This is a combined review of Ultima and Ultima Underworld from the August 1992 PC Plus:-
Ultima 7/Underworld Review – PC Plus
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Category Archives: Ultima Underworld
Ultima Patcher Update
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.
Most Influencial PC Games Of All Time
I’m sure there will be a few I’ve missed along the way but this is the last relevant article I could find scanning through all my old magazines.
This one is from March 2001 and is a run through of the most influential PC games of all time with 2 Origin games in the short list:-
Ultima Underworld – PC Review
I’m back from my week away, not exactly rested up but raring to get on with Noctropolis nonetheless. I’m going to start that today, but first I thought it was time for a little more filler from the bookshelves.
I’m not the sort of person who likes to throw things away, which means I have more or less all of my old PC games magazines. Here in the UK, I’m not aware of specialist PC gaming magazines cropping up until relatively late on so in the earlier days of my PC gaming I had to rely on small gaming sections in magazines like PC Plus. When they did arrive my magazine of choice for many years was PC Review, of which the earliest I have is Issue 7 from May 1992.
Skipping onto Issue 8, there is a 5 page review of Ultima Underworld. This review is the reason I bought the game which was my first (and still favourite) of the series. I was somewhat familiar with Origin already from the Wing Commander games but my only exposure to Ultima had been some pirated copies of Ultima 1 and 2, which I’d borrowed, laughed at how primitive the graphics were and then ignored. Ultimately this review got me into RPG’s, although I’m sure it was going to happen sooner or later. I include scans of each page below. Click on the image to get it in full size.
Day 76
I start out today with having replayed the game with my hacked character more or less to exactly where I was in the first place before the inventory bug struck. My first task is to take the picture of Tom back to Judy on Level 5.
She cries a single tear which drops in the lava to make the final bit of my 3 part key.
Next I take Garamons bones back to his grave on the same level. As soon as I do so he is able to talk to me like any other character. We need to create a gate to send this demon back to its original world.
After a quick quiz we establish that the way to do this is to throw all 8 talismans into the center of the volcano right in the middle of level 8. To get into this room I need the key of infinity which I’ve already got.
The center of Level 8 is a pretty dangerous place with lava, fire elementals and golems all over. I kill off everything in sight before opening the door with the 3 part key.
Inside is the slasher of veils still bound to the spot. I throw all my talismans at him one at a time…
Garamon creates his gate but I’m sucked inside.
I end up in a very strange world. The clue to the way out goes right back to that orb on level one where I take the green path in my vision. The odds on anyone remembering that at this point are slim but there is only a choice of two paths anyway.
The path twists and turns all over the place and I can’t afford to fall off as there is just void below me. There are all sorts of strange creatures floating about which I just ignore – they are just there for decoration as such. The slasher of veils chases me the whole way with my HP going down all the time.
Finally with my HP running out I see a green moongate. I run through and the end cutscene kicks in.
Britannia is saved once again and the abyss is cleared out to no doubt reappear in Ultima 7 in a new form. I’ll be interested to see if any of the characters in this are in Destard in Ultima 7 when I get that far.
I had been looking forward to replaying this game and while I enjoyed most of it having to replay 95% of it because of the inventory bug has left me pretty much glad to have it out of the way. It must have taken all of 10-15 mins to finish up today – I could hardly have been any nearer the end when I had to restart. It goes to show how a great game can be ruined by bugs or in this case a single bug.
Having said that, I do like the ending of this game. The ethereal void section is quite tense as you have to dash full at full speed trying not to fall off the path while constantly losing HP. Added to the strange world and creatures it makes for an exciting end and certainly impressed me back in the early 90’s when I played it first. It was also about the only bit of the game that ran smoothly on my 386SX as I remember. The end cutscene is perhaps a little briefer than I would have liked with no new music or anything but it wraps things up nicely enough.
Next: Wing Commander 2 – Special Operations 2