Maggie Thatcher, Cargo Snatcher

Without AcornSoft, Elite may have struggled to get published. They were, like everyone else, justifiably impressed by the 3D graphics and the rapid line-draw. But while videogame graphics have changed rapidly in the intervening years, it is a more abstract aspect of Elite which still seems relevant to contemporary gaming. "We both hated the prescriptive nature of a lot of games then ... I think there was a rebellious streak in me of not wanting to do what I'm told," David confirms, when I ask about the freedom offered to players by the game "And that was absolutely the intention from the start." A lot of the features now associated with the catch-all term 'sandbox gaming' were present in Elite. It was up to players how they wished to make their way in the world presented to them - be it through trading (and even here they could choose to stick to wholesome agricultural goods or illegally smuggle arms), hunting pirates for bounties or the hijacking of cargo from other traders. "I liked the idea of shooting at the police, I liked the idea of nicking other people's cargo," David says, with obvious enthusiasm.

In 1984, this decoupling of linearity from narrative was revolutionary. "Right at the start we wanted a game where you could play it the way you wanted," David tells me "The trading came very early, mainly as a way of justifying the fighting, but also because it created a world." As the game's concept progressed from being a simple shooter ("an obvious no-brainer, but that would just have been a glorified Galaxian in 3D") to incorporate trading, several ideas began to dovetail neatly together. With a galaxy of traders, police and pirates out there, it made sense that a traditional scoring system would be replaced by bounties and the financial rewards of good salesmanship.

Consciously or not, the central themes of the game - fierce individualism and the acquisition of materialistic wealth - were also tapping directly into the Thatcherite philosophies of the day. "It was right at the start of the Miner's Strike," David recalls "From a studenty point of view it was all Thatcher this, Thatcher that, so it just felt right to use money as the score." The game was not, however, a grand satirical comment on the politics of the day: "It was more luck than judgement if I'm being honest about it ...  the idea of making score money was from that, but the rest followed logically from that [decision], rather than the political climate at the time."

Hyperspace Bypass

One fully intentional aspect of Elite's design, and a further result of having an entire universe to explore, was ensuring players were kept on-edge, or even afraid. "I know that sounds a silly thing to say," says David "But when you're just a spaceship shooting things, you really don't care if you die. The only reason you might care is if you have some investment in the score ... you're only weakly invested in the experience." Elite had no lives and no coin-op style continues. There was a save function, but this (partly due to coding and memory restrictions) could only be used at space ports. For the period in between each dock, the player was entirely vulnerable. Each firefight could be their last - and with scores of ships often blocking the route between the player and their destination, this meant staying alert and emotionally engaged for lengthy spells. "We wanted the impetus that you cared about yourself dying, which was why we only wanted one life," David explains "The escape capsule and all of those things were attempts to make you really care about [staying alive]."

Another feature that would regularly increase player tension was the mandatory ten second wait before hyperspace (the method of travelling between star systems) would kick in. Those ten seconds could seem an awfully long time when under attack by overwhelming odds. "The concept of hyperspace I found very annoying," notes David "It was too powerful, you could just hyperspace away whenever you were attacked." As he continues to explain, however, it was not there primarily to increase the player's perception of value in their ship as features like the single life were: "It was to make [hyperspace] a really interesting tactical decision, and to encourage that knife-edge feel. You get a real buzz from having got away. I think that was very appealing."

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