The Frontier WikiNews

Want to submit news? Please see the News Submission Guidelines on how to do this.

Want to discuss news?

Braben's impression of the UK government's attitude to the games industry

On a link from Frontier's website, I noticed that David Braben has strongly criticised the British government's treatment of the UK game industry. In Gamespot, he's quoted as saying, "The government has made it very clear that it doesn't give a damn about the games industry." When asked to expand on his point, Braben told GameSpot that, "As an industry we have largely slipped between the cracks until now as far as government is concerned. Certainly as an industry, we have a low profile within government; there is a lack of appreciation of the size and revenue generated by our industry, and a similar lack of awareness of the issues we face."

You can read the full article here: [1]

Winston 11:02, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

EdzUp accepting alpha test signups

We are accepting alpha signups for alpha testing of Elite Multiplayer, if you would like to test the game please head over to the EdzUp forum (http://www.edzup.co.uk and click on forum). Once you signup to the forum and then post in the alpha team post I will review your account and if accepted you will be required to agree to the alpha team rules. Who knows you could be testing Elite Multiplayer :)

EdzUp 20:21, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Oolite Test Release - 1.70

A new test release of the game has been made available for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. There have been many updates to the game, the details of which can be found here. Installers can be downloaded from GURPO - the Windows version appears under Oolite (Windows), Mac version under Oolite (Mac OS X) and the Linux autopackage under oolite-dev-installer.

Winston 17:40, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Another Elite remake: The Battle for Birera

Jason Togneri wrote on the EBBS about another Elite remake that he spotted, which appears to be based on Elite: TNK. "Completely re-written AI, there are now battles going on in universe that are independent of player, pirates attacking trader convoys, police patrols attacking pirates or even complete war outbreaks.... this "Elite remake" should be in par with ArcElite (Archimedes Elite), well at least that was my goal... but there is more, hard-coded 7 extra missions and added many other features that appeared in Elite remakes and some completely new stuff, read description, hints and tips here - The Battle for Birera"

Winston 17:00, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Darkness will perhaps fall?

It's been some time since Christian Pinder had worked on Darkness Falls, and the assumption was that it was yet another abandoned Elite tribute project. However, it seems like he's gearing up to work on it again, according to his resurrected newkind.co.uk website - details here.

Winston 18:01, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

#alt.fan.elite IRC channel - new home

The new home for #alt.fan.elite is now irc.synirc.net. See you there.

Winston 18:02, 27 October 2007 (BST)

#alt.fan.elite IRC channel - ZiRC dead?

ZiRC, the network (well, server - they ceased being an actual network a while ago) seems to have met its end. This means the #alt.fan.elite channel is homeless. Watch this space for news of a new home.

Winston 20:48, 26 October 2007 (BST)

David Braben: "government luddites and gaming"

The BBC news reports here [2] that the Government is to conduct a study on gaming violence. The Breadbin is quoted in the article, asking why games are being singled out, commenting, "Historically there has always been in government a Luddite sentiment - whatever the new industry is tends to take the blame of the latest ailment of society. We do tend to be the people who get the blame first at the moment. And that is a tragedy - because this industry is one of the most interesting media."

Thanks to Frantic for the tip.

Winston 08:48, 9 October 2007 (BST)

Oolite Test Release 1.69.1

Oolite Test Release 1.69.1 is now available for Mac OS X and Windows. This release focuses on severe bugs found in version 1.69.

Ahruman 21:26, 14 July 2007 (BST)

#alt.fan.elite IRC channel update

The channel seems to have stayed stuck to the ZiRC network. Currently, you'll need to connect to 'us.zirc.org' rather than 'irc.zirc.org' - but the channel and everyone in it is still there.

Winston 11:19, 13 July 2007 (BST)

Trouble for the #alt.fan.elite IRC channel

It looks like changes are being thrust on the #alt.fan.elite irc channel. This has happily lived on the ZIRC network for the last couple of years, but unknown to us, ZIRC was having a self-destructive internal power struggle between its admins, and many servers have broken away to form a network called SynIRC. Since no one in the channel was aware of this stupidity, we've been caught by it unawares so half the channel is probably on ZIRC and half the channel is probably on SynIRC. Hopefully we can figure out soon enough were we all are and settle on one or the other (or a completely new) network. Watch this space.

Winston 09:49, 11 July 2007 (BST)

Oolite Test Release 1.69

Oolite Test Release 1.69 is now available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

Ahruman 10:11, 2 July 2007 (BST)

The Battle of Rocky Fields

The adventures of the Azure Sunset continue in the lastest installment of the HPA 2 Saga. Part 2 of the Battle of Rocky Fields is now out and available at all good BBS'

Jack Hamilton 06:28, 21 May 2007 (BST)

25th Anniversary of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum

On the 23rd of April, 1982, Britain's most influential computer of the 1980s was launched by Sinclair Research. An eventual target for Elite, the Spectrum and other 8 bitters (including the mighty BBC Microcomputer) taught a generation to code as well as reach Elite.

Get a dose of nostalgia here: Hey Hey 16K!

The ZX Spectrum still has a healthy following. Thanks to Amstrad's enlightened approach to emulation, unlike the BBC and other computers, the Spectrum ROM is legally available to emulators - and the Spectrum scene as a result is still vibrant. World of Spectrum also has the vast majority of titles produced for this machine, and the spirit of openness has rubbed off on most authors of Spectrum software, who have granted permission to redistribute.

Winston 19:53, 24 April 2007 (BST)