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Ultima seriesGet GOG to add ALL the missing "extra" content (cluebooks, manuals, maps etc.) to ALL of the Ultima games!(19 posts)(19 posts)
(19 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted July 08, 2012
I have noticed that many (if not all) of the Ultima games sold by GOG are missing vital pieces of "bonus" content (cluebooks, manuals, maps etc.). I say "bonus/extra" because many of these things are practically required in order to play and enjoy these games to the fullest. If you also believe that these things should be added to the Ultima games, please post a message in this forum saying that GOG should add them, and/or email a suggestion to GOG saying that they should add these items. Thank you, and let's hope it gets done.
Posted July 08, 2012
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DragonJLX: I have noticed that many (if not all) of the Ultima games sold by GOG are missing vital pieces of "bonus" content (cluebooks, manuals, maps etc.). I say "bonus/extra" because many of these things are practically required in order to play and enjoy these games to the fullest. If you also believe that these things should be added to the Ultima games, please post a message in this forum saying that GOG should add them, and/or email a suggestion to GOG saying that they should add these items. Thank you, and let's hope it gets done.
You can look for a list of resources for the various games. As for documentation you can always go to [url=http://www.replacementdocs.com/news.php]replacementdocs and for high resolution maps you can visit The High-Resolution Ultima Map Project.
Posted July 08, 2012
I sincerely appreciate your attempt to find a work around, but I was already aware of the fact resources could be found across the internet before I made this topic, but I personally think that is part of the problem. Some of these resources are of vastly inferior quality in comparison to how they would be if GOG were to provide them. For example, the Ultima 7 pack that is sold by GOG comes with only one of the two cluebooks, that is the cluebook for The Black Gate, but that particular scan is of incredible quality. Now if you compare that scan to the Ultima 7: Part 2 Cluebook scan by http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/category/books/serpent-isle-cluebook/ you will immediately notice that the resolution is slightly less in comparison to a GOG scan, that have only one book page per scan and some of the words and images are blurred or cropped. I am not trying to say GOG is lazy (they are quite the opposite) I am trying to sa that when I buy a "special/complete/ultimate etc." edition of something, it just doesn't feel right for it to be incomplete, and by adding these resources, GOG is simply providing convenience and an optimal old school gaming experience to their customers. But again, I appreciate your attempt to solve this issue.
Posted July 08, 2012
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DragonJLX: I sincerely appreciate your attempt to find a work around, but I was already aware of the fact resources could be found across the internet before I made this topic, but I personally think that is part of the problem. Some of these resources are of vastly inferior quality in comparison to how they would be if GOG were to provide them. For example, the Ultima 7 pack that is sold by GOG comes with only one of the two cluebooks, that is the cluebook for The Black Gate, but that particular scan is of incredible quality. Now if you compare that scan to the Ultima 7: Part 2 Cluebook scan by http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/category/books/serpent-isle-cluebook/ you will immediately notice that the resolution is slightly less in comparison to a GOG scan, that have only one book page per scan and some of the words and images are blurred or cropped. I am not trying to say GOG is lazy (they are quite the opposite) I am trying to sa that when I buy a "special/complete/ultimate etc." edition of something, it just doesn't feel right for it to be incomplete, and by adding these resources, GOG is simply providing convenience and an optimal old school gaming experience to their customers. But again, I appreciate your attempt to solve this issue.
Well I'm no expert in this situation but to my understanding what we got is what EA had available with exception of Worlds of Ultima 1 and 2 which was supplied by various members of the Ultima community. So if that is the case I don't know why EA wouldn't reach out to the community to make sure they had the other items that are missing such as the book of magic for Clerics for Ultima 3.

So the only thing I can say is hit up Mythic's Paul Barnett @thatbarnettbloke and Jeff Skalski @Jeff_Skalski(EA/Mythic's Ultima Franchise Manager) and possibly someone at GOG and see if there isn't someway to have the community supply scans of the missing material.
Posted July 08, 2012
You seem to be under the impression that GOG do the scanning themselves. Plenty of the Ultima manuals were lifted from replacementdocs and other places if you care to check.

The dodgy Serpent Isle clue book scans in your link were done before I got hold of a book scanner and there is a newer and far better scan in the downloads page on the same site. You will also find an identical pdf of the Ultima 7 guide you mention which was there long before the game ever appeared on GOG. I think that one might have been donated to me though so I won't take credit for it.

I do have to agree that GOG ought to get these missing manuals included, wherever they get them from. I'm sure there are plenty of us Ultima fans willing to help out if needed.
Posted July 18, 2012
Hi all,

If you have some of the missing documentation, I think GOG.com will be interested in adding it to their resources available for download if you are willing to do a high quality scan and send it to them.

Follow this process:
- Navigate to the "contact us" page: http://www.gog.com/en/support/contact
- Select "Other (feedback, suggestions, kudos... etc)"
- Write a message to the support team indicating which document(s) you have available and are willing to supply - the email will get forwarded to someone who maintains the quality of the game releases

I've gone through the above process and was contacted by someone from the team after about a week. Have done the scan and sent it to them and hopefully I'll see it available soon :)

I think this is a great way to preserve the historical documents from these awesome games.
Posted July 18, 2012
I belive the only real way to properly preserve the documents is to recreate them digitally from scratch. No matter how hard you try, scans will always have problems, unless you are willing to edit each page by hand, at which point you might as well rebuild them completely. Plus a PDF that consists of over 100 full size high-res images is way too large in terms of filesize.
With today's tools it wouldn't even be that hard to do, the biggest piece of work would be recreating the drawings (preferably as vector drawings). That way the old documentation could be perfectly digitalized and properly processed by computers like a real PDF.
Posted July 18, 2012
Seconded. I appreciate that the missing stuff can be found elsewhere, but when your business model is built on the premise that a purchase comes with all the extras that other download sites don't provide, it's more than a disappointing to find not only some of the fluff books for this series, but also things like Ultima 1's manual and reference card, are missing. It's also that kind of thing that has started making me think twice before recommending the site to my friends; that might not mean a lot to gog in terms of revenue or exposure barring a similar trend from a significant portion of users, but think it bears mentioning all the same.
Posted July 18, 2012
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Jonesy89: Seconded. I appreciate that the missing stuff can be found elsewhere, but when your business model is built on the premise that a purchase comes with all the extras that other download sites don't provide, it's more than a disappointing to find not only some of the fluff books for this series, but also things like Ultima 1's manual and reference card, are missing. It's also that kind of thing that has started making me think twice before recommending the site to my friends; that might not mean a lot to gog in terms of revenue or exposure barring a similar trend from a significant portion of users, but think it bears mentioning all the same.
Well in most cases they only can offer what they have, can find, are given or can use. So honestly it's not that big of a deal for us to help pitch in when we can since I doubt EA has in the depths of their archives all the original manuals, reference cards, maps, and lore books that came with the games. Speaking of which I may have to see if I can find my old box copy of Ultima 5 for the commodore 64/128 and see if it still has the record of Lord British's expedition to the underworld so I can make some scans of it as that has some vital clues to finishing the game in it, you can still complete the game without that info but it does help point you in the right direction.
Posted July 25, 2012
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Pix: You seem to be under the impression that GOG do the scanning themselves. Plenty of the Ultima manuals were lifted from replacementdocs and other places if you care to check.

The dodgy Serpent Isle clue book scans in your link were done before I got hold of a book scanner and there is a newer and far better scan in the downloads page on the same site. You will also find an identical pdf of the Ultima 7 guide you mention which was there long before the game ever appeared on GOG. I think that one might have been donated to me though so I won't take credit for it.

I do have to agree that GOG ought to get these missing manuals included, wherever they get them from. I'm sure there are plenty of us Ultima fans willing to help out if needed.
Yes, I was. Upon reading your reply, I have since looked at and download your new, and superior scan of "Balancing the Scales" (as well as the Hi-Res colored scan of the Serpent Isle map). However, to be honest, it is not as good as the "Key to the Black Gate" scan (granted, it was donated to you, and the quality of the Part 2 Cluebook scan may have been lessened due to the design of the book itself) but if it is, in fact, the best digital representation of the cluebook available, then I'll count my blessings and take what I can get. I didn't mean to offend anyone, and I apologize. Still, I concur, and believe that it should be in GOG's best interest to add the missing "extras" (resources, items, whatever you want to call them).
Posted July 25, 2012
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DCT: ...
Speaking of which I may have to see if I can find my old box copy of Ultima 5 for the commodore 64/128 and see if it still has the record of Lord British's expedition to the underworld so I can make some scans of it as that has some vital clues to finishing the game in it, you can still complete the game without that info but it does help point you in the right direction.
Is this what you're talking about? I'm not sure where I got it from...
Posted August 01, 2012
GOG does accept content from fans (obviously not ANY old thing, but still), so if you have stuff or are passionate about getting certain things on here, don't give up! ;)

http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/site/more_bonus_material_for_games_already_on_gog
Posted August 02, 2012
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DragonJLX: I have noticed that many (if not all) of the Ultima games sold by GOG are missing vital pieces of "bonus" content (cluebooks, manuals, maps etc.). I say "bonus/extra" because many of these things are practically required in order to play and enjoy these games to the fullest. If you also believe that these things should be added to the Ultima games, please post a message in this forum saying that GOG should add them, and/or email a suggestion to GOG saying that they should add these items. Thank you, and let's hope it gets done.
I think they are doing a fantastic job. I had many of the Ultimas in their original form, and most of the documents are here (with the glaring exception of the paper maps in U1 and a color copy of the SI map). Ironically, the one that seems to have the most content is Martian Dreams, for which they are charging...$0.00! Still, I'm going to scan in my paper maps from U1 when I have time and try to send them here.
I still have the original packaging from the U1 remake for C64, so it's all in there.
OK, granted they do not include the trinkets, but there is still no transporter technology available to make that possible.
Posted August 23, 2012
I hope you guys like what we added today for the Ultima series :D.
Posted August 23, 2012
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JudasIscariot: I hope you guys like what we added today for the Ultima series :D.
Much appreciated. I bought U9 just for the design documents as I hadn't seen that as an extra before. Any chance on getting that for other games too? I'd particularly be interested in them for any of the Ultimas V through VII or the Worlds of Ultima games.

EDI: Ok, just saw the design docs for U7. Is that new or did I just miss that before? Either way: AWESOME!!!
Post edited August 23, 2012 by ncarty97
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This is my favourite topic
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Ultima seriesGet GOG to add ALL the missing "extra" content (cluebooks, manuals, maps etc.) to ALL of the Ultima games!(19 posts)(19 posts)
(19 posts)