For people interested in playing Elite 2 & 3, some impressively dedicated fans have disassembled the original executables, and re-engineered them to use DirectX, high resolution models, fix gameplay bugs, etc:
I recommend the originals as those enhanced versions are either buggy or unfinished.
Yes, but they're impressive technical achievements - disassembling a DOS game and completely rewriting its rasteriser and I/O subsystem.
Anyway, even if you don't use the D3D or OpenGL versions then JJFFE is well worth using over the originals; it fixes a lot of horrible physics (and texture) bugs, and adds some very useful things like keybindings for manual control of the lateral thrusters.
http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/downloads.html
Also get this JJFFE patch if you're gonna try Frontier: First Encounters, also has a Mac version.
http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/files/category/154-jjffe/
The BBS talking face videos from the CD-ROM version can be found here
http://ffeartpage.com/util/ffevid.zip