New Release: Ultima Underworld 1+2

Yeah, I remember playing Ultima IV on the old Atari 800 too. Searching for mandrake root and deadly nightshade at midnight. :) and the moongates.. Must have played it for over 2 years. Never finished it. I hope they too get all the Ultima's here too.

WRT the press release in this story:
http://www.bluesnews.com/s/122330/free-ultima-iv-released

and the following quote specifically: Can anyone elaborate on the "remastered" comment?

For the moment I'm assuming that the author doesn't know what they're talking about, and that these are the original games being run via DOSBox, just like the majority of the older GOG titles; but if that's somehow not the case, I'd love to know about it.

Ah, too bad the only Ultima thing that GoG can't revive is the best one, I mean the early times of Ultima Online. Those who played back then, I think it was between 1998 and 2000, know what I'm talking about. A wonderful experience of discovery, adventure, lag and friendship. The ultimate role playing experience.
VAS REL POR !

EDIT: WOW! A few days after writing the above message, I just found a way to play online UO in its "second age" version, which was definitely the best release/period of the game. I have ve not tested it yet... But you bet I will!!! (Here: http://www.uosecondage.com/ )

Am i crazy that I get so pumped up by the look of the screenshots form this game than from any modern super-realistic ps3 style 3d shooters? And no, it's not nostalgia, I never played the game before and only heard the name of the game, I was 4 years old when this come out. I just love the oldschool graphics there's something beautiful in it. This one in particular looks so beautiful. I'll be buying it soon.

No, you're not crazy! Underworld's graphics weren't great even back then -- small screen area, very pixellated and Origin's infamous "bendy texture" problem -- but despite this it managed to be one of the most atmospheric games there has ever been. It was the combination of the music, sound, level design -- and some of the most effective use of darkness there has ever been.

Here's hoping my dosbox can handle it :)

But you don't need an external DOsbox program!
Every DOS game released by GoG has an adapted Dosbox included in the setup, installed automatically along with the game (at least that's what I understood). Be certain it will work on your computer. You're sure to enjoy Ultima Underworld!

Insta-bought!

Never (shamefully) played any of the Ultima games before. Should I wait for the others before playing these? Will it spoil anything if I play these first?

I haven't played any of them either. EA released Ultima IV for free at Ultima Forever, so you could start with that instead. That's what I'm thinking of doing.

I played U4 for years on my parents C64 and never got anywhere, but it was fun. Then I bought Ultima Collection (1-8) collection in a bargin bin, and 4 didn't take much time at all. It's quite repetitive, but it was fun. I wanted to do them all in order, finished 1-4, got stuck on 5 and haven't really played recently.

While all of the Ultima games are worth playing, (even Akalabeth, "Ultima Zero"), they are all stand-alone games. The only reason to play them in order is if you wish your knowledge of Ultima history to unfold along with the story arcs.

Ultima 1-3 follow the first story arc.

Ultima 4-6 follow the second story arc.

Ultima 7-9 follow the third and final story arc.

The UU games are more stand-alone than the others because their connection to the "main storyline" is pretty tenuous. UU takes place after Ultima 6, and UU2 happens between the two parts of Ultima 7.

The graphics in UU are more "advanced" than they are in the other Ultima's (except for 9), but you could easily just go ahead and get UU right now and just think of it as a game separate from the "regular" Ultima games.


-Khalaq

I played Ultima 4, 5, 6 and 7. I think I got stuck on 5 too, Warriors of Destiny?? Do you remember the cloth maps?? They took such care of gamers back in those days. Beautiful illustrations, manuals, reference cards, keyboard layouts etc.. Out of curiousity does anyone know which is considered the best in the Ultima series (1-9)?

Ultima 7.

I think the general consensus was that Ultima 5 was the best one, however I personally think Ultima 7: the Black gate, and its VERY good "expansion/sequel" Ultima 7: Serpent Isle were the absolute best. Serpent Isle is everything an old school RP'er could ever want.

You will hear arguments for 5, 6 and 7. I will stick with 5, and all the rest of them are wrong.

Nice one GOG
I would also love to see the whole Ultima series released ,I only ever played Pagan

I spent way too much time on Ultima V on my C64. Had fun just wandering around, hardly understood any english at the time, so it was quite a foreign experience. I learnt the runes though. I just had fun wandering around marvelling at how big a world there was to explore, how much there was to do (I might've stolen a horse), and buying a ship? WOW you can do anything in this game.
Then I got caught up in lord blackthorne (or what his name was)'s town and put in the stocks unable to get anywhere. And thanks to the wonders of autosave (on a C64 nontheless) I was stuck there. No way to get anywhere, could only restart the game.
Problem there was that I inserted the wrong disk apparently when making the new game save, and henceforth my combat disk was corrupted and I would have a 10% chance when entering combat of actually having anything playable.
Really sad too, cause by then I'd figured out enough english to realise that if I booted the thing in Commodore 128 mode and let it boot the floppy automatically, it'd use the extra 64kb of ram and play the soundtrack of the game in the background :-(
Still have the box, the cloth map, the manual, reference card and so on, but sadly I lost the codex of ultimate wisdom medallion. I guess it disappeared when I made the unwise choice to just insert the combat disk instead of a new savedisk.

Speaking of Ultima V, has anyone tried the Lazarus Project (U5 TC for Dungeon Keeper)?

If so, is it faithful/worth playing?

EDIT: yes, Dungeon Seige... I realized shortly after I posted

I think that's Dungeon SIEGE. ;)
I think it's worth checking it out. I know a bunch of people who bought DS for the sole reason of playing Lazarus.

Back in the day I bought that Ultima Complete CD and loaded up the U1 and never tried another. Wish I would have tried U8 or Underworld, that would have been great. *sigh* Memories...