I played spacefaring game “Elite” when I was younger - both on the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum (where the fiddly “Lenslok” copy protection forced you to use a plastic lens which came in the box to - if you were lucky - unscramble and enter a code displayed on the screen during the loading process).
I never remember getting stuck without fuel back then. But I now read in a interesting Mastodon thread that in the modern, online, multi-player revival “Elite Dangerous”, it can happen. In response, a network of public-spirited players has built up, standing by to rescue commanders who find themselves stranded in deep space without enough gas - the Fuel Rats. They have apparently become an established and respected part of the culture, and if you attack a fuel rat on the job, other players will hunt you down and bring retribution.
As the writer says, “I find it reassuring that in a game that is in some ways a libertarian power fantasy (you and your spaceship, go anywhere do whatever you want), and a PvP universe, one of the first things people did was create a volunteer ambulance service.”
Of course, in 1984, dial-up modems were expensive and slow (even disk drives were still a luxury), full-colour high-resolution graphics weren’t there (compare the screenshots below for approaching a space station), and (as this article on the history of the game explains) Elite was already squeezing every drop out of the BBC Micro - so online multi-player interaction wasn’t quite an option when the game was originally released…
Screenshot from Elite on BBC Micro. Source: Wikipedia.
Screenshot from Elite Dangerous. Source: Official Elite Dangerous tutorial video.
Comment on this article on BlueSky:
New Eclectic Stacks blog post, on classic spacefaring game "Elite", its Dangerous sequel, and volunteer emergency services, the "Fuel Rats".
www.eclecticstacks.com/post/elite-g...
— Terry Boon (@terryboon.bsky.social) December 30, 2024 at 4:41 PM
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