Some of you might be aware that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Elite, one of the best - and best-loved videogames in history. We've been thinking for a while about how to mark the occasion, and having kicked around a few ideas, this is what we've decided to do.

On the 28th of October, we're going to celebrate Elite.

Just after lunch, Lord David Puttnam will launch the day, reflecting on twenty-five years of UK videogames and just what an amazing contribution the industry has made to the economic and cultural life of the Country.

Mid-afternoon, and the National Videogame Archive folks are going to guide you through a tour of the Elite legacy. There have been brilliant, exhaustive accounts of how the game was created (not least in Francis Spufford's excellent 'Backroom Boys' book - which you really should read if you haven't already...), but this session is more about what it means. It's called, My life with Elite.

We're going to be welcoming some very special guests along on the day, including fans, critics and those responsible for creating the game itself.

Following that, we're going to invite you outside into our festival arena on the Market Square - but before we tell you about that - you need to know something else...

When Elite was being packaged for release on the Commodore 64 - Mark Bolitho, a schoolfriend of Ian Bell's, designed some Origami plans for the Cobra MkIII. The intention was that these might also be packed in with the game software, although in the end this didn't come to pass. Mark has recreated both the Cobra MkIII plans, and designed a whole series of new Elite Origami for you to build and hang in the main arena space. In there we're planning to create a kind of paper-universe of Elite craft.

He's going to be there on the day to help you build your ship, but just incase you want to practise in advance, we're going to be offering a craft every week for you to download and make at home. This starts here with the escape pod. Mark is going to be filming some instructional videos to help you make the models later this week.

So... Following the My Life with Elite session, we'd like to invite you all out into the arena and the paper universe where - at around 5pm, acclaimed Science-Fiction author Robert Holdstock will read from 'The Dark Wheel' (the novella he wrote to accompany the C64 release) whilst the Nottingham Trent University Choir perform a new arrangement of Strauss' Blue Danube waltz.

We really hope you can come along.

DOWNLOAD ESCAPE POD ORIGAMI