First Encounters
| Frontier: First Encounters | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer | Frontier Developments |
| Publisher | Gametek |
| Latest version | 1.06 (Shareware) |
| Release date(s) | Easter 1995 |
| Platform(s) | DOS Windows |
Frontier: First Encounters (most commonly abbreviated FFE) is the third game in the Elite Series by Frontier Developments. It builds substantially on its immediate predecessor Frontier and until the release of Elite: Dangerous was the last word in canonical Elite.
The game was originally released early, under pressure from the publishers Gametek, which led to an extremely buggy game. A patched shareware version can now be downloaded with most of the bugs fixed.
Features include:
- Newtonian modelling for both ships and interstellar bodies.
- Fully modelled stars and planets.
- Ships from both its predecessors, as well as some new ships.
- A set of journals representing the news as seen by each of the major powers. Many clues to the hard-coded missions can be found within these journals.
- An overall plotline, which can be affected by the player completing the hard-coded missions. Not being mandatory, this can be ignored by players who prefer the freeform nature of the game, or can be completed for fame, notoriety and substantial material rewards.
- A series of videos of people on the BBS requesting the randomly determined missions. They are renowned for their bad acting.
Contents
Analysis & Critique
It is worth perusing the analysis & critique over at Frontier as they apply equally to FFE (which inherited the issues discussed there). A list of bugs will be found in the links under quirks! Many of these have been ironed out by the Third Party enhancements below - and also by E:D which introduces other issues instead!
Third party enhancements
The overall popularity of First Encounters was greatly increased by the release of John Jordan's JJFFE, which allows First Encounters to be run natively in Windows.
During the summer of 2006, Kolijoco released a version of JJFFE called GLFFE, which uses an OpenGL 2.0 renderer, and includes new control console graphics - allowing FFE to be played in high resolution full screen.
Nic's Mod lowers the GLFFE's requirement from OpenGL 2.0 to OpenGL 1.2 and introduces some useful features, including a doubling of all planet resolutions.
Most recently, another refinement of FFE known as FFED3D has emerged onto the scene, featuring considerably improved graphics while still remaining faithful to the original game. This program is generally regarded as the definitive version of FFE.
Finally there is Pioneer which started in 2008 and is still (2021) being developed: link below.
More detail present on this wiki
Sub-Categories
Links
Internal
- FFE entry from copy of Alt.Fan.Elite FAQ
- Quirks of FFE as a game
- Timeline Timeline of events that happen in the Game.
- Fan fiction set in the Frontier universe
The Elite gaming family
- Classic Elite
- Frontier (FE2)
- Elite: Dangerous (E:D)
- Lore & History for an overview of how Frontier/FE2/FFE have impacted on Oolite
External
These sites cover both FE2 & FFE
- Alioth.net - link to the other non-wiki part of this website (written by our host, Dylan Smith).
- Dream-ware - a clutch of 5 different Frontier sites (Sirocco, Kelpie, R3, Longhaul & Mufossa).
- Jongware - focuses on the galaxy (the author died in November 2020)
- Frontierverse - Frontier: Elite II Home site
- Pioneer does for Frontier what Oolite did for Elite. It so far has some 20-odd mods or oxp-equivalents.
