The Ultima article

[Weasel]

Whoever's working on that Ultima article (jameseightbitstar, wasn't it?), I've got plenty of free time ahead of me, and I'd be very glad to help finish it for you if you need me to.

I've got the following Ultima games that I could write about: Ultima 6, VII (w/ mission disk), Serpent Isle (w/ mission disk), VIII, IX, Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, and the Underworld games.

The Ultima games that I don't have are pretty much all of the console releases (I know Ultimas 3 and 4 made it to NES, and several of the other early ones made it to other 8-bit systems - plus VI and VII on SNES, and Savage Empire for SFC). I also have never played the Japanese PSX version of Underworld. While I have some experience playing Ultima Online through the Obsidian Shard free server, I have heard that their version of the game is highly modified and running on an older UO codebase.

So at the very least, I could write about a majority of the later PC games.

[jameseightbitstar]

That's good. I actually gave up on the article awhile ago, but I could transfer what I have to you and see what you make of it.

[Shadax]

In the summer between high school and college I read a book about hacker culture written in the early eighties.The last third of the book was devoted to a long long glowing section on Richard Garriott and how Ultima II was going to change the world (I don't know much about the game that ended up coming out, but the features touted in that book made the hype for Fable just sound like they were remaking Pong in comparison.) Inspired by that, I went out and grabbed the Ultima Collection and threw myself in, hoping to finish them all before I died.

We can all imagine how well that ended up.

That being said, I can only wish that brave soul that eventually tries to take on this epic task the best of luck, and to let me know if they want anything for Ultima IV for the NES (ironically, the only one I made any real progress in.)

[jameseightbitstar]

So, shadax, I take it you weren't impressed with the games?

[Weasel]

If you could email what you've got to [e-mail], I'd appreciate it.

[jameseightbitstar]

E-Mail sent.

Show me the article before submitting it to Kurt though, so I can correct any inaccuracies.

[Deleted]

I don't know much about the Ultima series overall, except for what games there's in the series, but I'm experienced with Ultima V kinda lot, since I beat it couple of years ago. It's the only game in the series that I own originally, though I've finished the game on PC with unofficial midi patch and C64/128 version's manuals/map. So, if there's anything I could do to help with Ultima article on this game's part, PM me. I'm mostly interested doing proof-reading.

I've also tried other games in the main series a bit, mostly Ultima IV, but I don't have very much knowledge about them.

[Weasel]

I'm not entirely sure what happened - but I don't have the email yet.

[kyouki]

The Ultima games are some of my favorites. I started with Ultima: Exodus on the NES, then got Quest of the Avatar. Awesome games. I then found out they were originally computer games, as one day I was looking through a box of Atari ST software my friend had, and there they were!

I've since gone back and finished Ultima 1 (it was really fun believe it or not), though Ultima 2 was pretty awful and I couldn't get anywhere in it.

If you are going to do an article on Ultima, I highly suggest the following book:

The Book of Ultima

(You'll have to get it used as it's out of print).

This book covers Ultimas 1-6. It has walkthroughs... but the most important thing is that most of the book is the history of Origin, Richard Garriot, and the Ultima games. There were a lot of interesting facts in there. I believe that's where I read that the Famicom/NES Ultima games were actually done by Origin themselves. I think I also read there that there was a port of Ultima 6 for the FM Towns Marty that included full voice acting for all characters (in English!).

I must say that I prefer the NES Ultima Exodus to the original, mostly because of the extremely charming graphics and the haunting soundtrack.

If anyone wants me to look stuff up for the article, I have the book and can do a little research.

[jameseightbitstar]

Weasel
Odd. If you don't get the E-Mail in two days, then I'll try sending it to you via this forum's private messaging function (I can cut n' paste it).

kyouki
That sounds like a cool book, though most of the same information can now be found on Wikipedia.

I don't really blame ya for not liking Ultima II--it's often considered the worst game in the series, and I'm not sure yet that I want to dispute that (except maybe with mention of Escape From Mt. Drash).

[Shadax]

jameseightbitstar said:

So, shadax, I take it you weren't impressed with the games?

on the contrary, I was incredibly impressed with them. That's probably why I got scared off. Well, that, and shortly afterwords, I got a job as the merchandising guy at Circuit City. After spending about 50 hours a week setting up all those obnoxious displays to let you know HEY GAME OF THE YEAR 2003 IS COMING OUT SOON AND IF YOU DON'T RESERVE IT THIS VERY INSTANT YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SPEND EVEN ONE MOMENT IN IT'S WONDERFUL GLOW THAT IS NOT UNLIKE A FEELING OF PURE LOVE and trying to coordinate a team of disinterested stoners into actually convincing people to actually listen to the sign. Not a mean feat in West Texas, where those who can actually read and write more than their name and the occasional "Git'R'Done" are destined to one day rise up and rule their clan. After a few weeks of that, I was having trouble leaving my bed once I got home, much less throwing myself into a wonderfully thought out and infinitesimally huge rpg 9 times over (10 if you include Akalabeth, and 11 if you include Ascension, which no one does.)

I still really enjoy Ultima IV (the stripped down NES version, at least) and someday would like to try Ultima 2 to see if you really can visit San Antonio in the distant 21st century before powerlevelling on Mars

[jameseightbitstar]

Ahhh. Yea, I can imagine not having time for Ultima in that kind of environment.

Actually, Akalabeth, Ultima I, and Ultima II aren't really that in-depth. You can play them as coffee-break games and come back later.