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The Peddler Of Fake Akalabeths Has Struck Again!

Posted by WtF Dragon On February - 18 - 2012

Sadly, I was on a plane when Stephen Emond alerted me to this eBay sale, which is almost certainly a scam, and so was unable to post about it before sales on the item finished. I greatly pity the “winner” of the auction, who is now out over $1,300 on an item that is almost assuredly fake.

Which, by the way, would be this:

akalabeth-fake

Akalabeth on tape. TAPE!

Now, as a general rule, we can probably just take the good Mr. Emond’s word for it that this copy of Akalabeth is, well, a fake. I mean, he should know, right? A cursory glance at the auction page also gives reason for caution, such as the seller’s assertion that he found this item at a “Military-Surplus Flea-Market” in “1994″. Or his warning about the integrity of the package:

Item “SOLD AS IS” due to Untested condition, lack of necessary hardware/knowledge & long storage period, over 15 years.
Could be only good for retro Data restoration enthusiasts or arrive “DOA”-Dead On Arrival, unsure :-/

Which is really a lot of words with which to say “I will be sending you a blank tape.” But since there is still a tiny measure of plausibility to all of the above, Stephen Emond also suggests having a read of

categories: Featured, Site News

Richard Garriott: “I’d take a one-way trip to Mars”

Posted by WtF Dragon On January - 27 - 2012

Motherboard has a lengthy interview with Ultima creator and private astronaut Richard Garriott, which bears the amusing title “Life’s a Game and Then You Die on Mars”. As has been the case with most interviews Garriott has given over the last little while, this one focuses both on Lord British’s journey into space and his career as a game developer. What’s different is that much of the space-related portion of this interview focuses on Garriott’s passion to see humans reach the surface of Mars one day.

He’d even volunteer to go himself and help settle the place! And failing that, he has a couple of backup plans:

It may or may not be able to occur within my adventuring lifetime, but if it were, I’d be one of the first people headed over to Mars. I’d take a one-way trip to Mars to help settle a new planet.

That being said, there’s still plenty of opportunities left on Earth. I’m going back to the Titanic this summer for the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking. I hope to — I’ve been trying to get it for a few years now and haven’t made much progress — but another big terrestrial adventure I’ve been trying to put together is visiting disappearing indigenous populations of the Earth.

There’s really very few truly remote and isolated civilizations, but there are some. Before they’re all completely absorbed, I have a strong interest in seeing some truly non-Westernized cultures and really understanding some of the differences of cultural identity and belief and organization has evolved in the earliest forms of humanity.

The article gets into great detail about a variety of science & technology issues that Garriott is passionate about, such as the X Prize, and also touches on Lord British’s concerns with how scientific research is funded and encouraged in America. I’ll leave it to all of you to read the section for yourselves — it’s quite interesting, and I wouldn’t do it justice with an excerpt — but I will say that the point he raises that I find most intersting is that there needs to be a quicker, more direct path between scientific discoveries and a market/private usage application thereof.

Random factoid I was unaware of:

Some cosmonauts lost their lives during those landings.

But that was 35 years ago, very, very early on in the program. The Soyuz is actually now considered a hundred to a thousand times safer then the Shuttle.

Naturally, the interview shifts gears toward the end, and puts some focus on Garriott’s history as a game developer and what he has planned next in that space. Interestingly — though I suppose not surprisingly — Lord British has not played the most recent game that has been favourably compared to the Ultima series: Bethesda Softworks’ Skyrim.

What have you been doing on the gaming front since your departure from NCSoft in 2008?

We’re working on a variety of names already. Either Akalabeth or Lord British’s Ultimate Role Playing Game, just to do a tie back to the past. I have a game in production now that will set the stage for a ten-times-larger audience, aiming to do what we did before with MMORPGs, bringing ten times more people into role playing games.

Have you played some of the hot new RPGs, like Minecraft or Skyrim?

Love Minecraft. Haven’t played Skyrim, but from what I know it?s also phenomal. What I love about Minecraft is that it’s an open ended sand box that I enjoy making and playing personally. Skyrim has absolutely first class production valeus, but the company seems devoted to a depth of storytelling that I am, so I’m a big fan of both of those.

Anyhow, Dragons and Dragonettes, do read the whole thing; it’s a brilliant interview, easily the best one Garriott has given in recent months (and he has given many in that time!).

categories: Featured, Site News

Very Obviously Inspired By Akalabeth!

Posted by WtF Dragon On January - 14 - 2012

Whilst perusing Twitter a couple of days ago, I noticed that a fellow by the name of Sheldon Ketterer had tweeted a link to this image:

wbL47

Come at me, adventurer!

About the image, Mr. Ketterer had this to say:

here’s a shot of a game I’m working on, hearkens back to Akalabeth and Dungeons of Daggorath

At present, that’s all there is to tell about it. I’ll be adding a project entry for it soon, once he tells me the working title of the thing. The Akalabeth inspiration is plain to see, and I’ll keep in periodic touch with Mr. Ketterer about the progress of his work.

categories: Site News

The Digital Antiquarian: Lord British, Akalabeth, and California Pacific

Posted by WtF Dragon On December - 20 - 2011

For those who don’t know him, The Digital Antiquarian is the handle adopted by one Jimmy Maher, formerly of Dallas, Texas and currently living in Norway. His blog, which bears the same name, is principally devoted to an analysis of the history of interactive entertainment.

In the last little while, he has put up three articles which are recommended reading for Ultima fans. The first, concerning Richard Garriott personally, looks briefly at each of Garriott’s parents and their backgrounds before going on to chronicle the early history of the man himself, from his youthful days through to the creation of Akalabeth.

If you’ve read The Official Book of Ultima, most of what he covers won’t be new to you…but if you haven’t had a chance to read said tome, give the article a look. The Ultima creator had an…interesting…childhood, to say the very least.

The article concerning Akalabeth is a fairly in-depth look at the game, and again is comprised mostly of material that will be familiar to long-time students of Ultima history. The Antiquarian’s lament, near the start of the article, is humourous, and worth highlighting:

Why do writers of medieval fantasy (including plenty who ought to know much better than our young Mr. Garriott) always turn to the Renaissance-era Shakespeare when they want to make their English diction sound all high-falutin’ and authentic-like? There is a fellow named Geoffrey Chaucer, you know…

Finally, there is the article about California Pacific, one of the earliest publishers of computer games and the company that gave Richard Garriott his big break as the distributor of Akalabeth, and later Ultima 1. It begins thusly:

There are two conflicting stories about how the game that Richard Garriott sold in that Houston-area ComputerLand store made it to the West Coast offices of California Pacific, one of the most prolific and prominent of early Apple II software publishers. One says that the man who had prompted Garriott to start selling Akalabeth in the first place, ComputerLand manager John Mayer, did him a second huge favor by sending a copy of the game to CP for their consideration. The other says that the game got to CP’s offices within a few weeks of appearing in that ComputerLand via software-piracy channels. The latter story is the one Richard himself tells today, and, for what it’s worth, the one I tend to subscribe to. Perhaps the former was invented closer to the events themselves, to avoid anyone having to explain just how pirated software made its way into CP’s offices. However Akalabeth came to their attention, CP’s founder, Al Remmers, called Richard before the summer of 1980 was out, offering to fly him to Davis, California, to discuss a publication contract that would give Akalabeth nationwide distribution.

Honestly, I’ve only ever heard the “first story” myself, which I am inclined to think is the true means by which Akalabeth came to be known to California Pacific. But it is true that software piracy existed even back then (and, indeed, it was a lot easier to pull off back then).

Anyhow…I get the feeling that the Digital Antiquarian will be covering a lot more ground pertaining to Richard Garriott and Ultima in the weeks (and months?) to come, so do be sure to stay tuned to his site!

categories: Featured, Site News

Richard Garriott: “What is a Lord British ‘Ultimate’ Role Playing Game?”

Posted by WtF Dragon On November - 10 - 2011

Richard Garriott has posted a lengthy missive on his Facebook page which asks exactly that question: what is the “ultimate” Lord British RPG? It begins with a look at the Ultima series, proceeding trilogy by trilogy and examining the innovations and achievements of each. Then, as has been the case with various keynote talks he’s given recently, he shifts focus to multiplayer gaming, MMORPGs. The third section discusses social and mobile gaming (mostly social gaming), and the potential in that space.

All of that, though, is just the build up to his answer to his own question:

I continue to debate how much of the new world designs to discuss in public as we work. Some part of me wants the new direction to be as new as possible to you when it arrives fully realized. Another angle is that this world will ultimately be your world, and player participation could both help me in its crafting as well as clearly communicate its depth long before its ready. So, we will see. Likely a mix of secrecy and sharing will be the right path to tread.

Here is what I feel is safe to say: Lord British’s Ultimate Role Playing Game, which may be called “Akalabeth” or may be called “New Britannia” or may be called “a name I cannot yet say as it describes the setting I am considering and think I should keep secret at least until I know if it’s likely true,” will be an Ultimate RPG. You will have customized Avatar homesteads and real roles to play in a deep, beautifully realized highly interactive virtual world. It will have virtues and the hero’s journey reflected back to the player. It will have the best of synchronous and asynchronous features in use. Fiction will support your arrival from earth into this new world. I even hope to make maps, coins and other trinkets available to players of the game.

But, please be understanding. It took 25 years to craft all the detail in Ultima. The new world will start smaller, thinner and lighter. It will have fewer features than some or most MMOs. Critical elements of the story I have just told may be missing upon launch. But fear not, this is where we are headed. Come play with us in the brave new world. Help us grow it. Teach us about what you have learned in your years of playing. Invite in your new friends who are new to gaming. They will be a new spirit and provide new ideas about what to do. They will likely not tolerate bad instructions, bad interface or huge upfront fees, which is a good thing! We will teach and learn from them as well.

He even has a word for those who despair that he won’t be able to deliver any sort of worthwhile gameplay experience using the browser as his medium:

…when traditional gamers look at all the “Ville” clones out there in the world, take heart! See not what is popular now, but rather what is happening in this new era that also would benefit them! A great game, like a great movie, need not be inaccessible to the masses. Great story and depth need not come at the cost of up front effort, pain and cost. Free to play does not mean the game has to be riddled with advertising and calls to spam your friends. But, for those unwilling or unable to pay fairly for what they now play, asking them to work for the developer and find us players is not unfair. Great games can and will be made in this new era, to the benefit of all, traditional and new players. We intend to be a leading maker of such games.

My own views on the potential in the mobile and social spaces (or, if you prefer, the casual space) is well-known to most of you, unless you’re only just discovering the site today. In turn, some of you have made it clear that you really don’t think there’s anything worthwhile that can be achieved in the casual space. Others are cautiously sceptical, still others cautiously interested. And frankly, I love the discussions that take place on the site when these topics come up.

I, for one, am betting on Garriott’s success in this effort. And I think what he comes up with will serve as a model for future game development…even beyond the purely casual space. Frankly, I’m looking forward to it, especially if they can get Portalarium games working across multiple platforms with cross-device synchronized savegames that are as seamless and as reliable as Amazon’s Whispersync technology. Good gravy, would I love to see that. But then, not unlike Lord British himself, I do the majority of my gaming on my iPhone these days. Of course I’m excited to see what he has in store.

The kicker is: I think you should be too, Dragons and Dragonettes. And so, evidently, does he. Or, at least, he wants you to give it a try.

categories: Featured, Site News

Updated: That Akalabeth Fake…Was Probably A Fake (Or: Another Scam?)

Posted by WtF Dragon On October - 18 - 2011

Akalaupdate: Jocksitter Dragon was the person who actually “won” the APPLE-OIDS auction, and he reports that it was in fact a forgery…and then not a particularly well-executed one. He has reported the seller to eBay and has left some negative feedback on the seller’s profile as well.

Original Post: In a comment to this post from a while ago, about a (probably) fake sale of a rare copy of Akalabeth, Jocksitter Dragon added the following updates about the seller of the dubious item:

Update. This seller sold a CPC Akalabeth that looked brand new last week on a buy it now starting at $2000 and took a quick offer of $1000 (Ebay # 220866110569 )Next up he just sold an Apple-Oids game (Ebay # 220868381000 )Here is the problem. If you look at the label of the Apple-Oids game it says “Apple-Oids Beyond adventure lies Akalabeth” oops. The real label should say “Apple-Oids Designed by Tom Luhrs” Here is a real disk (Ebay # 140571766804 ) The copy he sold “looks” brand new also. Looks like a possible forger. My gut instinct was probably right all along.

:extralife:

Said APPLE-OIDS sale has since ended (thanks go to Joe Garrity for the link), netting the seller a little more than $100.

Jocksitter draws the obvious conclusion: the Akalabeth copy was probably a fake as well, if a somewhat more well-executed one. Which, in turn, means some unfortunate Ultima fan probably got ripped off to the tune of a few thousand dollars.

Which…ouch.

The First Age of Update: Over on the UDIC Facebook Group (which I still think should be called the UDFC), Holger Bachert linked to another “rare” Ultima-related item for sale from the same person. This time, it’s supposedly a Japanese import flyer ad for Escape from Mount Drash from 1983.

Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum suspects that it might be a printed blow-up of a trading card, possibly from the Japanese Ultima Complete collection. Bachert himself notes that the back of the sheet is probably from a magazine or book, and that it actually deals with Ultima 5. He furthermore notes that there is no sane reason why “Sierra Online” would have been translated into the Runic font.

Still, as always: judge for yourselves, Dragons and Dragonettes. Much of this is speculative, because there is quite a lot of Ultima-related stuff out there (especially when we consider advertising) that is more or less entirely unknown to the wider community. That does mean that on occasion, a truly special rare item will surface…but it also means that scammers can produce things which can all too easily be claimed to be the genuine article, and which are immensely difficult to verify after the fact.

categories: Featured, Site News

The CRPG Addict Is Playing Ultima 5!

Posted by WtF Dragon On August - 17 - 2011

A few people have brought it to my attention that well-known old-school gaming blogger The CRPG Addict has started his playthrough of Ultima 5 recently.

Just for the record: yes, I have in fact heard of the Addict and his one-man mission to play through “every PC role-playing game ever released”. I’ve been following him since he did his Ultima 4 playthrough a little over a year ago. For those unfamiliar with the scope of his undertaking, see his post explaining the rules he operates by in determining which games to play, and how to play them.

Anyhow…it’s true; the Addict is playing through Ultima 5 now. He didn’t get very far into the game (I gather it’s his first playthrough); his party was mauled by pirates and then wiped out by an encounter with a band of skeletons. Still, he seems very much sold on the games, and his thoughts on both his joy at returning to the Ultima world (“It feels like coming home.”) and his praise of the fact that the core of the series was set in Britannia (“You would think that it would be boring to play a series of four games (Ultimas IV-VII) in the same game world, but instead I find it enormously rewarding.”) will resonate with every Ultima fan.

So, take a moment, check his site out, and bookmark it; he’ll be posting a lot of Ultima 5-related content over the coming days and weeks!

(You might also want to check out the Addict’s playthroughs of other great — and not so great — Origin Systems games, including: Ultima 3, Ultima 2, Ultima 1, and Times of Lore. He skipped Akalabeth, for the most part.)

categories: Featured, Site News

Another Akalabeth For Sale on eBay…Possibly A Fake

Posted by WtF Dragon On July - 27 - 2011

Clan Dragon actually linked to this sale on eBay in a comment to the previous article about an Akalabeth-related sale. 

And just after I saw his comment, Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum posted the following warning to the Ultima Dragons Facebook Chapter:

Buyer Beware–The Akalabeth up on Ebay is (in my opinion) a FAKE!

http://cgi.ebay.com/AKALABETH-1980-Floppy-Disk-Package-Ultima-0-RARE-PC-RPG-/220818172778?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3369c9eb6a

1-The printing on the cover is hidden, and sub-standard
2-The label is not the correct length (thanks to the eye of Jocksitter Dragon)
3-The guy recently sold a Savage Empire artwork that was printed from my Flickr account!
4-The seller is very evasive about questions on it.

Tell your collector friends NOT TO BUY–I’d hate to see someone ripped off.

Joe isn’t the only one who spotted the signs that this Akalabeth copy might not be all the buyer makes it out to be; Enrico Ricciardi, Jason Cobb, and Howard Feldman also contributed their insights and analysis of the images of the item that the buyer provided.

So there you go, Dragons and Dragonettes. Think twice before bidding (presently) a minimum of $650 on this particular copy of Akalabeth; it might not be all that it is claimed to be.

categories: Featured, Site News

Original Akalabeth Cover and Manual For Sale On eBay…Currently For $2,225

Posted by WtF Dragon On July - 26 - 2011

Clan Dragon alerted me to this sale on eBay, which features an apparently original, Zip-Loc-bagged version of the cover and manual for Akalabeth, Richard Garriott’s first widely published game and the origin (heh) of the Ultima series.

Currently, the package is valued at $2,225, with just under two days remaining in the sale as of the time of this writing.

Furthermore, there’s this:

We got the item from Lynn Abbey, the author of 2 Ultima books. We got it with some of her autographed Ultima books we are selling for her in our eBay store.

It is authentic, including the baggie. The baggie has been authenticated by 2 sources.

So not only is this the genuine article, the original Akalabeth in the original packaging…but it was the copy given to (or purchased by) none other than Ultima novel authoress Lynn Abbey. That’s pretty cool.

There’s just one catch:

This is the original manual and cover art for Akalabeth (unofficial Ultima 0, created by Richard Garriott). It is in a baggie which might be the original but I don’t know that for sure. The baggie looks exactly like the one pictured on the Moby Games website.

It does NOT come with the disk.

This is just the manual and the cover illustration. The disk is lost to history and/or Lynn Abbey’s basement. That means this is an unsealed original copy of Akalabeth…an unsealed, incomplete copy. And yet, it’s going to fetch close to $2,500 by the time its sale closes, if not more.

Insane.

Update: Final selling price…$4,900 USD.

Like I said: insane.

categories: Featured, Site News

WDOSX

Posted by WtF Dragon On June - 19 - 2011

[flickr size="thumbnail" float="left"]3887219649[/flickr]

Produced by: Michael Tippach
Website: WDOSX
Releases:
* WDOSX v0.97 (674.8 KiB, 187 hits)
* WDOSX v0.97 Beta 2 (651.6 KiB, 137 hits)

From the project website: “WDosX is a free 32 bit DOS extender. The most recent final version is 0.97 which you can download from this page. Supported memory allocation schemes are:

RAW (BIOS INT 0×15)
XMS
VCPI
DPMI

While running under WDosX your program has access to a fair subset of DPMI 0.9 functions as well as an extended DOS INT 21 API. WDosX comes with some libraries, example programs and a full screen debugger. It features a true flat (zero based) memory model and support for DLLs as well as executable compression.”

There are two versions of WDOSX available for download here. Version 0.97 runs properly under Windows XP; Version 0.97 Beta 2 corrects a few bugs and adds LockFile support under Win32 API emulation.

What you can use this for: Applying WDOSX is necessary to get the Ultima Collection CD version of Akalabeth working under DOSBox. Run stubit.exe (from the download here) on ak.exe and setup.exe, and then delete cwsdpmi.exe as you won’t need it anymore.

categories: General Utilities

New Download: WDOSX

Posted by WtF Dragon On June - 19 - 2011

Courtesy of Sergorn Dragon, who made use of it, Ultima Aiera is pleased to offer for download WDOSX, a DOS extender that can be used to patch the PC DOS executable for Akalabeth, making it playable under DOSBox.

categories: Site News

How To Play (And Patch) The Ultima Games Today!

Posted by WtF Dragon On June - 18 - 2011

Andrew writes in, asking a question that realistically I should have already published an answer to:

I want to play the Ultima games from beginning to end, but I have no clue how to apply the upgrade patches!

I’m not an expert or even a novice code writer, so please excuse me if I ask you to tell me what to do step by step.

If it helps, can you start with just Ultima 2?

I’m going to put my reply in an article, because that way I can add it to the FAQ as a link. If any of you have suggestions which you feel are better than mine, by all means give them in the comments.

Note: For the purposes of this write-up, I am assuming that everyone is trying to run the PC/DOS versions of the earlier games.

Akalabeth

Your best bet for playing Akalabeth (or Ultima 0) is Paul Robson’s remake of it. Or you can grab the iPhone version of the game.

Alternatively, if you want to run the original game in DOSBox, you should grab this patched executable which will enable the Ultima Collection version of the game to run smoothly under the DOS emulation software.

Ultima 1

There isn’t much you need to do — or can do — for Ultima 1; there is only a single graphics patch available for the game, which is recommended as it corrects a known glitch in the original display driver executable.

It is best to run Ultima 1 in DOSBox.

Ultima 2

There are two different approaches you can take to get Ultima 2 up and running. One method would be to use Ultima 2 for Windows, which is a front-end for the original game data files. As such, it should work with the various patches that comprise the Ultima 2 Upgrade (but that is untested). And realistically, I’m not 100% sure that the Windows front-end works under modern Windows environments, or on 64-bit systems.

So, the other option is to run Ultima 2 in DOSBox, and just apply the Ultima 2 Upgrade.

Ultima 3

There are two different approaches you can take to get Ultima 3 up and running. One method would be to use Ultima 3 for Windows, which is a front-end for the original game data files. As such, it should work with the various patches that comprise the Ultima 3 Upgrade (but that is untested). And realistically, I’m not 100% sure that the Windows front-end works under modern Windows environments, or on 64-bit systems.

So, the other option is to run Ultima 3 in DOSBox, and just apply the Ultima 3 Upgrade.

A third option, which Sergorn Dragon recommends, is to pay $5 to LairWare and grab their OS X port of Ultima 3. If you can get a good Mac emulator up and running (or an OS X virtual machine), or if you have an Apple computer already, this is easily the best way to go, as LairWare’s version of the game is easily the best out there.

Ultima 4

The best way to play Ultima 4 is using xu4. There is really no better way to do it. You might also want to grab this fix for Hythloth.

I believe that xu4 also renders moot the need for the Ultima 4 Upgrade patch.

Ultima 5

It is best to run Ultima 5 in DOSBox. There are a number of patches available for the game as well, including the comprehensive Ultima 5 Upgrade , a music patch, a patch that lets you use the numeric keypad properly, and (of course) a patch to remove the runic font used at various points in the game.

Alternatively, if you have an advanced TI calculator, there’s a faithful port of the game for that platform as well.

Ultima 6

I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think you can yet complete the game using Nuvie. As such, it is probably best to run Ultima 6 in DOSBox.

There isn’t much in the way of patching needed to play Ultima 6. If you configure it to use the PC speaker, this timing patch might be of use if you are noticing odd sound errors, and there are also patches for MTU-32 and Soundblaster sound, and for AdLib sound. Use as necessary.

Savage Empire & Martian Dreams

Since Nuvie does not yet support these two games fully, it is best to run Savage Empire and Martian Dreams in DOSBox. There are no patches needed for either game.

Ultima Underworld & Ultima Underworld 2

The best way to play the two Underworld games is to just buy them from Good Old Games; they will run under pretty much any modern version of Windows. The GOG version should already incorporate the official patch for the first game and the second game. If you want a bit of mood music in the first game, there is a patch which adds a MIDI soundtrack, which I can only assume works with the GOG versions of the game.

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to buy the games off of Good Old Games, it is best to run Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2 in DOSBox. If you’re playing the CD-based versions of the games, you shouldn’t need the official patches; if you’ve got the game on ancient 3.5″ diskettes, you may need those patches.

Ultima 7 & Serpent Isle

A good and easy way to play Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle is with Exult, which is a mature cross-platform engine for the original game data files that incorporates a number of graphical scalers (so you can run the game at higher resolutions), bug fixes, and enhancements. If you use Exult, there’s no need to install any other patches.

If, however, you want to play the games in their pure form, they are well-supported by DOSBox.

As far as patching the games goes, you shouldn’t need much in the way of patches to run the game under DOSBox. If, however, you want a bit of additional atmosphere in the game, there is a patch that adds support for MIDI music in Ultima 7 (and a similar patch for Serpent Isle). There is also an official patch from Origin Systems for Ultima 7, which might help if you find that Ultima 7 crashes.

Ultima 8

A good and easy way to play Ultima 8 is with Pentagram, which is a cross-platform engine for the original game data files that incorporates a number of graphical scalers (so you can run the game at higher resolutions) and bug fixes. If you use Pentagram, there’s no need to install any other patches.

If you have a version of Ultima 8 that is on 3.5″ diskettes, however, you may want to install the official patch for the game from Origin, before firing up Pentagram.

And if you want to play the game in its pure form, they are well-supported by DOSBox. If you want to go this route, you may find the official patches from Origin Systems that add AdLib support and fix a few bugs and improve gameplay to be of use.

Ultima 9

Ultima 9, interestingly, will run even under Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit). To get it working, you just need to install the official v1.18 patch and the unofficial v1.19f patch. You may also want to install the Forgotten World v1.19g patch, which corrects a couple more bugs in the game.

And if you want to improve the look and feel of Ultima 9 somewhat, there is also the Beautiful Britannia R1 patch.

Be mindful of the fact that when you have the game fully patched, it will run pretty darn well for the most part…but you will encounter bugs in Moonglow, possibly in Yew, and possibly when trying to manually sail the boat around. You will also want to enable the flying cheat, because on most modern systems you will encounter the “floating runes and sigils” bug after cleansing each shrine.

One final note: Keep your eyes on Good Old Games as the summer progresses; it has been confirmed that more Ultima titles (beyond the two Underworld games) will be released through that service over the coming months. Which games, exactly, I am not yet sure of.

categories: Site News

And speaking of playthroughs…here’s Akalabeth

Posted by WtF Dragon On February - 2 - 2011

I didn’t just find Martian Dreams on YouTube yesterday. There was also this:

World of Doom!

And this is just the first video; YouTube user DJOldGames has already completed the fourth quest from Lord British, and has uploaded videos of of his every effort and adventure!

categories: Featured, Site News

And speaking of Richard Garriott…

Posted by WtF Dragon On December - 14 - 2010

sangergarriott

Yeehaa, my lord. Yeehaa.

Now this is just cool.

David Ribeiro sent me an email a few days ago with a link to the listing of what are called The Richard Garriott Papers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Of course, the name is something of a misnomer, seeing as how the collection “includes papers, hardware, software, published videogames, design documents, production materials, promotional material, oversize art and artifacts that document Garriott’s career in game design and production, the daily business of his former company Origin Systems, Inc., and various personal adventures.

The bulk of the collection relates to the development, production and promotion of Origin videogames, including the entire Ultima series. Design binders document games both published and unpublished at various states of development. Hand-drawn maps on graph paper represent Garriott’s earliest attempts at designing and coding a videogame, dating to Garriott’s first published game Akalabeth: World of Doom and earlier.”

I found the original press release for the creation of this treasure trove of Origin documents and items; it’s interesting to look at the one small picture of people who attended the inaugural event, and I’m sure many of the faces will be familiar to you Dragons and Dragonettes. That news release led me to what appears to be the official website of the University of Texas’ Video Games Archive, where The Richard Garriott Papers currently reside.

I also managed to locate the archivists’ blog, which is (appropriately enough) named Continuous Play.

I highly recommend at least parusing the index of the Garriott Papers; some of the stuff they have in their collection is simply amazing. I mean…the original Apple II Plus that Lord British used for his early coding work? Get out.

categories: Featured, Site News

What is your favourite early Ultima art style?

Posted by On November - 23 - 2010

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I’m cribbing this idea directly from the Wing Commander CIC, by the way.

The Ultima games have seen a tremendous evolution in their graphical styles and in-game artistry. Part of this is due to Richard Garriot’s insistence that each entry in the Ultima series should have its own engine (and then one which shared no code with its predecessor). Part of this also stems from the fact that Origin had a habit of building games which pushed the limits of system performance in their day; as computers grew more powerful, Origin titles gained in detail and artistic complexity.

That said, the first six Ultima titles — five actual Ultima games, plus Akalabeth — do have many similarities to each other; visually, they all look similar, and all use the same dual-scale world map and quasi-3D dungeons. Yet each is different and distinct in its own way.

[poll id="2"]

This poll will remain open for a week. Next week, we’ll take a look at the later Ultima games. After Ultima 5, the artistic style of the games went through a major upheaval….it wouldn’t really be fair to compare Ultima 6 onward against these first six titles.

categories: Featured, Site News

cAndy Apple: an Apple II emulator for Android

Posted by On November - 16 - 2010

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The project website, on Google Code, can be found here. For the moment, it appears that the app has been pulled from the Android Market by the author, while he works to address performance issues some users have reported.

So I won’t be creating a project entry for it, at least not right now.

Of course, you Dragons and Dragonettes may be wondering why this is even worthy of mention. I thus offer, for your consideration, what another blogger whom I read on occasion had to say about it:

By way of example, this morning I told [my wife] the extremely exciting news that one heroic lion of technology has ported WinApple to Android! You know what that means, that’s right, the entire Ultima series, starting with Akalabeth, on your phone. And Wizardry. And Swashbuckler. In fact, you might even be able to fit the entire Asimov achive on it! Strangely, she did not react with the celebratory glee and happy dance that one would naturally expect upon learning of such a grand leap forward in the human race’s mobile standard of living.

Which is actually, for the most part, self-explanatory. So for all you Android users out there, you will (hopefully soon) have another means open to you to play the most classic Ultima titles on your mobile device.

categories: Site News

Restored: Ultima Classics Revisited

Posted by On October - 6 - 2010

This short-lived, ambitious project by prmths aimed to create engines, compatible with most modern operating systems, for the first six Ultima games (and Akalabeth). It…fell short of that goal, disappearing shortly after the release of a beta version that fully supported Akalabeth and partially supported Ultima 1. Still, it did push some files out, and I believe its *nix version came bundled with the source code…so it is once again available for download in the Orphanage.

categories: Site News

Akalabeth for iPhone updated

Posted by On October - 4 - 2010

Granted, I didn’t need to make and adjustments to the project entry, since the download link there is just a link to the relevant entry at the Apple App Store.

Still, for what it’s worth, I noticed the other day that Akalabeth for iPhone had been updated to version 1.1, and then quite recently…just last month, in fact. So if you picked it up and haven’t checked in with the App Store in a while, you might want to grab the update. It seems to have added Open Feint support, among other things.

categories: Featured, Site News

An Ultima 4 Development Challenge

Posted by On August - 13 - 2010
u4iphone

This is just a Photoshop job, not a real screenshot. Sadly.

I was told the most interesting thing today.

As the good reader is probably aware, a port of was recently released on the (or, more correctly, ) platform, ‘s mobile device operating system. The good reader is also probably aware that I’ve had some contact with Mythic Entertainment. Mythic, as most hopefully know, basically holds the rights to the name at present, and produced the most recent expansion to .

Well, it turns out that Mythic would be very interested in any effort made to port to the iOS platform, so much so that they would work to get any functional, well-implemented port published on the Apple under the label.

So…if anyone out there has some experience with development on the platform, and if such a person would be interested in creating a port of the original game, which offered context-dependent controls not unlike how the Akalabeth port does: here’s your big chance. Not only to remake an title (and a darn fine one, at that), but to get it officially approved and published.

As Aragorn, son of Arathorn, asked: What say you?

categories: Featured, Site News

Testing weekend arrives early!

Posted by On July - 30 - 2010

Oh, what the heck, eh?

Apropos of what I said before, I’ve decided to bump up the testing weekend a bit, and have made a couple of changes to the plan since yesterday afternoon.

For starters, the ‘Milano’ theme is out. I’ve gone with the ‘Perogato’ theme (from the same designer) instead, with a few custom modifications (including a sexy new logo, if I do say so myself). I’ve dropped the ‘:’ from the site name as well…it’s a minor thing.

Additionally, since I actually like this theme, there’s a decent chance that it will stay in place. I have to make a few modifications to it still (e.g. adding tag support and forum discussion links), but those are minor cosmetic changes. This theme has most of what else I was hoping to end up with: a more modern feel, a featured content pane so I can highlight stories that I think are important, more and better use of and inline images, and dropdown menus for quicker access to the things that keep many of you coming back to the site: remakes, patches, and utilities.

May I draw attention to the double menu bar at the top of the site? The red bar, the good reader will note, lists what are considered, by this site at least, to be the main canonical entries in the Ultima series, from through to , including both Underworld titles. Obviously, not every remake, patch, and utility is listed, and so the complete list of categories still appears on the sidebar, but this way there will at least serve to get a goodly number of site visitors to the content they want a) more quickly, and b) without even the need to scroll down the main page.

The main page of the site will also boast more articles under this template.

Anyhow, please leave feedback in the comments form of this article, or in the related forum thread. I want to hear what everyone thinks about this redesign. And as I mentioned, this design is one I like more, but is not yet at the point where it will be an unchangeable thing; if a goodly number of people who leave comments say “I hate it!”, I’ll put the ‘Aspire’ theme back first thing on Tuesday morning, without the slightest hesitation.

categories: Site News

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