Video thumbnail for youtube video The Elite: Dangerous Interview - What Would You Ask Gaming Legend David Braben? - Road to Virtual RealityOne of the most promising titles sporting Oculus Rift support to rise from a successful crowd funding campaign is the space trading and combat MMO Elite: Dangerous. Part of the Elite franchise, originally conceived and coded by gaming legends David Braben and Ian Bell way back in 1984 and published for the BBC-B range of computers.

The Premium Beta comes directly after the successful completion of the game’s Alpha 4 test phase and, as of today, all premium beta access holders can launch themselves into Elite’s vast universe. Well, perhaps not quite vast initially. Although Elite: Dangerous is promising over 400 Billion star systems, the premium beta holds ‘just’ 5. More than enough room for you to immerse yourself in.

What’s more, support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is reported to be very promising indeed. The title has received extensive coverage from big media outlets, including an in-depth play test from PC Gamer, who seemed most impressed in a recent video hands-on with the Rift enabled version (see above).

If you’re part of the standard beta program you can upgrade to premium here, if you’re not and would like to join the universe, you can pre-purchase Premium Beta access here for the bargain (!) price of just £100!

We recently asked for your help to compile a list of questions to put to David Braben himself, we hope to have the results of this after E3. And speaking of E3, we’re also hoping to catchup with the Frontier team over there in Los Angeles on the 10th-12th June when Ben Lang heads to the biggest gaming show in the world to check out everything VR for Road to VR.

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Are you signed up as a backer of Elite: Dangerous? Are you joining the beta today? We’d love to hear your impressions. Stick them in the comment below.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • RoTaToR

    Hmm nooo, but maybe with the DK2 in my hands – my resistance gets weak. It looks nice! ;)