How is Frontier in a direct comparison to Elite? I only played it to test, but never got into it. If someone wants, make a comparison thread with screenshots and pro/contra. I always liked Elite and played it a lot and quite enjoyed the huge freedom and planets to explore. But how does Frontier really compare graphically, complexity, quantity and quality? I really would like to know.
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I'd never heard of that game until a couple of years ago when someone mentioned it on the old forum and had a go through UAE. It was a bit pony really. Also it glitched out and i somehow had inifinite lives - the final boss was still an utter pig to beat though - in fact I'm not sure I finished it. Won't be trying again
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I'd love to do that, except that for me it's the other way around. I never really played Elite, only tested it some after having played Frontier. For some strange reason, allthough I got hold of a lot of games for the C64 and Amiga back in the day I somehow managed to never have Elite in any shape or form. So can't do a comparison, sorry.
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I haven't played the original Elite much either, so I'm afraid I can't help you regarding the comparison, Demon. Although, I must say that Frontier is an excellent game - I used to spend hours a time playing it.
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The simple answer comparing the two is to say that Frontier is everything Elite was, but more so. But equally it does change some of the core elements of the game. Instead of multiple galaxies of the original, Frontier only has the one galaxy, our Milky Way, but it is a vast expanse of star systems and is impossible to visit every planet.

The wireframe graphics of the original were updated to full filled 3D polygons, creating some amazing (at the time) views of both space on planet surfaces. The space ship docking of the original is also in Frontier, with you initially needing to manually align yourself with the rotation of the station and then move into the docking bay at the correct speed. And just the same as the original, you can upgrade to an automatic docking computer to negate the need for the tedious docking sequence.

Other similarities between the original and Frontier include the cargo runs, comparing prices on the stock market between planets and solar systems and trying to buy low and sell high, there is also the return of the military aspect with you able to take missions from the military, but from two opposing human sides, and ranking higher on one side then makes you become a target when within the other side's regions of space. There are also other types of mission such as assassin or mining runs, collecting hydrogen from a sun, or ore by blowing up asteroids.

And the pirates are back, with some great space battles to be had.

One big difference is in the space ships. In the original Elite you were given a ship at the beginning and could upgrade and improve it throughout the game. In Frontier you have a market of new and second hand ships to trade your one in for and can swap to other ships whenever you like throughout the game. There are a wide variety of ships and each can be upgraded with better armour, shields, bigger hyperdrive engines, more cargo space, cabins for passenger runs between systems and different ships also have more gun mounting points and some even have turrets which can be fun.

You can also land on planets as well as docking with orbiting stations and if you are good at piloting you can fly around the planets and explore them, seeing some of their natural landscapes and the cities on them.

The map system in Frontier is also quite cool. It is fully 3D and allows you to zoom right out and rotate around to see the 3D spacing between systems and planets, and you can even zoom right into the map and see space stations in close detail. You can also call up detailed information about systems and their resources, the items they trade in and how popular or rare items are, allowing you to work out the best profits to be made.

As I said at the start, Frontier is everything Elite was but more, and in my view better.
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Sounds pretty good, shame I didn't play it. But then again, that was the time I was already older and had other things to do than gaming. I think that even at that time I got my first PC and sold my Amiga, shame on me

Were there also the Targoids?? I quite enjoyed battling against them.

That was always the first thing I did in Elite.
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I remember crashing into the space stations and dying quite often when starting out with a new game in Frontier and the original Elite. That was probably the most tedious and annoying aspect of the game. I did perfect the manual docking quite well though after some practice.

These days I do prefer to play X2 and X3, and sometimes Freelancer.
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I began playing X1, but not long. Played through Freespace 1&2, which were very good. And I'm also half through Freelancer which imo is also very good. But always when I start to play again, I have to play some early missions again, to get confident with the controls, then continue with my actual save. But it has now been almost 2 years I didn't play anymore.
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You should definitely give the later X games a try. They take everything from the original, including the expansion pack, and make it even better. You can even create complete empires, setting up space stations and huge automated cargo ships that do your work for you, travelling between the stars shipping ore to their destination while you concentrate on killing someone.
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I heard that these were very good, unfortunately they don't run on my laptop 2.8GHz with an ATI 64MB card, otherwise I would give them a try at work.
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