That was interesting...

[Tracy]

Been working on Ultima 1 for a bit. The first Ultima game was released officially in June 1981, two years before I was born...lol. I wanted more info on the history, so I'll be working through many old school Ultima games over the coming months.

Anyway, I got the 4 colored gems from the 4 lords, killed the space aliens (yeah, that's a thing in Ultima 1 lol), then traveled through time. For those of you who've never played it, here's how the end of it all went down:

Stepping into the time machine:



Stepping out of the time machine:



Destroying the Gem of Immortality (which subsequently led to UO having multiple "shards" instead of a "server" setup like other games have):



Mondain, after taking some hits, turns into a bat to flee:



And then I chase him down to a corner and kill him.



Also, if you don't destroy the Gem right away, the bat keeps respawning again. lol. It was a fun game. Couple weeks' break, then I start on Ultima 2. Mondain's dead, but his protege Minax fills the evil void left behind by Mondain's passing...

Oh, and of course, the final screen that wraps up the 6 lines of story presented in the game from front to end (LOL):

[Tracy]

Oh, and this was the re-coded version from 1986, so the graphics here are actually better than what's portrayed in Ultima 2, which was released in August 1982 but not re-coded.

A little blurb about Ultima 1 from Wikipedia, regarding it's reception:

Softline (magazine) stated in 1981 that "Ultima seems to be the best" available Apple II role-playing game. The magazine called the graphics "impressive" and concluded that it "retails for $39.95 and is well worth the price". Computer Gaming World in 1991 called the game "truly epic in scope", stating that it was among the first to have outdoor settings and NPC conversations. While noting the "unbalanced combat system", the magazine concluded that Ultima I was "a classic not to be missed".

I paid $5.99 for the first "trilogy" pack, Ultima 1, 2, and 3 on GOG (Good old games). They have all the standalone Ultima titles up through and including Ultima IX: Ascension, if anyone's interested.

[KDSonoma]

that's really cool. I started playing Ultima with Ultima 3. I also enjoyed the Savage Empire (I think thats what it was called), and the one on Mars.

The Savage Empire had me stumped at one point.

You had to get by this gorilla that was blocking a cave. You had a gun, so I shot the gorilla and nothing happened. I tried shooting everything, and finally shot a boulder way above him that fell down and killed him.

So he had 100% resist to a bullet and 0% resist to rocks.



Go figure.

Thanks for the screen shots. Cant wait to see Ultima 3 when you finish that.

KD

[Tracy]

lol. I'll keep that in mind. When I bought 1/2/3 GOG gave me a complimentary pack that included all the manuals, maps, cluebook, spellbooks (the latter two I didn't use), as well as Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (which I think you were referring to), and its medley, a cluebook, manual, map, and reference card, as well as Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar, with manual, map, cluebook, spellbook, reference card, and an interview with Richard Garriott.

Lot of material for the price. Highly recommend.

I'll be repurchasing 4 anyway when I buy 4/5/6 eventually. 5 was the first one where the song "Stones", written by Iolo, was featured. I had a link to someone playing that on the piano that I posted in another thread. My wife was watching him play and pointed out that he never used his middle finger on his left hand, and that the person playing looked like he had pretty severe Rhumatism.