Elite is a space trading and combat simulation video game series created by David Braben and Ian Bell in 1984.
Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden line removal and twitch gameplay.
Elite: The Dark Wheel by Robert Holdstock was the first ever novella to be included for distribution with a video game.
The sequel Frontier: Elite II (1993)[10] was developed by David Braben and published by GameTek and Konami.
The number of flyable ships was greatly increased, and a new political backstory was introduced enabling the player to gain ranks in competing interstellar empires.
Frontier: Elite II appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, and IBM PC compatibles.
[13][14][11] First Encounters was considered flawed in a number of respects with many bugs, due apparently to being published in an incomplete state.
The two games employed a realistic flight model based on Newtonian mechanics rather than the original arcade-style engine.
[15] Most space trading games since Elite have stuck to an arcade-style flight model, in which the ships behave as though they are flying in an atmosphere.
There are 4 flyable ships: F63 Condor, Eagle MkII, Sidewinder MkI and the Imperial Fighter with customizable loadouts.