peterb
5442
My personal opinion is that unless you have the nostalgia factor, it’s not worth it.
If you can only play one, play Ultima IV.
If it helps, here’s an overview of the eeries I wrote a few years ago, and here’s an explanation of why you should play Ultima IV instead of Ultima VII:
peterb
5443
My personal opinion is that unless you have the nostalgia factor, it’s not worth it.
If you can only play one, play Ultima IV.
If it helps, here’s an overview of the series I wrote a few years ago, and here’s an explanation of why you should play Ultima IV instead of Ultima VII:
And I think Ultima V is better than IV, so, yeah. Never played 6 though so it could be even better.
flyinj
5445
I bought both Savage Empire and Martian Dreams back in the day, and barely played either.
I would LOVE to play through Martian Dreams these days though. However, I seem to remember hearing that EA didn’t really own these two titles, and it was unlikely they would be re-released. I think I remember hearing about it when they came out with the Ultima Anthology CD that came with Ultima IX.
peterb
5446
Martian Dreams was awesome.
Chuck
5447
Very true. I’m replaying Ultima V right now, and it a modest leap above IV. The graphics are way better, from dungeons to the over and underworlds. The combat allows for diagonal attacks, the dialogue is verbose, spells and reagents are easier to find and mix, and the story is great.
But to fully enjoy this game, you need to print out the spell guide, keyboard command list, rune guide and the map. I have the luxury of still owning the cloth map from my c64 version. Also, as with many old RPG’s, take extensive notes for each town, castle and village. Mark down the 8 virtues and corresponding towns, clues from npc’s, words of power, etc…
And remember that this game is old-school hard, but the internet offers some help if you search, such as a patch that turns the runic language to english, and, if you’re so inclined, a helpful map of the underworld.
About VI: I could never get into it. They bailed on the Ultima3-5 engine, dropped the 3D dungeons and seperate combat screen, turned the inventory into a mess, and shrunk the visible world portion to about 1/3 of the screen size.
Though there is much love for VII (the combat and inventory only got worse) and it’s add-ons, I think Ultima V is the pinnacle of Origin (we create worlds).
Way too light at the top to be that image. Of course, they haven’t been using published cover art for everything, so who knows?
rei
5449
6 was my entry point into the series and loved it to bits. Years later an IRC friend who worked at Origin told me Starr Long was the model for the Avatar’s face.
Loved 7. 9 broke my heart.
Who the hell is Long Starr? Was he in one of those videos Clarence Thomas wanted Anita Hill to watch?
WarrenD
5451
9 broke my heart also.
I played all the Ultima’s from 4 to 9 and U7 is still my all time favorite, even bought a new PC for that game back then just to work the Voodoo magic to get it to run. It’s the only Ultima that I still have the original box, manual, map and trinket.
My first Ultima was U4 on the Commodore 64 and seeing it now on GOG there isn’t a game out there that looks more different in my minds eye from how it looks on my screen today than Ultima 4.
That was a living, breathing world to me at that time.
I feel the same. It is amazing how we have adapted to the latest and greatest graphic technologies. When I played Ultima IV on my Commodore 64 it was a state of the art game at the time. Still it is great to play it again 26 years later. :)
marxeil
5453
If anyone is interested, there is a full U5 remake in the Dungeon Siege engine.
He’s the guy they used for motion capture in Bioforge.
Somebody doesn’t know their Origin arcana :)
Chorn
5455
Might need to recalibrate your Origin arcana skills a bit. Last name Long, first name Starr. He was one of the head guys on the Ultima Online team and later founded Destination Games with Richard Garriott. According to his LinkedIn profile he’s been working as an executive producer at Disney since 2009.
I hear he has some steakhouses, as well.
Does anybody know who owns the rights to Wizkid:The Story of Wizball 2? It was published by Ocean (dead) and developed by Sensible Software (dead). I want to see that up there, as it is a magnificent game.
flyinj
5458
I believe all that stuff went to the Virgin label which then went to Infogrames which then went to Atari.
How does the UI for Nox hold up?
Thx. I wonder what the SS guys are up to now, or if they’re even still in the industry. Actually, ‘where are they now?’ would be a good new thread. Atari doesn’t deserve a cent of my money and it would probably be better spent elsewhere.
EDIT: SS stands for Sensible Softwaree, not Schutzstaffel.
It’s fine, but it’s different that Diablo where a left-click will move or attack depending on what you clicked; in Nox it’s a weird one button to move, one button to attack. Powers are used with adsf.
