I had one last crack at Ultima 1 and stuck it out this time. I found an overworld map image made up of screenshots from the game and it helped me see that the overworld consists of quarters i.e a grid of four similar-sized continents. Each continent has two castles and approximately the same number of towns and one king will send you on a dungeon mission for a gem, the other will give you an overworld mission for strength points. I realized that, when dungeoning, it's best to use ladder up/down spells and complete the lower level kill quests using hit and run. It's too easy to be blindsided by tough opponents or get lost unless you use a map. Getting killed quickly in the dungeons was always my main problem. Overworld survival is not very hard once you can afford a frigate and can go about killing opponents on land with your cannon and many of them can't fight back. You can dominate even more with the air car. I realized later that the best weapons are in the castles and can't be bought. If you're lucky you can steal a pistol, light sword or blaster from an armoury, but if you're caught chances are you'll be killed by the guards. The king that gives you the toughest dungeon mission, in my case it was to kill a Balron on a dugeon level 9(which may be fixed for every play), as well as giving you a gem, lets you take 9 items from his stores(use (G)et rather than (S)teal).

When I could afford to buy a space shuttle and go into space for the Star Wars, arcade style part of the game, once I got the hang of docking, hyperjumping and using the laser-sight I was soon able to get the required 22 kills and become a "Space Ace". Funny how later in the game you realize that the kings that have been helping you are actually holding their princesses prisoner and to rescue them you have to first kill the jester for the key, then kill a number of guards to get away with the princess(you can kill the king too, though I couldn't kill Lord British no matter how many times I hit him).

The inn-keepers are actually your main guides, by buying drinks you get instructions, which you have to piece together to figure out what your goal is. Frankly it's one of the most nonsensical plots ever. You have to kill enough enemies to reach level 8 or above and become a space ace to suitably impress one of the rescued princesses into telling you where the time machine is, which you use to defeat the evil wizard Mondain. I can say I've beaten the game now, while also saying that overall the game is stupid. This is the DOS version too, which looks and plays better than the original for the Apple II five years prior. I don't believe I could ever have stuck through the slowness of the Apple II game back in '81. I guess it was the first RPG game to have a decent overworld though, most games at the time just consisting of dungeons and 3D, first person dungeon view was new too. Of course Richard Garriot's Akalabeth(aka Ultima 0) was published in some state of completeness as early as 1979 I believe and it did have about the crudest possible overworld one could make as well as the 3D dungeons.

On the other hand, killing enemies in dungeons will get you HP when you leave the dungeon. For that reason, I recommend going into a nearby dungeon first thing after buying (and stealing) starting equipment. It's much more sustainable than having to pay for all your HP increases.

(With that said, I still wouldn't go past the first floor of the dungeon.) I actually did not know about taking items from the storehouse.

On the other hand, there is one spot on the overworld that will give you a weapon when you step on it, much like the stat boosting signs. The weapon you get is the weakest one you already have, so you can eventually get a Blaster here. Just alternate between this spot and one of the stat boosting spots until you get it.

By the way, the most effective way to damage the final boss is to equip the Triangle and cast Missile (not Kill, as that produces a message saying your spell healed the final boss). Yes, this is a very strange game. Even basic things like the handling of Hit Points are rather unusual by RPG standards.

Another early game with a 3D dungeon is Oubliette, which also has its strange mechanics, like the possibility of characters dying during character creation, and that qualifying for level-ups is RNG rather than XP based. Specifically, in Oubliette, a character who kills or is killed by an enemy has a chance of qualifying for a level up. (Aside from those strange mechanics, the game plays something like Wizardry.)

I was reviewing my own post. Though I completed the PC/DOS version of Ultima I, it's a remake and I wanted to play through the Apple II original to satisfy myself that I'd had the true, 1981 Ultima I experience. I think I was wrong about something, I said that some weapons e.g. the guns, can't be bought in weapons shops, but playing the Apple II game, I did find a shop with pistols, phazors and blasters. I'm not sure, but I think it might have something to do with your charisma stat, the best weapons aren't available until you're charismatic enough to have them offered to you (I got thinking of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap where you have a "charm power" score that affects what equipment is offered to you in shops).

I've also just discovered that fountains and pools, found in castles and towns, are wishing wells of sorts, you can get stats, food, HP and weapons by dropping gold in them. I probably noticed playing the PC/DOS game that the innkeepers say the fountains and ponds are magical, but didn't know what to make of it. It's a help for sure.

Hello, yes I did buy the remake about ten years ago. The project was led by Omar Cornut, creator of the MEKA, Sega Master System emulator wasn't it? He must really love the game, not only making new, more detailed graphics, but having orchestral arrangements of the original music. Even so, I like that you could at any time, switch back to the old graphics and sound ♥

The music wasn't really orchestral in the usual sense. It did have a few instruments that you'd find in an orchestra, but not that many, and there were many folk instruments. The Japanese temple version of the Dragon's Lair theme is a good example of this, with plenty of folk instruments, along with some electronic sounds to the point where it would qualify as digital fusion. Certainly not the sound you'd get from a traditional Western orchestra.

Speaking of the ability to change graphics, it actually allows one to avoid an issue that some players might experience. If you damage a boss when classic graphics are displayed, the screen will flash red, which could cause some photosensitivity issues in some players. Switching to modern graphics for boss fights averts this issue.

There's also the option to use the original music, if you want to.

Yeah OK I guess I should say acoustic arrangements of the original music, retaining some electronic music. I do remember the theme for the central town being stringy and folky. I've heard a lot of electro-acoustic arrangements of old '80s and '90s video game music and some I like, but it's funny how sometimes a programmed, limited range of electronic sounds has more charm to it. One of my fave electro-acoustic arrangements was for the Double Dragon II music, I think it was done for a CD release in 1990 a couple of years after the game, but more recently the Double Dragon Trilogy was put together and released at GOG and maybe elsewhere and you had the choice of using that version of the music for playing DD2.

One thing is that I can't listen to some times of music, including anything with electric guitar, without getting headaches and possibly nausea. An advantage of 8-bit music (like on the NES) is that it simply can't imitate the sound enough to cause issues. (Note, however, that this does not apply to, say, the sound chip in the Sega Genesis, which can imitate an electric guitar well enough for it to be a problem.)

In any case, I think the developers just took whatever musicians they could find and arranged the music for them. So, we end up with an unusual combination of instruments, which creates a rather unique sound.

By the way, I bought the OST some time ago, and it has some tracks they ended up not using (and often not finishing). My favorite is the fugue (track 79).

I have the OST too. Funny, Omar gave me a free pass to download the OST. I bought the game, not realizing that my computer was too old to handle it. I got communicating with Omar and he agreed that if I couldn't enjoy the game, I could at least enjoy the music. I was soon forced to replace my laptop anyhow and my new computer was able to run the game. I'll try to remember to have a listen to track 79.

I listened to the OST again including the bonus tracks. The track 79, fugue version of "The Monster's Lair" is quite fun, the way that "The Last Dungeon" is merged in the background. I did give my opinion to Omar back when I first heard these new arrangements, I often feel that classical arrangements of old, "chip tune" video game music or even pop/rock music in general are a bit of a laugh at best. There was clearly a lot of effort put into the new arrangements, but I certainly wouldn't be inclined to play Wonder Boy: Dragon's Trap to the new music, even to the folky or jazzy music, though maybe the electronic music would still seem to suit the game. "The Monster's Lair"(fugue) is pretty good though, at least as something to listen to separate from the game, the arranger seemed to play around with the original music and come up with something quite clever and exciting.