Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[SausageInYourFace]

I'd think EA considers Ultima a valuable property

Why are they doing nothing with it then?

 

[taxalot]

I'd think EA considers Ultima a valuable property

Why are they doing nothing with it then?

We don't know that.

 

[octavius]

I'd think EA considers Ultima a valuable property

Why are they doing nothing with it then?

The same reason Dragons like to lie on a hoard of gold.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

View attachment 13530

I wonder why.

Thank fuck for that. Imagine all the classic Ultimas turned into Ultima 9 lookalikes. Although presumably they'd have to be multiplayer. No, I'm the fucking avatar!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

View attachment 13530

I wonder why.

Thank fuck for that. Imagine all the classic Ultimas turned into Ultima 9 lookalikes. Although presumably they'd have to be multiplayer. No, I'm the fucking avatar!

Don't forget microtansactions to buy Humilitytm.

 

[ADL]

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Oh god, not LB...

 

[Luzur]

If they are to have them remade let some long-time super fan do it indie-style, id trust that more then any big company remake.

Heck, let Jeff Vogel do it with the geneforge engine.

 

[taxalot]

Is that virtuous ?

Now I understand the Sex Dungeon in SOTA.

 

[RatTower]

I was looking for the X68000 soundtrack of Ultima 4 and stumbled over this little artifact from a time long gone.
A japanese commercial for Ultima 4 I thought I'd share with you:

 

[Ysaye]

I was looking for the X68000 soundtrack of Ultima 4 and stumbled over this little artifact from a time long gone.
A japanese commercial for Ultima 4 I thought I'd share with you:

That commercial looks more fun that Ultima 9. Did you find the soundtrack you were looking for (I though I saw the X68000 version of Stones recently but as part of a comparison video someone had done)?

 

[RatTower]

I was looking for the X68000 soundtrack of Ultima 4 and stumbled over this little artifact from a time long gone.
A japanese commercial for Ultima 4 I thought I'd share with you:

That commercial looks more fun that Ultima 9. Did you find the soundtrack you were looking for (I though I saw the X68000 version of Stones recently but as part of a comparison video someone had done)?

No luck, unfortunately. I saw the video a couple months ago, but I can't find it anymore.
The X68000 versions of Ultima were very well made in general. Here's a short clip of Ultima 5:




Edit:
Also interesting, the PC98 version of Ultima 1:

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Finally another video from this dude:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=6ATdcuq89aA

 

[Infinitron]

Rather silly new Ultima fan patches.

https://sirjohn.de/ultima-6/ultima-vi-nitpickers-delight-patch/

Ultima VI – Nitpickers Delight Patch

While translating Ultima VI into German, I started to address the few – some may say: many – story inaccuracies (whereever it made sense and wher it was possible without causing any more confusion )

Alas, I see no reason why not to do the same for the original English version of the game.

The major part of Nitpicks I chose to address are taken from an old Ultima Nitpick Site from Hacki Dragon – still a splendid resource for these kind of things (Thanks, Hacki!).

This version of the patch addresses 22 nitpicks in total:

1. Julia acts as if you had never met her before.
2. Mariah acts like a total stranger as well.
3. Gideon refers to Marney’s Mum as „Elisabeth“. Yet Quenton calls her „Gwen“ in Ultima VII. Quenton should know – he married the girl
4. Terri indicates that a celebration took place after the Quest of the Avatar had been solved. She implies that the Avatar himself participated, which contradicts the events at the end of Ultima IV.
5. The Book of Prophecies reads: “And the false prophet will cause the underworld to collapse.” -> The Gargoyles consider Britannia to be the underworld!
6. Lazeena refers to her husband as „Artagel“
7. The book „The First Age of Darkness“ mentions „Britannia“. Yet… there was no Britannia back then
8. Lord British doesn’t bother to mention the moonstones being lost
9. The Orb of the Moon’s appearance doesn’t match the description from Ultima V as „a small, RED sphere”
10. Daver, the bellringer in Britain describes the runes bearing a symbol on one side and a letter on the other. And that the runes probably spell something out if put on a necklace. But why would the Avatar had to consult the Shrines in Ultima IV to get the letters if they were written clearly on the runes themselves?
11. When you buy a magic shield in Ultima V, the merchant claims that each of them requires a 100 year ritual to be created (slight hyperbole?), yet in Ultima VI, the armourer Gherick makes you one in the blink of one’s eye.
12. Tara is cured from her schizophrenic disorder.
13. Caradon mixes up shrines.
14. Is it Captain „John“ or Captain „Johne“ who lives in Hythloth? The writing of the Captain’s name is inconsistent. In Ultima V the name was spelled „Johne“, in Ultima VI it is mostly spelled „John“ – only Captain Elad in Buc’s Den refers to him as „Johne“ („….“Captain Johne, that fool… He was captured by gargoyles.“….“). Thanks to Elad, we can at least be sure, that it IS the same person, we are talking about
15. In Ultima VI, you are constantly accused of stealing the Codex from the Gargoyles. But you did not! You were sent right back to Earth after consulting it at the end of Ultima IV. It’s the High Council that raised the Codex from the Abyss in the time between Ultima IV and Ultima V.
16. What happened to the magic carpet from Ultima V? Shouldn’t one of the companions have it? Even more mysterious: In Ultima VII, the carpet is going to reappear without any explanation at all.
17. What happened to the Temple of Virtues in Cove? It was there in Ultima IV and V. Did the Gargoyles destroy it? If yes, then why does nobody mention it?
18. In the past, the observatory was integrated into the Lycaeum instead of being a separate building.
19. Stelnar Starhelm confuses shrines
20. In Ultima 6 you learn that it’s not possible to resurrect a burnt body. However, in Ultima III, there was a spell called “ANJU SERMANI”, which served exactly this purpose.
21. Un-arm-ing Zeke (SCNR )
22. The Quenton Murder Sidequest is now playable and solvable

____________________________________________________

Other Bugfixes, that I have addressed with this patch:

• Some correct copy protection answers at Mariah, did not work. They do now
• Some keywords in Zellivans convo were double, so the correct answers did not show up. They do now
• Same for Boskin: some double keywords eliminated
• Andrea in Yew now responds when asked about „Lenora“, „Lady“ and „Mayor“. Originally she would have referred you to the folks in the tavern and would only respond to „Chancellor“
• The final „CONGRATULATIONS! Report thy Feat!“ Screen is up to date

https://sirjohn.de/en/ultima7/ultima-7-nitpickers-delight/

Ultima 7 Nitpicker’s Delight

The Nitpicker’s Delight Patch addresses some inconsistencies and mistakes in the canonical story-line and at the same time tries to enhance your gaming experience by fixing some bugs as well as using helpful and convenient patches some of the die-hard Ultima fans at UDIC and elsewhere have come up with over the time.

Bugs fixed are
-> Tseramed’s “Avatar” bug
-> Rankin’s “liqueur” bug
-> Usecode-sniplet is not displayed anymore, when wasting a potion
-> fishing was made possible by Natreg Dragon
-> Iskander quest is solvable, thx to Natreg Dragon

Tweaks & Patches included in this patch are:
-> Tremor fix by ripsaw8080
-> General MIDi patch by Newton Dragon (optional)
-> An extra portrait by Idspi Dragon
-> UltimaHacks by Eureka Dragon

Also, a reworked version of the modern Antiqua font was added: it now displays more text and makes purchase options available, that were hidden before

Due to potential spoilers, all nitpicks I was able to address so far can be found on an extra page. Be sure, you know, what you are doing . (SPOILERS ahead): Nitpicks

The patch works with the vanilla (Dosbox) version of Ultima 7 as well as with Exult. If you run U7 in Exult, using the installer is recommended, since not all files are required to run. Whatsmore, some of the files included should not be copied to the MODS directory. So, skip the installer only if you know what you are doing, or – if you can read BATCH, study the script to learn what files to copy/skip/rename.

Enjoy the game and let me know of any peculiarities you stumble upon!

https://sirjohn.de/en/ultima7/ultima-7-nitpickers-delight/ultima-7-nitpicks-addressed/

Ultima 7 – nitpicks addressed

The nitpicks I was able to address thus far are:

1. Gwennos note does not read anymore that she is already gone to Serpent Isle on her own.
   Compliant to the introduction sequence it now reads, she is looking for a way to get there
   (031D:75)
2. Neno no longer mistakes his trio for a quartet (0427:27)
3. Gordon no longer sells Fish&Chips from his (non-existing) wagon, but from a stall (043A)
4. All people, notes and deeds now know or reflect, that horse & carriage are a wagon drawn
   by two horses, not one (031D:61/62/78,040B:27)
5. Likewise Sam no longer pretends to sell from a (non-existing) wagon (0489:32/40)
6. Gorn no longer misspells his master's name "Brohm" (048A)
7. Markham is a ghost now, not a zombie anymore (048C:18)
8. ... and he also knows now, that the graveyard is to the west and no longer misdirects you (048C:50)
9. Cubolt now knows where Moonglow is (049B:19) east of Britain -> northeast of New Magincia
10. Jillian now knows the name of Verity Isle and the correct location of Moonglow (049F:18)
11. Addom now remembers more accurately, where he found the crystal (04A4
12. Syria, the fighter from the south is now Syria, fighter from the east. When the Avatar talks to Syria, they are in Jhelom. As Syria has come to Jhelom from somewhere else and there is no island south or west from Jhelom, she must be from the east instead (047E:13)
13. Brion no longer sends you "upstairs" for he is living in a one-storey house (04F8:43)
14. Penumbras "plaques" are but one "plague" (04F9:59)
15. ... and she more accuratley speaks of a dungeon "on one of these islands"
16. Dungeon Despise is now correctly Dungeon Shame again (0269:58, 041D:40, 0621:12, 0638:85)
17. Danag now knows the names of Dungeon Hythloth and Bucanneer's Cave
18. As does Sintag
19. Julia now remembers she had been working as tinkerer before
20. Old Draxinusom, whom we know since Ultima VI talks about the set of virtues he grew up with: the Shrines of Principle and virtues of Passion, Diligence and Control. Not only about the more recent "ways of the altars"
21. No one ever met the "creator" of the Flying Carpet, since Mr. Loubet acquired it and used it to come to Britannia in Ultima V. Hence, it must have been him or another "owner", who believed it to be a failure, not the original and unknown "creator". Alagnars book was updated accordingly.
22. Astellerons Logbook needed to be reworked since the text was not align with the remaining canonical storyline. It now is.
23. Garok Al-Mat no longer invites to his mountain home to gather reagents at reduced prices as he never goes there after his leaving the dungeon.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Finally another video from this dude

I like how he addresses that combat actually becomes pretty tedious really fast. Very curious to see what he will say about the combat in U7.

 

[RatTower]

I was looking for the X68000 soundtrack of Ultima 4 and stumbled over this little artifact from a time long gone.
A japanese commercial for Ultima 4 I thought I'd share with you:

That commercial looks more fun that Ultima 9. Did you find the soundtrack you were looking for (I though I saw the X68000 version of Stones recently but as part of a comparison video someone had done)?

No luck, unfortunately. I saw the video a couple months ago, but I can't find it anymore.
The X68000 versions of Ultima were very well made in general. Here's a short clip of Ultima 5:

Edit:
Also interesting, the PC98 version of Ultima 1:

I actually found Ultima IV's X68000 soundtrack on a japanese streaming platform:

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13040245

Don't remember the beats being this strong but it seems to be the same video.
They took some freedom with a lot of tracks in this version, most notably with the the intro theme (right at the beginning of the video). The combat theme (7:00) sounds a lot "stronger" as well.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Nice find! I don't have this. The FM-Towns is divided in its music/sound effects. I would love some pure samples of that. Its cool when graphics and sound get properly archived for every version. Good stuff.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Now we need squirrel wizards.

 

[grimace]

Finally another video from this dude:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=6ATdcuq89aA

GeorgGreat is back?

https://georggreat.wordpress.com/

His Wizardry VII two-parter was incredibly enduring.

Spoiler-Free examination contained in this spoiler.

25:20 Now playing
Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant Review (Part 1) - GeorgGreat

GeorgGreat
•
6.1K views 5 years ago

This is the first video I’ve ever made. It is a Spoiler-Free examination of one of the most notable, classic RPG games, from a perspective of someone who has never played it before 2014 (Because...
CC


28:02 Now playing

Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant Review (Part 2) - GeorgGreat

GeorgGreat
•
2.2K views 5 years ago

Well, this is the second and final part of my massive, in-depth, spoiler-free review of the legendary Wizardry VII. The previous video ended on a question “why did the developer need to sustain...

I will gladly watch his Ultima content.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ultima VI – Nitpickers Delight Patch

While translating Ultima VI into German, I started to address the few – some may say: many – story inaccuracies (whereever it made sense and wher it was possible without causing any more confusion )

Alas, I see no reason why not to do the same for the original English version of the game.

The major part of Nitpicks I chose to address are taken from an old Ultima Nitpick Site from Hacki Dragon – still a splendid resource for these kind of things (Thanks, Hacki!).

This version of the patch addresses 22 nitpicks in total:

1. Julia acts as if you had never met her before.
2. Mariah acts like a total stranger as well.
3. Gideon refers to Marney’s Mum as „Elisabeth“. Yet Quenton calls her „Gwen“ in Ultima VII. Quenton should know – he married the girl
4. Terri indicates that a celebration took place after the Quest of the Avatar had been solved. She implies that the Avatar himself participated, which contradicts the events at the end of Ultima IV.
5. The Book of Prophecies reads: “And the false prophet will cause the underworld to collapse.” -> The Gargoyles consider Britannia to be the underworld!
6. Lazeena refers to her husband as „Artagel“
7. The book „The First Age of Darkness“ mentions „Britannia“. Yet… there was no Britannia back then
8. Lord British doesn’t bother to mention the moonstones being lost
9. The Orb of the Moon’s appearance doesn’t match the description from Ultima V as „a small, RED sphere”
10. Daver, the bellringer in Britain describes the runes bearing a symbol on one side and a letter on the other. And that the runes probably spell something out if put on a necklace. But why would the Avatar had to consult the Shrines in Ultima IV to get the letters if they were written clearly on the runes themselves?
11. When you buy a magic shield in Ultima V, the merchant claims that each of them requires a 100 year ritual to be created (slight hyperbole?), yet in Ultima VI, the armourer Gherick makes you one in the blink of one’s eye.
12. Tara is cured from her schizophrenic disorder.
13. Caradon mixes up shrines.
14. Is it Captain „John“ or Captain „Johne“ who lives in Hythloth? The writing of the Captain’s name is inconsistent. In Ultima V the name was spelled „Johne“, in Ultima VI it is mostly spelled „John“ – only Captain Elad in Buc’s Den refers to him as „Johne“ („….“Captain Johne, that fool… He was captured by gargoyles.“….“). Thanks to Elad, we can at least be sure, that it IS the same person, we are talking about
15. In Ultima VI, you are constantly accused of stealing the Codex from the Gargoyles. But you did not! You were sent right back to Earth after consulting it at the end of Ultima IV. It’s the High Council that raised the Codex from the Abyss in the time between Ultima IV and Ultima V.
16. What happened to the magic carpet from Ultima V? Shouldn’t one of the companions have it? Even more mysterious: In Ultima VII, the carpet is going to reappear without any explanation at all.
17. What happened to the Temple of Virtues in Cove? It was there in Ultima IV and V. Did the Gargoyles destroy it? If yes, then why does nobody mention it?
18. In the past, the observatory was integrated into the Lycaeum instead of being a separate building.
19. Stelnar Starhelm confuses shrines
20. In Ultima 6 you learn that it’s not possible to resurrect a burnt body. However, in Ultima III, there was a spell called “ANJU SERMANI”, which served exactly this purpose.
21. Un-arm-ing Zeke (SCNR )
22. The Quenton Murder Sidequest is now playable and solvable

____________________________________________________

Other Bugfixes, that I have addressed with this patch:

• Some correct copy protection answers at Mariah, did not work. They do now
• Some keywords in Zellivans convo were double, so the correct answers did not show up. They do now
• Same for Boskin: some double keywords eliminated
• Andrea in Yew now responds when asked about „Lenora“, „Lady“ and „Mayor“. Originally she would have referred you to the folks in the tavern and would only respond to „Chancellor“
• The final „CONGRATULATIONS! Report thy Feat!“ Screen is up to date

I wonder if this works with Nuvie. Hell, i need to see if i can get Nuvie or exult to work with win10. And i hope there's a decent screen res.

 

[Melan]

Super-autists. This level of dedication, I can respect.

 

[taxalot]

Irony is dead.

The last tweet was liked by Richard Garriott.

 

[taxalot]

Ultima fans are cringe worthy as fuck.



This is not the worse thing I have seen about this fandom btw.

 

[c2007]

Hiatus time, why not buy 1+2+3 on GOG for $1.49? Especially considering my UC never installs properly despite actual effort.

Just completed 1. Mondain is an asshole, forgot that using magic against him made him stronger, which almost killed me. Entered with 2900 hitpoints, left with 293. But that is a dead bat.

Reflections on this last play of Ultima I -

• The simplicity of the combat is actually better than later games IMO. Get a phazor/blaster and go nuts.
• Cheesing the signposts is cheesy. Also better than wandering the Earth just to advance 500xp and die again and again.
• I remember the economy of the game being much more difficult. That fear washed away after 5 minutes and one death, when I stole a Phazor.
• Space combat was surprisingly good, and the animations... I think of the text games I made with basic and shake my head
  
• 6 hours to complete, by no means a speedrun but efficient for me I think, only ever completed this once before

Looking forward to Ultima II. Only game in the series I have never completed, as I joined the "Strategy Games Club" late in the year and the team was completing it at the time and Ultima III had just released. Pix's patch applied, should be better than when I tried to play the borked UC version. The goal is that I am inspired to get into, and finish, 7. The gameplay and interface changes are so jarring though, but we'll see.

 

[taxalot]

There is still hope.