Good Old Games - Ultima 4+5+6 Released

Dhruin

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GOG has released a pack of Ultima 4 + 5 + 6 for $5.99:
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.
Thanks, Frozen Fireball!
More information.
 
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Ok, now anxiously awaiting the next trilogy - U7 with nothing but a double-click /drool.
 
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playing 4 right now...love not having to wait and wait...going make a PB&J sandwich. Putting another floppy in the drive, god forbid if you left a town by mistake. Good old C64
 
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Lemonhead, my opinion would be 4. It was the one that introduced morality and the virtues. Ultima 5 was ok, but it just didn't have the appeal to me as 4 did, though I still enjoyed it. Ultima 6 had a different interface altogether from the previous Ultimas - more mouse driven. It was the same interface Savage Empire and Martian Dreams used. It wasn't a bad game either, but didn't compare to 4 in my eyes.
 
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always will love 3 as it was my frist RPG game back in 84, then 7 part 2 then 4
 
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From a technical standpoint (depth of gameplay, etc.) Ultima 6 is probably the best... but I think it gets a bit more tedious in the middle than the other two.

Really, you can't go wrong with any of them. They are all a bit more cumbersome to play than modern games, but if you can get past that they are all three gems.

And yeah --- I don't need to wait for GOG.COM for Ultima 7 or 8 ... I have them both and play U7 with Exult... but that's still gonna be awesome if they get it working nicely on modern systems. And I never playing Ultima 9.
 
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I don't think they will release 7, 8 and 9 together.
 
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I don't know. I don't think I've given any of the old Ultima's more than a quick glance (with the exception of the Ultima Underworlds) and this just seems too ancient for me to get into. But everybody always goes wild over these games, so there must be something there. I just remember dumber-than-a-brick AI and primitive graphics with third grade dialogue. What's so special about this? How can anyone get immersed into this? With how little text I see floating around, I can't imagine there is a deep story there. Am I wrong?
 
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I don't think they will release 7, 8 and 9 together.

They probably won't, but as long as they release them (and the complete versions) it doesn't matter.

Personally I don't get why people are so negative towards Ultima 8 or 9. I think they are both great games, and I have had a lot of fun with both of them.

I have bought Ultima 1-6, but I don't think I will play them (well, perhaps number six, but even that's unlikely). If they release the rest I will still love to finally have a complete collection.
 
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I don't know. I don't think I've given any of the old Ultima's more than a quick glance (with the exception of the Ultima Underworlds) and this just seems too ancient for me to get into. But everybody always goes wild over these games, so there must be something there. I just remember dumber-than-a-brick AI and primitive graphics with third grade dialogue. What's so special about this? How can anyone get immersed into this? With how little text I see floating around, I can't imagine there is a deep story there. Am I wrong?

How did anyone get immersed in any of those old games? It was our imagination, which is something newer games do not encourage the use of at all.

But with the earlier Ultimas its not so much the story so much as it was the gameplay. IV in particular was revolutionary because it had morality. What you did mattered. Most games encourage players to kill everything that moves and steal everything that's nailed down but this game actually tracks how you behave.

Also, there wasn't some huge evil villain threatening the world, rather the king felt the people needed guidance so you went on a spirtual quest to (literally) become a paragon of virtue. To this day I am still hard pressed to think of any other games without a traditional villain.

As far as text goes, the later Ultimas from 6 on have plenty of it. 7 and 7 part II have TONS, far more than you will find in any modern CRPG and it's (imho) much better written too.
 
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And yeah —- I don't need to wait for GOG.COM for Ultima 7 or 8 … I have them both and play U7 with Exult… but that's still gonna be awesome if they get it working nicely on modern systems. And I never playing Ultima 9.

I keep wondering how U7 will done if they are doing it. Will they use Exult? Have they found some other way to deal with U7. Legends and lore go that the source code for U7 has long since disappeared.
 
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I can't imagine playing U7 without Exult but I don't know how the developers would feel about it being sold with the game.

As for Ultima 8, I think the only thing that might make me play it again would be Gog finding The Lost Vale. Supposedly, it was completely finished but never made it out the door. It too, according to Ultima lore, is lost to time along with the U7 source code.

For U9, I wonder if they will distribute the unofficial patch. The later Ultima games really need additional unofficial content to be playable IMO.
 
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Ultima VII and Serpent Isle works flawlessly with DOSBox, so they'll just package it as a DosBox executable, like all the other games.

There's no reason why you couldn't take the GOG version and use it with Exult though - there is no way however you'd get a fan program like Exult release as part of a paid product, its creator wouldn't want that either I think.

-Sergorn
 
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Ultima VII and Serpent Isle works flawlessly with DOSBox, so they'll just package it as a DosBox executable, like all the other games.

/facepalm

Yes, you are correct.
 
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Ultima VII and Serpent Isle works flawlessly with DOSBox, so they'll just package it as a DosBox executable, like all the other games.

I wonder if they'll include an option to run it in resolutions other than the original 320x200. That's the primary avantage of Exult to me.

If they can do that with DosBox, then I'd actually prefer to play it that way.. since there are still some things that aren't properly implemented in Exult.
 
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...I'd actually prefer to play it that way.. since there are still some things that aren't properly implemented in Exult.

I agree with that. I got hit with the Exult dissappearing object bug prematurely ending a 15 hour investement in gameplay - which makes me really REALLY MAD! :p
 
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