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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Is there a modern substitute for Elite?

Back in the day, I played Frontier: Elite II on my Atari ST. As far as I can tell, Frontier isn't available for PCs, aside from a DOS version which I can't get to work even with an emulator. Do you know of any comparable games that might satisfy my nostalgia? Chris Morris

You can download Frontier: Elite II and First Encounters from the Elite Club site. These are shareware, so you can play them free for 30 days, after which registration costs £5. If it doesn't work, you're supposed to be able to run it with DosBox, which I assume is the one you tried.

So, we're looking for an open-ended space flight game with trading, combat (Frontier has more of the trading) and perhaps role-playing elements.

The ones most often mentioned in this context are Microsoft's Freelancer (trial version available), Egosoft's X3: Reunion and DarkStar One.

What do you think?

For completeness, I should also mention Elite 4, about which there is an official FAQ dated 2000,2001. Play.com reckons it's "Due for release on 28/11/2008". You might get a different answer from Nostradamus.

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