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