Any Ultima fans here?

Karlos · Wed 09/12/2009 19:17:05

If so, I'd like to toss around ideas for an AGS Ultima-parody or style game. I was such a fan of these games growing up. Many of them had plenty of adventure game elements, as opposed to being strictly RPGs.

Crimson Wizard · Wed 09/12/2009 19:27:06

Once I was a fan of Ultima Underworld :

. But I guess it isn't what you mean?

Victor6 · Wed 09/12/2009 20:06:04

The age of enlightenment trilogy (Ultima 4/5/6) is excellent, after that the series shot itself in the foot with messy real-time combats and the infernal voodoo memory manager.

Oddly, I expect adventure elements in an crpg, that's part of the point of the genre.

Karlos · Wed 09/12/2009 20:45:59

I suppose I didn't think about CRPGs by nature having adventure game elements. Still, some are a lot more focused on hack-n-slash, kill `em and take their stuff than they are on puzzle-solving and the like.

Ali · Wed 09/12/2009 20:53:14

I'm also a fan of Ultima Underworld. Though I never got past that troll that kept knocking me in the lava.

I seem to recall that the lizard language puzzle was very good and wouldn't have been out of place in an adventure game.

Karlos · Wed 09/12/2009 21:14:52

I never played the Underworld ones for some reason, nor Ultima Online (not a fan of MMORPGs). I played III through VII (parts 1 and 2), and loved them all. VIII felt like a totally different game to me, and I never played IX.

Crimson Wizard · Wed 09/12/2009 21:52:01

Vice versa, I played only VIII from "main" series. I liked the magic system very much, but I hated character controls, I think. And it seem rather bulky in general.

Radiant · Wed 09/12/2009 22:20:06

Quote from: Karlos on Wed 09/12/2009 19:17:05
If so, I'd like to toss around ideas for an AGS Ultima-parody or style game. I was such a fan of these games growing up. Many of them had plenty of adventure game elements, as opposed to being strictly RPGs.

Yes, big fan here. I've completed most of them. Even Ultima 4 and 5 were remarkable for their age.

I think there's already an AGS Ultima parody, called Ultimuh. But then, with such a large series, I'm sure you can find plenty more material.

In Mani Ylem!

Andail · Thu 10/12/2009 06:58:20

DGmacphee once made a game called Ultimerr XXII or something, don't ask me where it's at though

mkennedy · Fri 11/12/2009 08:10:58

You may be able to find Ultimerr XXII at the Ultima Dragons site if I recall correctly. My favorites were the complete Ultima 7 and the two Ultima underworld games. If you're into multiplayer games there is one that U5 type graphics at:

http://swut.net/euo

If you decide to give it a try tell them Bugbo and Gandgolf sent you.

Leon · Fri 11/12/2009 09:13:40

Both Ultimerrr and Ultimuh are available on this site amongst other parody's.

Ultimuh wasn't made with AGS though...

Since I'm a collector of Sierra games (everything pre-Vivendi), if anyone ever comes across a dump of the original tape of this old VIC20 one...

Tuomas · Fri 11/12/2009 11:16:53

Oh, I just love the Ultima games, mostly ones from 4 to 6 as most. I actually grew up with Ultima 6 on my Amiga, and being a kid, completing it took several years but never got boring. I mean, if bored, you could just go digging gold nuggets or hack'n'slash some gargoyles but the mountain up north. I still have the original map from the box-set, the box's gone though

The map's got all the mantras written in it on the back to make them easier to remember.

Funny thing, my dad grew up playing Ultima 4. Well, he was under 30 at the time and played the whole thing through while we were just babies. My mom said once my dad got his Amiga and started as a game-reviewer to a local paper, he'd always play the games, all with a blinking dot trying to hit a blinking dot or to avoid it

It's a sad affair actually. I really loved the graphics of 6. on my Amiga, and the music too. I think that's what got me into these bird-view rpgs eventually, today I just love them. I just can't seem to get everything I'd want out of bloody Dosbox. The pc graphics were utterly inferior and I never got the music to play... so it kinda ended up hollow. But I'd love to participate a spin-off

Radiant · Sun 13/12/2009 23:29:30

Quote from: mkennedy on Fri 11/12/2009 08:10:58
You may be able to find Ultimerr XXII at the Ultima Dragons site if I recall correctly.

Hey wow, are those guys still around? I used to be in UDIC...

Kweepa · Mon 14/12/2009 05:20:32

I loved Underworld I and II. Me and a good friend at college spent many hours together finishing them. I tried Ultima 7 after that but it wasn't quite the same. I think it was just too dense with things to do.
I keep hoping someone will complete a remake of UW. There have been several over the years that started promisingly but just fizzled out.
So, err, yes, I would enjoy a parody.

neon · Mon 14/12/2009 15:25:16

I've been 12 years old when someone gave me Ultima II for C64. It was my first RPG ever, but I had no disk drive, so I could not play it. When I bought my first disk drive two years later, Ultima 4 was released and this one took month of my live. I've drawn maps of it, that contained every possible field. A lot of paper stuck together to a gigantic map. I've never finished it because I was stuck in the last dungeon (I think I've forgot a word that had to be entered at one point).

Then I've played Ultima 5 for a while, but I found it not nearly interesting as the fourth part. But meanwhile I got the C64 version of Ultima 1 (this one had the graphics of Ultima III) and I've completly played through it. Then I finished Ultima III and after that I've nearly completed Ultima II. There was a bug in Ultima II i think, but the game itself was wonderful, although it had only 2 colours, I think.

Ultima 6 was the first game I've played on a PC, but I didn't get far because it was very slow on my IBM compatible 12 MHz machine.

That was the last one I've played. After this, I've only played adventure games.

Tuomas · Mon 14/12/2009 17:28:20

Speaking of remakes, how about those done with the Dungeon Siege engine? Has anyone played the Ultima 5: Lazarus, or tried the Ultima 6 project... are they any good?

Karlos · Tue 15/12/2009 20:05:55

Well, for those of you familiar with Ultima IV, here is my idea:

In Ultima IV there were introduced 8 virtues (honesty, compassion, valor, honor, justice, sacrifice, spirtuality, and humility, which are based on 3 principles (truth, love, and courage).

In Ultima VI, there is a bard named Mandrake that suggests that the problem with the 8 virtues is the fact they are based on such stuffy principles. He suggests that they would be better in they were based on the principles of wine, women, and song. The resulting virtues would then be drunkenness, sensuality, harmony, lust, laziness, dance, indulgence, and happiness.

Now suppose this bard got transported to a parallel universe where he spreads his philosophy, and the society comes to revere these virtues in much the same way as the original eight virtues were venerated on his home world.

Radiant · Tue 15/12/2009 20:42:21

Quote from: Karlos on Tue 15/12/2009 20:05:55
Now suppose this bard got transported to a parallel universe where he spreads his philosophy, and the society comes to revere these virtues in much the same way as the original eight virtues were venerated on his home world.

Oh, Ultima does a lot of that. U6 offers the Gargoyles with their society based on Passion, Diligence and Control (which incidentally I found to be a good paradigm for game design). U5 has the virtue variation of "thou shalt, or else". Serpent Isle has the virtues of Chaos, Order and Balance. IIRC U8 also has morality with a twist to it.