Road to VR has arranged an interview with the legendary game designer and programmer David Braben, he of Elite fame and most recently the Oculus Rift supporting Elite: Dangerous. We’d like to ask him questions from the VR community.

In 1984, Elite Was Published and Changed Games Forever

David Braben
David Braben

A somewhat grandstanding headline you might argue, however David Braben and Ian Bell’s seminal space trading and exploration game and its influence on a generation of gamers cannot be underestimated. Set in interstellar space, you played a lone trader making his way in the universe any way you can. The game appeared during the initial home computing revolution on the 8-bit BBC  Computer and featured realtime 3D vector graphics, a vast universe and bewildering array of options for players to explore. The title  marked the dawn of truly adult gaming. Not that it was filled with lurid content you understand, but there were no moral boundaries, leaving the player to choose their ethics as they played.

Fast forward to the present and David Braben turns to Kickstarter in order to finance the development of a brand new entry to the Elite canon, to be named Elite:Dangerous. This news was exciting enough in and of itself, but it was announced that Elite: Dangerous would be developed with Oculus Rift support that meant it was one of the few triple A titles at the time announced for the fledgling VR Headset. Since then, development has moved on apace and Kickstarter backers have been given access to early versions of the game and what’s been shown looks extremely promising.

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So, to find out a little more, we reached out to Frontier asking for an interview – happily David Braben was available and is happy to answer questions from the community. So, what would you like to know? If you have a question, drop it in the comments below. We’ll select the best from here and /r/oculus to send as part of the interview.

Thanks for your input! To whet your appetite, here are some nostalgic shots of the original Elite alongside its modern-day, VR-enabled counterpart.

(Feature image courtesy Edge-Online)

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.