|  Elite +4 | |
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| | Keyboard Controls | Trading:
| 1 | Buy cargo | | 2 | Sell cargo | | 3 | Equip ship | | 4 | Galactic chart | | 5 | Local navigation chart | | 6 | Data on system | | 7 | Market prices | | 8 | Status page | | 9 | Inventory | | @ | I/O access | | F | Find Planet | | D | Distance to system | | O | Retrieve cursor cross | | F1 | Launch |
Flight/fight:
| < | Counterclockwise roll | | > | Clockwise roll | | S | Dive | | X | Climb | | SPACE | Increase speed | | ? | Decrease speed | | F1 | Front view | | F2 | Back view | | F3 | Left view | | HELP | Right view | | J | Space skip | | H | Hyperspace jump | | CTRL+H | Inter-galactic hyperdrive | | A | Laser | | C | Docking computer on | | P | Docking computer off | | T | Missile targeting | | M | Launch missile | | U | Unarm missile | | C=KEY | Energy bomb | | E | Activate ECM | | ESC | Escape pod |
Other keys:
| Inst/Del | Pause game | | Clr/Home | Continue game |
While game is paused:
| A | Toggle Keyboard recentering | | Run/stop | Keyboard damping | | K | Keyboard/Joystick | | Y | Reverse Y-axis | | J | Reverse XY-axis | | Q | Sound effects off | | S | Sound effects on | | F | Speed indicator flashing | | P | Planet surface lines | | ESC | New game |
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| | Flicker Free Versions | On 2022-09-06, Mark Moxon has released a flicker free version of the Plus/4 homebrew conversion by Pigmy.
 Elite +4 Flicker free title
Being the coder who fully documented the original BBC version, Mark Moxon has taken his wide knowledge of the game in creating a patch capable to drastically improve the quality of the C64 graphics by removing flicker from the ship-drawing routines. Actually, the code in the patch has been backported from the BBC Master version of Elite, so it is 100% Bell & Braben's code that's making its first appearance on the Commodore 64. Indeed, the 1986 releases of Elite on the BBC Master and Apple II show a marked improvement in the quality of the wireframe graphics when compared to earlier versions. In the original 1984 and 1985 versions of Elite, such as those for the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Commodore 64, ships are animated on-screen by first erasing them entirely, and then redrawing them in their new positions. The improved algorithm in the BBC Master and Apple II versions is similar, but instead of erasing the entire ship and then redrawing a whole new ship, it erases one line of the old ship and immediately redraws one line of the new ship, repeating this process until the whole ship gets redrawn, one line at a time. This interleaving of the line-drawing process results in much smoother ship graphics, and without adding any extra steps, so it doesn't affect the game speed.
Mark has opened a GitHub repository for it, where read more about it, and download both PAL and NTSC versions of the C64 flicker free game.
Moved by the requests of his Twitter contacts, soon he decided to apply the patch even to the main Plus/4 homebrew conversion, despite the difficulty of handling a different machine where the original code had eventually been moved in memory, changed where needed and partly cut off.
After the release of the flicker free Plus/4 version, Mark Moxon managed to add some specific notes about it.
 Elite +4 original  Elite +4 Flicker free
Time passed, when at a certain point Mark Moxon has figured out how to apply a new patch in order to also fix the flickering ravaging the planets' graphics update. Although not suitable neither for the BBC Micro version of the game due a question of available memory, nor for the C128 one where the graphics builds up in a different way, the new patch has been applied to boost up the previously enhanced C64, BBC Master, Teletext (yes, he did a Teletext conversion too!) and finally Plus/4 in date 2023-02-28.
 Elite +4 Flicker free Π title
The Plus/4 release has been titled "Elite Flicker free Π" (aka Elite Flicker free Pi), where the capital Greek letter "Π" stands for πλανήτης (transl.: planētēs, which means "wanderers"), but also stands for "Pigmy"! Actually, it features a redux version of the classic Elite +4 intro made by Luca, in order to celebrate the genius of Pigmy, who converted the game when he was 15, in less than a week, by using the internal ML Monitor of the Plus/4 only.
 Flicker free Π Vs. Original
Note that in all versions, including the BBC original where those patches have been based, planets still flicker a bit when partially off-screen. This is because of the way the ball line buffer works: it's a consequence of the way the circles are stored as sequential arcs, forcing the erase/redraw sequence to involve slightly different segments. So this isn't strictly flicker-free, but it's way better than the default. On C64 and Plus/4, this is even more evident due to the slower processor.
Overall, Elite +4 Flicker free Π looks like this short video below.
 Elite +4 Flicker free Π gameplay |
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| | Rankings | | Kills | Kills (Hex) | Ranking | | 0 | $0000 | Harmless | | 8 | $0008 | Mostly Harmless | | 16 | $0010 | Poor | | 32 | $0020 | Average | | 64 | $0040 | Above Average | | 128 | $0080 | Competent | | 512 | $0200 | Dangerous | | 2560 | $0A00 | Deadly | | 6400 | $1900 | Elite |
Note: this 16 bit value is stored on memory location $04E0. |
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| | System Messages | Elite has 255 system messages and 26 special planet descriptions. Here is the comprehensive list:
| $01 | Disk Access Menu | | $02 | Disk | | $03 | Tape | | $04 | Competition Number | | $05 | ? | | $06 | Load new commander? | | $07 | Press space or fire, commander | | $08 | Commander's Name? | | $09 | Illegal Elite II file | | $0A | Greetings commander. I beg a moment of your valuable time. ... | | $0B | Attention commander (name), I am ... | | $0C | (C) D.Braben & I.Bell 1985 | | $0D | By D.Braben & I.Bell | | $0E | Planet name? | | $0F | Congratulations commander! There will ... | | $10 | Fabled | | $11 | Notable | | $12 | Well known | | $13 | Famous | | $14 | Noted | | $15 | Very | | $16 | Mildly | | $17 | Most | | $18 | Reasonably | | $19 | (null) | | $1A | Ancient | | $1B | Funny | | $1C | Great | | $1D | Vast | | $1E | Pink | | $1F | (noun) (noun) plantations | | $20 | Mountains | | $21 | Parking meters | | $22 | Tropical Forests | | $23 | Oceans | | $24 | Shyness | | $25 | Silliness | | $26 | Mating traditions | | $27 | Loading of (noun) | | $28 | Love for (noun) | | $29 | Food blenders | | $2A | Tourists | | $2B | Poetry | | $2C | Discos | | $2D | Cuisine | | $2E | Walking tree | | $2F | Crab | | $30 | Bat | | $31 | Lobst | | $32 | (adj) | | $33 | Beset | | $34 | Plagued | | $35 | Ravaged | | $36 | Cursed | | $37 | Scourged | | $38 | Frequent civil war | | $5B | Son of a bitch | | $5C | Scoundrel | | $5D | Blackguard | | $5E | Rogue | | $5F | Whoreson Beetle Headed Flap Ear'd Knave | | $60 | (A)n unremarkable | | $61 | boring | | $62 | dull | | $63 | tedious | | $64 | revolting | | $65 | planet | | $6A | I hear a funny looking ship appeared at Errius | | $6B | Yeah, I hear a funny ship left Errius a while back | | $6C | Get your iron ass over to Errius | | $6D | Some son of a bitch new ship was seen at Errius | | $6E | Try Errius | | $6F | Cuddly | | $70 | Cute | | $71 | Furry | | $72 | Friendly | | $B2 | and | | $B3 | You | | $B4 | Parking meters | | $B5 | Dust clouds | | $B6 | Ice bergs | | $B7 | Rock formations | | $B8 | Volcanoes | | $B9 | Plant | | $BA | Tulip | | $BB | Banana | | $BC | Corn | | $BD | (noun)weed | | $C6 | Little trumble | | $C7 | Incoming message / Good day commander. Allow me to... | | $F0 | Meat | | $F1 | Cutlet | | $F2 | Steak | | $F3 | Burgers | | $F4 | Soup | | $F5 | Ice | | $F6 | Mud | | $F7 | Zero-G | | $F8 | Vacuum | | $F9 | ian Ultra | | $FA | Hockey | | $FB | Cricket | | $FC | Karate | | $FD | Polo | | $FE | Tennis | | $FF | Tape Error |
Special planet descriptions
These messages can only be read by docking on the planet's coriolis and pressing 6. Viewing from other places will give the usual planet description. Furthermore, messages that are flagged with the "mission flag" will only show if you have received the first mission.
| Planet | Galaxy | Mission flag | Message | | TEORGE ($D3) | 1 | no | THE COLONISTS HERE HAVE VIOLATED INTERGALACTIC CLONING PROTOCOL AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED | | XEER ($96) | 1 | yes | THE CONSTRICTOR WAS LAST SEEN AT REESDICE, COMMANDER | | REESDICE ($24) | 1 | yes | A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP LEFT HERE A WHILE BACK. LOOKED BOUND FOR AREXE. | | AREXE ($1C) | 1 | yes | YEP, A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP HAD A GALACTIC HYPERDRIVE FITTED HERE. USED IT TOO. | | ERRIUS ($FD) | 2 | yes | THIS FUNNY SHIP DEHYPED HERE FROM NOWHERE, SUNSKIMMED AND JUMPED. I HEAR IT WENT TO INBIBE. | | INBIBE ($4F) | 2 | yes | SON OF A BITCH SHIP WENT FOR ME AT AUSAR, MY LASERS DIDN'T EVEN SCRATCH THE SON OF A BITCH | | AUSAR ($35) | 2 | yes | OH DEAR ME YES, A FRIGHTFUL ROGUE WITH WHAT I BELIEVE YOU PEOPLE CALL A LEAD POSTERIOR SHOT UP LOTS OF THOSE BEASTLY PIRATES AND WENT TO USLERI | | USLERI ($76) | 2 | yes | YOU CAN TACKLE THE KILLER SON OF A BITCH IF YOU LIKE. HE'S AT ORARRA | | $64 | 3 | no | COMING SOON: ELITE II | | $20 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $44 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $A4 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $DC | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $6A | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $10 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $A2 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $03 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $6B | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $1A | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $C0 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $B8 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $05 | 2 | yes | I HEAR A FUNNY LOOKING SHIP APPEARED AT ERRIUS | | $65 | 3 | yes | BOY ARE YOU IN THE WRONG GALAXY | | $C1 | 2 | yes | THERE'S A SON OF A BITCH PIRATE OUT THERE | | ANREER ($29) | 3 | no | THE INHABITANTS OF (planet) ARE SO AMAZINGLY PRIMITIVE THAT THEY STILL THINK ***** ****** IS 3D | | $01 | 17 | yes | WELCOME TO THE SEVENTEENTH GALAXY |
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| | Missions | The game has 3 secret missions. Missions are given out as "Incoming Messages" when you dock on any planet, if you meet the conditions. Here you will find the most detailed information on them. (Note: all codes below work on both the Plus/4 and C64 versions.)
Mission 1: Find and destroy the constrictor
Conditions:
- Must be in galaxy 1 or 2
- Must have at least 256 kills
Mission Text:
INCOMING MESSAGE
Greetings Commander (NAME), I am Captain Curruthers of Her Majesty's Space Navy and I beg a moment of your valuable time. We would like you to do a little job for us. The ship you see here is a new model, the Constrictor, equiped with a top secret new shield generator. Unfortunately it's been stolen.
It went missing from our ship yard on Xeer five months ago and was last seen at Reesdice. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to seek and destroy this ship. You are cautioned that only Military Lasers will penetrate the new shields and that the Constrictor is fitted with an E.C.M.System.
Good Luck, Commander.
MESSAGE ENDS.
Completing the mission:
In galaxy 2, go to Orarra and destroy the Constrictor. Crashing into it (if you survive) counts as victory.
Rewards:
A congratulations message and 5000 credits upon docking. Note that you immediately get 256 kills for destroying the ship.
I only have three quarters of a minute to view this mission! Can you help me?
Of course, we understand the busy lifestyle of today's average Plus/4 enthusiast and we're here to help. Follow this handy guide:
- Start up a new game in Elite +4
- F1 to leave the coriolis
- In the emulation monitor, enter >4E1 1 (you now have 256 kills)
- Enter G 1D7E (you are immediately docked and will receive the mission)
- To win, F1 again to leave.
- Enter >499 3 (you have completed the mission)
- Enter G 1D7E (you are docked and get the congratulations)
Mission 2: Trumbles
This is not a mission per se, just a one-time trade offer.
Conditions
- You need at least 5017.6 credits. Not dependent on anything else (galaxy, rating, etc). Other sites incorrectly state 6553.4 credits, for proof, see below.
Mission Text:
Good day Commander (NAME), allow me to introduce myself. I am The Merchant Prince Of Thrun and I find myself forced to sell my most treasured possession. I am offering you, for the paltry sum of just 5000CR the rarest thing in the Known Universe. Will you take it(Y/N)?
Amazing, I'll buy it! So, what is it?
Accepting the trade offer gives you one Cute/Cuddly/Furry/Friendly Little Trumble. (The game chooses the adjective randomly.) By itself it's not that bad, but as soon as you make your next hyperspace jump, you'll have more. They are worse than useless: they cannot be sold, they multiply by themselves and eat your food. Hyperspace or galactic hyperspace jumps don't harm them. They even block your vision... or so they would, if the Plus/4 had sprites.
Sprites?
The C64 version also displays them with the use of sprites: the cute little trumbles will be running all across your screen, getting in the way of seeing your controls or enemy ships. See this screenshot:
It should be no surprise that this feature is missing entirely from the Plus/4 conversion. Without hardware sprites, reproducing the effect would have been next to impossible. The code responsible for moving the sprites was at around $1E67, entering the emulator monitor and typing "D 1E67" will reveal that the code was replaced with NOPs.
How do I get rid of them?
By "sunskimming". If you get really close to the sun, the game will keep halving their numbers until there's none left. The cabin temperature (CT) has to be almost at the maximum, be careful not to burn up.
You can also cheat and remove them by going into the emulator monitor and entering >4C9 0 0.
Can I do view this quickly? Please!
Once again, the "enter hexadecimal number" parts go in your emulators monitor.
- Start a new game
- >4A4 C4 00 (This gives you exactly 5017.6 credits, press 8 to verify)
- F1 to leave
- G 1D7E (You get the trade offer)
You may also try the exact same steps, but enter >4A4 C3 FF. This will give you 5017.5 credits, and you will not get the trade offer.
Mission 3: Thargoid plans
The last mission is pretty hard to reach via regular gameplay.
Conditions
- Must be in 3rd galaxy
- Must have completed the first mission
- Must have rating of at least 1280 ($500), which is listed "Dangerous".
Mission text
If you meet the conditions, upon docking you get the following message:
Attention Commander (NAME), I am Captain Fortesque of Her Majesty's Space Navy. We have need of your services again. If you would be so good as to go to Ceerdi you will be briefed. If successful, you will be well rewarded.
MESSAGE ENDS
When you reach and dock on Ceerdi, you get the mission:
Good Day Commander (NAME). I am Agent Blake of Naval Intelligence. As you know, the Navy have been keeping the Thargoids off your ass out in deep space for many years now. Well the situation has changed. Our boys are ready for a push right to the home system of those murderers.
I have obtained the defence plans for their Hive Worlds. The beetles know we've got something but not what. If I transmit the plans to our base on Birera they'll intercept the transmission. I need a ship to make the run. You're elected. The plans are unipulse coded within this transmission. You will be paid. Good luck Commander.
MESSAGE ENDS
Completing the mission
From here on, you'll have some company in the form of Thargoid ships. Once you dock on Birera, you get the congratulations:
Well done Commander. You have served us well and we shall remember. We did not expect the Thargoids to find out about you. For the moment please accept this Navy Extra Energy Unit as payment.
MESSAGE ENDS.
Just give me the codes already!
Jeez, what's with the attitude? Never mind, just type:
- New game, F1
- >499 2, >4E1 5 (You've completed the first mission and have 1280 kills)
- >7AAF AD, >7ACD A2 FF (These two cheats give you unlimited jumps)
- CTRL+H, CTRL+H (You jump to the 3rd galaxy)
- G 1D7E (Dock, you get the request to Ceerdi)
- Press "4", "F", type "Ceerdi" to find the planet
- Press F1, "H" to get there
- G 1D7E (Dock, you get the mission)
- Press "4", "F", Birera to locate the final destination
- F1, "H" and you're there.
- G 1D7E (Dock, you've completed the mission.) |
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| | Easter Eggs | Ship with Author's Initials
Enter the following in your emulator's monitor:
>919D 0A (ship's ID, you can try other numbers as well)
>92B7 00 (how close to bring it, default is 1, lower is closer)
Upon start up, you will see a different ship instead of the Cobra: one with the author's initials on it (IB and DB).
Seventeenth Galaxy?
Another interesting message is built into the game, but it's not reachable under normal gameplay. The game only has 8 galaxies, after that, you return to the first one. The reason for this is the following: the entire galaxy is "stored" on 6 bytes. The 6 bytes gives a "seed", from which all information (planet names, locations, etc) are procedurally generated. Each time you jump to a new galaxy, those 6 bytes are cycled one bit to the left. This means that after 8 rotations, they will be back exactly to where they were. The game simply puts an artificial limit on the galaxy count, but it can be removed:
>7AE4 FF
After this (and applying the other cheats, such as the unlimited galactic hyperdrive), you can easily reach galaxy number 17, which is pretty much the same as 1. Find the planet named "Qube" and land on it. Press "6" for planet info will display the message.
You can also change the seed for the galaxies: type >49C and 6 hexadecimal numbers, then look at the galactic map... You're in a completely new galaxy! |
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| | Cheats - How do I use cheats? | | >7CE8 2C | Unlimited fuel |
| G 1D7E | Dock immediately |
| >7ACD A2 FF | Unlimited free galactic hyperdrive |
| >84C2 60 | Unlimited energy |
| >7AAF AD | Hyperspace jump to any distance |
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