Right after Bard’s Tale the game I spent the most time playing when I was a kid was the Ultima Series. I logged many an hour playing Ultima 3 and 4 on the Apple II but never played 1 or 2. Years later when I got my first PC I remember staring Ultima 5 but they changed to a different style of graphics, and in my opinion it was poor. That was the last I ever played and since it’s incredible difficult playing older games on newer hardware I figured that would be it. Fast forward many years later and a new company GOG (Good Old Games) starts releasing all of the older games, packaged so that they play on new computers. They had a package special of Ultima 1, 2, and 3 for $10 so I figured it was time to revisit Britannia.
In truth other than for nostalgia reasons, I really can’t recommend either of these. As a different reviewer said, they are a mess of ideas without clear direction or focus. That being said, I have fond memories of playing Ultima 3 and 4 and they were truly defining games in the history of RPG computer games. I had never play 1 and 2 so I figured it was time to fill in some gaps in my computer game experience.
Links to More Information
Wikipedia Page
RPG Classics, Ultima 1
RPG Classics, Ultima 2
Ultima Codex
Ultima Codex, Ultima 1
The variation in graphics for differnt Ultima versions
The Games of Ultima
- Akalabeth: World of Doom (1979)
- Ultima I (1981)
- Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (1982)
- Ultima III: Exodus (1983)
- Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)
- Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)
- Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)
- Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
- Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993)
- Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994)
- Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)
Graphics
First a word about graphics. Ultima was created in 1981 and the premier home computer system was the Apple II. The first five games of the series were written for the Apple and then ported to the PC. The Apple had 16 color and some sound, while the PC computer of that era used 4 color graphics and just beeps and clicks.
To confuse the issue, the original Ultima 1 was not ported to the PC until years later, by which time the port was done to a higher graphics standard. This means that if you play the games in order 1, 2, and 3. You will notice that 1 has the best graphics.
There is a great article about this by the The Exodus Project
Speaking of the Exodus Project, someone with way to much time on their hands wrote a patch for Ultimas 2 and 3 that bring the PC version up to 16 color graphics and finally the same standard as the Apple II. I highly recommend them.
Some Notes
Ultima 1, 1981 Applesoft BASIC on an Apple II computer. Apple only. Not ported to other systems.
Ultima 2, 1982 The first written completely in assembly language. The PC version is 4 color.
Ultima 3, 1983 Exodus (1983). The PC version is 4 color.
Ultima 4, 1985 Quest of the Avatar (1985), The PC version is 16 color.
Ultima 1, 1986 Remake, In 1986 Origin Systems completely re-coded the game and ported it to the PC.
Ultima 5, 1988 Made for the Apple, Ported to PC as 16 color graphics in a 320x200 resolution.
Ultima 6+, 1990 Made for the PC at 256 color VGA at a resolution of 320x200.
Ultima 1
As I mentioned earlier, this game is a mess of ideas. Fantasy, Science Fiction, RPG, or arcade game, it seems to have everything. I guess the genera was still new so they didn’t really know what they wanted so they tried a little of everything. Over the course of the game you get a dagger, sword, wand, pistol, light sword, phazor, and a blaster just to make sure they cover everything. You can also purchase a land speeder, and eventually buy the Space Shuttle and play a mini arcade game to become a “Space Ace” before you can return to kill the evil “Mondain”. It’s definitely a Kitchen Sink kind of game.
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Ultima 2
There is a great review at CRPG Addict that sums the game up better then I can do. I recomend a read if you are interested in playing the game.
In short, this is not a very good game for multiple reasons. I finished only so I could say I finished the first four games. If you really want to play some older Ultima games Play I and then skip to III.
The first two screen shots below show the orginal PC version. The one's in color are with the graphics patch.
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