Sometimes though, hyperspace would throw the player into even greater danger - casting them into the blackness of 'witch space,' an area packed with deadly Thargoid warships. "That was in from quite early on, mainly because we wanted to have a big space battle rather than one on one duels," David says "We could afford to have twice as many ships in witch space than we could in normal space." This was thanks to the memory savings made by the lack of stars or any other space debris in the witch space areas. If the player was skilled enough (and had enough equipment) it was possible to pile up a great many expensive kills - propelling them that bit closer to the coveted 'Elite' ranking.

Coding issues also meant that the Docking Computer (much-beloved by any Elite players still struggling to dock manually with the rotating space stations) was not added until quite late in the day. The logistics of guiding the ship into the dock on autopilot were too much for some machines, and the original BBC Micro release simply beamed the player into the station instantly. "Docking Computers were a bit of an aberration," says David "[they were there] mostly through popular demand." Their inclusion was undoubtedly useful, but created a slightly bizarre situation whereby players needed to first earn money to buy the Docking Computer - something that could only really be achieved by mastering manual docking in the first place. David appreciates this dilemma, but feels the balance was still reasonable: "If you needed one you could buy one quite quickly - which I realise is a terrible Catch 22 ... but I don't think [docking] was that hard."

Code Name Mk III

With AcornSoft's backing, Elite would reach number one in the charts in the run-up to Christmas 1984. "They realised what a big thing it was," David says "We were very lucky that they did take it so seriously. The first print run they did was 50,000 units, which was more than their biggest selling game to date ... it shows how brave they were." Indeed, Elite's boxed release was far ahead of its time and closely resembles the type of pre-order 'special edition' bundles which contemporary publishers try to tempt potential buyers with. All of the early versions came with a novella, "The Dark Wheel," written by Robert Holdstock, as well as star charts, posters and keyboard overlays. "Actually, due to a design cock-up the pack was one millimetre too short," recalls David "Which meant that when you undid the shrink wrap, it burst open, and you felt like you'd really got something quite substantial ... which I suppose you did!" The game also broke all pricing conventions of the day by retailing at around £14 - far more than any other title. As a result, larger retailers like WH Smiths would not stock it because AcornSoft were not prepared to negotiate on a trade discount of 40%; around 10% below what the shops were looking for. As Elite flew up the charts, however, the retailers were quick to concede their position.

Elite also subverted convention with a special launch day at Thorpe Park, but this was actually the game's first public relations event; something which in today's atmosphere of pre-release hype and advertising would be unthinkable. "We actively tried to keep things secret," David explains "We used code names ... the launch at Thorpe Park was the day before it went on sale. There really wasn't a run-up like you get these days." With the game kept quiet until hours before release, there was no chance of anybody else getting there first with a 3D space game, nor much time for other companies to jump on the bandwagon with clone releases.

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