No two games of Elite are the same. But to improve your chances of a completely new gaming experience whenever you launch the game on a BBC Micro or emulator, developer Mark Moxon has built the Elite Universe Editor.
Describing it as a mod is a little unfair – it’s essentially a construction kit for the game, alowing you “customise pretty much every aspect of the Elite universe, from the ships around you to the seeds used to generate the game’s systems and galaxies.” The potential for this is immense, and seems utterly bonkers given the fact it is for an 8-bit computer.
The editor includes the full game, although the rolling demo has been removed. So, how is it possible to squeeze the Elite Universe Editor onto a BBC Micro?
“Elite is famous for using every spare byte in the BBC Micro, and while this is pretty much the case in the standard BBC Micro versions, the enhanced versions on the 6502 Second Processor and BBC Master do have some spare memory. It turns out this is just enough to squeeze in a Universe Editor.”
Mark Moxon
With the Elite Universe Editor you can:
- Compose your universe by placing ships, planets, suns and space stations anywhere within the local bubble, with a fully featured 3D editor that uses the game’s original interface and key presses that will be familiar to players of BBC Micro Elite.
- Edit the many different attributes for each ship, such as AI, ship personality, speed, turn rates, laser fire, missiles, E.C.M., station type, planet type and so on.
- Save and load universe files.
- Play your universes by jumping straight into the game engine with your chosen universe laid out around you. Build a scenario and watch it come to life, or load one of the sample universes that come bundled with the editor, like the iconic screenshot from the back of the box:
- Edit the galaxy seeds to explore the 281,474,976,710,656 different galaxies that the engine supports.
You’ll agree that is pretty amazing. And while it is currently limited to the BBC Micro, that’s not the plan long-term.
Posting on the Stardot community forum (for BBC Micro and Acorn computers) Moxon revealed:
“In case anyone is interested, I’m hoping to add the same editing tools to the Commodore 64 version, which should mean that Beeb and C64 owners could swap universe files. Not sure whether anyone will, but it’s an interesting prospect!”
To get started, head to the Elite Universe Editor page to grab the download. You’ll find acres of instructions (hopefully a video tutorial will appear one day) there, and quite a bit of background at GitHub.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.