Elite cover
Acorn Archimedes BBC Microcomputer System Commodore C64/128/MAX ZX Spectrum Atari ST/STE Acorn Electron DOS Tatung Einstein Amiga Apple II Amstrad CPC Nintendo Entertainment System MSX

Elite

20 Sep 1984
Ian Bell
Acornsoft
Shooter, Simulator, Strategy
Single player

Elite is a space trading video game, written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. Elite's open-ended game model, and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system, and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite".

Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden line removal. It added graphics and twitch gameplay aspects to the genre established by the 1974 game Star Trader. Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which gave players insight into the moral and legal codes to which they might aspire.