Elite (BBC Micro)
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 space trading games
Recommended as a classic space trading game with procedurally generated galaxies that fit in tiny memory, and whose code people still study.
Recommended as a classic space trading game with procedurally generated galaxies that fit in tiny memory, and whose code people still study.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Eight procedurally generated galaxies
“used procedural generation to create EIGHT entire galaxies, each with 256 star systems, on a floppy disk that was less than 48 kilobytes!”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Most technically impressive games of all time?” “Elite is a canonical example here, with its galaxies being procedurally generated”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “The L in "LLM" Stands for Lying” “managed to have eight galaxies with 256 distinct planets each”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser” Fits in tiny memory
“used procedural generation to create EIGHT entire galaxies, each with 256 star systems, on a floppy disk that was less than 48 kilobytes!”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Most technically impressive games of all time?” “Elite was built to fit into 56 kb of RAM”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “How Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU” Code worth studying
“the excellent code archaeology of it”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The 1987 Game "The Last Ninja" was 40 kilobytes” “Notably: BBC Basic, Elite”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “StackOverflow now gets fewer than 1000 questions a month”
Other space trading games people recommend
The two most recommended other space trading games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elite (BBC Micro)This page | 11 | 3 | 79% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Endless Sky | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Escape Velocity | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Notably: BBC Basic, Elite”
“all the others were so. much. space.”
“I love space trading games like EV and Elite”
“used procedural generation to create EIGHT entire galaxies, each with 256 star systems, on a floppy disk that was less than 48 kilobytes!”
“and Elite on the BBC Micro”
“Elite was built to fit into 56 kb of RAM”
“Watching the CHR-RAM in an emulator while Elite is running is mesmerizing.”
“the excellent code archaeology of it”
“Elite is a canonical example here, with its galaxies being procedurally generated”
“this is a whole infrastructure of mass surveillance and "rogue" police”
“What constitutes this "high value"?”
“managed to have eight galaxies with 256 distinct planets each”
“Docking computer was like the very first thing I would buy.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.