Once you start earning serious money, you can do almost anything and get away with it - just like life. Like the original Elite you must learn to walk before you can scarper from the coppers. You can't be very wicked at first, because you haven't proved yourself and your ship isn't well enough equipped to evade death and failure. Be suspicious of people paying over the odds for transport - they could be on the run - and watch out for police 'stings'. Try to 'bunch' tasks so you can do three or so in one journey. Before you take any commission make sure you know about any time penalties. Shady people will ask that an executive be 'retired' or that slaves and drugs be taken to distant outposts. This will be full of people asking for a lift, or pleas for news on missing persons. On each planet or base there is a bulletin board. Or you can ferry goods and people, take on missions for the military of either side, or become an assassin, pirate, drug smuggler, slave runner and general villain.

Those of a solitary disposition should'try their hand at mining. The new version gives a huge choice of careers. The galaxy is split up between the Federation, sort of us/ec good guys, the Empire which are an unpleasant mix of Romans and Nazis (if you've ever bought a cup of coffee in Rome you'll know how nasty that must be) and the Independent planets (strong on dull headlines). Traditionalists can elect to begin on Lave with a Cobra lacking autopilot and other goodies. The ship is an Eagle moderately fast and capable of carrying a small amount of cargo. It's up to you to make your own way in the worlds now. He has left you a spaceship and - wait please - too credits. As he has spread the seed of his loins freely about the galaxy, there is not a great deal to go round. Commander Jameson (yes, that one) has died. A solicitor's letter informs you that your grandfather. The game starts with you working in a fish processing factory. Here's a man who has not forgotten the old days. In fact, in can run on a 386 and takes up just 1.5Mb of hard disk space.

If you're familiar with modern programs then you are forgiven for expecting the whole thing to come on 12 hd disks and need a 486DX. Smooth texture mapped graphics, point light sources and smooth scrolling. The first question about Elite II is: is it worth the wait.

Download Frontier: Elite 2