To celebrate Elite’s 40-year anniversary, we ran a couple of very special rewards with hundreds of dollars of prizes. The eight brilliant videos below are the results of one of them - a challenge to create a video that celebrates 40 years of the Elite IP! They’ve been made by professional content creators and Elite superfans, some of whom have been playing since the very first Elite game in 1984. Each video has celebrated the series in a different way, and as we hope you’ll agree, they’re all pretty special. Enjoy.

This is Elite Dangerous team play in 2024

Our first-place winner Gadnok scooped up $100 for this fantastically cinematic Thargoid War-focused video, which highlights Elite Dangerous’s unique multiplayer gameplay. It utilises footage recorded over two years, and it’s no surprise to us that it picked up plenty of glowing comments, like this one from RicZA: “Awesome work! Love the music too!”

Elite is 40-years-young! How did we get here?

In second place is RicardosGaming with this ace Elite anniversary video showing the evolution of the franchise over four decades. Here’s Ricardo’s introduction: 

“From the original creators, Ian Bell and David Braben, to the latest gameplay in Elite Dangerous Odyssey, we explore how Elite has become a timeless classic in the gaming world. The Elite series marked its 40th anniversary on 20 September 2024. Its genre-defining gameplay has influenced other games over four decades and spawned into the Elite Dangerous that we play and love today. But how did we get here?”

Top Shift 144 - Elite’s 40th anniversary

“The year was 1984…” Phoenix_Dfire wins the third-place prize with this lovely video exploring the history of one of the world’s longest-running video game franchises. We really enjoyed the old Elite footage that Phoenix uses and the factoids showing how Elite games have always been ahead of their time. Yet what we love most are the personal touches that make it apparent how much love Phoenix has maintained for Elite Dangerous over the eleven years they’ve been playing it. ‘But Elite Dangerous is only ten years old,’ you say? Well, Phoenix has been playing since its Alpha. 

40 years of Elite 

MQC is up next with a short and sweet video that clocks a pleasantly digestible three minutes, and packs plenty of calorific punch in its scripting and production values. Much like Phoenix’s video, it’s personal; it’s told from the perspective of a commander, but you can feel MQC’s own nostalgia seep through. 

Elite Dangerous - my journey - a 40th anniversary tribute

RicZA rose to the challenge too, with this beautiful homage to ED. We’ll pass over to them for a heartfelt introduction: 

“Here’s a tribute video of my time in Elite Dangerous. Sadly, I never played any of the older versions. I was surprised by how much this video has come to mean to me, reliving each moment as I edited a cutscene or image. I’m eternally grateful for all the friends I’ve made along the way and the time shared with hundreds of other players. It was all made possible through this timeless game. So ‘cheers’ to Elite and a good old ‘o7’ to the community. I’ve really been trying hard to improve my video-editing skills, so I do hope you enjoy this!” 

We’re sure we can speak for the community when we say: ‘we enjoyed it very much’.

CMDR Jameson’s final moments - tribute - Elite Dangerous

CMDR Henckes took a unique and awesome angle for his Elite anniversary video by focusing on Elite’s most beloved commander: the legendary John Jameson. Here’s CMDR Henckes with an intro: 

“I decided to portray the final moments of the original Elite game’s protagonist within Elite Dangerous. Since we can access his final logs after the end of the first Thargoid War, it was possible to reimagine his final steps towards his tragic death.”

For Jameson! For humanity! 

Elite 40th anniversary - comparison with 2014 Elite Dangerous

Dydo took inspiration from another one of our challenges, and created an awesome video showing the differences and similarities between 1984’s Elite and 2014’s Elite Dangerous.  They ask that you don’t judge them for their Asp Explorer combat build with a single laser. Here’s their intro:

“Inspired by the time-lapse bounty, I created a video comparing the gameplay of 1984 Elite and Elite Dangerous. While I know it’s not fair or possible to compare the two, my goal was to highlight how much has changed in day-to-day activities within Elite Dangerous over the years. 40 years may not seem like much, especially today, but I believe Elite was a revolutionary game and its essence remains alive in Elite Dangerous to this day.”

Elite Dangerous 40th anniversary - from pixels to planets!

Last but not least we have Block9's Elite anniversary video, which uses a lighthearted Machinima style. They even created their own music, and it’s pretty darn catchy: 

Stay tuned for a showcase of our second Elite anniversary bounty winners, which will take the form of some astonishing artwork. Now we’ve whetted your appetite, why not check out more of our community’s Elite Dangerous video content, like these Elite Dangerous documentaries or these Elite Dangerous ASMR videos.

Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Frontier Developments and Nightstalker, as seen in our planetary showcase of Elite Dangerous screenshots.