Games Elite: Dangerous
- Thread starter svartalf
- Start date
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
And note that even with Star Citizen there's no obligation to buy anything but the basic ship with real cash. There are a few exceptions where you won't be able to purchase them in-game for game-earned money, but for the most part that's just as viable a means of acquisition.Ah. My mistake then
Just because some people keep throwing more and more money at the screen in order to get an extra row in a database that will some day allow them to fly the ship in-game from day one doesn't mean anyone else has to.
Back on topic... roll on Friday. I've had Premium Beta for over a month now, and during a recent holiday to the USA I saw a planetarium show at the Griffith Observatory in LA and got pumped for going exploring in E: D
.
Urgat
Part of the furniture
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Messages
- 665
I know it wont be possible in the beta, but am i the only one who cannot wait to fly to Sol and explore our solar system IN 1:1 SCALE?
As an astronomer and all round space junkie... The prospect of this simple thing has me wetting my pants.
(Not to mention trying to visit the exoplanets that we have discovered in real life recently.)
As an astronomer and all round space junkie... The prospect of this simple thing has me wetting my pants.
(Not to mention trying to visit the exoplanets that we have discovered in real life recently.)
Zarjazz
Identifies as a horologist.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2003
- Messages
- 2,430
I caved in and bought the premium beta. I know it's only the combat demo so far until the 30th but all I can say is they have absolutely nailed the flight dynamics. It totally feels like you're in a realistic dogfight trying to control several hundred tons of metal in space! So far so very good ...
Oh yeah, that Incursion scenario is a total bitch!
Oh yeah, that Incursion scenario is a total bitch!
Urgat
Part of the furniture
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Messages
- 665
Yep, stick and throttle feels smooth and natural in alpha 1.1 sp missions. Even without flight assist off (which is bloody hard btw), i was sliding, lateral thrusting and dogfighting with ease)
Can only assume the controls will be even more refined in prem beta.
Ill stick to trackIR. The rift is a bit too much for me to invest in yet.
Can only assume the controls will be even more refined in prem beta.
Ill stick to trackIR. The rift is a bit too much for me to invest in yet.
Zarjazz
Identifies as a horologist.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2003
- Messages
- 2,430
It's obviously beta, definitely some issues but when it's working it's everything you'd want for a true Elite sequel. The dog fight I had with 2 Cobras with my crappy sidewinder and single pulse laser ... oh god it was amazing. Shame I had to reset my save soon after due to losing all my precious cargo in a space station crash bug
Urgat
Part of the furniture
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Messages
- 665
Beta testing update for you guys that aren't playing at the moment.
If I had to TLDR it, i would say this...
A metric ton of potential. Whilst the core of the game engine is great, there are a number of bugs / issues that need ironing out, but that is what the beta is for.
In its current state... 6.5/10
If they get everything fixed, and deliver on their promises during the design discussions... 10/10
Longer version....
The 10 SP combat missions from Alpha are still available, but what's this? A shiny new "Multi player" option!
After clicking multi player you are presented with a loading screen and once that's done with you are sat in a brand new Sidewinder armed with a single "borrowed" (read.. worth nothing) pulse laser that is floating in space outside a Coriolis space station.
I glance around with trackIR.. and even in just 1600x900 space is beautiful!
(First of the issues i noticed... the beta engine doesn't render 1680x1050 properly, it has trouble with the aspect ratio, so its down to 1600x900 for now. We are told this issue is fixed in a later version of the code that we don't have as testers yet)
I Gently throttle up and start to practice manoeuvring. As with the alpha... flight is fun and immersive. From the retros firing over the ship, to the protesting "whine" of the engine as I open the throttle right up and fire the after burners. I grin like a kid as I bank, glide and slide around the station, skimming the surface and re-acquiring my feel for the ED flight model. As I float round the station towards the docking port in a well controlled lateral slide, my aerobatics (spacialbatics???) are rewarded by a stunning visual as the nearby star and ringed gas giant coming into view from behind the structure.
Space really IS beautiful!
Docking clearance is requested by me, and the friendly lady on the Space station assigns me a bay number and gleefully reminds me that I have a set time limit to dock or leave the area (10 minutes) otherwise I will be classed as "loitering with intent" and the station will open fire. After a flash back to the original Elite i briefly consider not bothering to try to dock.. but my sense of adventure takes over and i line up. Turns out docking is far easier when you don't have to do it with a wire frame station. Once inside i have to locate my assigned bay via the handy hologram pointer, and then a docking aid kicks in to show me my relative position on the pad as i set it down.
The station menu is simple and easy to use, i browse the trade market, but decide not to bother trading yet. (Only 4 tons of cargo space and 1000 credit top start with) After requesting launch clearance, my ship is un-clamped and i am on my way to the exit (once again, i am reminded that loitering will be met with deadly force... friendly bunch!)
Once outside i decide to head to one of the resource extraction sites... the miners there are always in need of protection, and i reckon i can earn some bounties.
Time to bring up the galactic map.
OH
MY
GOD
When someone tells you.. "we modelled the galaxy in a 1:1 scale" you don't really appreciate that scale until you open the map up, and then start to zoom out.
It is astounding!
The map it self is easy to use. You can search based on name, pan around, zoom, ascend and descend through the galactic plane etc etc. Clicking a system gets you a quick blurb about it as well as its government type and jurisdiction and locks it as your destination. More detailed info on a system would be good, things like trade imports and exports, etc etc, but we assume they will come with time.
Unable to resist i search for Sol... and there it is. I slowly zoom out and once again marvel at the shear bloody scale of this! Our home in the universe sits nestled in space surrounded by BILLIONS of other stars. Zoom out far enough and the individual stars begin to merge into the familiar spiral that is the Milky Way.
As an amateur astronomer... i can tell you this is officially F****** AWESOME (at least to me) and i spent far longer just messing around with the galactic map than was needed
Anyhoo... back to my current location. FD have given us a small area of the galaxy to play in consisting of five star systems complete with their attendant planets, moons, and satellites. I pick the Dahan system as my destination on the galactic map and go back to the cockpit.. After leaving the vicinity of the station I activate the "Frame Shift Drive" (you can't activate the drive while "mass-locked" .. ie.. too close to an object) The flight computer instructs me to throttle up and orient with the target system.
At this point i realise something... as I swing around to face my destination, the HUD literally highlights the star I targeted! the background stars I see out of my canopy aren't just a painted terrain sphere... they are really F****** there!
I cancel the drive and quickly go check the dev forums...
Yep! its true!... the galaxy is actually modelled, and the stars I see out the canopy of my ship are ACTUALLY there in there correct positions within the game. Theoretically I could point my ship at a star and just head there under normal flight power. And eventually... i would reach it! (in a few million years real time)
I cannot express how F***** awesome this is! I can FLY THROUGH OUR GALAXY!
After i calm down, i re-engage the drive and after a satisfying countdown and charge cycle (The sound design is great too) My sidewinder leaps into Frame Shift mode and sends me hurtling thorough pretty hyper space (READ... place holder load screen) towards Dahan.
I drop out of hyper space into Super Cruise mode, and the burning stellar majesty of Dahan itself looms ahead alarmingly close! Proximty klaxons fire up and the flight computer screams that collision with the star is imminent because i left the throttle at full while in hyperspace, so am now hurtling towards this nuclear furnace in space at about five time the speed of light!
I veer away from the star quickly. Super cruise mode is the game's way of dealing with the vast in system distances that a 1:1 galaxy presents. Super cruise sees you travelling between system bodies in a seperate instance to the nornal flight mode at speeds in excess of light speed. The closer you are to local gravity wells, the more the Frame Shift drive restricts your acceleration. I select my destination (a ringed planet called Hathor... the site of resource extraction) and as i get further from the local star, my velocity starts to creep up despite not touching the throttle. (The gravity well is affecting the Frame Shift drive less and less as the distance to the star increases) I reach 20c (20x the spead of light) before i have travelled far enough across the system to start to enter Hathor's gravity well. The Frame Shift drive starts to curb back the speed as i get closer to Hathor, but once again I forget to throttle back. The drive whines in a high pitched squeal and the cockpit shakes because despite the drive trying to restrict the speed due to proximity, the throttle is jammed open and speed isn't dropping as fast as it should be. I realise too late and overshoot Hathor at about 7000km/s!
There is no braking in Super Cruise, you have to manage your throttle in order to accelerate and decelerate at the optimal rates to get to your destination. I'll be honest... In its current state, after the first few times... Super Cruise is... meh. Its a bit boring, and even the random "interdictions" by NPC pirates or federal security services are trivial. Further down the line we can expect ways for players to interact with each other in super cruise (forced interdiction, piracy, etc etc) but until then it is what is is.
Having turned round and approached my destination at a sensible speed, the computer informs me i have a destination lock and can safely disengage the frameshift drive. I do so and i get another place holder transition screen as the game tries to match me into a local instance. And here we have one of the MAJOR issues with the game at the moment. The Beta netcode isn't great. It can sometimes take several minutes for you to drop into an instance, and, very often the game just hangs whilst trying to match you into one. This has been flagged, and the devs assure as that it will be improved in later versions.
Once i finally manage to get into a Hathor instance, i am presented with a stunning view of the nearby planet as i fly through the asteroids in the ring system. As i predicted, there are plenty of NPC miners, and plenty of NPC ships flying about that, when scanned, have bounties associated with them. there are even a few players here too.
Combat is good, the flight model is fun, and dogfights are great. But here is where another of the beta issues crops up. In instances with other players, the netcode shows up again and it can get very laggy, very quickly (especially in a ring system) Once again, the issue is known and there are promises that later builds will address it.
During my time in the Hathor rings, a fellow player decided he wanted a piece of me... and that was when i got to test some of the game's deeper layers of combat tactics. Lateral thrusting behind asteroids to break LOS and then activating silent running mode to break his lock proved very effective. During his confusion, I managed to get on his six and disengage silent running just before the heat buildup started to fry my systems, We danced around each other, using lateral thrust, after burners, and asteroids in a great dogfight that ended with him spinning lazily through space, venting plasma, before finally exploding. Thanks for the bounty, Commander!
Activating silent running "buttons up" the ship. You no longer vent the heat you produce into space, effectively making your sensor signature non existent. And.. whilst you can still be literally seen by someone's mk1 eyeball if they are paying attention.. you cannot be targeted, don't appear on scanners, and can't be tracked by gimballed weapons (gimballed weapons have a limited autoaiming functionality)
This comes at a price though... whilst your in silent running mode, Your shields go offline, and the heat you are not venting quickly builds up in your ship. When it gets hot enough... your systems start to fry themselves, and if left... your ship will eventually blow. A dedicated Heat sink launcher will temporarily dump all your heat, but that takes up a valuable module slot and the heat sinks themselves appear on scanners after they are launched so are a sure fire warning to vigilant folk that someone is nearby.
It is one of the more elegant approaches to "stealth" gameplay that i have come across, and i like it a lot.
Anyway... several thousand credits worth of bounties later, i decide to head back to a station a very happy and optimistic Commander. I cant wait for them to let us explore more systems.
ED is shaping up to be a brilliant free form space trader. (As long as they iron out the minor bugs, netcode, and instancing issues)
If I had to TLDR it, i would say this...
A metric ton of potential. Whilst the core of the game engine is great, there are a number of bugs / issues that need ironing out, but that is what the beta is for.
In its current state... 6.5/10
If they get everything fixed, and deliver on their promises during the design discussions... 10/10
Longer version....
The 10 SP combat missions from Alpha are still available, but what's this? A shiny new "Multi player" option!
After clicking multi player you are presented with a loading screen and once that's done with you are sat in a brand new Sidewinder armed with a single "borrowed" (read.. worth nothing) pulse laser that is floating in space outside a Coriolis space station.
I glance around with trackIR.. and even in just 1600x900 space is beautiful!
(First of the issues i noticed... the beta engine doesn't render 1680x1050 properly, it has trouble with the aspect ratio, so its down to 1600x900 for now. We are told this issue is fixed in a later version of the code that we don't have as testers yet)
I Gently throttle up and start to practice manoeuvring. As with the alpha... flight is fun and immersive. From the retros firing over the ship, to the protesting "whine" of the engine as I open the throttle right up and fire the after burners. I grin like a kid as I bank, glide and slide around the station, skimming the surface and re-acquiring my feel for the ED flight model. As I float round the station towards the docking port in a well controlled lateral slide, my aerobatics (spacialbatics???) are rewarded by a stunning visual as the nearby star and ringed gas giant coming into view from behind the structure.
Space really IS beautiful!
Docking clearance is requested by me, and the friendly lady on the Space station assigns me a bay number and gleefully reminds me that I have a set time limit to dock or leave the area (10 minutes) otherwise I will be classed as "loitering with intent" and the station will open fire. After a flash back to the original Elite i briefly consider not bothering to try to dock.. but my sense of adventure takes over and i line up. Turns out docking is far easier when you don't have to do it with a wire frame station. Once inside i have to locate my assigned bay via the handy hologram pointer, and then a docking aid kicks in to show me my relative position on the pad as i set it down.
The station menu is simple and easy to use, i browse the trade market, but decide not to bother trading yet. (Only 4 tons of cargo space and 1000 credit top start with) After requesting launch clearance, my ship is un-clamped and i am on my way to the exit (once again, i am reminded that loitering will be met with deadly force... friendly bunch!)
Once outside i decide to head to one of the resource extraction sites... the miners there are always in need of protection, and i reckon i can earn some bounties.
Time to bring up the galactic map.
OH
MY
GOD
When someone tells you.. "we modelled the galaxy in a 1:1 scale" you don't really appreciate that scale until you open the map up, and then start to zoom out.
It is astounding!
The map it self is easy to use. You can search based on name, pan around, zoom, ascend and descend through the galactic plane etc etc. Clicking a system gets you a quick blurb about it as well as its government type and jurisdiction and locks it as your destination. More detailed info on a system would be good, things like trade imports and exports, etc etc, but we assume they will come with time.
Unable to resist i search for Sol... and there it is. I slowly zoom out and once again marvel at the shear bloody scale of this! Our home in the universe sits nestled in space surrounded by BILLIONS of other stars. Zoom out far enough and the individual stars begin to merge into the familiar spiral that is the Milky Way.
As an amateur astronomer... i can tell you this is officially F****** AWESOME (at least to me) and i spent far longer just messing around with the galactic map than was needed
Anyhoo... back to my current location. FD have given us a small area of the galaxy to play in consisting of five star systems complete with their attendant planets, moons, and satellites. I pick the Dahan system as my destination on the galactic map and go back to the cockpit.. After leaving the vicinity of the station I activate the "Frame Shift Drive" (you can't activate the drive while "mass-locked" .. ie.. too close to an object) The flight computer instructs me to throttle up and orient with the target system.
At this point i realise something... as I swing around to face my destination, the HUD literally highlights the star I targeted! the background stars I see out of my canopy aren't just a painted terrain sphere... they are really F****** there!
I cancel the drive and quickly go check the dev forums...
Yep! its true!... the galaxy is actually modelled, and the stars I see out the canopy of my ship are ACTUALLY there in there correct positions within the game. Theoretically I could point my ship at a star and just head there under normal flight power. And eventually... i would reach it! (in a few million years real time)
I cannot express how F***** awesome this is! I can FLY THROUGH OUR GALAXY!
After i calm down, i re-engage the drive and after a satisfying countdown and charge cycle (The sound design is great too) My sidewinder leaps into Frame Shift mode and sends me hurtling thorough pretty hyper space (READ... place holder load screen) towards Dahan.
I drop out of hyper space into Super Cruise mode, and the burning stellar majesty of Dahan itself looms ahead alarmingly close! Proximty klaxons fire up and the flight computer screams that collision with the star is imminent because i left the throttle at full while in hyperspace, so am now hurtling towards this nuclear furnace in space at about five time the speed of light!
I veer away from the star quickly. Super cruise mode is the game's way of dealing with the vast in system distances that a 1:1 galaxy presents. Super cruise sees you travelling between system bodies in a seperate instance to the nornal flight mode at speeds in excess of light speed. The closer you are to local gravity wells, the more the Frame Shift drive restricts your acceleration. I select my destination (a ringed planet called Hathor... the site of resource extraction) and as i get further from the local star, my velocity starts to creep up despite not touching the throttle. (The gravity well is affecting the Frame Shift drive less and less as the distance to the star increases) I reach 20c (20x the spead of light) before i have travelled far enough across the system to start to enter Hathor's gravity well. The Frame Shift drive starts to curb back the speed as i get closer to Hathor, but once again I forget to throttle back. The drive whines in a high pitched squeal and the cockpit shakes because despite the drive trying to restrict the speed due to proximity, the throttle is jammed open and speed isn't dropping as fast as it should be. I realise too late and overshoot Hathor at about 7000km/s!
There is no braking in Super Cruise, you have to manage your throttle in order to accelerate and decelerate at the optimal rates to get to your destination. I'll be honest... In its current state, after the first few times... Super Cruise is... meh. Its a bit boring, and even the random "interdictions" by NPC pirates or federal security services are trivial. Further down the line we can expect ways for players to interact with each other in super cruise (forced interdiction, piracy, etc etc) but until then it is what is is.
Having turned round and approached my destination at a sensible speed, the computer informs me i have a destination lock and can safely disengage the frameshift drive. I do so and i get another place holder transition screen as the game tries to match me into a local instance. And here we have one of the MAJOR issues with the game at the moment. The Beta netcode isn't great. It can sometimes take several minutes for you to drop into an instance, and, very often the game just hangs whilst trying to match you into one. This has been flagged, and the devs assure as that it will be improved in later versions.
Once i finally manage to get into a Hathor instance, i am presented with a stunning view of the nearby planet as i fly through the asteroids in the ring system. As i predicted, there are plenty of NPC miners, and plenty of NPC ships flying about that, when scanned, have bounties associated with them. there are even a few players here too.
Combat is good, the flight model is fun, and dogfights are great. But here is where another of the beta issues crops up. In instances with other players, the netcode shows up again and it can get very laggy, very quickly (especially in a ring system) Once again, the issue is known and there are promises that later builds will address it.
During my time in the Hathor rings, a fellow player decided he wanted a piece of me... and that was when i got to test some of the game's deeper layers of combat tactics. Lateral thrusting behind asteroids to break LOS and then activating silent running mode to break his lock proved very effective. During his confusion, I managed to get on his six and disengage silent running just before the heat buildup started to fry my systems, We danced around each other, using lateral thrust, after burners, and asteroids in a great dogfight that ended with him spinning lazily through space, venting plasma, before finally exploding. Thanks for the bounty, Commander!
Activating silent running "buttons up" the ship. You no longer vent the heat you produce into space, effectively making your sensor signature non existent. And.. whilst you can still be literally seen by someone's mk1 eyeball if they are paying attention.. you cannot be targeted, don't appear on scanners, and can't be tracked by gimballed weapons (gimballed weapons have a limited autoaiming functionality)
This comes at a price though... whilst your in silent running mode, Your shields go offline, and the heat you are not venting quickly builds up in your ship. When it gets hot enough... your systems start to fry themselves, and if left... your ship will eventually blow. A dedicated Heat sink launcher will temporarily dump all your heat, but that takes up a valuable module slot and the heat sinks themselves appear on scanners after they are launched so are a sure fire warning to vigilant folk that someone is nearby.
It is one of the more elegant approaches to "stealth" gameplay that i have come across, and i like it a lot.
Anyway... several thousand credits worth of bounties later, i decide to head back to a station a very happy and optimistic Commander. I cant wait for them to let us explore more systems.
ED is shaping up to be a brilliant free form space trader. (As long as they iron out the minor bugs, netcode, and instancing issues)
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
Oh yes. It's significant that the one really jaw-dropping sight I've caught didn't get into a screenshot because, well, my jaw was too far dropped. It was a planet eclipsing the local sun with the atmosphere doing a lovely 'ring of fire' thing.
Zarjazz
Identifies as a horologist.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2003
- Messages
- 2,430
The long delay when exiting Super Cruise is the only issue that's annoying me so far but that's kind of the point of the Beta stage, to stress test the network and server code and find problems. Oh any other human players being better pilots is annoying too
Everyone is expecting an update soon to coincide with E3 so hopefully some of the issues, CTD fixes and other goodies are added to.
Everyone is expecting an update soon to coincide with E3 so hopefully some of the issues, CTD fixes and other goodies are added to.
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
Oh any other human players being better pilots is annoying too
Aye, there's a huge gap between most of the NPC AI and how PCs play. It's a tricky one. If they made all the NPC AI the best then newbies would just always get slaughtered, but as it is you REALLY need to pay attention to PCs in combat zones because the time for them to kill you is so much shorter, such that if they decide to come after you you'll be dead in very short order unless you react instantly. Of course what this has meant is a "race to the bottom". If you're in a factioned zone then you really do need to just attack any enemy-faction PC ASAP before they do it to you.
Note I said 'most of the NPC AI', I've come across a few that once they get close can be a right bugger to shake off and get a shot lined up on again. Judicious use of reverse thrust, strafe up/down, and even sideways usually does the trick though, but it's a big step change from the usual NPC fights.
Zarjazz
Identifies as a horologist.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2003
- Messages
- 2,430
Have yet to figure out how to screenshot, or where they would be saved
According to the docs it's F10 to take a screenshot and the files are under %APPDATA%\Roaming\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Screenshots (if not Roaming then maybe Local)
Yeah, the AI can be really good at times especially when they are in a nimble ship, I think they've improved it since the 1.1 combat test and it was already pretty good then. The problem with the human players is that combat tends to be whomever sneaks up and shoots first wins, at least when in a sidewinder.
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
In my case they're in %USER%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Screenshots\ Note that they're in BMP format, so lossless, but a bit big.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 1997
- Messages
- 9,077,083
Held off, saving for a TM Warthog, in the meantime I have ditched my shit G110 for a fully mechanical keyboard and also ordered a set of SteelSeries Siberia Elite headphones as I am so fucked off with the shit ones I have at the moment.
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
I don't think this will have witchspace. Kind of the equivalent would be getting bumped out of Supercruise due to an Interdiction, or having a mis-jump with the hyperdrive (which by the sounds of it should land you at something like a rogue planet, i.e. one in interstellar space without associated star).
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2003
- Messages
- 3,416
I used to love deliberately witching and trying to kill the Thargons (the big ones - I might have this back to front) without killing any of the drones to maximise the alien items I could scoop up and sell
Athan
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,063
So, E: D has had a stonking E3. See bits in the latest newsletter:
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=0b43285619
They won Best In Show from The Escapist and games.cz, and are nominated with IGN.
No updated this week, but news about it next week.
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=0b43285619
They won Best In Show from The Escapist and games.cz, and are nominated with IGN.
No updated this week, but news about it next week.
svartalf
Can't get enough of FH
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2004
- Messages
- 1,632
- Thread starter
- #59
That's, "David Braben, OBE"...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27836293
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27836293
bbc said:13 June 2014Last updated at 22:33
Raspberry Pi pioneer honoured in Birthday list
Mr Braben's latest project is an updated version of classic space-trading game Elite
Continue reading the main story
Birthday Honours 2014
- Honours for Sutton, Day-Lewis, Jolie
- Ten famous faces
- Sutton's story touched thousands
- Davies and Gaitland on sports list
Video game veteran David Braben has been appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
The honour was given for the work he has done for both the UK's video game and computer industries.
Mr Braben got started in video games as a teenager as one half of the duo that created the hugely successful Elite space trading game.
More recently he was instrumental in helping to get the Raspberry Pi bare-bones computer project up and running.
He helped to set up the Foundation that did the development work on the £25 credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer.
The tiny computer was developed in a bid to get young people interested in computer science and coding but has proved a bigger hit with older people who have put the device to all kinds of uses.
Mr Braben got his start in the computer world during the early 1980s when the first cheap home computers became available. He wrote the Elite video game with friend Ian Bell which gave players the chance to pilot a spaceship around an open-ended galaxy trading and fighting off pirates.
In late 2012, Mr Braben ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to develop Elite: Dangerous - a modern-day update of the game. The campaign raised £1.5m and the game is due to be released towards the end of 2014.
Mr Braben was one of several technology entrepreneurs and innovators who received awards in the honours.
Dr Paul Hawkins was made an OBE for his work to create the "Hawk Eye" ball-tracking system used at major sporting events such as Wimbledon.
Also honoured were Belinda Parmar, founder of Lady Geek, who was appointed OBE for services to women in technology; Dr David Gow becomes a CBE for creating the prosthetic I-Limb Hand that has helped people with upper limb injuries and Alastair Lukies, founder of Monitise, was appointed a CBE for his entrepreneurial work.
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2003
- Messages
- 3,416
Doooods!! I have a bit of a dilemma - I found some credit available and purchased the premium beta, but 2 copies, one for me one for my son. I then found out I can't 'gift' his to him, so I need to know a bit about the mechanics... will he need to use my login to play, or can he create his own account and enter some kind of beta key which I will receive... any advice please?