Greetings Commanders,
Over the years, the Elite series of games has grown and evolved, starting all the way from the first Elite (published in 1984) to the Elite Dangerous we have today!
For the 35th anniversary of Elite 1984 we asked you to share your greatest memories of the Elite series of games, and you really did deliver! Our team had a wonderful time reading through each and every one of your comments, but we had to narrow them down to 35!
Congratulations to our 35 winners of the Cobra MK III Classic Wireframe Paint Job, you've all been contacted privately and we hope you enjoy your prize.
Thank you to everyone who took part and celebrated with us, and be sure to check out the winning memories below:
Raziel:
Favorite Elite Dangerous memory would be spending almost a month researching HOTAS and looking at tutorials before even starting the game. That first moment where you take off with your sidewinder and come out of the mailslot with the whole galaxy in front of your nervous controls cannot be beat.
Depressed Angel:
My favourite memory is when I tried to land on a high G planet, came in hot, crashed my Krait MKII and died. I then re-bought it, tried to prove to my friend that I'm not inept and tried to land again, killing myself once again. I had lost all my money in the first crash due to rebuy and was left with an outstanding loan and a default Sidewinder as my only ship.
Nelanius:
My fondest memory is, when the Thargoids were first introduced and no one knew what to do against the new threat.
Isadorious:
The start of Distant Worlds 2, meeting up with other commanders then the mass jump that crashed the servers. Lots of fun!
Dave:
My favorite memory is my first encounter with the Thargoids. I shot them, it did nothing, and I died. But it looked really cool.
Mentift:
Favorite memory? Leading a friend of mine to Hutton Orbital to let them claim their free ship, then proceed to run off with all the mugs I could carry and try to avoid fire from an angry friend :P
ArmourFox:
My favorite moment in Elite has to be the first time I broke an asteroid. Finding one that was sure to be full of Void Opals, and cracking it open has got to be the most rewarding thing I've done in the game so far!
Delco:
My favorite memory was taking 3 hours to climb a gigantic mountain in an SRV. And I lived. And I made it back down, alive, thanks to a friend's ship which served as an elevator. Fun times. All in VR too!
Getti:
My fondest memory is definitely that first time I jumped into a star system, there's many awe-inspiring moments in this game but nothing compares to that first feeling of the massiveness as the star fills up your screen.
Timerider:
Finding an abandoned base on a planet way out in the middle of nowhere. The sense of scale is insane. It's this tiny little thing that was so easy to miss, the distances are mind-boggling.
Agatheis:
Commander Agatheis Here! As humble as it was, my best moment was one of the most terrifying manoeuvres I've ever done... Making into a spaceport without autodock.
{PTV} Tiago
My favorite Elite Dangerous memory was when I bought my Federal Corvette. A dream came true.
Saxtus:
My favorite memory was hearing Blue Danube while playing Elite for endless hours on my Amstrad CPC. Literally the tune was stuck in my head for months and could even hear it in my dreams when sleeping.
JazzyJet:
Coolest memory was fighting pirates and having my screen get cracked and was losing life support. I made it to a station with just seconds to live. I felt like I was actually suffocating. Would almost die again.
Brock:
Favorite moment so far would be my final arrival at Beagle Point during the DW2 journey. Was my first time really getting out there in the depths of space.
Jessie Colt:
Commander Jessie Colt. My favorite memory? Buying the Vulture and kitting it out. Flying it out of the mail slot that first time was a total rush!
Trashdar:
"Capital class signature detected", And what followed. Definitely the best I've experienced.
Maelstrom:
My favourite memory was discovering that you Sagittarius A was in the game and actually going there myself. It was long trip but well worth it. There are many nice nebulae and waypoints with awesome sights on the way here and back. A close second was the first hyperdictions, the general atmosphere of those events were mind-blowing, so much so i flew around the Pleiades so much to go get hyperdicted myself.
Sweater Yoda:
Simply put, through playing this game with dear friends, I realized that in exploring the vast expanses out there, the entire time we were really exploring ourselves.
{KHI}Cerberus:
My favorite memories are with an old friend of mine, Rob. He unfortunately passed away Feb 17th 2019, and forever on will be docked at hausers reach, where we used to bounty hunt in corvettes every night from sundown, to sunrise while talking about life, sharing stories, and just having a generally great time.
TheLyricalMiracle:
My favorite memory of Elite is from when I bought my first ship. It was a Viper III, and it handled totally differently to a Sidewinder and that had me hooked. Cheers for 35 years, and for 35 more!
lolPants:
The first time I saw a capital ship warp in I was in awe. That thing sounds MONSTROUS.
The1AndMany:
There's a few memories I have. From the launch of Sagittarius Eye to the return of the Thargoids. But I think my favorite is building my own VoiceAttack profile from scratch to help me play the game. I don't really use him anymore, but KAI is definitely responsible for a handful of good gameplay experiences. (Especially once he learned from EDDI.) While I'm at it, a close runner up is running ED in VR for the first time. Glorious doesn't even come close.
Megatome:
Once, I (Commander ScythianSteppes) destroyed a Thargoid Interceptor in a Sidewinder. Enough is said.
Patholio:
Docking manually for the first time in the original Elite so many years ago, such a feeling of success :)
Laphisto:
My best memory in Elite Dangerous would have to have been taking note of the crippling loneliness, looking among the stars and the planets, the asteroid belts and the debris fields and granted it was sad at first but then the over whelming erg to find another person and to explore took hold of me and in no time I was jumping from system to system looking for others. it wasn't until I was near death fighting a pirate that a group of other players came in and helped me out and since then we have been the greatest of friends.
Andyrew:
Best moment was in E:D, looking around my Asp Explorer for the first time in VR. Exploring space never felt so real.
Kyo Arashikage:
Personally, my favorite memory from this epic and stunning game was when I arrived at Artemis Lodge in Celaeno. Arriving and dropping out in front of the station and looking behind me, it almost looked like the ring of asteroids that were around the planet was circling the home star of the system as well, and it was almost convincing. Not to mention the eerie music added to the moment, making me shiver. I didn't think buying and selling cargo could give one shivers like that, but it did for me in this case.
ThatLunchboxGuy
I think my favorite memory of Elite is finding one of my friends randomly when farming for guardian parts. He happened to have the same type of anaconda as me and we started talking, we friended each other and started farming together since. We've been hanging out ever since and have done so many of the events together, if we never met I don't think I'd be as into Elite Dangerous as I have been.
Zamzee:
I traveled 10-15 jumps to get to the system, scanned the planet, did a detailed surface scan, and found the site. I was flying in my unarmed Type-6 and I had no idea what to expect. I slowly approached the site and just watched the activities of the little Thargoid rovers for 10-15 minutes. It was late at night and I was terrified to land. I had no idea what they were capable of. I remember hovering there in fascination just looking at everything. I finally found a spot with the barnacles that wasn't too close to the Thargoid rovers and landed. I deployed my SRV and went to two barnacles as fast as I could and got back in my ship. It was such a rush. I took back off and circled the site a few more times, then departed. It was super rewarding when I turned in one of the meta-alloys and unlocked the engineer. I love how Elite Dangerous is a a big sandbox that lets me and other players make their own stories. Looking forward to more adventures. My commander name is Zamzee Owagana (PC).
Maksim:
Guys, what you do is awesome! I can't remember any game which can give feel of solitude along with picturesque deep space.
Al_Kinnon:
OK, I'll bite (for the cobra mk3 paint job.) I'm an old elite fan. Back in the 80's I remember spending hours watching my older cousin playing the original Elite on his BBC Micro computer. Fast forward to the early 90's and my friends and I would come home from school and play Frontier Elite 2 on an Amiga, sitting on a bench, and pretending we were actually in the ship. I lived and breathed Frontier for years on my own or with friends; but my fondest memory is being passenger or pilot with my mates. As kids back then it was a great game to play with friends round. Now as a 40 something Elite has come a long way and I'm still playing (when the wife lets me!).
Blammo!!!!:
My favourite moment of playing Elite was just finishing up on some bounty hunting when all of a sudden I received a message from friend who was out of fuel transporting high value goods from one place to another. As a helping hand I dropped what I was doing and went to the closest station to gear up for a rescue mission and off I went, after a short trip I refuel repaired and they shared some of their cargo with me to hand in as payment. It was a short moment while playing Elite but it stood out to me as a memorable moment to me.
Metl:
I vaguely remember playing Elite II or III, but I don't remember which one it was. From what I remember, I enjoyed it, but Ultimately Privateer took over my time as far as space sims for the day. I loved that feel of freedom that those early space sims had, and Elite Dangerous really brings me back home to that completely open world to explore!