Best Version Of Ultima 5
Camie Fons
I couldn't find a thread on this. Ultima is a great RPG series. _(series) It was released on several different systems back in the day before it became PC only, with U7. What system has the 'best' version of each release? I've only played the PC release of each, except for the NES releases of III and IV, so I am curious. I actually enjoy IV on NES, lol. What would you say is the 'best' or 'worst' of each port? this includes consoles.
Oh my god there's a ton of info here about Ultima but I must say that the PC versions with updated graphics are the best. With all due respect to the Apple II and the cool SID music of the C64 versions.
The early Ultimas (through at least IV) should be played on the Apple ][, IMO. That's the platform on which they were developed. It also happens to be the platform on which I played them originally, so perhaps I'm biased.
The originals are the best for me too but VERY hard to get back into, especially those newcomers or coming from a console. I've moved on and use the upgraded stuff now. Its a lot of great work and effort put into the PC versions with the updates. At least try them afterwards, its worth it!
Whichever you play the early ones on (and there is a good argument to try them on the Apple II, since these were the actual games written by Richard Garriott) you definitely need to at least try III, IV, V on the C64 for the music alone (gameplay/graphics are pretty much identical), especially on original hardware. Perhaps it's just nostalgia talking, but I almost get a lump in my throat each time the opening titles for Ultima IV appear on screen.
The Amiga and ST had nice color graphics for the character tiles and more detail for the background objects in Ultima V (maybe III and IV as well). I played I-V on my Apple so I'm partial to those versions myself. There are two special versions to take note of though:
1) Play the DOS one. None of them are really better than the other. They're all a 1 hour affair. Steal a blaster, vacuum and reflect suit, who cares if its the dark ages still. You can steal the lazer still!
3) DOS w/ EGA + MIDI. If you want a fresh spin on the game, play Ultima Exodus on NES (Or on MSX if you can read Japanese. Same game). The NES one dragon-warriors it up in a great way. You get the distinctly Japanese flavor that their RPGs have, with all the adventure and excitement of an Ultima game. My only complaint is some of the music swaps suck. The songs are great, but I miss the original tunes.
4) DOS w/ VGA+MIDI. The VGA is so badass. Its a new breath of life for the game. You can't go wrong really. Or, again, the NES one. Again, it puts some distinct Japanese flair into the presentation of the game. This time its more Final Fantasy like. The music is excellent. I give it a thumbs up. The SMS ultima IV tries to be too much like the PC one and is kinda dopey because of it. No point in playing that one if you have access to the superior PC versions.
6) DOS. Any other version is awful. The C64 one will make your eyes bleed. The SNES one is tolerable, but not the greatest. The game is mouse-centric. SNES doesn't do mouse-centric games at all unless its Mario Paint.
7) Use Exult engine and play it in Windows in high res! Perfection for an already perfect game. 1024x768 is awesome. You can see way more of the game at once, and it's fun. The SNES port was just bad. Soooo bad. It was like The Legend of Zelda meets alot of drug use, with Ultima VII tossed in.
Ultima Online was great up til the recent expansion that added Gargoyles, and revived the underworld/stygian abyss. Now the games completely broken. Completely. my gargoyle's equipment was magically augmented in a few hours and completely owned everything everyone else had. Most of which took months to earn or craft. Not too fair at all really.
an honorable mention, though probably not one you will play, is Ultima IV for the MSX computer. Instead of having the Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy flair added in, this one is a great Japanese version of the traditional DOS ones. The graphics look nice and crisp, and the game play is solid. But, if you cant read Japanese, you are totally screwed. Kinda like the FM Towns one that was shown. Great stuff, but if you can't read it, you won't get too far.
I chose the DOS versions over all other versions because of the patches that now exist to EGA+MIDI the games. It really improves things, especially if you are using an MT-32 for the music. You will most likely be emulating the early versions no matter which platform you pick (DOSBox is emulation too!), so you might as well pick the one that has nice graphics + music capabilities, and completely lacks disk-swapping. I think the lack of disk swapping along with the color enhancements and excellent MIDI make the DOS versions the best choice.
oh, I never noticed that haha. I just played it in Japanese. I can stumble through it enough to manage. Is the english similar to Hydlide 3 on MSX, where the built in English is pretty cryptic and often hilarious to read?
I could never get past the interface on PC based Ultimas. Ultima 3 for NES was the bomb for me. The 3D dungeons in that game seemed out of place though. Also, sprite-frame based damage checks suck Dragon Balls.
Yeah the C64 music was excellent. The same tunes are in the MIDI patch for PC. No disk swaps, EGA graphics, MIDI tunes w/ MT-32. Totally solid. All of the Ultimas have really great music. Very fitting music for the different game environments. Some games the music dont fit. Ultima doesn't have that problem.
I wouldn't say a LOT of folks used a Mockingboard back then. It was definitely a luxury item due to the price. There were about a dozen games or so of the tens of thousands of released Apple II games that actually supported either the music or the optional speech portion (which required the purchase and addition of a speech chip), so you're talking a supremely tiny percentage. Ultima III (Mockingboard version), IV and V supported it. V supported dual Mockingboards, though not all 12 possible voices (sound channels) at once. I don't know of any game that took 100% advantage of dual Mockingboards. I have dual Mockingboards now, one original and one homebrew model. I added a speech chip to one (no point in adding a speech chip to both). I can't even imagine what that type of setup would have cost way back then...
If you search the Apple II newsgroup there's a list of all the mockingboard supported games. I asked the question awhile back. There were about 12-15 and none of them needed the speech chip IIRC. Still, I wouldn't mind a speech chip...
Hey guys, so, despite my Avatar (hah.. joke), the truth is, I've never really spent more than say... 5 minutes playing Ultima 4. It seemed way too out of date, and I just couldn't get into it. The first Ultima I personally started with, was Ultima 6 (and of course, Underworld 1 and 2, U7, U7 p2, and U8). So I kind of want to go back and play those if possible since I hear that U4 has an awesome plot line.
But here's my question, I really hate the UI for the Ultima 1-5 games; however, I noticed that on the PC... the Ultima 3, 4 and 5 games are basically using the Dragon Warrior engine from what I can tell (is that true?). So... is the plot the same for Ultima 4 on the PC and the NES version, and is the NES version basically better?
Total random side note, but I was looking at my NES games (I only have a few), because I wanted to verify that in fact the three Ultima games I had were 3, 4, and 5... and I also noticed I had AD&D Hillsfar, Heros of the Lance, and Pools of Radiance, Bards Tale, and... Kings Quest 5. How weird is it that they basically ported these PC games? Kind of cool... but totally forgot that I had these! Pools of Radiance must suck on the NES...
The PC interface on Ultima games is unintelligible to me. I beat Ultima Exodus on the NES despite the uncool combat logic. I quit Ultima 5 on the SNES due to its lame level cap. Tried the Black Gate on SNES as well but threw it in the bin after reaching the Guardian and finding him invincible.
The NES Ultima 3 and 4 games are very good. They're a bit simplified, but they definitely manage to bring a worthwhile Ultima experience. Ultima 4 in particular is streamlined in a good way. Are they better than the computer versions? No. They are different flavors.
Ultima 5 on the NES is rare, and also more than a bit bad. Whereas on the PC Ultima 5 shared the same general engine as Ultima 4, on the NES the game uses a Ultima 6 engine and the result isn't pretty. I never liked Ultima 5 to begin with, and the NES version is borderline unplayable.
How do the SNES ports compare to the PC versions? I don't know. Ultima 6 was where Ultima and I parted ways because I didn't like that installment at all. After Ultima 5, the series morphed into something I wasn't interested in anymore.