MSX Elite Information

Elite was programmed for the MSX series of home computers by Rob Nicholson of Mr Micro and released by Firebird in 1987.
It was available on tape and disk, the latter version featuring a larger variety of ships - including the Wolf Mk II and Cougar - and secret missions. The tape version had a reduced number of ships, similar to BBC tape Elite, although the Fer-de-Lance was still present. The manual supplied with the game only mentioned the ships available in the tape version.

The extra memory also meant that the game could use a colourful display and made MSX Elite one of the best 8-bit conversions.
Although the MSX version did not have a dedicated box produced for it - stickers were placed on the box hiding logos for other machines - it did have its own manual and quick key control guide.

As the MSX version of the game wasn't released until 1987, the competition entry form, which could be found in the Spectrum and Commodore 64 packages, was absent as the competition closed in 1986. What remained in the retail box was the Space Traders Flight Training Manual, the Quick Key Control Guide, a copy of the Dark Wheel novella and the game media.

As with other 8-bit machines, a control guide was produced, to assist the Commander with the numerous inputs within the game. In this particular instance, a previous Commander has made alterations to the guide, to suit their machine.

Playing MSX Elite on your PC

1. Download an MSX emulator, such as Blue MSX
2. Download the game from Ian Bell's Elite Page