Elite: “The game that couldn’t be written“

Elite may be the most complex 8-bit game ever produced. And it was arguably the most groundbreaking game ever released for its time. Back in the early 1980s when arcade-shooters reigned supreme, two undergraduates at Cambridge redefined what computer games even were. In this video we’ll look at some of the technical aspects of how David Braben and Ian Bell were able to construct an entire universe, economy, 3D engine and backstory in 22KB on a 2MHZ processor. This story is well known in the UK, but computer games history is largely told through the lens of the US and overseas viewers may not be familiar with the impact Elite had on gaming, and the wider world. For anyone that wants to give Elite a try, you can play it online here: Though, I recommend downloading the disc image from that page and running it in ’beebem’ (free BBC micro emulator). That way you can save your game. All footage of Elite is taken directly from