Well, here I am, putting the finishing touches on Liberation. It feels weird! This is a game that has been with me since I was a kid.

One of the first video games I ever played was the original Elite. We had the EGA PC version -- already out-of-date in some ways -- but I was gripped from the first second.

In our household we had a convoluted timetable for sharing the computer. My older brother, in charge of the schedule, had the key after-school timeslots but he had generously given me the large 5am to 7am blocks. In a way that suited me perfectly.

Sitting in the peaceful darkness gave the best immersion possible. Risking one more jump to Diso with my fuel scoops, collecting questionable cargo, searching for elusive high tech planets, I never questioned that I WAS flying a spaceship.

Of couse, anyone playing Elite back then had the same desires: more EVERYTHING. More landing on planets, more ships, more cities, more stars, more story, more life.

So when Elite II was released in the 1990s and delivered all those features, I felt something I had never felt about a computer game before... guilt! Guilt for not liking it as much.

It had everything. I had wished to find Earth in Elite and here it was in 1:1 scale... but I didn't enjoy playing it. The Newtonian physics were too different to me, the game chugged on my computer... it was too vast, too real. It didn't help that the team seemed kind of embarrased by "Elite"... they demoted the name in favour of Frontier and by Elite 3 they had dropped the title altogether calling it Frontier: First Encounters!

Years later I found out this was because of a legal falling out between the brilliant two creators of the first game. An interesting tale itself!

In a way they had thrown out that certain x-factor that I had loved. Elite 2 is still a triumph of a game and way way way ahead of its time but just not for me.

And so in the back of my mind for 30 years was my version of Elite 2. Bigger and bolder like the sequels but still crunchy and swoopy like the original. But it didn't have a shape. Something was missing.

During COVID, I found a TV show called "Blake's 7", a low budget space opera from 1980s United Kingdom. The missing piece fell into place. The original Elite was from the same era and there was a cultural component.

It wasn't just a space simulation, it was a cultural artefact from that time and place. Its cousins weren't just other space games but also The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (ok yes also a game), Beano, Doctor Who, and B7.

That was the what I had been waiting for subconciously and Liberation then just willed itself into existence. It's got that EDGE, you know? Robin Hood fighting against the evil overlords. Colourful, fast, funny (hopefully). Liberation, a spiritual successor to the original Elite.

I'm thrilled with the result. It looks great (to me anyway). It's a tight little game -- no where near the scale of the Elite series -- but just for a few hours I'm back in front of that glowing computer screen at 5am in the morning.