Underworld Ascendant

I don't remember if it was a special promo or an always thing. but I got Savage empire, Marian dreams and Quest of the avatar free on GOG.

Despite being and "ultima fan" and labeling it as my favorite rpg series. although DQ was always in tight running, and DG8 went a long way to possibly putting on top..
My ultima history is really spotty.

NES versions of 3 Exodus and 4 Quest of the avatar.
I think I rented 5 Warriors of Virtue, but didn't buy, and thus never got far, for some reason.
Same with 6 False prophet on the snes.

PC finally up to date to run a pc ultima...
8 Pagan. Actually played the hell out of it. I wonder if the source of my despising jump puzzles... (nah, pretty sure Turok is to blame for that) was gamefaqs around then? how the hell did I finish this?
9 Ascension. yeah. it was bad.

Pirated 7.5 Serpent isle as some point, but never really played it.
Got Underworld from a friend, in college. It came out in 1992. It played it in, 98 or 99 or so. Did play and finish this.
UO off and on.

Yeah, I never played the two Worlds Of games at all. But I have them on my GOG account. Probably from the same promo that Caliane used. I just remember they were giving them away for free at one point.

I played 1 and 2 on PC. 3 and 4 on NES. Halfway through 5 on PC. 6 on SNES. And the rest on PC.

I started out on 2 for the c64, which was in a strange flimsy box published by sierra. Then 3 and 4 I got and still have the boxes for them, published by origin for c64. They had nice boxes and manuals and little coins and goodies.

Then somewhere in there they re-released 1 and I got it, I think on C64, then 5 on amiga. 6 I don't think I ever legitimately bought until "the ultima collection", and I think I finished it only a few years ago. 7 I got a few years late via "the complete ultima 7". 8 I was really desperate for, and was on fast university internet, and grabbed it a few days before I could get it in a store, which I eventually did. Not really sure where my 8 box is.

9 I still have a collectors edition box of it, though it is kind of smashed. I really should have gotten Richard to sign all this crap when I worked for him.

I love all that old stuff, but now everything I buy I just want digital. No more junk to lug about every time I move.

btw are the nintendo versions fairly close to the computer? I know there were some differences between platforms in some of them. Like 3 on the c64 autosaved all the time. If a player died it saved, or if you zoned in or out of somewhere it would save. You could really get in trouble that way, especially with gremlins stealing food.

not really no. hah.

The text systems removed entirely.
Plays alot more like a simple dragon quest/warrior.

Quick google for an article on it. heres one.
NES-Port of Ultima III - The Codex of Editable Wisdom, a Wikia wiki for Ultima and Ultima Online
I'm sure there are better breakdowns.

I spent a shit load of time on 3 for the NES when I was a kid.

I eventually found that the best way to beat the game was to stay at level 1 as long as possible. That way your wizard and cleric could cast their monster wiping spells and make fights trivial. You went around at level 1 doing everything you could possibly do. Then you used all the accumulated experience to level to 5 (the cap without the mark of kings), get a ship and everything possible before hitting Ambrosia. Then you'd level the rest of the way up with the rest of the accumulated experience, go to Ambrosia for the Cards and bum rush Exodus (fighting as little as possible), activate the terminal and beat the game.

I would spend 90% of the game at level 1 and then just rush through the rest of the game as fast as possible. I remember if you did fights legit, they took FOREVER. So I just abused the fuck out of those level 1 spells to wipe enemy parties.

Ultima IV for the NES was much better balanced. It used a lot of the same core systems from III but fights didn't seem nearly as bad and they didn't take nearly as long. I think the only time fights would get really annoying was in the Abyss at the end of the game.

Ahhh that brings back memories of ultima 3. The version I had they made ships extremely rare. You couldn't buy them, you just had to capture a pirate ship. I got as far as I could without one, then was just stuck.

So I did alot of fighting and plundering and bought up the max food amount (9999 I think), and then I found a place I could idle where monsters couldn't get to me, and I'd wedge a coin in the pass key (spacebar) and go off to school. When I got home there would be a big pile of monsters all queued up to fight me. Took several days of doing that to get a boat to spawn.

I had Space Hulk on my 3D0, damn fun game.

this launched today, anyone take the plunge? good / bad / meh?

Steam reviews are atrocious so far.

oh, wow. hadnt heard anything about this in a while. had no idea is was ready to release.

Caliane said:

had no idea is was ready to release.

Click to expand...

Based on what I'm seeing, pretty sure it wasn't.

lol yeah. that joke wrote itself after looking at the reviews.