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Ultima VII help


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Looks like this is Garriotts facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Richard.Garriott.de.Cayeux

 

I checked through some of the comments and of course someone mentions Ultima. Someone asks him about making another Official Book of Ultima since that one ends at Ultima 6 and he makes a comment that he's looking into making a book about all his stuff. Hopefully its more about Ultima and not the other stupid things (and mistakes). I don't think he can even put the word Ultima on the book cover at all. I think the only thing he owns is the king (Lord British). :P

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V - The best Ultima, and the greatest classic CRPG. Brilliant in nearly every respect.

 

 

 

It actually makes me really happy to see that so many others enjoyed Ultima V as much as I did. I also thought it was the best Ultima, and it also holds something "special" to me. I really do miss the "old days", and staying up late over the summer or the weekend playing U5 on my Apple //c.

 

Ultima V for me wasn't just one of the best CRPGs ever made, it's actually, in my eyes, the best sequel ever made. See, before U5, I had played the living crap out of Ultima IV, loads and loads of it. The best thing to me about U5 was that it was the only sequel that really made me feel like I was going back to a place I had been before. It was the world of U4, but with the change that would happen over several decades. Most of the fun for me about it was just the discovery of how things changed. For example, the town of Magincia - in U4 it was a ruined city, inhabited by skeletons and ghosts that you could talk to. Then, in U5, it was rebuilt as New Magincia, and in the town was a graveyard where the undead and ghosts from U4 were buried. U5 had so many little things like that. Villages became towns, lighthouses got built, and even small huts added to the whole coolness of it. I don't think I have ever played a game where I had nearly as much fun just exploring as I did with Ultima V.

 

As Ultima went on, I sort of lost interest more and more. Ultima VIII just flat out killed it for me. I was always wanting another experience like I had gotten with 5, but I just wasn't getting it, and * basically said to my face that it was never, ever, going to happen.

 

Ultima V is really special, especially if you played lots of Ultima IV.

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...the random death really killed it for me. I mean, I'm walking around in a dungeon and the ground gives way underneath me and I fall into lava.

 

Yeah, they did have a lot of traps like that, but most of the time you could see it coming. I learned to save often.

 

Especially when what's-his-name in town would decide that certain random acts could be deemed as crimes.

 

...and sometimes I liked to go on rampages, just for funsies... ¬_¬

 

This was before the large patch was released that addressed many of these issues, added targeted jumping, and so forth.

 

Back in the day they had a whole ton of EA Gold Box edition games for $2 each at...Staples I think it was? So we snatched up a bunch of those. Ended up with The Complete Ultima VII, and the version of VIII that already had all of the patches included. I've never even tried running it without them.

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All this Ultima talk really makes me wish I had the time right now to start going through these games again! :(

 

..Al

 

Someone gave me an Apple IIe setup 4 years ago - Once I fgured out ADTPro I couldnt think of a better way to use it than playing Ultima on the original platform :)

 

Of course it turns out there were a few bugs in the Apple versions like in U2 you couldnt get strength through the 'bribe' - but I found a disk editor that helped me get to where I needed to be :)

 

The Atari versions play faster for U1 - U4 IMHO, and are easier to get running also. Just my $0.02

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The older ones take a lot of grinding and leveling, something that made it feel like an epic journey. I loved it though. :P

 

I definitely want to finish Ultima 6 which I never have done. I'm on the fence about Ultima 8. I dont want to play it but I want to finish it because then I could say I finished all of them. :P

 

One's I have finished and want to revisit and maybe complete again:

 

Ultima IV

Ultima III

Ultima VII

 

Ultima 5 is one of the best but it was brutally hard for me to finish, especially the C64 version.

 

Ultima 9 was a chore to get through and it wasnt Ultima like we are used to but it wasnt that bad either. It was a nice closure to the Avatar (or Guardian) storyline. The problems I had besides the bugs in the pre-patched version was the lack of ties to the older games and the fact that it wasnt like the older ones in any shape or form. Basically an adventure game. I'm tempted to seek out the fan made mods.

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Yeah, I remember looking at that a few years ago.

 

This talk is killing me. I also want to play all the console Ultimas. I need a list of them so I can hunt them down on eBay / elsewhere, since I don't think I have ANY of them (but I certainly have all the consoles.. ) I will have to dig out my super stash of Ultima games in my garage. In fact, I think I'll do that right now and take a quick photo.

 

..Al

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Okay, I dug the boxes out of my garage (no small feat) and took a few pictures. Note that this does not include Ultima IX, which is in a gigantor box somewhere, or Ultima Online, which is also somewhere else (both games probably game out after I packed these two boxes up probably 10 years ago). I did a brief search for Ultima IX, but it's quite stealthily buried in a box of PC games somewhere (I have several such large boxes of PC games). Anyway:

 

Opening these felt like opening a time vault:

 

ultimas_1.jpg

 

ultimas_2.jpg

 

ultimas_3.jpg

 

All the games, along with two others I had sitting on a shelf in my office:

 

ultimas_4.jpg

 

This is not helping me be a productive member of society.

 

..Al

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Okay, I dug the boxes out of my garage (no small feat) and took a few pictures. Note that this does not include Ultima IX, which is in a gigantor box somewhere, or Ultima Online, which is also somewhere else (both games probably game out after I packed these two boxes up probably 10 years ago). I did a brief search for Ultima IX, but it's quite stealthily buried in a box of PC games somewhere (I have several such large boxes of PC games).

 

Nice!

 

Over time I actually had all of these as well, though many of the older ones were Apple 2 versions. After years of selling, consolidating, and loss to a water heater blowing out, all I'm left with is boxed originals of Ultima V, Wasteland, Bard's Tale, and Wizardry.

 

Yeah, all this talk is giving me an itch to bust out Ultima IV and V.

 

One question for you - I see that you have a boxed 2400 AD. This was another game that I really enjoyed, sort of a Sci-Fi Ultima. In another thread it was mentioned that you worked with Ion Storm. Did you work at all or talk at all with John Romero? I know that before he worked at Id he spent some time at Origin, and in previous posts of his elsewhere he acknowledged the existence of a sequel to 2400 AD that was practically finished, but was axed at the last minute. (I'm always curious about the existence of this game, as well as the Apple 2 version of Ultima IV.)

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Al if you want alist of all Ultima games ever released (console and all) look here:

 

http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

 

Navigation is a bit weird but ultimately you can see a screenshot of every version released on the PC or Game System.

Thanks, will check that out!

 

..Al

 

 

Al...check out Ultima IV for the NES and especially the SMS. The SMS version was done very well and it matches the PC version with better graphics. Some others on consoles I didnt like too much if at all. Ultima VII for the SNES was brutally bad.

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I also want to play all the console Ultimas.

 

From what I've played, it doesn't seem like any of them were really all that great =)

 

The SMS Ultima IV is pretty good, though I prefer the retro graphics on the PC (too bad you can't run the PC speed limiter patch without the 256 color graphics, and the SMS port's tiles are 12x12, so they can't be hacked).

 

The Runes of Virtue games for the Game Boy seem pretty cool, though, from what I've played.

 

Al if you want alist of all Ultima games ever released (console and all) look here:

 

http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

 

I know Moby Games doesn't always list everything, but they've got a few pretty decent lists on the Ultima games, and the navigation isn't weird.

 

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/ultima-series

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/ultima-universe

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/ultima-underworld-series

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The SMS Ultima IV is pretty good, though I prefer the retro graphics on the PC (too bad you can't run the PC speed limiter patch without the 256 color graphics, and the SMS port's tiles are 12x12, so they can't be hacked).

 

 

I also wondered if the SMS port could be hacked by someone. I liked the graphic update on that one.

I actually prefer the upgrade graphics patches many fans made for the PC versions, particularly Ultima II, III and IV. I've seen some others but those were very well done. XU4 I remember was another good re-make\hacked version of Ultima IV.

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I also wondered if the SMS port could be hacked by someone. I liked the graphic update on that one.

I actually prefer the upgrade graphics patches many fans made for the PC versions, particularly Ultima II, III and IV. I've seen some others but those were very well done. XU4 I remember was another good re-make\hacked version of Ultima IV.

 

I always was hoping someone would make an upgrade patch of sorts for Ultima V with the graphics from the X68000 version of the game. Instead of being a port of the PC/Amiga/ST versions, they basically redid it, and it's easily the best looking version. Too bad it's mostly in Japanese. =(

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Hmm, I just bought the following on eBay..

 

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES)

Ultima Exodus (NES)

Ultima: Runes of Virtue II (SNES)

Ultima: The False Prophet (SNES)

Ultima: Runes of Virtue (GBOY)

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Famicom)

Ultima III: Exodus (Famicom)

 

Still looking for a few others. :D

 

..Al

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I always was hoping someone would make an upgrade patch of sorts for Ultima V with the graphics from the X68000 version of the game. Instead of being a port of the PC/Amiga/ST versions, they basically redid it, and it's easily the best looking version. Too bad it's mostly in Japanese. =(

 

 

Oh hell yeah!

 

This one?

 

Moongate.png

 

 

U5x86d.jpg

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Hmm, I just bought the following on eBay..

 

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES)

Ultima Exodus (NES)

Ultima: Runes of Virtue II (SNES)

Ultima: The False Prophet (SNES)

Ultima: Runes of Virtue (GBOY)

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Famicom)

Ultima III: Exodus (Famicom)

 

Still looking for a few others. :D

 

..Al

 

Sweet! Gameboy?? Anyone know what those were, any good? Need to google those....

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I think the popularity of Ultima 8 has shifted in recent years.

Ultima veterans turned against U8 because it's a very different game (and flawed, but all the Ultimas have flaws). Later on, I think it became popular with people who weren't longtime Ultima fans and didn't have the same expectations. And after this many years, it's also become easier for veterans to put those expectations aside and give it a second look as a different kind of game.

For these reasons, I think U8 has become more popular in recent years than it was in the past. I've seen a number of positive comments on it from people who look at it as more of a Zelda type adventure game.

 

 

UII - My first Ultima, and I love it. It's unfairly criticized. Yes, when compared to the other installments, it's a bit unconventional, but it's chock full of ambition and great ideas, and it's a game that helped invent the whole genre, so cut it some slack and appreciate it for what it is, not what you think it should be 30 years on.

When I was a kid I couldn't get anywhere in U2 without starving to death, so it was impossible to like a game that wouldn't even let me play. The rate of food consumption in such a sparse world struck me as blatantly unfair and kills the game. Garriott was on something when he released it like this. But I've been told that it is in fact possible to play U2 productively, and I know people have done it, so I will try again someday when I get hold of it. :)

Right now, U2 ranks with Alternate Reality as the 2 most difficult RPGs to play for more than 10 minutes.

 

As far as the space travel and all that, I don't mind it, I think it's just weird enough to be cool. I like the wildness of the Sosarian Ultimas. U4+ have a more straight-laced feel to them.

 

My first RPG was U3. All the Ambrosia grinding didn't bother me because the concept of an RPG was new to me so I liked going through the process. I still do within reason, but at this point it's become more of a nuisance.

 

VI - I've always felt that the plot, while not dull, is a bit lackluster in comparison to the other installments. I could nitpick a few design/interface issues as well. Nevertheless, a solid entry in the series.

 

VII - The hallmarks of this game are its enormous scope (for its time) and its excellent plot. It has the most cohesive plot I've ever encountered in any RPG. It even puts more recent games like Baldur's Gate 2 and Dragons Age: Origins to shame in that respect. However, I struggled mightily with the interface, and the combat was a complete disappointment, and the requirement to keep my ravenous companions properly nourished throughout the game reached farcical proportions. Nevertheless, even with those serious flaws, this is a fantastic game. I still need to play Part 2.

I had pretty much the opposite take on the interface. U6 is a cool game but the interface is so painful it's hard to play. U7's interface is good, I can't think of any major problems with it. That was one of the best improvements it had over U6.

Food in U7 wasn't a big deal to me, I think we ate twice a day. If Spark complained during the day I ignored him, we ate dinner as a family.

Combat in U7 was pretty bad though.. basically just engage combat mode and watch the carnage. My Avatar hardly gained any levels.

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