Hi, I'm Merlin from AmiBay - Hi Geraldine... :)

Hey Dave. I actually have nothing to do with Pioneer but, still, welcome to SSC 🙂

Thanks.

My PC went a bit nuts and multiple posted, could a kindly Moderator delete the other extra posts? Thanks 😉

Welcome aboard, Merlin! As you'll see from my sig, I'm an Oolite freak... and a very old Elite head!

Apart from Elite and Oolite, I used to play all sorts of space sims, such as Federation of Free Traders, Wing Commander, X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Rogue Squadron, Star Trek: Armada, the Starfleet Command series, and so on. I am also an avid flight sim fan and I collect flight simulator programs - I must have well over a hundred flight simulator programs for lots of different machines, such as C64, Amiga, BBC and PC.

I'm excited about Elite: Dangerous, but it's going to have to be something spectacular, as David Braben is messing with my one true love space sim and if he gets it wrong, I'll be devastated. Oolite has set the bar pretty high to begin with and what I don't want to happen is what went down with IL2: Cliffs of Dover, where visually the game is beyond anything else that went before it and with the right hardware the planes look photo realistic, but when it first came out, it was almost unplayable and you couldn't get it to work on the recommended minimum spec machine.

Eye candy is good, but it's not the be all and end all of gaming, the experience and playability mean far more. Elite was the proof of that back in the 1980s.

Apart from Elite and Oolite, I used to play all sorts of space sims, such as Federation of Free Traders, Wing Commander, X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Rogue Squadron, Star Trek: Armada, the Starfleet Command series, and so on. I am also an avid flight sim fan and I collect flight simulator programs - I must have well over a hundred flight simulator programs for lots of different machines, such as C64, Amiga, BBC and PC.

Welcome merlin to the forum and fellow games collector although I collect space trading games.

I think us old Elite player are super excited about the new game, just a bit of a shame it never got anywhere near the backing that Star Citizen got.

Thought Amibay had been going longer than 5 years?.

Nope. AmiBay lauched in late November 2007 and I recently posted about the site's fifth birthday.

BTW, Dark Star is one of my all-time favourite movies - how's the Captain, is he still frozen? I want an 8-track for my Cobra Mk III now, so that I can play ' Benson Arizona' as I fly along...

Eye candy is good, but it's not the be all and end all of gaming, the experience and playability mean far more. Elite was the proof of that back in the 1980s.

Oh so true, is that!

Nope. AmiBay lauched in late November 2007 and I recently posted about the site's fifth birthday.

 

BTW, Dark Star is one of my all-time favourite movies - how's the Captain, is he still frozen? I want an 8-track for my Cobra Mk III now, so that I can play ' Benson Arizona' as I fly along...

Still frozen    I did put in a request for blowing up planets in Elite Dangerous but it was turned down.

Welcome Merlin to SSC, and I kick myself everyday for selling my C64 and Amiga about 10yrs ago now. They definitely cost more now than what I sold mine for 🙂

But I think you said it perfectly...

I'm excited about Elite: Dangerous, but it's going to have to be something spectacular, as David Braben is messing with my one true love space sim and if he gets it wrong, I'll be devastated.

For me this hits it perfectly, my excitement for both Elite: Dangerous and more so Star Citizen/Squadron 42 is huge and I hope that both development teams can come close to my vision of the game I would like to play. And I hope we both get that game Merlin, because playing video games for over 30+ years I think we deserve 'our' game 🙂 

My sentiments exactly, SSCAdmin.

Hey, hey, hey! Welcome Merlin to the SSC.

It's great to see you here. Have fun looking around the forum and don't forget to check out the download area for the goodies within.

Merlin has God like knowledge about not just about the Amiga, but a whole range of retro goodness too, so it's also great to have his experience on here.

As for Pioneer mods, there are many, but to get you started one of the most prolific contrubutors Potsmoke66 has many new ships, building and other things you might like to look at. Here is the thread for the mods. Keep in mind though that many of the mods have had to be updated to work with the latest Alpha builds, so go for the latest one you can find. Finally, here is a link to Pioneer's download section

Oh and Merlin? We have a Miggy thread here if you want a laugh

Apart from Elite and Oolite, I used to play all sorts of space sims, such as Federation of Free Traders, Wing Commander, X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Rogue Squadron, Star Trek: Armada, the Starfleet Command series, and so on. I am also an avid flight sim fan and I collect flight simulator programs - I must have well over a hundred flight simulator programs for lots of different machines, such as C64, Amiga, BBC and PC.

 

I'm excited about Elite: Dangerous, but it's going to have to be something spectacular, as David Braben is messing with my one true love space sim and if he gets it wrong, I'll be devastated. Oolite has set the bar pretty high to begin with and what I don't want to happen is what went down with IL2: Cliffs of Dover, where visually the game is beyond anything else that went before it and with the right hardware the planes look photo realistic, but when it first came out, it was almost unplayable and you couldn't get it to work on the recommended minimum spec machine.

 

Eye candy is good, but it's not the be all and end all of gaming, the experience and playability mean far more. Elite was the proof of that back in the 1980s.

Hi Merlin,

I totally (x1000) agree with that. Welcome to SCC. Gameplay is the most important aspect. That's the reason I stumbled on Oolite in 2006. At that time there were visual pleasing games. Freelancer (which I also like BTW) and X-series) but I still kept searching for a new Elite. I think the charm of Elite (the originals anyway) that it was simple yet deep. I played Elite first on the Acorn Electron. Then later on the PC (Elite, and Elite Plus, Frontier and FFE).

😎

Hi,

 

I an Dave aka Merlin, from the AmiBay retro computing trading forum, where I am one of the senior Admins and founders of the site. I am also the guy that wrote the Retr0bright Wiki, so some of you may have come across my work already.

 

I am a very old Elite player and I battered my old 1983 breadbin Commodore 64 to death playing it, so much so that I built a button joypad from a project box and some push buttons from Malpins to give me the edge. I got to Elite the hard way over several months with no cheating 😉

 

I've also got heavily into OOlite and I love the add-ons that have been created for it, especially the loan shark Monks!

 

Geraldine has told us some good things about Pioneer over at Amibay and I know that she is also an avid Elite / Frontier player, so I trust her judgment, so here I am.

 

For those that don't know AmiBay, if it's retro computing related and it can be bought, sold, modded, upgraded and frankenhacked to death, it's on there - I highly recommend our Photo Booth section and also our AmiOracle section, where we share repair ideas to keep our ageing machines alive and kicking. If you haven't been over there, please do; we have over 7,000 members and we've been around for five years now and we intend to be around for a lot more.

 

Now, what do I need to start off with Pioneer, to cut my teeth and what types of mods and add-ons are around for it?

Hello  and welcome to SSC 🙂

Thanks, all.

I'm currently collecting Elite for all the retro platforms I own. I have it for C64, Spectrum, Acorn, PC and Acrhimedes. Most of them are original boxed disks or tapes and I know a lot of other people are avid collectors of all the versions.

Here a pic of the ones I have.

Also have the Amiga version.

Blimey! PSI-5 Trading Company, I remember playing that for many hours on my C64 a long time ago...

No copy of F.O.F.T. I see...

Hi Dave welcome to SSC

Blimey! PSI-5 Trading Company, I remember playing that for many hours on my C64 a long time ago...

 

No copy of F.O.F.T. I see...

Oh yes got that as well, as well as a few other.

 Note Star clash Braben & Bells least favorite game.

Photos are a few years old and I have managed to add a few other games to it.

Crikey, Pinback... anyone would think you're a space-game freak!