OT: Interesting article RE: Elite's genesis

Krsqk · #1 August 5th, 2004, 06:52 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/st...064107,00.html

Click it.

Yes, it's from October '03, but it was just corrected at the end of July '04.

Slick · #2 August 5th, 2004, 07:32 AM

Indeed, Elite was one of the greatest games I have ever played. For its time, it was the best. There were so many neat aspects of the game. Is there a port over to the PC?

Slick.

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 August 5th, 2004, 08:48 AM

Huh. I've tried making a Fibonacci'd galaxy from base 2 and base 4 or Fibonacci^2

but it goes non-random really fast. Which either means I'm way to tired and will notice the problem in the morning or these guys used very small coordinates, or did something more with the Fibonacci numbers. I wouldn't know which.

8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,

Not very semi-random once you hit certain combo's of numbers...Such as an 8 and a 6. That was done by hand, from remembering those numbers as two trouble numbers. Feel free to check the math.

Maybe an array of numbers with each number refering to an index in the array? Anyway, my brain is tired.

[ August 05, 2004, 08:00: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

dogscoff · #4 August 5th, 2004, 09:50 AM

Yeah, Elite was and is cool, and yes, it (and its various sequels) made it to the PC in many incarnations.

you can even play it in your browser : http://www.bootlace.co.uk/index.php?...es&type=jelite and I believe there are also ports to various hand-held devices available.

The great shame of Elite was that its creators- Bell and Braben - fell out bitterly over "artistic *cough*financial*cough* differences" and went their seperate ways, and as a result none of the sequels so far have ever really matched up to the original in terms of gameplay: Frontier always felt incomplete , to me, and although I haven't played the others, I've heard similar stories.

However, there are more sequels in the pipeline- two of them, I believe- one from Braben and one from Bell.

Click this link: http://www.sslmit.unibo.it/zat/frontier.htm for a doorway into the Elite community.

narf poit chez BOOM · #5 August 5th, 2004, 10:27 AM

BootLace isn't working for me. Not getting anything.

dogscoff · #6 August 5th, 2004, 12:11 PM

Quote:

BootLace isn't working for me. Not getting anything.

Hm. Works fine for me. You got java enabled? What browser you using?

Suicide Junkie · #7 August 5th, 2004, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Huh. I've tried making a Fibonacci'd galaxy from base 2 and base 4 or Fibonacci^2 but it goes non-random really fast. Which either means I'm way to tired and will notice the problem in the morning or these guys used very small coordinates, or did something more with the Fibonacci numbers. I wouldn't know which.

8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,

Not very semi-random once you hit certain combo's of numbers...Such as an 8 and a 6. That was done by hand, from remembering those numbers as two trouble numbers. Feel free to check the math.

Maybe an array of numbers with each number refering to an index in the array? Anyway, my brain is tired.

What if you write it all out, remove the spaces, and just read it? "1123581321345589144..." it probably gets better later on when the ratio of first digits to middle digits is lower.

narf poit chez BOOM · #8 August 5th, 2004, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dogscoff:

quote:

BootLace isn't working for me. Not getting anything.

Hm. Works fine for me. You got java enabled? What browser you using?

Dunno, I'll check. Netscape 7, but I got Firefox somewhere.

Quote:

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

quote:
Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Huh. I've tried making a Fibonacci'd galaxy from base 2 and base 4 or Fibonacci^2 but it goes non-random really fast. Which either means I'm way to tired and will notice the problem in the morning or these guys used very small coordinates, or did something more with the Fibonacci numbers. I wouldn't know which.

8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,
8,6,4,0,4,4,8,2,0,2,2,4,6,0,6,6,2,8,0,8,

Not very semi-random once you hit certain combo's of numbers...Such as an 8 and a 6. That was done by hand, from remembering those numbers as two trouble numbers. Feel free to check the math.

Maybe an array of numbers with each number refering to an index in the array? Anyway, my brain is tired.

What if you write it all out, remove the spaces, and just read it? "1123581321345589144..." it probably gets better later on when the ratio of first digits to middle digits is lower.

The comma's are for convienence of reading, as are the returns. The ratio doesn't matter, as if it hits any two 'danger numbers', everything after that in the sequence is doomed to repeat.

Perhaps an explanation is in order for those who only read the top of the article. Basically, you take two random numbers, like 9 and 3 and add them. If the result is higher than or equal to 10, you subtract 10. So:

9,3,1

Then you take the Last two numbers and add them, then repeat. So:

9,3,1,4,5,9,4,3,7,0,7,7,4,1,5,6,1,7,8,5,3,8,1,9,0, 9,9,8,7,5,2,7,9,6

And so on. You know, if I added up all the numbers in the sequence so far, it might be more random. Something you said inspired that thought.

[ August 05, 2004, 19:20: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]