‘Elite’ Brought Open-Worlds To Videogames Before Their Time

Whoa, a sudden burst of activity on the website for a 25-year-old game? The official site for Elite is in the middle of a series of new posts, artwork, and even an upcoming interview with one of the game’s creators.

If you’re not acquainted with Elite, you might be surprised to learn that open-world games are 25 years old. As co-creator David Braben explains in an introductory video:

In Elite, you play the role of a space pilot where you’re given a slightly rubbish space ship and a 100 credits and you get to fly around the galaxy — in fact, several galaxies — doing exactly what you like. The idea is, by the way you play the game — you can either play the game as a pirate, you can play the game as a trader, you can play the game as a bounty hunter — there are all different roles. But you don’t actually select a role. It’s not like a role-playing game. You can do any and all of these things as the whim takes you.

He furthermore says the game was a tough sell back in 1984 because “you didn’t have three lives and it took longer than ten minutes to play through”.

Among young whipsnappers who don’t know Elite, Braben’s studio, Frontier, is better known for the third RollerCoaster Tycoon. They also created the sublime Lost Winds, available as Wii Ware, and they’re currently at work on the follow-up, Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias.

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