Elite worm hole calculator V1.00 written in LC V5.5  Hisoft

By Karl Foley @ 2:2501/101 | 51:502/5 | 90:102/105 | 100:105/4

Exchangeware Notice ;-)

This program is free, please enjoy!  If you do like it then please consider
registering the author for one of your Atari ST programs.  If you haven't
written any, hurry up and support the ST!

No profit making organisation may store or transmit this file in any way
without the express permission of myself.

This includes magazines, public domain libraries and commercial BBS systems.


Elite II / Frontier (,  and probably  GameTek / Konami) contains a few
bugs as we all know, but it does contain one very useful one.  If you
attempt to hyperspace over approximately 655.73 light years (approx. 81.92
galactic co-ordinates) Frontier wraps the distance back down to zero,
re-enabling your hyperspace drive.  If you get a planet very near to this
point you can usually jump 655.73 light years very quickly and with the
minimum of fuel.

If you extend this idea you soon see that you can take a short cut when
hyperspacing from one point to another.  Consider the following diagram :

                               C
                              / \
                             /   \
                            /     \
                           /       \
                          /         \
                         /           \
                        AB

Normally, the quickest way to hyperspace from point A to point B would be a
straight line.  If you use a suitable system at point C you can jump far
quicker than you could directly using minimum fuel.  This is true even if
points A and B are relatively close.

ELITEBUG, lets you calculate the co-ordinates of point C with ease.  I'm
just starting to program in C and this seemed like an easy project to start
with.

Suppose you wish to travel from Facece [0,-4] to Sol [0,0] 34.8 light years.
Run ELITEBUG.TOS and input the co-ordinates, for accuracy let's input the
co-ordinates as Facece [0.4,-4.1] and Sol [0,0.2].  ELITEBUG calculates the
intermediate jump point to be [81.7,5.6].

Now load up Frontier, leave dock at Facece and view the Galactic map.  Move
to sector [81,5] and start looking for a system.  You'll notice that the
hyperdrive fuel required still shows 'Out of range' as it's not quite over
655.73 light years.  With a bit of fiddling a suitable planet can be found
in sector [82,5], Famiwa.  I'm piloting a Boa Freighter (1300 Tons) with
a class 8 hyperdrive and the display informs me that I need 9 tons of
hydrogen fuel to travel this far.  Hit the hyperspace icon and I arrive
after 18 hours.

All that's left to do is hyperdrive back to Sol at [0,0] and this takes
another 9 tons of fuel / 18 hours.  A quick bit of docking and we're
at Mars High space station some 55 hours later. A round trip of some 1312
light years taking just 91 hours including docking.

I suppose this little prog could really ruin your Frontier 2 game, you've
been warned.

I've tried to write ELITEBUG in strict ANSI C for portability and
both the C source and Atari ST binaries are available for download from my
BBS (+44-(0)394-271550 10pm-8am UK time only please).
Source filename = EBUG_SRC.ZIP
Atari ST binary filename = EBUG_BIN.ZIP

The binaries have been compiled with Lattice C V5.52 with the processor
type set to 'Any' - Hopefully this program will work on any 680x0 Atari!

Any bug reports or constructive criticism to :

Karl Foley - SysOp STandard QBBS +44-(0)394-271550
             10pm-8am BBS           8am-10pm Voice

             Network addresses
             2:2501/101@FidoNet.Org
             51:502/5@AtariNet.Ftn
             90:102/105@NeST
             100:105/4@TurboNet
                  & RSN <g>
             standard.embassy.com

Coming soon : An Atari ST class 1 Fax program, email for details!

Acknowledgements go to : Mark Betts at 2:253/500 for the original idea.
