What a game, its true when they say they dont make em like they used to.
Who was it now that wrote it, i think it was David Brabern are somthing like that.
A genius, he paved the way forward for games like home world and X2 the threat.
All space games really derive from frontier but none of them will ever replace it, ill tell you though it didnt go without any flaws it had more bugs than tramps blanket but the freedom and missions you could do travel the galaxy bandatise and that was only half of it. the game was massive and yet simple but by far the best game this world has seen and will see for along time.
None of the new games have truly captured the freedom of frontier, X2 for instance looks fab but you cant land on a planet and mine it.
Or land on a moon and wait for a nice fat juicy trader with a cargo bay full of loot.
No Frontier 2 elite was by far the best game ever made and for along time to come other games will fail at trying to be like it.

I renember that game, it rocks. I should dig it out of wherever I left it.
In X3 you'll be able to land on planets and do some intersting stuff, but nothing will replace that gem of a game.

thought i was only 1 that still remembers it lol
it used to keep me occupied for hours at a time,gotta be 1 of the best games ever

Never really played Elite properly, yet it looked a very intricate game.

The only two games I've played recently that are similar would have to be Freelancer and X2. To me, Freelancer was so much better -- combat was better, the missions weren't, but X2 just plain sucked. I didn't like the "everything's shiney" look in X2, the voice acting was TERRIBLE and the economy that was meant to be the biggest selling point was the most flawed part of the game, with the only really worthwhile money maker being Solar Power Plants.

I'm looking forward to seeing if X3 can improve and the very large short-falls of X2.

Yeah, the voice acting and storyline nearly made me die from bordem, the chracters looked terrible and were poorly animated, but Egosoft seems to listen to suggestions and will hopefully make a real storyline. Also the capital ships were rather rubbish as well.

Actually, Frontier derived from "Elite", programmed by David Braben and Ian Bell in 1984. "Frontier 2, First Encounters" was Brabens 2nd sequel of the original legend.
I played all of them. But in retrospect: You had a lot of freedom, but the missions were rather boring. The same ones all over again with slightly changed parameters and only a few main story missions.
But these games really paved the path for later space simulations.