2018-05-12 13:35:13 (edited by Caccio72 2018-05-12 13:36:51)

Those veteran gamers of you, especially those who were, or are still sighted, surely remember the legendary Elite...
Then all its followers, clones, remakes, sequels, like Frontier, Oolite, and the most recent, online version, Elite Dangerous.

I wonder, is there a similar accessable game...or at least accessable enough to be playable to us, blind gamers?

You guys know my sophisticated, demanding taste and expectations, so please don't suggest me games of only similar genre, but more of similar concept and gameplay as well.

I mean, I know of accessable games like Eco Quadrant, Smugglers series, (I can't play part 5, the newest one with NVDA), browser MMOs like Core Exile, or MUDs like Miriani, Prometheus, or Star Conquest, but those are just not the same!

Regardless if online or offline, as long it has a similar enough concept to Elite games, please let me know of it!

Hell, it doesn't even have to be about universe, planets, and spaceships, it can be about high-seas and classic, "traditional" ships like Pirates! or High Seas Trader were, or feature any other enviroment and vessels, as long it involves trading, fighting, exploring, pirating, buying/earning/capturing better vessels, increasing fame and rank, accepting missions, a huge game-map, many types of goods, many dumb AIs to face, maybe even with some diplomacy...you know, all, or most of the features old Elite-games were offering...please do mention it here!

2018-05-12 14:21:57

The smugglers series are the closest thing I'd suggest, but no idea why you can't play part 5 with NVDA, there is a guide in the articles room on just how to do that, its a matter of simply using the "switch window" command in the game to switch to windows that come up.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-05-12 14:47:51

Actually I read those instructions back then, when I tried to play the game, I remember they mentioned some key-combinations with the NVDA key, aka "insert", but no matter what I tried, I couldn't even close that starting 1st window, suggesting me to buy the game.

Now I have tried again, asked my sighted mom to close it, so then the main game-options appeared...according to her...but I couldn't access them with any key-combination this time either.

It's probably me who keeps doing something real wrong, so I shall try to read those instructions again, and to actually understand them this time!
(especially, if, as you said, it's the closest accessable game to the good old Elite)

2018-05-12 16:06:55

There is nothing playable by us that comes anywhere near to Elite

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2018-05-12 18:41:24

I'd like to see an accessible version of Elite. That would be awesome.

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2018-05-12 20:19:39

to be blunt, any space games that are accessible at the moment are pretty much all crap in comparison. there's nothing that even comes close to that legendary game. i've played it and now i can no longer see god do i miss it and games like it. i don't mind games like cr and the like but i do have to agree they are a poor substitute. none of them come anywhere near close.

2018-05-12 20:21:22

I would love to be able to play Elite: Dangerous

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-05-12 20:22:37

yup that would be good or even eve online.

2018-05-12 21:05:12

I'm agreeing 100 percent here. Most of these games out here now absolutely suck, and for me, the closest thing to a cool space game is going to be starmourn which should be comeing out this year and also which I'm extremely looking forward to playing and living in. I agree completely also about wanting to play something like elite: dangerous if we can't have star citizen, because I feel like star citizen is the next leap forward. But since we can't have either of these, to me, in my opinion, starmourn will be the next best thing. Now please understand, this is only my personal opinion and shouldn't be taken seriously so please don't get angry with me. I've just always loved iron realms muds, and contrary to popular belief, they really aren't pay to play. That's purly optional. You can spend your gold to buy credits and bind them to yourself.

2018-05-13 00:12:24

Starmorn I will make up my mind at the time, but I do agree, it'd be great to have a game like Elite, much as I enjoy the smugglers series they're not quite there.

Personally my money is on freeman69 though. He first created ecco quadrent which is a single player space economic and exploration game, and then trasure islands which is all about map navigation.He's said an audio elite is where he's thinking and judging by his first efforts my money is on him to come up with it.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-05-13 00:23:59

yeah Ironrealms games are most definitely pay to win.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-05-13 01:19:47

okay, I'll agree that the fellow who built echo quadrant could make an elite type of game, so long as it won't be turn-based but will be real time like elite: dangerous is that would be cool. If he comes up with an audio elite, I'll throw my name into the pot to help him with beta testing it.

2018-05-13 01:32:34 (edited by magurp244 2018-05-13 01:44:31)

Well, if were talking about the original, original Elite, the source code was dumped some time ago. There's a copy on Ian Bell's website [here] in Assembler I think, though someone also ported most of it to C [here], otherwise called [Elite: The New Kind].

There's also [Oolite] which is also based on the original, and [Pioneer] based on Elite Dangerous, the source code for both is available in their download sections.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2018-05-13 01:48:41

If by Elite you all are referring to Elite: The Dark Wheel, I agree with all of you 110%. It would be totally awesome and cool if an audio version of that wonderful game were created.

Of all the games I've played before and since, few, if any, captured my attention and imagination like Elite did. I've even played Fronteer, which was supposed to be a sequel by the same people that created Elite, but it wasn't even close. Oh sure, it had some of the elements from Elite, including several of the ship types seen in it, but it's playability and it's ability to capture my attention and imagination like Elite did just weren't there, in fact I got bored with it and quit playing it soon after I had picked it up.

Two other games I played that came close were Freespace and Dark Star One, both were good games, but they were both heavily scripted and didn't come close to the open universe Elite dropped you into that made it so much fun.

Then a while back I ran across a modernized version of the game, it had been turned into an MMO. The opening line on its web site was something like, "Remember Elite? What if all those other space ships were other players playing the same game?" But at the time I wasn't interested in online games, so I passed it by. Now, I can't remember what its name was, something like Jump Gate I think.

2018-05-13 13:15:47

oh freedom69 i forgot about him actually. yeah i'd like to see what he comes up with. he did a good job with ecco quadrant. if you wanted a game like elite though it could never be turn based because elite just was never like that.

i did like frontier elite 2 because of the real space physics. for its time it was amazing. especially with the likes of hyperspace and time dilation, also absolute realtime travel between planets =. it could take real life days if you so wanted it to. the space simulation really did make the game feel massive.

2018-05-13 13:27:59

I am glad so many of you share my interest, and admiration of Elite-like games.

Unlike the most of you, I did have the opportunity to play many of them, started with the oldest, very 1st elite, all the way to Eve online and Elite Dangerous...what even increases my desire of playing such a game again...one day!

As for that Starborn game, normally it made me curious too...can you give me a link, where I could find out more about...what to expect from it?

2018-05-13 16:07:51

Here's a little treat for all you Elite fans, although you can find it without too much difficulty on the internet, I'll save you the trouble. This is a zip file that contains The Dark Wheel, a novella that came with the original Elite game to set the stage for the game by giving you its back story. The zip file has the novella in three formats, HTML, PDF, and TXT.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/62wj8k

If you prefer to find it on the internet, just search for "elite the dark wheel" and you'll find it.

Enjoy!

2018-05-13 16:40:27

Hi there Cathio, karate25 here. Here's a link to the starmourn web site, and you can even sign up for free to the newsletter and get information about the mud as they work on it. Go to, www.starmourn.com and there, you'll be able to read up on all of the stuff about starmourn they've got up thus far. It seems like the development is moving along quite smoothly and the mud should be out some time this year. I'm with you too, on wanting to play eve online and wishing it were accessible. That's one of the other games I'd love to be able to play with my sighted counterparts if only I were able. And I agree with you that I'd like to see a game like elite: dangerous come out in audio form. That would be cool. Maybe even an eve online style of game in audio form.

2018-05-13 18:41:48 (edited by Caccio72 2018-05-13 19:04:15)

Many thanks for the link!
Actually, I am a bit surprised it's an MUD, I thought those are a "dying out" sort nowadays, and no new ones are made anymore, but luckily it seems I was wrong with that.

As for the thought of an accessable Elite, meaning a game closest to its original type of gameplay, a logical question turns out:
How to feature, how to simulate its combats in an accessable way?
I thought of a solution similar to our classic, simple accessable space-shooters, where we detect, engage, and destroy, or escape from enemy ships by their sound, but wouldn't that be a too..."primitive" method for an Elite-type game?
I mean, we could let's say increase/decrease speed with up/down arrows, and move left/right with left/right ones, enemy could simply flee if it is faster the same way, or accept the combat and fire back, but still...it would all come to avoiding its shots, missiles, , while trying to hit with ours...

Oh btw, there was, and still is a very promising space-simulation under developement, accordingly very similar to Elite, but even much more realistic, I was following, and hoping for playing it once it will finally be finished...but yes, it's for sighted folks, so I have given up all the hope regarding it after my total vision loss.

'Star Citizen" is the name, I guess it's still under developement, and is expensive like hell even for its testers, ( much more expensive even than Eve was), but in case some of you, partially sighted gamers are interested, feel free to google it, the game has quite a campaign, and a well known developer, aka Robert's Space Industries, so you will find it instantly when searching for the keywords.

2018-05-13 19:19:24

Woww, that Starborn MUD sounds just like the thing I was hoping for!
(after reading some of its feature-introductions)

Many thanks for recommending it, I can hardly wait for its actual start!

2018-05-13 20:01:31

the only thing with muds though is that so far i've never found one that has a massive universe. 30 or 40 sectors? that's so small. instant travel really does bug me i have to say between locations. that's all these types of space games offer. oh not to mention the rp sex marage and silly babies rubbish. find me a space mud that cuts out all that crap and concentrates on the game universe itself. that's not to say i don't like the likes of cr, but like with other muds there's so much oppertunity for expantion of the universe.

2018-05-13 20:19:57 (edited by Caccio72 2018-05-13 20:59:38)

Yes, I like a huge game-universe too, the larger the better.
Since I am an explorer type of character, (even if of a more aggressive type), those 40-50 star systems in science-fiction theme MUDs are just too few for my expectations.

But at least even the current sci-fi MUDs have that so called "uncharted space", where I can still satisfy my "urge" to explore the unknown, by occasionally engaging into a battle with, and looting NPCs, or players I run into on my way...

So let's hope Starborn will offer at least that much for us, generally explorer player-types too, but hopefully even more, since as I read, it will feature round 50 NPC alien races, who, alone by their number, do require a large enough universe to fit in and share, right?

2018-05-13 20:32:58 (edited by Caccio72 2018-05-13 20:43:01)

Plus, I like very much its idea of ship-custimization, even when in a limited form, it still counts for revolutionary in MUDs!
It actually adds a creative, MOO ( Masters Of Orion) type-element to them.
(so far, in other similar MUDs, there existed only a limited number of predefined classes and designs, for which we could buy upgrades, improvements, extras separately...at least as far as I know)

2018-05-13 21:35:19

uncharted is a waste of time in these muds too it's way under used. it's just slapped in there really and people are expected to rp what they supposedly find. which is very silly when you consider.

2018-05-14 03:46:55

That's true, but it's still better than being able to explore nothing at all...
Again, hopefully that new MUD will feature a better, more interesting way of exploration.