Play Elite Amiga Online

Game Overview

Elite drops you into the cockpit of a beat-up Cobra Mark III with barely enough credits for fuel, let alone cargo. The first time I undocked from Lave Station, I just stared at the wireframe stars—no hand-holding, no quest markers, just a scanner blinking with trade routes and the occasional pirate blip. You quickly learn to eyeball which systems might pay extra for textiles or liquor, though half the fun is getting it wrong and barely scraping by after a botched deal.

Upgrading your ship feels earned—that first laser turret or expanded cargo hold changes everything. But the galaxy doesn’t care if you’re a trader or a pirate; Thargoids will ambush you mid-jump, and police vipers swarm fast if you get trigger-happy with civilian haulers. The combat’s janky by today’s standards, but there’s something tense about spinning your ship to keep a missile lock while your shields scream.

What still blows my mind is how massive it feels. You can hyperdrive to any of those 256 planets, assuming you plotted the fuel right (I didn’t, once—had to limp into a station on fumes). It’s the kind of game where you’ll forget your original goal because some backwater system offered a bounty too good to pass up.