How to dock at a Coriolis space station
I used to play Elite all the time on the family C64 when I was quite young, but could never dock, always ending up as a scorch mark on the side of the station. This was frustrating and would usually lead me to fire upon the station, then have fun shooting up all the cops that came out.
Then I read a most useful piece of advice in my Dad's computer magazine, which taught me how to dock like a real man. Here's what you do...
Head toward the station in the normal way. When you get quite close to the station, say when it's filling up most of the screen, reduce your cobra's speed to zero. Next rotate your ship so that it's pointing away from the station and at the planet. (Coriolis stations always have their docking bays pointing toward the planet.) Now accelerate away from the station (toward the planet) for a little while. Once you're happy you've distanced yourself enough, stop your craft and turn back again toward the station. As you approach, you will see that you're in perfect alignment with the docking bay. All you have to do now is approach slowly and try to synchronise your rotation with the station. Once you're very close, drop your speed down to almost nothing. It'll make things a lot easier.
Remember, if you feel like you're going off course, or it doesn't feel right. Just stop, turn around and try again...
and hope that no other monkey tries to launch right in front of you at the last minute.