Ancient Ultima Games Now at GOG.COM

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 1, 2011

I think these have now become the absolute oldest games in GOG.COM’s repository… the first Ultima Trilogy, and Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar are now available from Good Old Games.

And as a side note, am I the only one who calls them “Gog-dot-com?” I notice they call themselves “Gee-Oh-Gee-dot-com.” Maybe it’s because they don’t want to be associated with the the forces of darkness at the end of days referred to in the book of Revelation so much. Or to emphasize that it stands for “Good Old Games.” Probably more the latter.

But anyway: the early Ultimas. Ultima IV is free from the site, as it has been free from many sites over the years, courtesy of EA. If you really want a taste of the past, that’s a pretty low-risk way to start. I’d personally recommend XU4 with the graphics update. The last time I checked (and it was a while ago), you needed the original Ultima IV (the data files) to run XU4 anyway, so now’s your chance. GOG.COM nicely provides some extra materials and support for the game for your price of free, so it’s a win / win.

Sadly, these Ultima versions (for DOS) are pretty inferior to other versions. PCs back in the day were boring business machines, with none of those gamer frills like color graphics and quality sound. And they were just ports. So Ultima III: Exodus, for example, runs in 4 colors (instead of 16), and only has sound effects that would run off a PC’s built-in speaker. CRAP. But there’s really no other way to get a legal copy of the game short of E-Bay extortion.

And while I snagged them just to show my support for what they were doing, I didn’t really expect to play these old titles. But I’ve found myself playing Ultima III. There’s one good thing to say about the grindy gameplay of some of these RPGs – it’s really easy to drop and pick back up again for a fifteen minute “fix.” Some aspects of the game were better than I remembered. Others were far, far worse. I will say that the game really provides you with a money sink for you gold. Between food, and the cost of raising your attributes, you can never have too much gold. Well, actually, that’s not true, as an amount in excess of 9999 gold in any character will cause gold to go negative, which is a bad thing. So yes, yes there is such a thing as too much gold.

Would I recommend these titles? Ultima IV, definitely, for anyone who is more than idly curious about the history of computer RPGs. It’s like looking at modern RPGs in embryo. You really have to put on your retrogamer hat to enjoy it through cumbersome interfaces and a lot of “do it yourself” requirements that modern titles do for you. But it is a landmark title in gaming history. I really can’t say there isn’t any part of the game that hasn’t been done better many times over, but in some ways the simplicity of the approach is half of what makes it so appealing. Once you get past the limitations of the technology and design, there is still an entertaining adventure to enjoy in there. It’s like enjoying a silent movie.

The previous three Ultimas are another story. Ultima III really blew my mind back in the day. It can’t do that today. After all, I have very little mind left… a small target. But it has also been clearly surpassed in every way (particularly by later Ultimas). Somehow I still find it to be fun and enjoyable, but the first Ultima trilogy may be something mostly for the hardcore retrogamers or collectors. Or designers of old-school-style RPGs. 🙂

In fact, I’ll go ahead and share four design elements from Ultima III that – while hardly unique (or even original, at the time) – stand out simply because the game is so simple (relative to today’s offerings):

1. Multiple paths to power. Experience points are only a small part of the equation. Equipment – except for finding the Exotics – was all available for sale at the various shops (though only one shop carried the best stuff), so that wasn’t even a big factor. But gaining power through the “marks” in dungeons, and spending a TON of money on increasing your stats, were just as important.

2. Money sinks – besides buying equipment and increasing stats, you needed a positive cash flow to stay alive due to the constant use of food, and using certain expendable items – namely gems, powders, keys, and torches. And occasional healing in town.

3. Adventure-gamey elements. So much of getting to the end game can only be achieved through figuring out clues scattered across the world. Or, I guess, reading spoilers.

4. Dungeons: Fountains in dungeons that invite you to drink from them (with different effects). Other (critical) artifacts in dungeons. And weird funky dungeon layouts that make navigation a challenge.

5. Open-world design. Generally a hallmark of the Ultima games, but not exclusive to them.

Now bring on later Ultimas!

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

Ken said,

Yeah, even though I’m hellishly busy at work, as soon as I saw the Ultima I-III pack I bought it.

I remember being a kid and my mother bringing home the Apple II from school every summer, and playing the hell out of II and III with those floppy disks and primitive graphics. It’s what made me a gamer.

So I booted up II last night and was transported back to those days, and to the time when summer meant no responsibilities to speak of.

{Two questions: 1. How do you exit out of the game? 2. Where are the maps?]
Rampant Coyote said,

There are some maps available for download separately on GOG.COM as ‘extras’.

As far as exiting the game… I don’t know. I just shut down DOSBOX.
Adamantyr said,

Ultima III on computers is kind of enticing… I found that with some slings and a handful of fights like I was getting somewhere, in that Diablo-addictive kind of way…

Then I tried the same techniques on the NES port. Epic fail. The game is radically different, especially in mechanics.

For example, in the PC version I could go into a close dungeon and get to a healing fountain which was much cheaper than town for HP recovery.

In the NES version, you are AUTOMATICALLY attacked in dungeons after a set period of time, no matter what you do. And unlike the PC version, where even with leather armor and slings you have a reasonable chance of survival, the NES version has tiered encounters so you are completely unable to fight mid-range monsters. Bleh.

PC versions of Ultima do kind of suck, though, for graphics and sound. Commodore 64 has the music but is rather sluggish to play. (And the C64 Ultima’s are hard to find; I got them off c64.com years ago before they inexplicably disappeared… probably a C&D from EA) Apple II is probably the best for playability, and you get used to the 6-color display…
Wilhelm Arcturus said,

Somewhere in my boxes of stuff I have the full Ultima series pack they were selling about a decade back. I bought it specifically to play Ultima III. I might have to dig it out now and see what it looks like.

In my mind, it is the Apple II version complete with the extra music track you needed the Mockingboard sound card to hear. But that might just be my brain condensing memories again, and shoving 1999 and 1984 together in a container, writing “Ultima III memories” on it with a Sharpie, and then storing some ancient ISDN data in the freed up space.

Way back in the 80s I bought a 3rd party editor for Ultima 3 that basically let you re-string the whole game. I created a Bored of the Rings version of the whole thing which, again, in my faded memory was awesome. It might have been, though I was young and easily impressed back then.
Felix Pleșoianu said,

I’ve actually played two of the first three Ultimas. On an actual XT, no less. Never got anywhere with them — even back then, those games were just too hardcore for me. But hey, I can rightfully claim to know what they’re like.
LateWhiteRabbit said,

I call it Gog-dot-com as well, Rampant.

If the acronym can be pronounced as a word, I say it that way, like with NASA or DARPA.

That’s what they get for not forming their acronyms out of all consonants. ;P
Barry Brenesal said,

I was contemplating a Commodore as my first computer (I’d used mainframes before that–remember Colossal Cave?), and noticed a game sold is the customary manner at the time: a sealed baggie, with a disk and mimeo’d instructions. It was Ultima I. It was also up on one of the machines, and I asked if there was a chance of a port to, say, the PC. “Probably in 10 years,” the salesman assured me, so I wasn’t about to give him any of my business.

Loved Ultima IV, I agree. The series really took off with that. But I think VI and VII were the best, while V’s been redone for the Dungeon Siege II engine, and looks great. So IV’s your favorite?
Acrin1 said,

I completed Ultima 4 under Commodore 64 emulation last year after first playing it over 20 years ago. As a C64 player music has always been an important part of the Ultima games – different music in different parts of the game creating a different atmosphere or tone.

As for the DOS versions there are patches available that make Ultima 2,3,4 and 5 more like the C64 / Apple II versions. The patches for 2 and 3 replace the CGA graphics with 16 colours I beleive and add midi music to Ultima 3,4 and 5. You can get them from:

http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?event=project&typeKeyword=upgrades
Rampant Coyote said,

Actually, U7 is my favorite, but U4 was the point for me where CRPGs came of age. As cool and as mind-blowing as they were before that, CRPGs were still sort of a poor-man’s D&D game. Ultima 4 – in my eyes – showed that a computer game could really add something cool and special to the mix. Not that it couldn’t be done in pen-and-paper, but with the NPC conversations, virtue system, more interesting dungeon rooms, theming, etc. it proved that CRPGs could really hold their own and be their own thing. It really blazed a trail and showed how much more could be done with the genre.
Rampant Coyote said,

Oooh, thanks for the links, Acrin1! I’ll have to try those out!
Xian said,

I played Ultima II, III, and IV years ago on the Atari 8 bit, though I ended up upgrading Ultima IV to the Atari ST version. Ultima IV’s sound was amazing on the Atari St. It would output though the built in MIDI ports. I had a Yamaha DX7 and Ensoniq Mirage connected, and nothing even came close to sounding that good until the wavetable cards such as the Soundblaster AWE came out nearly a decade later.

Ultima II looks like the graphics have been upgraded, from the screenshots on GoG. The only one in the screenshots still in CGA was Ultima III, but you could use the patch Acrin1 mentioned above.

I still have the original box for Ultima I on the PC, though I no longer have a 5 1/4″ floppy. It was released in 1986 if I remember right, after Ultima IV – I don’t think it was ported to the PC when it was originally released. I played it on an Amiga with a bridgeboard that allowed you to play PC games. The box shows Origin’s address as New Hampshire, so it was before they moved to Texas.
Andy said,

I think the first two games are mostly good for historical perspective but III is still an honestly fun game to me. Admittedly it was one of my first CRPGs and the box art really imprinted on me as a young heavy metal fan 🙂

IV really raised the bar in every way, though, and is still one of the best RPGs ever.