Hmmm, well I started gaming when I was about 14 or 15 and the main reason I found FL so appealing is because it reminded me of the first Elite game I played on my C-64 it was called...you got it "Elite" and that was it. It was very much open ended like FL and instead of gaining levels (1-whatever) you were given a rank, I gained the rank of Dangerous but I have no idea how close I was to becoming "Elite". If anyone remembers the rank system or the game itself let me know.

BTW I'm 39

Recovering from a serious AC addiction

Indeed.

I played Elite (Deadly) on the the BBC and the Spectrum 48K.
Lots of gameplay on a single floppy or tape.
Games'size grows but gameplay if difficult to find.

And Frontier and Wing Commander on the Amiga, FFE was too buggy.
All Wing Commander I,II,Armada,III,IV,Privateer and teh Darkening.
And recently Freespace, Tachyon.
These days more empire building with Anno 1503, Cossacks,
or just moving armies with Age of Empires family or Westwoods' stuff.

My favorite is Egosoft X-Tension (www.egosoft.com),
where you can indeed own fighters, freighters, carriers and
even space stations !
I have been playing this for three years (!),
so I look forward to X2 this summer.

Found the Elite Combat Ratings Comparisons on
http://www.jades.org/combratc.htm

Joostvv (41)

OKay I'll bite.

45 yearf old. My first space sim was a arcade game called space wars circia 1975. First computer was a commadore PET with 54K of raw processing power.
Dont want to think about all the money i've spent buying games. Played wing commander Priveteer 1+2. Along with Elite and other forgotten space sims. And now for the first ti,e I am thinking about modding.

We need guns[[! Big Guns[[![[! Big Freaking GUNS[[![[![[!

This is making mefeel like a kid at 17, What does it matter anyway? Gaming is universal and should not be aimed at one group more than another!

Hmmm,.. OK I.m 34 started with Pong and pretty much went through all those listed by those before me. The first time I played Elite (on my friends C-64) I had an epiphany. I'm currently raising a little gamer of my own (it seems to be hereditary He's 2 and likes the sound of gunfire which annoys his mom to no end.

I have never recovered from my addiction.

Hey Joost I went looking for X Tension and it looks GREAT but there are no more English versions available so I guess I'm f...um screwed. X2 also looked awesome. I will definitely be checking this out come September in the meantime its FL for me.





Splunge

I'm 21 and downright young on this forum! This is awesome! For other games I play (Warcraft 3, and Command & Conquer Generals) I am usually one of the oldest. But I think games like Freelancer appeal to all ages more than real-time strategy or first-person shooters do. People just never drop their dreams of flying through space...

Did 30 considered as middle aged?

I start my PC game "career" since 1990....

What is a "Fire-&-Forget" weapon?
- Once it's fired, you can forget the whole thing... it won't usable again...

34 - just 35.... matter of days
Bought Pong with pocket money a long long time ago.... Got in Apple MAcs in 1984, "ShadowGate" I think was one big un and, of course SimCity, the original. Very little these days seems to do it for me. I played a game called Escape Velocity for ages and ages in the early nineties whihc was sort of like Elite but with more humour and an "asteroids" style of navigation rather than the 3D of elite.... That was great adventure and fun. Liked Baldur's Gate when that came out.... looking up at my shelf here I have so many games and yet play so few of them:"Edge of Chaos" and "X- Beyond Frontier" are there. Now Freelancer. Have to say, first impressions are very bad: can't understand why your ship would buzz all over the place and never need fuel? Nor why the prices are the same all the time.... Seem such little things yet, to me, indicative of carelessness..... Didn't like the no joystick thing at first but now it doesn't seem to matter at all.... Missions seem very repetitive though.... Only two days in so I'll give it more time, but I'll be 35 very soon so things might change dramatically then???

49 years old. Hard Core Descent Fan. 360 Degrees of vertigo with a $150 CH USB joystick. Used to build custom levels for Descent 2. Former programmer and networking consultant so I HATE Microsoft.

This ain't even a REAL 3D game. It's a roll playing game. It's a strategy game. All the things I don't like. Yet I love this game! Could not stop playing it from the day I downloaded the demo. Now I have the game, the strategy guide (something I never buy) and I'm modding myself and trying other's mods.

If Microsoft had really had their eye on the ball, they would have been more careful to make this game run on laptops. Lots of businessmen my age would be playing it on the road since you don't need a mouse.

Thank You. Glock 36. Asset Recovery R US

I'm 45 and lost many hours playing Elite on the old C=64. Freelancer is a very good update but suffers from many of the same problems that affected long term playing of Elite. Why must I loose my heavy fighter to by a freighter ? why can't I park it for later ?
Still a good game to while away the hours.

Cheers Glock: I work as a system's analyst and pretty much hate Microsoft too... Perhaps that's colouring my initial attitude. But I want to try modding the game too - used to do it with some of the older games, not sure I still have the patience but it is a great bonus to the game to have such strong modding support from the community here... Good luck with the mods.

I just turned fifty, but I've been playing video games since I first discovered the old arcade game "Defender" back in 1981.
I had my fling with Doom-style shooters and now play primairly first-person action RPG's such as Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Morrowind and Thief.
Although I prefer the more paced action of the above games I am getting a huge kick out of Freelancer.

I am 38,started serious playing last year and have played some real-time strategies(empire earth,C & C),rogue spear and Il-2/forgotten battles flight sims.FL is first space game i have played and enjoying it very much.

I'm a little whippersnapper of 16 and have gamed since 4.

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My conviction is like an arrow in flight, your life will only last until it reaches you.

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