Elite, first released in the 80's on low powered computer equipment was able to create thousands of unique planetary systems and a whole stock market system in just 16k of RAM. Back in the days when processors were still measured in megahertz.
I've been a fan of the Elite series since around 1989 when my father brought home a copy. The idea of being able to fly off into space and do whatever I want without rules or restrictions was amazing for the time. Today, more and more games are adopting this philosophy. The Mass effect series, elder scrolls, far cry 3, and even the latest tomb raider game are all deploying open sandbox worlds where you get to do whatever pleases you.
I don't think it's unfair to say that it largely started with Elite. The ability to become a trader, bounty hunter, pirate, and even asteroid miner and scavenger gave you a unique freedom that had never appeared on microcomputers before.
Classic Elite even had a storyline built in, when thargoids started to invade the galaxy you were given a number of quests.
Along came Elite II: Frontier, a game that remains arguably one of the most accurate physics based games ever produced. With the removal of jump drives, and the addition of realistic distances, speeds and time compression I've never seen a game like it since. Your didn't only have total freedom within that world, but you also had responsibility. You had to maintain your crafts systems, you had to repair damage, and ensure you had enough fuel. You had to be aware of distances, and ensure you had the right equipment. You could purchase a vast range of different ships, and install the best equipment you could afford. You even had to hire crew with the option to negotiate their salary.
With Elite II: Frontier you had all the old choices, bounty hunter, trader, pirate, miner, and a whole bunch of new choices.
Elite II: Frontier was the first game I ever saw that allowed you to land directly on planets. Each planet was procedurally generated, and each planet featured unique resources. Not only that you had consequences to your actions. If you decided to make a quite living mining but decided to do it in an owned system then the police would turn up and blow you to hell. You had to be selective, often going into uninhabited systems where you ran the risk of pirate attacks.
On top of that you had even more choices, you could carry out assassination missions, become taxi driver, sell items in high demand. I could go on and on.
Then came Elite III: First encounters. It promised the one thing Elite II was lacking, a storyline and plot. However GameTek, the publisher for elite decided to stop waiting for Frontier developments to finish the game, and released it anyway.
Elite III became known as one of the biggest blocks of BETA code ever installed on users machines. It was never intended for release, and the company had to start sending out floppy disk after floppy disk of patches. The first version was so bad you couldn't buy a new ship without it crashing.
Legal battles between Frontier Development and GameTek started and both companies were bogged down in so much legal rubbish that any hope for Elite IV was doomed to vapourware.
Until now. Frontier Developments decently started a kickstarter campaign, they raised over 1.5 Million to fund Elite: Dangerous, a staggering amount.
With the games release date aimed for 2014, teasers and news has already hit their website by the bucketload.
I've been waiting for this game since 1996, so for me expectations can't be high enough.