Page 30 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #3

in blackest night, naturally, so it
was always wise to find a town
or village before sundown and
rent a room until daylight.
Though the graphics were still
very two-dimensional, Ultima V
paid great attention to the
amount of light given off by the
sun, the moons, street lanterns,
torches, and so on. The degree
to which you could interact with
non-player characters was in-
Ultima VI creased even further, and even
the 2-D graphics set was refined and Ultima II Map
various NPCs who would join you on expanded tremendously. Though a lot
your quest. After being surrounded by of floppy-swapping and disk-flipping (and took some really ill-advised de-
one too many parties of orcs while was needed, Ultima V was a real treat tours in the plotline of the series, what
fighting solo, there's nothing quite so for those who'd spent so many hours with its earthbound starting point and
relieving as the words "I would join with its predecessor: a true sequel its trips into space), and the third game
thee" in conversation mode. in every sense of the word. The land- almost lost me before I managed to
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny effec- scape was peppered with numerous reach the end. But Ultimas IV and V
tively doubled the size of the "world," homages to Ultima IV, including col- fascinated me for what seemed like
but, unlike previous releases, retained lapsed entrances at the sites of the endless hours. I can't remember how
the general outline of the map of Bri- previous game's various dungeons. many days I would come home from
tannia used in With Ul- school and immediately lose myself in
Ultima IV. (The tima VI, the the quest to save the land of Britannia,
ruins of the isle of Ultima series while my homework sat untouched until
evil could even began explor- it was bedtime (But by God, I memo-
be found if one ing vaguely rized the mantras of the Eight Virtues!).
went looking.) 3-D graphics I was then, and am still, enthralled by
Ultima V took up and a more the moral subtext of the game, and the
the equivalent of complicated fact that my character - through the
eight floppies, as control fortune teller's questions - was a real
opposed to Ul- scheme, representation of me. Ultima III made
tima IV's filling up abandoning a minor leap in giving such acts as theft
two double-sided the well- or murder a consequence, but only a
disks. (You *do* established minor leap - you were only dead if the
remember 5 1/4" floppies, Ultima VI keyboard commands that guards caught up with you. The fourth
don't you?) so many longtime players game in the Ultima series made the
In Ultima V, a new darkness has had found to be so instinctive. There consequences more subtle (though,
enveloped the land, and Lord British - are now nine Ultima games - techni- truth be told, the guards would *still*
who is not only author Garriott's alter cally eleven, if one counts the two dis- hunt you down) and far-reaching. If
ego, but the player's chief benefactor tinct parts of Ultima VII and Ultima you behaved like an utter bastard,
and advisor - has mysteriously van- Online. The negative response to the you'd *never* see the end of the game.
ished. Called back into action, the recent crash-prone Ultima IX may My teenage years were a large, black,
player was surrounded by the band of mean the end is in sight (if it hasn't al- quivering mass of emotional chaos,
loyal NPCs gathered during the course ready arrived) for the first great series and here was a computer game telling
of Ultima IV and was dispatched to find of adventure games to grace home me to stay on the straight and narrow,
Lord British and, naturally, vanquish computers. Since acquiring Richard or I'd never see the end of the story.
that pesky, ever-present evil that Garriott's Origin Systems, Electronic Having that message drilled into me
seemed to follow wherever you went. Arts has done all of us old adventurers at that point in my life was a pretty
Though it too began with the fortune a favor by compiling the first seven Ulti- small trade-off for hundreds of man-
teller sequence which determined mas onto a single CD-ROM, along with hours' worth of adventuring. Some
your character's class and stats, and video interviews with Garriott, an up- kids' parents were sending them to
kept Ultima IV's map, Ultima V intro- dated version of Alakabeth, and other church three times a week and they still
duced further big changes to the se- goodies. This budget-priced collection weren’t getting that same message. I'd
ries. Where Ultima IV kept track of the can usually be found hovering at already given up the paper/pencil/dice
phases of the two around the ten dol- form of role-playing games by my
moons for magi- lar mark at your teens, as some of the underlying ideas
cal purposes local software were starting to bug me. But on a gut
only, Ultima V store, and is a tre- level, I thought the Ultima games were
could literally mendous classic just plain cool - and even in my
leave you in the gaming bargain. cynical adulthood, I can't find a better
dark if you went Why am I so way to describe the Ultima series.
wandering fond of the Ultima
around the coun- series? Admit-
tryside at night. tedly, the second
And the worst game frustrated
horrors roamed me immensely
Ultima V
Classic Gamer Magazine Spring 2000 30