Deep In The Heart Of Texas II – PC Zone

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This is the second part of an article on Origin from the February 1994 PC Zone. If you are wondering where part one is, the short answer is that I don’t have the January issue. That apparently dealt with Ultima VIII and Warbirds 1917-1918 (Warbirds later become Wings Of Glory). It’s strange that the Strike branding wasn’t used for the title really although to me a game called French Strike conjours up images of a gallic airport worker simulator.

This article concentrates on previews of Bioforge and Pacific Strike with passing mentions to Wing Commander and System Shock. According to this System Shock was called Bios Fear for a time which I have to say would have been a great (if not all that commercial) title.

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Shadowcaster Review – PC Format

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Wing Commander Saga is still on hold as the weather this week has been far too good to be inside playing games. This review is taken from the December 1993 PC Format:-

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I could have done with reading this particular review before I played the game myself. I’d only seen the marketing and screenshots and was expecting another Underworld. I still liked the game enough to finish it but the waiting around referred to in the article does get a bit much. If you aren’t careful in the combat, this is the sort of game where you could read a book or watch a few movies during the pauses while you heal up.

I’m not entirely sure but I think I might have picked Shadowcaster up originally not long after it came out when I returned Privateer. Returning Privateer seems like sacrilege now but in my defense it simply wasn’t playable with the stated minimum specs and the price tag was a small fortune to me at the time. One of the main appeals of Shadowcaster on the other hand was just how smoothly it ran in a large window on a student grade PC.

Wing Commander Academy Review – PC Format

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After all the Underworld posts yesterday, I’ll rein myself back to an entry a day again for the moment. If you still want more Underworld, I’d strongly recommend having a look at the anniversary page over at the new home of Ultima Aiera (www.ultimacodex.com). There is an interview with Dan Schmidt (including a handful of questions from yours truly), design notes, concept art by Warren Spector and plenty more besides.

I’ve not started Wing Commander Saga yet so I’ll get back to some magazine scans today. These all come from the October 1993 PC Format. First is a review of Wing Commander Academy. It didn’t bowl the reviewer over and I can only agree in this case. It was a product that a lot of people had asked for to be fair but in my opinion it really could have done with coming out at least a year earlier if it was to find a large market:-

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This lack of timeliness is especially apparent when you see a 2 page advert for Privateer in the same issue, not that my PC could actually cope with Privateer when it came out. WCA did have that in its favour but it was still a poor option compared to any of the existing Wing Commander games or mission packs if you didn’t already own the lot. I’m sure I’ve got a proof and the negatives for this Privateer advert or at least a variant on it around here but I’ll save them for another time:-

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Not content with having a 2 page ad, there is also a full page for Shadow Caster:-

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Ultima Underworld 3 – Game Story

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My final item for the Ultima Underworld 20th anniversary is a game story design document for the never released Underworld 3. This details an entire potential storyline for the game as of August 22nd 1997 and is available as a pdf from here.

The Ultima connection appears to have been dropped in favour of another fantasy world and the game is far less dungeon based than UW1 & 2. The document is only a brief outline and there is precious little about gameplay unfortunately. I find it hard to form an opinion of how Underworld 3 might have turned out based on this alone but the scale of some of the events was certainly ambitious for 3D engines of the time and the potential was there. It’s hard not to think that this would have been in direct competition with Ultima 9 which could be one reason why it never happened.

There is far more detail on Underworld 3 in the archives at the University of Texas. That would be something of a lengthy round trip for me and all I’ve seen of it is on this Facebook page.

Ultima Underworld Scans – My top 3

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For the penultimate Underworld post today, I thought I’d pick out some of my favourite Underworld related scans/items already on the site. I of course like anything to do with Underworld but I’ll limit myself to 3:-

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First off I have to mention More Avatar Adventures. This is a large paperback published back in 1993 which is part hintbook but mainly novel and tells the entire story of Ultima Underworld (as well at Ultima 7) as related by the Avatar. My review is available here and a scanned copy of the book is available from here. This book is a fantastic way to relive the game without actually playing it.

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Secondly, I did a post fairly recently with scans of some of the artwork and cutouts used when designing the map which was included with the game. This post can be seen here. I always love bits and pieces like this that were used in the design stages, especially when it’s to do with Underworld.

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Finally there is a scanned review of Underworld from the May 1992 PC Review. This particular article was ultimately responsible for getting me into Ultima and RPG’s in the first place. It therefore has a lot to answer for and has to deserve a mention in this top 3. This can be viewed here.