Category Archives: Books

Ultima 7 Cluebook

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This book was published in 1992 by Origin. I scanned this and the Serpent Isle equivalent back in October 2008 and uploaded them to replacementdocs.com. 2 1/2 years later, they still languish on the uploads queue so I’ll give up waiting and host them myself. The U7 cluebook can be downloaded here. The scans were done on my newer (and much cheaper) scanner so between that and my unwillingness to flatten the books they aren’t always the best quality around the spine but they are good enough to read.

The format of these cluebooks is following a set formula by now and this is little different. The book is presented as a guide prepared in advance for the Avatar to use once he has arrived in Britannia. Each of the places are described by a character from the game who has some association with it giving you a slightly different perspective for each place. After this section concludes with the dungeons, there are tables of data with merchant prices, spells, weapon/armor effectiveness, trainers and healers.

The last major section is the usual walkthrough although this takes a slightly unusual format in that it is a question and answer session with the wisps and timelord. This is more like the sort of thing you would see in a Sierra hintbook, with a general question then answers which are progressively more revealing. With a game that is so open right from the start, this means you could potentially scan through for an appropriate question rather than reading the whole thing. The problem with this is that many questions refer to the answers already given so you would have to proceed through each town in roughly the order expected for the question to mean anything. It’s a lot less fun to read than the standard narrative walkthrough from the other books but would potentially spoil the game less, if you can stop yourself reading the wrong bits inadvertently.

Reading through all these cluebooks is making me want to play some of these games again, especially Ultima 7. I’m certainly enjoying Knights Of The Old Republic but any of the titles I’ve looked at today are better games in their own right at least from what I’ve seen so far. I expect that I’ve still got most of KOTOR to play through so I’ll see how it develops.

Ultima Underworld Cluebook

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This was the first Origin cluebook I ever bought and it shows. As a teenager, I wouldn’t have worried too much about looking after it and it’s fairly tatty as a result. It amazes me that some of the games I own from back then are in as good shape as they are. Mysteries Of The Abyss was published back in 1992 by Origin and like near enough all the other Ultima cluebooks is available to download from http://www.replacementdocs.com. Origin had established a formula by now of getting a couple of the supporting characters to write the book. This takes a slightly different approach and is compiled by Baron Almrics librarian after the events from several sources.

The first two sections, maps and general advice, are written from the perspective of the villain of the piece, Tyball writing a letter to an apprentice. This adds some dark humour to things as he delights in the suffering of all the inhabitants of the abyss. Rather than having some general text on each level, Tyball just describes the points of interest on each one which are also indicated on the map. Quite how Tyball knows all this stuff I don’t know, and I’m sure he wasn’t as cartoonishly evil in the game but it’s more entertaining than the dry style of Lost Notebooks of Nellie Bly. Tyball takes responsibility for near enough everything that has gone wrong for all these people trying to eke out an existence in the abyss.

The walkthrough is fairly brief but narrates the shortest route through the game. This is then followed by a history of the abyss which gives the story of Garamon and Tyball before the game started. This certainly has more detail than I remember in the game although I’m not convinced it doesn’t contradict to some extent. The book finishes off with a few lists of mantras, spells, and the like.

Martian Dreams Cluebook

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Now that I’ve started, I’ll carry on going through all these Ultima cluebooks and the next in the list is Martian Dreams. This has to be one of the rarest out of all of Origin’s books since the game itself isn’t all that common. This logic doesn’t always follow though. The obvious example here is Leisure Suit Larry which had a very slow start in sales terms but loads of pirate copies ended up being passed around. I gather this was so prevalent that after a year, sales of the hint books outstripped sales of the game. I seriously doubt that happened with Martian Dreams, which is a game that has to this day never seen a budget re-release or been available on any compilation. It seems to be largely forgotten and this is a crying shame for one of my favourite Ultima games. Maybe if EA ever sign up with GOG.com we might see it get the audience it deserves but it’s not looking likely at the moment.

Back to the cluebook anyway. This was published in 1991 by Origin and takes the very familiar format of being a guidebook written by one of the characters in the game, in this case Nellie Bly with additional notes by Spector. The cheap monochrome covers of the last two cluebooks are gone and this one is in full glossy colour which is a huge improvement. Along with all the other Martian Dreams documentation, I scanned this in 5 years back and it’s available for download at http://www.replacementdocs.com.

It’s a much drier read than the Savage Empire guide with two much more serious characters “writing” it and contains little in the way of humour. You have to turn the book sideways to read the early pages which I’m not especially keen on but it’s a standard format for all but the map/guide section. It does contain a large quantity of artwork and plenty of background details including a history of the Martians. There is also a full bestiary with pictures and finally a walkthrough told in journal format by Dr. Spector.

Savage Empire Cluebook

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There isn’t a whole lot to say about any of today’s cluebooks so far and I’m rattling through them. I’ll need a few days like this if I’m going to get through all of these by the end of the year. This next one was published by Origin in 1990 and is a similar format to the U6 book, this time with a green monochrome cover rather than the purple one. If anything this looks even cheaper since it doesn’t have the glossy finish and it’s a little dissappointing coming from someone like Origin. It takes the form of a guide to the Eodon valley, as written by Jimmy Malone after his adventures with the Avatar and is available to download from http://www.replacementdocs.com

The first thing that strikes me with this cluebook is the amount of artwork on it’s pages. The other books were fairly sparse whereas this is crowded with drawings, including a full bestiary with sketches of most of the creatures.

This is the first Origin cluebook to go out of it’s way to explain the backstory of the game. Most of this was told in the game through conversations but certainly not written down chronologically like this. There is a brief history as to how the valley was formed by a moonstone meteor and the history of how it ended up as it is. While this is a little far-fetched it fits in well enough with the sci-fi B movie theme.

The middle of the book is the typical guide to locations, and this is followed by a walkthrough through Jimmy Malone’s eyes where he relates the adventures in the valley. This is a twisted view of the real events where he apparently led the party himself and he portray’s himself as the hero of the piece. This is fairly brief but gets across everything you need to do to beat the game in an entertaining manner.

That’s the last cluebook I’ll be reading today. It might have looked the cheapest on the exterior but it has some of the best content of any of them. It’s certainly the most enjoyable to read, and probably helped by having less information to get across than the larger games in the main series. All of these cluebooks have been well presented though, and are far better than a dry walkthrough. Anyone interested in Ultima who hasn’t read them should head over to replacementdocs.com and get the lot of them downloaded.

Ultima 6 Cluebook

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This was published in 1990 by Origin and is available to download from http://www.replacementdocs.com. The nice colour front cover from U5’s cluebook is gone and this has a far less attractive purple monochrome drawing. It’s the worst looking of the cluebooks so far, as the first two at least had textured paper for their covers giving them a fake olde-worlde look.

The book is supposedly written by the bard Mandrake who offers an irreverent guide to the realm, with additional notes from Taynith who has glimpsed the future and offers very specific hints in a different font. This structure works very well and allows you to skip her clues if you don’t want to know what is coming.

We start as ever with a guide to all the towns and locations in Britannia. Once again, the format used for the maps changes and it uses a drawn overhead view with lines pointing to locations of interest. There is a lot more text to go along with the more complex and characterful towns of U6. This is written in an entertaining style with Mandrake’s fondness for taverns featuring prominently.

After some details on weapons, shop prices, and details on how to teleport around with the moonstone, the book goes over to the prophecies of Taynith. This is where the real spoilers are and gives outright answers as to what you need to do and where items you need are located. It is basically a complete walkthrough of the game and the first of the Ultima cluebooks to include this. The last section of the book is a Gargish dictionary if you fancy doing some translating which is an interesting addition. There is actually a passage in Gargish on the first page of the book although I’ve not attempted to translate it myself.

Ultima 6 marked a significant shift in the series as it moved over to the PC, dropped the 3D dungeons and started to leave behind its RPG routes in favour of exploring and interaction over combat. The cluebook has also shifted its design somewhat and is starting to look more like the guides that came later in the 90’s. There are tables of data here and a full walkthrough for the first time. The mock guide to Britannia style of presentation was carried through though making this a half decent read while it gets its information across.