Oolite

About

Elite is a space trading game written by David Braben and Ian Bell and published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro in September 1984. Oolite is an open-source Elite clone that can play like the original on modern computers but can also be heavily modified through Oolite Expansion Packs (OXPs). It is written mainly in Objective-C, originally on the Mac, and runs on Windows and Linux via the GNUstep runtime; current Macs are not supported.

How it differs from the original

Expansion packs can change the gameplay, add ships, and improve graphics, going well beyond the original game's content.

Getting started

Windows users run the downloadable installer; Linux users can install the Flatpak or make the AppImage executable and run it. Playing documentation is available on the project's documentation site.

History

Oolite was originally coded on Mac and later ported to Windows and Linux by way of the GNUstep runtime.

Modding & tools

• Test-release builds include a debug console used by expansion developers to debug their OXPs.

Additional notes

Platform

Intel-based Macs can run old builds of Oolite, and version 1.92 has no macOS release.