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General discussionNew release: Ultima 1+2+3(237 posts)(237 posts)
(237 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 30, 2011
Today we present you with an epic package for all of those who miss Sosaria. After showing you the grandfather of all space-sims (Wing Commander 1+2), we will now introduce you to The Most Fascinating Interactive Adventure of All Time!

Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness requires you to battle the Dark Wizard Mondain and his minions who seek the destruction of Sosaria. You must face the evil master and his creatures, and make him retreat to his evil lair where you will ultimately destroy him and save the kingdoms of Sosaria!
Ultima 2: Revenge of the Enchantress picks up on the story of the first installment in the series. Minax, an apprentice of Mondain reigns terror and destruction on the land of Sosaria. Blinded by her fury, she has torn the fabric of time and space which resulted in portals opening through the kingdoms. It's your duty to stop her and undo her evil deeds!
Ultima 3: Exodus let’s you travel throughout Sosaria with a group of adventurers rather than on your own. It also features large, detailed locations with many characters to talk to. Discover the famous Yew city and travel through moon-gates to face the spiritual child of Mondain and Minax. Defeat the titular Exodus and save the kingdoms of Sosaria once again.

The wait is finally over, the original Ultima series has finally landed on GOG.com, it’s up for grabs for only $5.99 for the whole trilogy.
Posted August 30, 2011
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El_Caz: Uhm... on the fifth screenshot, where it says "Thou hast landed safely"... is that a space shuttle underneath the character? Seems kinda odd in a land filled with knights and sorcery.
In interviews, Richard Garriott has said he was trying to fit as many ideas as he could think of into the early Ultimas, even if they fell out of tone with the setting, because his tabletop gaming group sometimes included such things as well. That's why you see space combat, laser blasters, and time machines in the first two games. By the time of Ultima III he was starting to actually build a consistent and believable fantasy world in a more traditional medieval-Europe mold, so these elements were abolished, though some hints of them would return in later games. (There is one science-fictional element in III, but you'll have to play to the end of the game to find out what it is...)
Post edited August 30, 2011 by TheKid965
Posted August 30, 2011
Yeah the real disaapointment for me is that now we can be sure the Ultima Collection will not be released to GOG. And that sucks.
Posted August 30, 2011
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deadfolk: Is this a guess or known fact? If the latter, which one...the original?
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CaptainGyro: Peoplee know about populous because of this :
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/ultima-series-and-populous-come-to-gog/


edit- beaten already
Let me guess - no Promised Lands included.
Posted August 30, 2011
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Shyrka: EA's EULA says that they can revoke the license whenever they want, aomngst othe nasty things.
I dont see that in any other GOG's games EULAs. Am I mising something?
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keeveek: GOG ToS says they can disable your account and all games on it any time for any reason, without prior notice. I can't see the difference.
Well, I see one: disabling your account can prevent you from downloading your games again, but the license to use the software remains unaffected. You can keep the copies.

In EAs EULA, the license is terminated and your copies turn into pirate ones. So must be deleted.
Posted August 30, 2011
Honestly guys, this is phenomenal news. I agree that both I and III are extremely dated, and that II wasn't even good to begin with. Nevertheless, these are games that deserve the place they've gotten here at GOG, but more importantly, it bodes well for future Ultima releases. Even after the two Underworld games, I wasn't sure if we were ever going to see games from the main series.

I can't wait to play IV-VII and even VIII and IX. I'm current crossing my fingers in hope that both the ultra-rare Savage Empire and Martian Dreams will arrive someday as well.
Posted August 30, 2011
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Khalaq: Old Skool gamers grew up having to do things the hard way, so we are less likely to be put off by "difficulty."
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bazilisek: This is a flawed argument, really. By most definitions, I am very much oldschool when it comes to gaming, and as such I know all too well that many of the conventions of old gaming were simply the result of using technology that was still in early stages of development compared to what we have now. The games are not inherently worse or better because they are sticking to these conventions, but it is perfectly understandable if it makes them pointlessly difficult, tedious or downright annoying to play today.

TVTropes calls this the Pennyfarthing Effect, which I think is a very well chosen name. Once you've ridden a modern bike, a pennyfarthing will inevitably feel very weird, and it doesn't matter one bit that back in the day, people probably really enjoyed riding a pennyfarthing.
I can believe the PennyfarthingEffect (and have experienced it with somethings) but for me one the big differences between say this / Bards Tale / text adventures and some of the modern offerings (Dragon Age) is it feels more like you are participating in the adventure by mapping and taking notes yourself rather than being along for a ride and having everything handed too you.
Posted August 30, 2011
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haydenaurion: At long last I finally get to play the original computer versions of the Ultima series as opposed to the Nintendo and Super Nintendo ports I played growing up.
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timppu: Heck, now you made me interested to see the console versions. I wonder if they were more accessible, yet true to their masters?
(I think I edited the quotes right)
The console versions had improved graphics and sound and the commands were easier to execute. (no typing commands on a keyboard) As for maps, there were items and spells in NES Ultima III that would show you the map with each use. Not sure if I would call the console ports more accessible though. Some things were changed for the console versions, for example in Ultima IV you can only have four party members as opposed to eight (?) in the computer versions. I'm not sure about other changes as I never beat any of those games all the way through.
Here a comparison of Ultima IV (skip to about 5:46 for the NES version) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG-Z6rxDYOI&feature=related

One more note, the console ports were done by Japanese developers.
Post edited August 30, 2011 by haydenaurion
Posted August 30, 2011
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Leroux: Like I said, I think it's more a matter of personal preferences than superior intelligence or something.
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Khalaq: It has nothing at all to do with intelligence and everything to do with how much effort you're willing to invest. It's the same reason some people enjoy working out how to reach the secret areas of a game while others just look it up.
Ok, I can agree to that. I actually enjoyed drawing maps as a teenager but I hardly do it anymore today. Like timppu, I've switched from Old Skool to New Skool, as I'm not willing to invest that much effort into games nowadays when I don't really enjoy it anymore and only feel like I'm wasting my time (I never really was interested in beating highscores either). I guess it's also a matter of having more good games to play now than back then (while also having to do more work and RL chores :D ).

Anyway, a truly hardcore gamer could claim that the real "difficulty" lies in playing these games without drawing any maps while memorizing every information by heart instead of writing it down. ;)
Post edited August 30, 2011 by Leroux
Posted August 30, 2011
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tarasis: I can believe the PennyfarthingEffect (and have experienced it with somethings) but for me one the big differences between say this / Bards Tale / text adventures and some of the modern offerings (Dragon Age) is it feels more like you are participating in the adventure by mapping and taking notes yourself rather than being along for a ride and having everything handed too you.
Well of course if you like games like that, more power to you, and there's no doubt that the early Ultimas are something that absolutely belongs to the GOG catalogue. I was just saying that liking these old mechanics doesn't make you "smarter" or "better" than a young whippersnapper who looks at Ultima I and decides this really is far too antiquated to honestly enjoy.
Posted August 30, 2011
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jamyskis: I'm somewhat in the middle with this. With games like Ultima, Might and Magic, Eye of the Beholder (which I've been playing recently) I do prefer to draw my maps myself, but more recent titles like Dragon Age, Two Worlds et al. with their flexible geometry make doing so a chore, so I'm glad of the automap. I guess mapping out a grid map makes exploring more interesting, because the environments otherwise are quite bland.
I know what you mean. I'm like that with the Wizardry games (another series I wish GOG could get the rights to), even though Wizardry dungeon levels are so trap-filled that mapping becomes a veritable nightmare in some games. On the other hand, the presence of such traps makes mapping all but absolutely required to avoid getting hopelessly lost thanks to teleport traps or floor spinners.

Might & Magic isn't as nasty about traps, but that's another game where graph paper is a vital accessory. You'll want to take notes about the Ultima III dungeons too, though not so much the first two games (Ultima I's dungeons are simple and fall into the seen-one-seen-them-all category, while in II the dungeons and towers are pretty much red herrings only good for some extra experience).
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adamzs: Yeah the real disaapointment for me is that now we can be sure the Ultima Collection will not be released to GOG. And that sucks.
Not as such, no, but if the three trilogies eventually make their way to GOG (we know IV is coming as a free download), it amounts to the same thing -- and even 3-4 separate $5.99 downloads would still be cheaper than trying to eBay the now-rare Ultima Collection, which usually fetches $75-80 or so.
Post edited August 30, 2011 by TheKid965
Posted August 30, 2011
I remember The Bard's Tale II, it had my head in a spin with all the spinners and traps. Mapping was difficult too because all the walls in the dungeons looked the same. One minute you will be walking south only to fall down a pit which could be 1,2,3,4 floors down. You had to check the flickering of the graphics to tell how far you went down. Funny thing was, it was a beginner's dungeon too lol :)
Posted August 30, 2011
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haydenaurion: Yeah, how do you install those anyways? I unzipped the one for U3 and ran the exe files, but when I tried running the file to play it, it was running too fast and the graphic changes didn't seem to work. I'm not that familiar with DOSbox or patching DOS games.
Once you unzip the patch, you need to run 'SETM.EXE' to select your sound card (unless you have an external midi-device, you probably want one of the Sound Blaster Pro settings).

After that you run 'ULTIMA3.COM' instead of 'ULTIMA.COM' to launch the game and you should see EGA (16-color) graphics instead of CGA (4-color) as well as hear sounds and music playing.

The patch also disables auto-save when you leave the overland map, die, or win the game. This can be re-enabled (and the music can be disabled) using the 'U3CFG.EXE', but to run that you need the 'CWSDPMI.EXE' file from here: http://homer.rice.edu/~sandmann/cwsdpmi/csdpmi7b.zip

Hope that helps!
Posted August 30, 2011
Post edited August 30, 2011 by thewishingwell
Posted August 30, 2011
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thewishingwell: redeemed
Thank you thewishingwell

I can't believe it, that I got my first thewishingwell catch
Post edited August 30, 2011 by Jakov
Posted August 30, 2011
Gog damnit! Missed it again!:D
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionNew release: Ultima 1+2+3(237 posts)(237 posts)
(237 posts)
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