My goal is to have nobody be able to guess the right answer! If you think you can defeat me, have a go and try and answer. Currently, this will be done by email (I'm going to write a form and CGI script shortly to handle the quiz). The winners, if there are any (cue evil laughter) will have their names in lights in the first Frontier News for each month.

  Note: The Quizmaster has gone missing, so we've got no question at the moment. However, if YOU have a fiendish question you'd like to ask, just drop us a line...

(Also, Mack enigmatically adds, "And Why?". And will the Federation authorities, undoubtedly censoring James's mail, figure it out?)

The Answer: Well, the Feds didn't get it, but Norman Mosser certainly got most of it! He got two out of three.

The answer is in fact Alex Ryder, because he's the only one of the four who is not Elite. (Or not supposedly Elite, anyway!). Norman Mosser successfully decoded it then guessed the answer to the actual question was Jason Ryder. Close, but no cigar. An honourable mention has to go to Dave Bett for obfusicating the answer even more, so the denizens of #alt.fan.elite had no chance of getting it if they listened to Dave's advice!

As for decoding it? Well, I'll leave that up as an exercise to the reader. However, the string "knowledge of elite" is literally the key to solving it <g>

OK, I should have seen this coming. Quite a lot of people answered this month - thanks to you all! However, I stumped most of you. But not all of you, like I was intending! First...the riddle. OK, I admit it, it could have been harder.

Virtually everyone got the snake reference: the good ol' snake ships. So this is about ships. The second line reinforced the plot - twisting and writing. OK, that kinda eliminates things like the Krait. But I'm not one of them - I'm like a Snake-Ship - but not? What gives?

Well, most of the incorrect answers were for Worm or Gecko. Well, a worm certainly twists and writhes, but the devil's in the details. Remember the clue? Applicable to original BBC Elite, FE2 and FFE? Well, the worm ain't in FE2 and FFE! Sorry, close - but no cigar! Comisserations if you went for worm. The other popular incorrect answer was Gecko. Sorry, but a Gecko has altogether too many legs!

However, Rich Woods, John Jordan and Robin Varley were all correct for answering Moray! A Moray is an eel - twisty and writhy, but not a snake. The Moray Starboat is found in BBC Elite, FE:2 and FFE. Commiserations to Kris Kania, Mark Allinson, Kevin Prest, Bee-Team (who did think of the Moray, but shied away!), Graham "Jades" Thurlwell, Martin Jensen and "The Order of Elite". You were all successfully stumped ;-)

Now this will teach me for setting a question like this! I thought I could vex you all with the "Errr, it won't be THAT easy" trick, and trick you all into looking for a HARD answer...but it didn't work. I got more correct answers than we usually receive! Even so, out of the 100 or so visitors to the quiz page this month, only a few brave souls dared to answer, so perhaps I did vex a few of you...

The answer, is of course...the Lenslok system. This beastly little device was a small piece of plastic with prisms in that you had to awkwardly place on your tv screen, whilst resizing what looked like a jumble of pixels until it read "OK". Basically, the Lenslok had a bunch of prisms in it which would "unscramble" the image underneath of it by means of optical refraction. Once you could see the "OK", you'd then continue and get the real code, which you had to type in. If you didn't get the right code...your Speccy would be reset! Quite why software houses bothered with these things is beyond me - they were trivially easy to hack with the aid of a few hours and a disassembler (as was the Padlock Systems colour-code thing that came with Jet Set Willy). Hacked, bootleg copies of Elite soon got around everywhere anyway - so basically it was a waste of time - and in those days - a waste of extremely precious memory resources!

The victorious winners for this month's question were Mark Allinson, Simon Challands, Christian "It can't be that easy, can it?" Pinder and Steve Trickey. There was quite a few stabs by various people at "vector graphics" as an answer, so I did fox a few of you all! However, Stuart Wilson wins this month's "So Far Left Field It's Back In The Changing Rooms" point for answering that "the ZX Spectrum version wasn't released." Which it certainly was! (The Quizmaster wasted many happy hours on Torus' Speccy port of Elite).

This one's a photo quiz. How did this man help bring the original Elite to the countless thousands?

Now I get to listen to the collective sound of dozens of Elite fans kicking themselves!

Not surprisingly, most of you went zipping down the wrong route - the BBC Micro route. Whilst it's true that the creators of the BBC Microcomputer had a hand in bringing Elite to some of the masses, they weren't the masses I had in mind!

The photo is of none other than...Sir Clive Marles Sinclair! Needless to say, it was his Sinclair Spectrum, and the port of Elite to the Spectrum that was the first experiences of Elite many of us had. Sir Clive was only eighteen when this photograph was taken - and still had his hair, and lacked the beard - and hence foxed most of you!

However, the Quizmaster was defeated this month by Mark Allinson who was right on the money (even providing a link!) Everyone else failed quite miserably, I'm afraid. However, I feel I have to award the "So Far Left Field That It's Back In The Changing Rooms" point to Kris Kania who guessed that it was Konrad Zause, who created the first mechanical calculator after the war...something that might be linked with some of the formulas used to generate the galaxy!

To find out more about Sir Clive and Sinclair Research, see Planet Sinclair.

Now, I thought this one would be easy. In fact, I had three good answers, one of which was close, two of which missed by over 4,800 miles - but were very inventinve and deserve credit.

First, I have to award a point to Mark Allinson, who wins the Quizmaster's D'oh! I should have thought of that point. He said Spain, with the justification, "The earliest use of the name Alioth dates back to the Alfonsine Tables, published in the Earth nation state of Spain in 1252." Good answer, and the Quizmaster has to confess he didn't think of this possible answer. (See the Alliance Atlas entry for Alioth for this snippet).

I also have to award the Sheer Bloody Mindedness point to Bee-Team for his answer. It was rather long, and it veered very close to correct, then veered away over the Atlantic again in completely the wrong direction! The analysis was good though. This was his answer:

"Well, to begin, there's the obvious. Australia and the UK tie on the highest number of directly attributable names of planets and ports (3 Each) followed by Portugal and Russia, discounting the fact that Miller, Makenzie and Molotov imply nationality. Not discounting that, the UK has an association based on the highest number of directly attributable placenames in Alioth. That's pretty weak.

In support of the above, something may be made of the fact that New Rossyth Shipyards is perhaps derived from the (Old) Royal Navy Dockyards at Rosyth, in Fife.

Then there's the name, "Alioth", which is "Arabian" (not being too specific) in origin, ergo Saudi Arabia. That's far too obvious.

The star itself is an ACV Variable, the prototype of which is Cor Caroli, which brings us back to the UK. Now, Cor Caroli is none to far (both visually and in real distance) from Alioth (Ursa Major also being known archaically as King Charles' Wain, apparently). This is tenuous.

"The role of Turner as a mediator between the local and the national and between scientific and Progressive historians was vital. His selective incorporation of regionalism into a national story is hard to distinguish from that of his dourer colleague, Jameson."

Turner and Jameson both being Americans and big names in the study of American national history in the late 1800's, and the only coupling of "Elite- derived" names of any relevance (though dubious) that I could find. Discounting painters, of course. [My emphasis on Americans --Q.M]

Of all these answers, I prefer the one about the Rossyth/Rosyth Shipyards/Dockyards, which would imply that the answer was the UK (Scotland) because, like Alioth, it has a port called Rosyth Shipyards (Once, I suppose, the New Rosyth Dockyards..). Strangely, the Royal Rosyth Dockyard was apparently once the regional HQ of NATO, another Alliance..."

Fascinating answer! But no, it isn't the UK either.

Finally, Brad Chacos was at least the right side of the Atlantic when he suggested the USA, and gains the Close, But No Cigar point. In fact, the USA is very close. The right country at least, but he didn't specify which state!

The thing that everyone missed, I was being very literal when I said state! I really did mean state, not country! So this brings us to the answer. In fact, it's much duller and simpler than Bee Team's wonderful analysis.

The answer is in fact Alaska. Why Alaska? Look at the Alaska state flag, to the left. Any of those stars familiar? The Alaska State song even sings about it (for more info on the flag, who designed it, the song etc. see Geobop's Symbols). The constellation is the Big Dipper or the Plough. The stars, from left to right are: Alkaid, Alcor/Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phekda, Merak and Dubhe. The one at the top is Polaris. So there you have it. The answer is Alaska because they have Alioth in their flag!

Correctly answered by nobody! Dave Bett did have a sporting try with Dodge, who built the Polaris. Close, but no cigar. The answer is Subaru. Subaru is a Japanese car maker. Look at its logo closely - it's a group of stars. Why are the stars on their badge laid out like they are? Subaru is Japanese for Pleiades - the cluster of stars where the Turner's Quest was going to look for the Thargoids in the 3250s. And this is where you go on the Argent's Quest mission...looking for clues about the fate of Mic Turner and the Thargoids he was searching for.

For more on Subaru/Pleiades, check out this article about how Subaru relates to Japanese folklore. Or check out a good picture of the Pleiades in Images of the Messier Objects from the Digital Sky Survey.

OK, I admit it. This one was particularly evil! The NSTX is of course the National Spherical Torus Experiment. Those who played the 8-bit conversions (ports) of Elite should remember that the conversion was marketed by Firebird...but the Spectrum port was actually programmed by Torus!

AliothNet wins this month...no one got it right (although I did get one very bizarre answer, caused by the misleading use of the word "port" - cue evil laughter). Someone called "Nalyd the Great" guessed the following fantastic (but sadly incorrect) answer:

"The port of Catoosa [...] The NSTX was just a ploy to divert attention. This is typical of the Elite mentality as exemplified by the relation to FFE. The Cobra III of the AJN was stationed there for almost 20 years, but this is a little known fact. Many people mistake this also, and think it was based in Duval City in Achernar, but this is not true..."

This answer was just so wonderful, I think I have to give Nalyd the Great credit for trying ;-)

To learn about the fascinating NSTX, see http://www.pppl.gov/projects/pages/nstx.html

What government-issued certificate links the following people:
(a) The webmaster of AliothNet,
(b) the author of Arc Elite,
...but is not posessed by Jane Garvey?

The answer is: both Dylan Smith (AliothNet webmaster) and Warren Burch (Arc Elite author) both have been issued pilot's licenses by the FAA. Jane Garvey, the FAA administrator, does not posess one though (one of the first FAA administrators not to be a pilot!)

Congratulations to Dave Bett (aka "Reaper") who got the answer very quickly. Visit the Demons Gate to see what they are up to now. Also, Kris Kania came in at the end with the correct answer. Visit his Elite 4 news site here.

What is the common link between the former Soviet president, Nikita Khrushchev, the Ilyushin IL-28 aircraft, and "classic" Elite? (Classic Elite is the first type (eg BBC, Spectrum, C64 Elite etc.) - not FE:2 or FFE)

Well...heh heh heh! AliothNet won this month - nobody got the right answer! However, Dave Bett (aka Reaper, of the Demons) got tantilizingly close.

The answer is: Nikita Krushchev and the IL-28 were deeply involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, which happened in late October 1962. What has this got to do with the original Elite? Well, the co-author of Elite, Ian Bell, was born just as the Cuban Missile Crisis was solved. Ian Bell describes himself on his website as being born on the Samhain (Halloween), and the Cuban Missile Crisis ended scant days earlier. The crisis was about the objection of the United States to missiles and IL-28s placed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. In fact, President John F. Kennedy brought up the threat of nuclear war in a chilling speech made to the nation. The US armed forces even reached DEFCON 2 during this crisis (DEFCON 5 = peace, DEFCON 1 = all-out war). Ian Bell might have been born thousands of miles away, but JFK and Krushchev's actions could have quite easily have killed him in his infancy had things turned out differently.

To find out more about this fascinating period of the Nuclear Age, go to 14 Days In October: The Cuban Missile Crisis for an excellent run-down of the momentous events of that period.

Reaper's answer got tantalizingly close, mentioning the hotline between the US and the USSR (set up in the aftermath of the crisis) and the crisis itself...but not making that final, important link! The devil, as they say, is in the details ;-)

What was the title of the recording, by whom, and when was it published?

Congratulations to Brad "Wolfsheart" Chacos, of "Why Did The Groigan Dance?" fame for getting the answer right! The answer is Pink Floyd's "Meddle", produced in 1971. An excellent and slightly obscure album by a great band.