The work
on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors' spare time and is proudly
one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known.
Anyone manage to get version 1.73.4 to run on a GeForce 7 series card? I have updated the drivers and it still doesn't work.
The earlier version (1.6x) works fine.-Carol Haynes (November 03, 2009, 03:28 AM)
You might be able to find an answer on their forum: http://aegidian.org/bb/index.php-40hz (November 03, 2009, 09:00 AM)
On closer inspection I edited the Start menu shortcut and added the -nosplash option. Works fine now.
I can't really see why disabling the splash screen made a difference but it did ;)-Carol Haynes (November 03, 2009, 12:11 PM)
Version 1.65, released in June 2006, is the latest full release of Oolite. However, the test releases are faster, prettier, more stable and use less memory, so ignoring the full release and using the test releases instead is recommended. Yes, we realize this sounds silly.
Tau Ceti & Mercenary made more fun than Elite.That remind me the time spent on the Amiga with Damocles, witch if I'm not wrong was a sort of remake / evolution of Mercenary.-Crush (November 10, 2009, 06:21 AM)
Speaking of infinite game universes, are any of you familiar with Infinity: The Quest for Earth (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/)? Deozaan, I imagine this might be particularly interesting for you. It's aimed at being an MMO, but the engine that powers it looks to be fantastically powerful (read the developer's blog, and check out videos of it on YouTube), so I hope it ends up being available for other game development (open source or commercially).
- Oshyan-JavaJones (November 10, 2009, 01:36 PM)
Yes, like EVE, except even better graphics, fully simulated galaxy (maybe Universe?) of hundreds of thousands of stars, real-world planetary (and galactic) scales with planets you can fly down to from space right down to a few meters above ground, planets including mountains and vegetation and whatnot, and - my favorite - you can actually fly the ships directly, rather than the more RTS-like EVE ship control.
- Oshyan-JavaJones (November 11, 2009, 12:28 AM)
In short, Evochron Renegades is unique among freeform space-sims in that it offers a wide range of gameplay choices and activities including buying, trading, negotiating, bribing, spying, racing, transporting, mining, exploring, cleaning equipment, clearing paths through asteroid fields, recruiting, protecting, hiring crew members, fuel harvesting, and designing your ship. The upgrades, ships, equipment, money, and commodities you earn in the game can be used in both the single player and multiplayer modes. You don't have to give up your progress in the game when switching between single player and multiplayer, nor do you have to give up what you earn when you join different multiplayer sessions.
Also, everything you do in the game takes place in a seamless universe without system 'walls', there are no required warp gates or trade lanes to restrict your travel and hold you back. You can travel anywhere you want, with or without jump drives and gates, as long as you have the fuel and time to get there. You can descend into planet atmospheres (without loading screens or sudden environment flipping) to land at city trade stations or explore for hidden items. You can escape to nebula clouds for sensor cover or hide in a massive asteroid cave for protection. If you're low on fuel and don't have money, but you have a tractor beam and fuel converter, then retrieve photon particles from nearby stars and emissive nebulae which can be processed into fuel.-http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronrenegades/features.htm