Category Archives: Ultima 5

Ultima 5 Review – Games Machine Magazine

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This is another magazine scan from the World Of Spectrum archives. You might be seeing a few of these over the coming weeks. This time it’s a short review of Ultima 5 on PC from Games Machine magazine in November 1988. It gets a glowing review with a score of 91% but I don’t get the feeling that the reviewer spent too long with the game.

TheGamesMachine1100046

Ultima Patcher – Fixes

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I’ve had chance to test the patcher more thoroughly and sorted out a few issues:-

  • There were problems with Ultima 4 and both Underworlds when the games weren’t installed in the usual directories. It would ask you to choose the directory but then not open the form for that game. This is now fixed.
  • I’ve tidied up the player transfer substantially for Ultima 5. It would previously never find the correct Ultima 4 directory automatically unless you happened to have the same username as me. To make this simpler, you now just need to specify where you installed Ultima 4 and it does the searching in virtualstore automatically if required. It probably isn’t needed but I’ve made the same changes for Ultima 6 also.
  • I’ve added links to the websites of the various patches, where I could find them.
  • It shouldn’t crash any more if expected files are missing.
  • I’ve added an about page + a version number. I’ve nominally called this version 1.0.

To the best of my knowledge it’s working correctly now. It’s still ugly but I’ll leave it as is unless anyone runs into problems with it, or has good ideas for things I should change. If GOG releases any more Ultima’s, I’ll add them in as well. I think there is just the one more release due in this batch from EA. We’ve had far more Ultima games than I expected already but I’ve still got some hope we might see the Worlds Of Ultima games next week.

Ultima Patcher Update

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I’ve acquired a copy of UW 1 + 2 from GOG, thanks to the generosity of Loaf, and have added both games onto the patcher. Apart from the various patches, I added in a toggle for sound devices. I’ve also included a couple more Ultima 4 patches. The U4 form is looking a little crowded so hopefully that’s all of them.

I’d just about got that ready when GOG surprised me with more Ultima games in the form of the second trilogy. This time I’ve bought them myself and although there aren’t as many patches available for these, what there is I’ve added into the patcher. GOG aren’t supporting character transfer at the moment which isn’t any fun, so I’ve included an option to mount your savegame directory for the previous game to allow the in-game character transfer to work correctly.

There are a few things to note:-

  • The Spanish translation patch for Underworld included a replacement .exe. This has been altered to give loads of experience so you are level 8 by the time you walk down the first corridor. As far as I can tell, the .exe isn’t needed for the translation and only affects the messages during start-up so I’ve not included it.
  • The Ultima 4 Music Patch has some serious slowdown in-game, so I tell Dosbox to run with maximum cycles to improve it. This isn’t exactly ideal and even then it slows down when playing PC speaker sound. I don’t know if there is a later version available which would improve this, or possibly some alternative DOSBox settings. The VGA version certainly doesn’t have this problem. As it stands, I’m tempted to remove this patch.
  • For character transfers in Ultima 5, the PARTY.SAV in the game’s directory is not the one that is used when you save your game. It will no doubt be different on XP but on Windows 7 it uses the directory “C:UsersRichardAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram Files (x86)GOG.comUltima 4” or a close equivalent depending on where the game is installed. When asked to choose your save game directory, you need to make sure you get the right one although the patcher will probably select it for you if it’s in the default location. If you have the free Utlima 4 and the one in the trilogy, then you have two lots of savegames. These are never deleted when uninstalling, no matter what you select when asked.
  • Finally, these latest additions are a rush job to get it done before I head out to watch the rugby tonight, so there may be problems. If it all works then I just need to plug the holes and possibly improve the interface next. Please let me know if something doesn’t work, or you have any suggestions.

Day 31

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 I only set out to level up a bit but I ended up finishing Ultima 5 last night. I wandered round a couple of dungeons clearing out monsters for a while but it wasn’t all that entertaining so I figured I may as well clear out Shame to get a nice easy path to the final Dungeon Doom.

This is the first room of Shame and there is nowhere to go. A lot of axe throwing at walls and eventually I find a way out.

Shame once again has new graphics for the dungeon, and looks like a mine. The dungeon doesn’t prove to be particularly difficult even with my low level party. I get down to level 8 in no time and use a des por spell to exit out into the underworld.

Once out I make my way to the center of the underworld. There is a large area of darkness here as seen in the above gem view. Using the amulet of Lord British clears this enough to see the entrance to the dungeon. I yell veramocor, rest up and head in.

I really don’t expect to have a change of making it through here but I figured I could clear out some rooms of monsters, get some experience and try again later. The first room has no exits. I have to use the sceptre to dispell some fields on one side. Doom is much harder than any of the other dungeons and very maze like. Despite this I get down to the lower levels pretty quickly and start to get the idea I might just finish the game with this party.

Just when I thought it was easy I hit this room. Dragon, demons and giant mouths in the sand. The ladder is under the monster in the middle. To escape I have to kill it, then take all the treasure it drops before the ladder is visible. I use a load of negate time scrolls here and manage to get 3 of my party through alive. This takes me straight to another screen full of dragons. I negate time again and make a dash to get out. By the time I do only the avatar is left alive.

 Even though I’ve only got the one level 5 character I push on. There aren’t all that many rooms I have to get through now and using the last of my negate time scrolls I actually make it through to LB.

LB is trapped behind the mirror. I walk upto it and get sucked into the mirror image.

He asks me if I brought his box (and thankfully I did) and then takes his moonstone out of it and Britannia is saved.

I’m sent straight home without really finding out what happened but this is all covered in a nice endgame sequence.


Blackthorn is banished, Britannia is saved and I’m back home again. I’m really surprised I made it through Doom. My party was level 1-3 with a level 5 avatar. I really needed all those negate time scrolls I got robbing the treasury at the start.

Now I’ve finished the game, I’d say it improved on almost every aspect of Ultima 4 but I really didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much. This engine and gameplay really was taken to the limit with this game as far as I’m concerned and a new approach which we got in Ultima 6 was definitely needed. The combat is a bit too slow and difficult for my liking – the fact I got a single character through to the end of the game is interesting – I really think the game would be more fun with no party and it would speed up combat no end.

Next: Times Of Lore