Category Archives: Books

More Avatar Adventures

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This was published in 1993 by Prima and as the title suggests is a follow-up to Avatar Adventures. It covers Ultima 7, Forge Of Virtue, and Ultima Underworld, with appendices for the early stages of Serpent Isle and Underworld 2.

The formula is the same as Avatar Adventures with long walkthrough novellas for each game, followed by shorter walkthroughs with maps and tables of all the game information. The main selling point of the book is definitely the novels which are extremely faithful to the games right down to using identical dialog.

The story is told as though the Avatar is recounting it to Carlotta, at some point prior to Underworld 2. It sticks to the shortest route through the games, meaning that Underworld surprisingly gets more pages than Ultima 7 despite having a simpler narrative. There is a town plots section at the end of Ultima 7 to make up for this, briefly covering all the local quests that don’t play a part in the main story.

For such a large and complex game, it’s surprising just how short the Ultima 7 story is when it’s written down like this with all the side quests removed. Because of the rigid structure it’s having to follow, it’s nowhere near as good as a novel as books like the Technocrat Wars series. Despite that, it’s still great fun for anyone who played the games. Books like these always makes me want to go back and play the game again and Ultima 7 isn’t a game I’ve spent enough time with.

Ultima Underworld on the other hand is a game I know inside out. It’s plot wasn’t its strongest point, although it was streets ahead of its rivals such as Dungeon Master or Eye Of The Beholder. I did wonder if I was perhaps too familiar with the game to enjoy the novella, but I needn’t have worried. Out of the two games it was probably the better of the two simply because it doesn’t miss anything out. Also with knowing the game so well, I could picture every corridor as described and it was almost like replaying the game.

There are 3 appendices at the end of the book. The first two of these cover the early stages of Underworld 2 and Serpent Isle. I don’t know if this implies that a third book in the series was planned, but if so it was never published which is a shame as this and Avatar Adventures are both prized by Ultima collectors. The Underworld 2 section is extremely short but does have maps of all the sewer levels. There is a little more for Serpent Isle but it still only goes as far as arriving into the first city.

Right at the end of the book is a very nice extra, a 13 page interview with Paul Neurath and Warren Spector. It’s shorter than I would have liked but there is some information about the founding of Looking Glass, the development of Ultima Underworld and what they thought would come next. Paul Neurath talks about his hopes that the industry won’t end up like Hollywood (which it clearly has), and Warren Spector says he needs to do a cartoon game (which he did but only very recently). Something I didn’t know is that between being called Blue Sky and Looking Glass the name of the company was briefly Flying Fish.

I’ve added a scan of the book to the downloads. This was, as far as I know, the last Origin novel, clue book or manual that wasn’t available on the internet (not including all the various ports and foreign languages) with the exception of the ever elusive Caverns Of Callisto. If there is anything else missing, then I want to know about it. This was definitely a great book to finish on anyway, which is why I saved it for last. I do still have Pilgrim Truth to read though, which I should be starting next.

I’ve put a load more game manuals into the downloads page in the last week or two. I’m not going through all of these here but the highlights in my opinion are the Stonekeep novella Thera Awakening, and the Elite Plus manual which also has its own novella. There isn’t anything Origin related although Chris Roberts did name Elite as his all time favourite game in one of the magazine scans somewhere on this site. I’m sure he was referring to the original version which I’m sorry to say I’m old enough to remember playing on a friends BBC back when I was still in primary school. It certainly impressed me at the time but not owning a BBC myself, it wasn’t a game I spent any real-time on until Elite Plus came out years later. I played it enough back then to achieve the coveted elite status, to absolutely no fanfare as I recall, and it remains a personal favourite. It’s a game that had a clear influence on Wing Commander, and especially Privateer.

Wing Commander Junior Novelisation

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This book was a censored and simplified version of the original Wing Commander movie novel aimed at a younger market. It was published at the same time as the adult version in 1999 by HarperEntertainment and made child-friendly by the original author Peter Telep. Aside from the changes in content, it was printed in a larger format but with far fewer pages, due to the cuts and simplifications.

I would usually read any of the books before I put them up on here, but I’ve made an exception in this case as I’d prefer to stick to the original version. I was curious as to the sorts of changes that were made though so just looking at the first page for instance:-

“He looked past the whirlpool of gases, past the black hole lying at the quasar’s core like an interminably deep maw, until his inner gaze rested on a gentle blue orb bathed in a soft glow.”

becomes:-

“He looked past the whirlpool of gasses, past the black hole lying at the quasar’s core like a giant mouth, until he imagined a glowing blue planet called Earth.”

The same character thinks about friends rather than bikinis in the next paragraph, and fails to give his reason of needing a leak when he asks his buddy to cover for him. Clearly anything even slightly suspect has been removed. There are plenty of word substitutions also to simplify the language used.

If the first page is anything to go by, there are far more changes to the prose than I expected actually. I presumed it would just be a few cuts of the racier parts of the story. The whole book is scanned in for anyone curious to have a look anyway but I’d much rather read Pilgrim Truth first myself. I had a few days away in Wales last weekend and was going to read it on the train journeys there and back, only to discover my ebook conversion hadn’t worked too well on the trip down. Instead, I’m halfway through an Anthony Burgess novel now which I intend to finish before I start on anything else.

In the meanwhile, I’ve added a pile of other new scans including guides to Tex Murphy Overseer, Alone In The Dark 1 & 2, Tie Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, The X-Files and Lands Of Lore 3. There are still more to come but I really am down to the last few now.

Ultima The Technocrat War Book 3 – Maelstrom

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This was the final novel in the Technocrat War series and was published in 2002 by Pocket Books. It picks up immediately after the events of the previous novel and follows all the various characters as they attempt to do their part in the war against the pact of four.

Once again, Blackthorn is in no way the enemy in this novel and is even fights on the side of good in the later stages. The book is instead about the battle against the pact, making this a civil war in effect although this isn’t apparent to most of the people doing the actual fighting. Only the pact members and their direct associates could be described as being on the side of evil as such.

All of the main protagonists have split up into their own groups, and a large part of the novel flits between them as they each pursue their own agenda. Montenegro has joined up with the Technocrat’s at this point, to the extent of leading troops into battle against the rogue Jukan warlord Bahrok. Raveka in the meanwhile goes back to Britannia, in an attempt to delay their fleet launching to join the war. The Jukan side of things is told through Thullan, who attempts to get her side to accept a truce with the Technocrat’s. That just leaves the Meer, who haven’t figured largely in the series so far, leaving the ambitions of their pact member a mystery. This part is briefly told through the misadventures of Jatha and Fairfax who end up being teleported to the Meer homeland.

It turns out the cataclysm was actually the result of 3 separate catastrophes in different worlds. Sosaria as it is now, is actually the remnants of those worlds which have joined together. There are 3 splits in these joins, which allow the holder to claim huge amounts of power. Controlling all 3 would give the power to split the world apart and hence control everything. The meer chamberlain Kavah is using the war as a distraction to claim these 3 “beacons” for himself and hold the world to ransom.

I’ve tried to avoid too many spoilers with these books so I won’t say any more about the plot. There is certainly enough going on to make this another page-turner and it’s up to the standards of the previous books. I’d have preferred it to concentrate a little more on specific plotlines rather than the incessant switching which prevailed in the middle stages, but it’s only a minor criticism and the strands start to converge in the later chapters.

The final part of a trilogy is often the least interesting as events work toward an inevitable conclusion. That is arguably the case here as there is less character development in favour of pushing along the story. Thankfully the characters are well enough established that I was happy enough to go along with this. The ending when it comes is the inevitable huge battle but it does still hold a few twists and turns.

Ultimately, I’d prefer that this series had been steeped in the Ultima lore I know from the main series rather than this UO2 offshoot but anyone with an interest in fantasy novels who can look past that, or has never played an Ultima should enjoy these. They were the best novels I’ve read for the blog, and I wouldn’t have been sorry to see another trilogy of them. This was actually final published novel based on Origin franchises (so far) and is now available on the downloads page with the rest of them. I do still have the “new” Wing Commander novel to read, which I’ll be starting next.

I should quickly mention that GOG are back to publishing EA games as of today and have released Dungeon Keeper 2 and Wing Commander 1/2. I gather that as with every previous EA release, this news has been tarnished by the add-on packs not being included. This is particularly surprising for WC1/2. The same expansions were initially missed off the Kilrathi Saga compilation but later released as patches for the game for free by EA. These patches are still hosted by EA and linked from wcnews, so I gather there is no legal problem with the Kilrathi Saga version of the games even though it’s exactly the same content. If that is the case, why not just release the Kilrathi Saga on GOG instead and everyone would be happy.

I’d be interested to know how the legal rights over something like SM1 ended up being different from WC1 in the first place. It was after all originally released as part of WC1 in a special edition version. I assume my copy must be one of these. There is nothing on the box or disks obviously different, but it has SM1 included straight from being installed. If anyone can shed any light on the legal situation, I’m curious to know what the problem is.

Even without the add-on packs these are still great games of course and worth a lot more than the $6 asking price. If it was me, I’d buy one the compilation CD’s on Ebay instead, but that will probably cost a little more.

Deus Ex Invisible War – Official Guide

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This was published in 2003 and is a joint XBox/PC guide, possibly explaining the extremely large format. It’s relatively short, but there is plenty packed onto each page and the whole thing is in full colour with loads of artwork scattered throughout.

The early pages give all the background detail to the world and it’s characters, including a full summary of the events in Deus Ex. It’s stated clearly amongst all this that in the world of Deus Ex Invisible War, all 3 choices at the end of the previous game were taken. I spotted two of these when playing the game but not that JC had also sided with the Illuminati which I don’t recall being apparent at any point. The reviews I remember reading for the game, stated that it had followed one of the 3 possible outcomes and other sequels would pick another which was clearly not true.

There is a section with general advice on which mods to take and weapons to specialise in. Very unusually, the author just tells you what he tried in his 2 playthroughs and the pros and cons of this. I quite like this approach as there are no right or wrong choices and it leaves you to make the call for yourself. This makes it a better informed choice, without guiding everyone down the same path.

There are backgrounds for all the major characters, and specs for all the weapons and creatures. These are accompanied by notes from the Ion Storm playtesters offering helpful advice. The best general tips for how to play the game can be found in these, if you want to avoid the full walkthrough.

The walkthrough sections each start with transcripts of some of the conversations you will overhear in each area. These are shown out of context but they still get across some of the storyline. The walkthrough itself uses annotated maps, and is fairly entertaining to read throughout, without going into the plot in any real depth. The 4 various endings are spelled out for you allowing you to take your pick, although I expect most players will go back and try them all.

I would like to have seen lists of the more important items somewhere in the walkthrough. I’m sure the vast majority get mentioned but it is definitely the main downside of this guide. The walkthrough is much better organised than Thief 2 was anyway, giving simple indications of which locations and instructions relate to receiving and completing particular quests. I do quite like to see some artwork in these guides, but it did seem a little overdone here with the same images appearing over and over again.

On the whole, this is another decent guide from Prima though. There is a lot less superfluous text than plenty of others I’ve looked at, and this keeps it entertaining and relevant throughout. It is scanned in and available with all the other downloads. I’ve started reading the final Technocrat War novel which will be the next book on here. I’m also planning on a playthrough of Freelancer, possibly starting this weekend.

Thief 2 – Official Guide

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I’ve had a policy of saving the best till last with these books recently. This means books like the final Technocrat War novel and More Avatar Adventures are getting held back while I get through some of the one’s I’m not expecting too much from. My hopes for the Thief 2 guide were never high given that the first one was substandard in near enough every way, offering little for either the fan looking for extra information or the more casual gamer who just wanted helping through a level or two.

The Thief 2 guide is arguably better, but I’m sorry to say it is basically the same again. The level walkthroughs still take the form of a lengthy series of instructions with screenshots for the game. The only maps you get are those from the game, which is fine when they are clear but useless in the levels where they weren’t. You would expect there to be a list of loot, but you have to read your way through the whole walkthrough to find loot locations. Whether all the loot is mentioned is hard to say, although it does admit not doing so for at least one of the levels (despite claims to the contrary on the front cover).

Because of the format used, if you do need help with a level you are reduced to reading the whole walkthrough until you can spot something relevant. At least in this guide that help will probably be there but I’d have expected something better than this. If it was done in the form of a narrative, perhaps from Garrett’s point of view, I’d be more forgiving but it isn’t anything you would want to read through for fun.

The first 30 pages or so of the book, give some general background information but there is little of note here either. There is a short interview with the project lead to give some insight into the design process which is the highlight. Other sections go through the various weapons, items and enemies but this doesn’t tell you much that you wouldn’t pick up from simply playing the game.

This book does strike me as being more helpful than the Thief 1 guide but it’s still one of the worst that I’ve looked at for the blog, with little to offer over an FAQ. A classic game like this deserved far better. Against my better judgement, I’ve just ordered the Thief 3 guide. Let’s hope that proves to be better.

Apart from Thief 2, I’ve scanned the guides for Clandestiny and Galapagos since the last post. I expect most people haven’t heard of either of these games, possibly for good reason but they are both of interest at least to me. Clandestiny was by the same people as The 7th Guest and 11th Hour and follows the same formula as both of those. It takes a more cartoony approach and has lower production values than either of those games, but is still worth a look for anyone who enjoyed those first two. It sold incredibly poorly, but can still be picked up relatively cheaply thanks to the low demand.

Galapagos is an even more obscure game which came out around the mid 90’s. It had an almost unique premise of using an A.I. creature as the game’s protagonist, which was entirely out of the control of the player. You have to manipulate the environment around the creature to get it through some bizarre 3D levels. Your little creature allegedly learns as you progress, making it easier or harder to shepherd around depending on how you treat it. The dodgy camera, high difficulty and the uncontrollable player character made this a serious test of your patience, but there is something about it that appeals to me. I’ve certainly never played anything else like it.

I’ve also been sent scans for The Dig which aren’t anything to do with Origin but I’ve added them onto the list anyway. Many thanks to Matt for these.

The Deus Ex – Invisible War guide will be next, probably tomorrow.