Sharoma Frontierverse Links BBS

Bulletin Board System

Although I am quite intent on including everything submitted to me in the last sixteen years, I became lax in the middle part of the last decade. I still have submissions from circa 2002, sitting in the old mailbox, unreplied to. I feel remiss. This page is my attempt to get the material, whatever it may be, out there with a minimum of fuss and effort. If it belongs in other sections of the site, it may end up there eventually. You can still submit anything Frontier related: e-mail. You must specify directly if you do not want your name added.

2002-06

Visit Earth: The Home of Humanity

2 Frontier Mails

A text file of this name sat in my archive directory since 2002. I don't know why they were singled out and then forgotten, but here they now are:

From: "Kennedy" 
Subject: Frontier bug
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 03:04:45 +0200

Hi!

I was able to land on the Sun once back in '95. You need a very light ship
with a BIG engine in it (eeg. Viper with Class 3 Military) and lots of work.
But it's possible.
I started to search the saved games for the file, but nothing yet. Of course
when you're down, you can't take off... ;))) There's also a way to overcome
that tough: sometimes, when you launch from the surface the hyperspace
symbol is shown for a moment. Thus if you're quick enough, you could
probably jump from the surface!!! No kidding! If I find the saves, I'll mail
them to you ASAP. Anyway, keep up the good work,

Kennedy

--

Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:03:40 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Hugh=20Cox?= 
Subject: A no-fuss way to run frontier in win98

There's a "Fixmem" utility available to download at www=2Esold-out=2Eco=2E=
uk, which is able to reconfigure windows 9x to run with extra memory avail=
able (more than enough to run Frontier)=2E

I actually got it with Cannon Fodder, but the file is available to downloa=
d free from their site=2E

I hope this could be useful for other new users (like myself), or even any=
one using windows 95/98=2E  Unfortunately, it won't let you run First Enco=
unters (although JJFFE does the job well there - just not on my old junkhe=
ap system, lol)

Chris Mail

A few points I have....

Have you ever tried to go to the Beta Lyrae system? I have for a few 
reasons...not only as it is a system shown on the galaxy view, but also as 
it could be the home of the famous Lyrae Weed! *g* Located at -146,85 & is a 
Contact Binary System, whatever the fuck one of such be!! But....the problem 
is...that when attempting to hyperspace there...the game fucking crashes!!! 
*baf*

Cemises -2,-2 ; Pointless seen as it's so easy to get money...but, have you 
noticed that gems & precious metals am illegal there? They pay you 500 & 
3,000 to have them, on bought & sold! And of course, they are sold to pep up 
the profit a lil bit.
Nice way to start a new game, I s'pose!

Missions & passenegers ; An example would be a good idea here...Sahoa, 
Facece & Vequees are always a good...

a) Take as many parcel / message missions & passengers as possible

b) Dock at first location...preferably the one with most missions / 
passengers

c) Set second target system

d) This is important: Leave pretty much immediately, at least with enough 
time for a payment to be recieved whilst you are outside of the station / 
port

e) Important still: After the last payment is recieved for the current 
system & while the message is on the screen, hyperspace to second location

f) Set third destination (if applicable)

All parcels & what not will then be collected for this system immdeiately, 
with no need to dock. Excellent for places like Centauri, whilst after 
hyperspace you're almost a fuckin light year away form the dock!

Again, after the last payment, hyperspace to next location and so on until 
you you have finished all jobs!

Pretty fucking neat stuff!! Wish I knew a while ago cos I'd have a better 
ratinf by now! I mean...I had a mission for Veareth, or sumink like that, 
but there's nowhere to dock! Baffeled the hell outta me, but now I know how 
to do it!

Also, payments for all other missions are recieved, but of course, this 
trick doesn't go about actually doing bombing & taking photographs!!

Another thing...don't ya just hate them fuckin god damned coppers?!?!
Is there any way to sue the mother fuckers for harrassment? I think they go 
a little over the top questioning me about theft all the time!
(Copy-right protection lark, that is)

For your own info...the game I've got is the original Uk version for the 
Amiga (I get bored! *l*)

Ratings; Sergeant-Major - Lord - Competent
Got quite a nice 14,000 tonne (thank the lord for auto-fire joysticks!) 
Eagle Long Ranger Fighter, with everthing but a couple o'freakin Nukes! (not 
rated enough yet)

A few final quetions...
I quite want a Falcon or Hawk or sumink cos there pretty darn fast, but the 
shitter is that the drive can't be replaced on them. I mean...how shyte are 
Class 1's? Or am I wrong...can I change drives that are "an integral part of 
the ship"?

I doubt this very much, but still...is there any way to download a file onto 
disk to be used on the amiga?

Finally....do you know if there is or to be a pc version by GameTek?
If at all...better be by them...cos look at Champ Manager & Premier 
Manager...they're shyte now in comparision to the Domark & Gremlin versions 
in the mid nineties

Well...I should be sleepin....
I do appologise for my bastard of a foul gob! ~lmao~
Cheers for yaou'r time
Tek it easy

Chris

Overkill

This screenshot [2002], displaying FE:2, ArcElite, F:FE and Elite:TNK, comes courtesy of Stuart Wilson [click to enlarge].

Overkill: multiple desktop FEU games

Tradesheet

This file, known as Tradesheet is dated October 15th, 2002 and contains some FEU style icons in .gif format.

Sirocco Station Ads

Brown: Premium BeBeCe Ale

These images, dating from 2002, were part of an ad system, centralised around Dan Lind's now defunct website.

IRC Stats

These statistics were generated from the Elite IRC channel of 2003-4. #alt.fan.elite is still active on the synIRC network.

Help!

On May 2nd, 2006, Commander Pilsbury sent this distress message which was initially lost:

Help!

I'm new to this Frontier lark and i need some help. I have read the
guides on your site extensively, but i am still having problems, the
problem is that i can't seem to slow down. For instance, following the
Ross 154 - Fomalhaut guide on your starting page i was on my way back
and took some damage in a fight and thus lost my autopilot. So i flew
towards the planet but overshot it - because i can't slow down. No
matter how much i press my right shift button and no matter what the
"set" speed thing says even when it's in minus figures, my speed seems
to stay the same and i keep getting further and further away from the
planet i'm trying to land on.

I have tried all manner of things face the destination, point away
from it, manual control, engines off, forward thrust, backward thrust
- trying each combination for many minutes at a time but i still can't
change direction and get back to the planet.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Richard

Scrambled Comms

On July 6th, 2006, Commander Hirst sent this message. The initial part was never received:

I hate internet email. Press the wrong button and zoom goes your
half-finished message. Please disregard the previous message.
 
So yeah, I've come out of hyperspace after a jump to Zaonce, and
I'm in a viper defence craft with a 1mw beam laser. Halfway to
the nearest space station, my autopilot turns off and I get the
message saying I'm under attack. So far so good.
 
Unfortunately, this pirate is a complete coward. He never comes
any closer than 9 or 10km away. Of course, I can't pick him off
at that range. So the solution is to fly towards him right? But
since I'm in the middle of a journey and am going at close to
12000km/s I don't seem to be able to turn and face him. It's very
annoying. I can turn the aiming crosshair towards him, but the
direction crosshair remains fixed upon Ridly Scott station, which
is still 4 AU away. I can't fly towards this stupid pirate. Or,
if I can (it is of course impossible to tell), the increase in
speed when traveling at 12000km/s is such large increments that
I am constantly at max acceleration and this is the reason I am
zooming past him 20km away.

The upshot of all this was that I spent a boring 20 minutes
trying to shoot down a nigh invisible speck that was out of
laser range. My question is, how on earth can I get my speed
relative to somewhere near me, when there are no objects nearby?
Or, how can I make sure that I stay close enough to my target
that it appears larger than one pixel? This problem has been
plaguing me ever since I started playing frontier, and was the
reason I stopped several years ago.
 
Any help would be much appreciated. 
 
And great site by the way! Tons of info and downloads. My only
gripe was that the download of frontier with password protection
removed does not in fact have it removed. But that's ok. I'll
figure out a way around it before long.
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Alistair

Soft Spot

On September 6th, 2006, Commander Saunders sent this message:

Greetings,
 
I must say you've done a wonderful job of updating your site.
Its very slick, full of interesting writings and kept me away from work for
a good few hours ;-)
 
Sadly, I've not been able to get Frontier working on my machine properly (I
flat refuse to play in sordid silence :-P ) and all your little tidbits of
info inspired a wave of nostalgia which has proved quite wonderfully distracting.
I *still* manage to play FFE every once in a while, providing I can avoid
breaking a mouse doing it - I've so far destroyed 3 of them by mashing right
button whilst fighting....
 
Anyways, the bit about FFE reminded me about something I saw regarding the
laser colours on your site. I'm not sure I remember back to Frontier, but
I am pretty sure of FFE (I try to spend my dinner at work playing with it) ;-)
 
Laser Colours:
 
Pulse
1MW = Red
5MW = Orange
30MW = White
 
Beam
1MW = Red
4MW = Orange
20MW = Yellow
100MW = Blue/White
Plasma = Cyan
 
I'm glad, however that someone else has an illogical soft spot for an awful
ship :-P Mine's the Tiercel from FFE - Overcrewed, underpowered, and rarer
than a politicians apology...
 
All the best,
PS

2007-10

Manchester: Home of the Corporations

Stock the Explorer

On February 9th, 2007, Commander Jon Stock pondered:

Bit of an anecdote here, but still...

So I get a photo mission to Luyten 674-15 and the enemy base to photograph
is on an astoundingly red planet called Luyten 674-15 6. Two jumps away from
Olcanze (where I picked it up) and two months to do it in and return so I get
out there within ten days, set the autopilot and click the time acceleration. 

Anyhow, I reach the planet at 1700km/sec and the HUD says, "Arrived in
vicinity of planet."

Indeed I had arrived in its vicinity, for three-quarters of the screen was
cherry-red and coming up at an alarming rate. 

A bug?
function of Hyperdrives is where we're at

2010-13

Lloyds Cloaking of Mars, Sol

Watch this space!