GOG Releasing Ultima I-IV Next Week

[Woodsman]

Ultima 1-4 Coming To Good Old Games Next Tuesday! | Ultima Aiera

That’s right, Dragons and Dragonettes: come Tuesday, August 30th, Good Old Games will release the first three Ultima games as a bundled trilogy priced at $5.99. Ultima 4, meanwhile, will be released for free! (EA must have really gone to bat for Ultima fans in order to make that happen, methinks.)

Most of us have them already in some form, but this will make it cheap and easy to legally obtain them for those who don't. Ultima IV is on the Ultima4Ever website for free, but if GOG offers it, then it'll be pre-wrapped for Windows.

The first three Ultimas are...probably not that important for most UO players, but still a nice trip down memory lane.

I didn't realize they were offering Wing Commander already http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/wing_commander_1_2

I know what I'm doing this evening.

 

[Marcellis]

Ahh, the memories. When Ultima III was released, my friend bought it for his Atari ST. It was at this time I realised, I needed to get a computer. I must play this game!

 

[Sevin0oo0]

ug, reminds me I need to finish learning about dosbox

 

[Woodsman]

ug, reminds me I need to finish learning about dosbox

If you buy them off of GOG, you won't need to mess with dosbox. The Wing Commander games, you may need to edit a text file to get Roland/MT-32 sound emulation working properly, but the Ultimas are pretty basic.

If you download Ultima IV off of Ultima4ever, then you will need to definitely mess with dosbox.

 

[Capn Kranky]

I played 1-3 on the Atari 8-bit systems (800, 1200 and 130XE). Was fun then and every so often I pull out my Dragon Edition and give them a whirl.

 

[G.v.P]

ug, reminds me I need to finish learning about dosbox

If you buy them off of GOG, you won't need to mess with dosbox. The Wing Commander games, you may need to edit a text file to get Roland/MT-32 sound emulation working properly, but the Ultimas are pretty basic.

If you download Ultima IV off of Ultima4ever, then you will need to definitely mess with dosbox.

Thanks Woodsman, looks cool

 

[Muu Bin]

Ultima... ah yes... mid-to-early 80's for me on the family's Apple II (or was it the Apple II-plus?). And then who remembers "Zork"? Am I dating myself?

 

[temu]

I still own and play Ultima Exodus and Ultima Quest of the Avatar for NES. Great games. Also, I recommend Ultima VII the Black Gate. It's interesting to realize where some of the UO content originates from!

 

[PASmountaindew]

My earliest computer game memory was playing Bard's Tales on an old IBM 8808 or something computer.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

If you buy them off of GOG, you won't need to mess with dosbox.

Thanks, yeah, I still have them on floppy, or in a zip on a floppy, still have several boxes of discs, decoders and such (trashed the orig boxes to save space) just haven't played any since I put away my x386's and moved on to the Memphis platform (probably about the time mp3's became more common - back in the 90's). If i remember right about the early ultima's, you have to type in directional control? pita, but has shortcut keys or something?

 

[Woodsman]

They weren't using a mouse if that's what you're wondering.

And they are up:

Ultima

This pack includes: Ultima I, Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress and Ultima III: Exodus
Three epic adventures set in a vast, open world full of mysterious places, evil creatures, and deadly secrets. Find out for yourself how these retro graphics have caused so many sleepless nights
This is how the acclaimed cRPG series started, created by the legend of computer gaming - Richart Garrtiot a.k.a. Lord British

$5.99 for all three, properly packaged in DOSBox, and it comes with manuals, cluebook, spellbook, and maps. I don't see any mention of Ultima IV, so maybe they didn't get permission.

They take up 15 MB of hard drive space, so make sure you have enough space!

On a related note, Paul Barnett, the guy behind the Warhammer arena game and supposedly behind the Ultima4ever project, talked to GOG at PAX this past weekend and said he was working out the issues of the expansions for the Origin games. GOG is apparently very cautious about expansions because of bad experiences in the past or something (perhaps third party expansions biting them in the butt), but he seems to feel that everything is worked out and they'll be doing something about them shortly. I'm glad they are working that out with Wing Commander games and Privateer before they get to Ultima VII. It wasn't too popular for those games to come out without the expansions.

Barnett seems obsessed with getting the whole of Origin's catalog up on GOG.

Hopefully they'll do Ultima V and VI as a package deal, and then release Ultima VII and its expansions as one package.

You're going to have to be dedicated to the Ultima games to want to play I-III. The graphics are very crude. But you get to fly a spaceship into space. Funny how life imitated art for Garriott.

Hopefully they will do Savage Empires and Martian Dreams at some point as well.

 

[Woodsman]

This is the bigger description:

In the beginning of this adventure, hordes of nightmarish creatures stalk forth from the lair of Mondain the Wizard to devastate the tranquil kingdoms of Sosaria. Step into the burning world of Sosaria. Take up the weapons of time and sorcery in a battle to destroy Mondain.

In your second quest, you will discover that, although the master is dead, his evil legacy lives on. Minax, apprentice of Mondain, has come of age, raining terror and destruction on the land. In her fury, she has torn the fabric of time and space, opening doors through which you may bring about her doom!

Finally, after years of peace, fragments of a manuscript hint at an unholy alliance between Mondain and Minax. Of the fruits of that alliance, none can speak, but soon the Orc drums boom again. The Great Earth Serpent stirs in its slumber of countless ages. This time a party of adventurers must act, their only clue a single word scrawled in blood upon the deck of a derelict merchant ship: EXODUS.

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.

There was a lot of crazy crap in the first 3 (or 4 if you count Akalabeth) Ultimas. Anybody playing these for the first time, try not to really apply them to UO outside of the characters/names and some of the places. Garriott had no problem expanding and remaking the world of Ultima as the hardware got better and as he needed to. That includes remaking some of the characters and lore as he went along.

IV is kind of where things to start to be a lot more coherent and recognizable to UO players, but UO still diverged from the single-player Ultima universe.

 

[Woodsman]

Ultima IV is now up on GOG.com as of this morning and it's free:

Ultima® 4: Quest of the Avatar - GOG.com

Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar is a milestone in not only the Ultima franchise, but in the Role-Playing Games genre as a whole. You start as an average character, neither a scoundrel nor a saint. After defeating the Triad of Evil (Mondain, Minax and Exodus), Sosaria has changed beyond recognition. The benevolent monarch Lord British proclaimed the Eight Virtues (Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility) as a moral foundation of the new land, united under the banner of Britannia. This time there is no ultimate bad guy you need to kill after leveling your character to the max. This time it’s different. Your quest is to become the Avatar, a real role model for the people of Britannia. Become one with the Eight Virtues with your actions and words. As you live the life of a potential hero you discover that every action you undertake influences your level in each of the Virtues. Flee from battle and your Valor decreases, overpay a blind seller and you gain Compassion points. Even in modern times the concept of Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar is unique. Even if the graphics aged, this is a prime example of a gaming masterpiece!

IV is where the Ultima series really starts to turn into the Ultima that we know, even if UO diverged from it. If you want VGA graphics and MIDI music, you can download the above and then apply the patches found here: http://www.moongates.com/u4/upgrade/Upgrade.htm

There is also a new engine using the existing install for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux: http://xu4.sourceforge.net/

If you want something a little newer, there is a high resolution/sandbox mod for Ultima IX that offers updated graphics that was just updated:

Beautiful Britannia 2011 R2 Released! | Ultima Aiera (screenshots)

* More than 100 new designed Textures (Terrain, Foliage, LB Castle, Walls), most of them in higher resolutions than the original ones.
* More than 15,000 objects added (Flowers, Grass and other plants, Butterflies, most of them around yew) to the original release from 1999.

NOTES:
Terrain textures are not completely finished yet, please excuse the disburbing effects because of missing transistions.

FORGOTTEN WORLD - An Ultima IX Ascension Mod

You do need an actual install of Ultima IX - this is just a mod for it.

 

[elianydd]

IV is where the Ultima series really starts to turn into the Ultima that we know....

Funny thing is, I can remember playing and enjoying the FIRST THREE Ultimas, and when IV came out, being a bit disappointed because it WASN'T the Ultima that I knew and loved. Not that it wasn't a lot of fun, but it removed the OPTION of being able to play the way you wanted, and instead FORCED you to play a certain way.

 

[Woodsman]

Funny thing is, I can remember playing and enjoying the FIRST THREE Ultimas, and when IV came out, being a bit disappointed because it WASN'T the Ultima that I knew and loved. Not that it wasn't a lot of fun, but it removed the OPTION of being able to play the way you wanted, and instead FORCED you to play a certain way.

Good God you're old

Just kidding. I actually loved IV because it got away from the hack-and-slash type of games, but I can see where you're coming from.

I bet we can both agree that II got really weird.

 

[Woodsman]

And Ultima V and VI have made an appearance at GOG now:

Ultima

Visit thousands of colorful places and characters, search towns, castles, and villages. Converse with merchants and mages, all as you walk, ride, and sail across Britannia

Explore magic, combat, and deception – weave hundreds of magical spells, watch axes and arrows fly in combat, discover clues, and solve mysteries

Witness the transformation from Stranger to Avatar through self-improvement, then join him on his quests to save Britannia and become the savior of all.

Overview:

Experience fantasy role-playing’s most distinctive and award-winning series in this special three-game collection. Ultima: The Second Trilogy follows the spellbinding tale of the Avatar in this richly detailed and challenging story. The setting is medieval Britannia, but the stories are timeless and involve universal issues that explore the essence of virtue. First, there is the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment in Ultima IV, where your personal ethics are tested in a treacherous struggle to demonstrate the eight virtues of Avatarhood. Then in Ultima V, you rely on your new-found strengths and skills to oppose a tyrannical leader who warps the virtues you uphold through his twisted legislation of morality. Finally, in the epic concluding chapter of Ultima VI, you, the Avatar, must resolve the cultural conflict between a race of hostile creatures and your own. It all adds up to a relentless test of character in a world where things are not always as they appear, and evil is not easily defined.

If you haven't played IV - VI, grab them now, especially if you are a Stygian Abyss fan. VI gives some/most of the backstory to those Gargoyle characters you've been playing.

That was quick, but welcome news. IV is freely downloadable from GOG and from UltimaForever.com, so you're basically paying for V and VI, which are substantially larger than I-III.

This might mean that Ultima VII, it's packs, and Ultima VIII are around the corner.

And for something totally insane and related, Chris Roberts maybe working on a new Wing Commander:

BREAKING NEWS: Is a New Wing Commander Already In the Works? - Wing Commander CIC

 

[Crysta]

As always, am praying Lost Vale gets released somehow.

 

[Woodsman]

I read somewhere the master copy was lost, although I have a hard time believing that a developer didn't sneak out a copy.

This was kind of an interesting read of some of the plot points:

Looking Back on 20 years – The Lost Vale « FEM IRL

Dino's Ultima Page - Ultima 8 Guide - The Lost Vale

They should just work Lost Vale into UO. Imagine announcing Ultima Online: Lost Vale

Then again they've got a lot of stuff from Ultima VII they could use as well. But if they were ever to add another area to UO, Lost Vale could be an interesting quest-based area. Make it a booster or something.

Would be amazing if they could get Lost Vale released though. Given the problems with the expansions for the Origin games that GOG seemed to be having, I doubt Lost Vale would happen, but man it would generate publicity.