The Special Collection
United Kingdom fans will
recognize the graphic below. This graphic shows a Coriolis Space Station with an
Asp Explorer making an approach for landing, two Viper Mark I Police ships on patrol,
and a Cobra Mark III in the foreground. Originally drawn by Phillip Castle for the
box cover of Elite for the Acorn computer, it was a basic wireframe graphic with
limited detail. The Cobra was also somewhat different than the one in the game.
I upgraded the original to a higher resolution, remapped the colors, and added a
large amount of detail to the graphic. Then I added the detailed ships. Ever
wonder what a Coriolis station REALLY looks like? Here it is. Many thanks to
Simon Challands
for the original artwork transfer.
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Station Airlock |
Frontier First Encounters has many special ships
you will see flying around the galaxy. Three of the ships are obtainable via completing
special missions (noted by yellow text descriptions). The rest are not obtainable by
regular gameplay. However, you can fly all of them if you choose by visiting the utility
page. The numbers are the hex ID codes for the ships in the program.
Except for the Acorn Electron version,
and Frontier Elite II, all other versions of the game has a Thargoid race of
insects causing havoc in the galaxy (Actually, there is a Thargoid ship in FE2,
however you cannot access it via regular gameplay.). The Thargoid ship went
through several design changes over the years. This is my detailed version
which combines all the designs into one intimidating ship.
David Braben was once quoted as saying that there was
one Thargoid ship in the galaxy in Frontier Elite II. To date, no one has ever
reported finding this ship in regular gameplay. A false Mirage story was also
promoted about the ship and how to obtain it. The Mirage is a Thargoid ship
which is part of the scenery at some remote bases. It is a picture, and not an actual
ship, thus the name Mirage. Below is the actual Thargoid ship as is programmed
in the game. It was part of the coding, but never developed for actual gameplay. It cannot
be accessed in regular gameplay, and can only be obtained by editing the code (or by
downloading it from the utility page).
The Elite and Elite Plus versions of the
game has a sleek, fast, and deadly ship called the Fer-De-Lance. Many a pilot
met his demise from its searing beam lasers and homing missiles. Although
elusive, here is my detailed version of this legendary craft.
