U5 on 8bit

[Goochman]

I know nothing was released and the only thing folks have found were the opening screen - however, Lord British in this'88 chat text indicated that a programmer was contracted to do the port - something had to have been done I presume???

 

http://vorlon.case.edu/~zwb2/Ultima/1988-04-14.txt

 

(Lord British) Well, as a matter of fact, someone is under contract to...

(Lord British) develop the Atari 8-bit version....

(Lord British) It is not clear what hardware config will be required,...

(Lord British) but it is likely to require at least 64K RAM...

(Lord British) and perhaps hi-density drives. GA

[Tempest]

Can you post a pic of the title screen or the rom?

 

Tempest

[Goochman]

Here you go - plus a clue on who did some of it - It is asking for the 'Britannia' disk which doesnt exist - presume the 'B' disk is a player disk??

ULTIMA5_demo.zip

[Goochman]

After playing through some of the options (none really ) - if I had to guess I bet a framework was created to navigate Sosaria with the Britannia disk but prob not the whole game - if someone knew the programmer maybe we could get something? The only pieces that do anything are the 'Acknowledgements' and 'Journey Onward'

[Tempest]

I found this address for him:

 

Creative Software Systems (Rob Satonica)

7775 S Scottdale Rd

Berrien Springs MI 49103-9711

USA

tel: (616) 473-3904

 

Lord knows how old this is (95 I think), but Berrien Springs is about 2 and a half hours from me.

 

Tempest

[TheGreatPW]

Tis a shame this title was never finished on the Atari 8-bit series. This would have been one of the perfect titles to complete the Atari 8-bit library as it was probably one of the last major games to be developed on an 8-bit system first. Bravo to whoever found this!

 

I would love to get the programmer's story as to why this was never finished. Hopefully someday someone will find him and discover the whole story. If I had to guess, it was probably cancelled because it would require at least 64K and 128K would be recommended thus leaving out a lot of Atari 8-bit owners who had 48K and were going to move on to other computers anyway. I bet someone could have jammed this title into the 48K requirement but probably leaving out any chance of music being included.

 

I also remember seeing Moebius as a title that was supposed to be released for the Atari 8-bit series as well but was cancelled. I believe it was listed as coming soon in the Origin Systems catalog that shipped with Ultima IV. Anyone have any ideas as to what happened with this title?

[VW]

Tis a shame this title was never finished on the Atari 8-bit series. This would have been one of the perfect titles to complete the Atari 8-bit library as it was probably one of the last major games to be developed on an 8-bit system first. Bravo to whoever found this!

 

I would love to get the programmer's story as to why this was never finished. Hopefully someday someone will find him and discover the whole story. If I had to guess, it was probably cancelled because it would require at least 64K and 128K would be recommended thus leaving out a lot of Atari 8-bit owners who had 48K and were going to move on to other computers anyway. I bet someone could have jammed this title into the 48K requirement but probably leaving out any chance of music being included.

 

I also remember seeing Moebius as a title that was supposed to be released for the Atari 8-bit series as well but was cancelled. I believe it was listed as coming soon in the Origin Systems catalog that shipped with Ultima IV. Anyone have any ideas as to what happened with this title?

 

I was very upset that this didn't come out on 8 bit since I had completed Ultimas 1-4 on the 8 bit so I was really looking forward to this one. I don't think the 64K issue was why this was canceled as Origin did release Autoduel on the 8 bit and it required 64K. They may have released another 64K only game but the name escapes me if it exists. I ended up finally getting over my bitterness a couple of years ago and bought Ultima V off of Ebay for the ST and a mere year and a half later, finished it.

[TheGreatPW]

I was very upset that this didn't come out on 8 bit since I had completed Ultimas 1-4 on the 8 bit so I was really looking forward to this one. I don't think the 64K issue was why this was canceled as Origin did release Autoduel on the 8 bit and it required 64K. They may have released another 64K only game but the name escapes me if it exists. I ended up finally getting over my bitterness a couple of years ago and bought Ultima V off of Ebay for the ST and a mere year and a half later, finished it.

 

Good memory! Yes, Autoduel did require 64K and sales were not so healthy for many Atari 8-bit games that required 64K. The Atari 8-bit was a very unique computer with most of its best selling games at the 16K and the 48K level which were also the most common levels.

 

Besides a minimum of 64K (the chat on GEnie seems to be inferring at least 64K maybe even 128K), the other only clue we have is the part that says "high density drives" in plural. This game may have also required dual 1050s or XF551s to run properly making it a very niche game for the Atari 8-bit line. Imagine if the game required 128K to run properly (like Mindscape's Bop & Wrestle which only ran great on an Atari 130XE) along with 2 disk drives and it could have been a game with very poor sales.

 

It is too bad Ultima V was never finished and released. Even with a lot of cutbacks to make it work on 48K, I think there were probably enough Ultima lovers on the Atari 8-bit to make it worthwhile. At least the Atari ST owners got to enjoy Ultima V and VI before all Atari support was stopped.

[Goochman]

Im would bet something exists as this 'demo' asks for a Britannia disk even though you cant create a party it prob allowed you to do something - if the other disk would show up

[carmel_andrews]

Goochman...what did you mean by 'high density drives' (i don't think atari's ever supported that format...without some moddy'g)

[Goochman]

Goochman...what did you mean by 'high density drives' (i don't think atari's ever supported that format...without some moddy'g)

 

That was LB and not me - at the time prob meant 1050 drives to get more on a disk since the 8bit lagged in disk storage at the time.

[Tempest]

Anyone ever find out more info about this?

 

Tempest

[RobS]

Wow I had no idea these had gotten out. I know this is a loooong time in coming, but I just discovered that these exist. I am the Rob in question that these U5 disks are dervied from. I have a very long and involved story to tell about these disks, and have recently begun trying to piece back together what was completed on it using emulators, which are now sophisticated enough to handle emulating this correctly. If my original disks still work, and I can find a way to transfer them, and get the sources in order, I'll see what I can do about getting them out.

 

I will work on a document to tell the story, and post it in segments here under this topic (or make a new one, if you would all prefer.) I have always wanted to share this story, and this site, AtariAge, seems the best place to put it. There is a lot to the story, but let me dispell the main thing right here: I am NOT the developer hired to convert it. If such a developer was hired, he's still out there somewhere. His version is likely more finished than mine, and it would be aweome if someday we could see that as well.

 

-Rob

[FastRobPlus]

We would love to hear the backstory on this – especially how far you’d gotten.

[Tempest]

There is a lot to the story, but let me dispell the main thing right here: I am NOT the developer hired to convert it. If such a developer was hired, he's still out there somewhere. His version is likely more finished than mine, and it would be aweome if someday we could see that as well.

 

-Rob

So did you start this conversion on your own as a homebrew project then? I'd love to hear the story behind this.

[Goochman]

RobS - Please start a new topic from which you can document anything you know - thanks for joining!

[RobS]

Ok will do! I'll do it in multiple posts (within the same new topic) as it will be quite a long article. It's going to be ...um...a little creatively written.

[+Stephen]

Can't wait to read.

[RobS]

Hold on guys, going to take a little bit longer to get this up. Turns out, I have a lot of memories, and some old source files and notes that I can go through. I'll do the article in sections, and try to get the first part up in a couple of days, but there is a lot more to the demo disk than I remembered. Plus I'll have a few other surprises as we go along.