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I grew up on the Ultima series - in fact it is exclusively the reason I became a programmer and game developer. I do not know how good this recent iteration wi

I grew up on the Ultima series - in fact it is exclusively the reason I became a programmer and game developer. I do not know how good this recent iteration will be, but at least it looks like Richard is keeping a close ear to his community. In all honesty though I would have settled for a 2D/isometric non-MMO (in the spirit of Ultima 7) -- I think that's where his original fans lie.

danielweber 14y ago
It was Ultima III that first made me realize that all data lived on the disk and that I could alter all of it. And I did. Maybe I'm weird but it's fun to read the assembly for Ultima 3. I was stuck in the Apple world so I stopped playing after U5. I bought the Ultima-giftpack on GOG.com before Christmas, but still have only had the time to work through the first 3. I'm savoring them, still.
- T-hawk 14y ago
  Me too... Ultima III was part of my introduction to hacking, but on an entirely different platform. I had it as the NES cartridge, mostly oblivious to the franchise's history on the computer platforms. I also had the Game Genie cheating device, whose codebook had a fairly rich set of codes for the game, changing your characters' health and stats and such. There were enough closely related codes (30 strength, 60 strength, 90 strength) that I started seeing the patterns, working out how the Game Genie code letters mapped to bits and represented the data values. So then I started synthesizing more codes that weren't in the book: hey, adding one to this letter changes the next stat instead, that must be a memory location. What happens if I add 16 to it, nice it changes the next character. Ultimately I never really played the game with hacked characters, since the challenge of the game wasn't the stats but in exploring and mapping the dungeons and hidden areas. (I had nightmares for years about getting lost in Ambrosia.) Other NES games were much more interesting with hacked stats, notably Final Fantasy I. Ultima III on the NES also contained the first major loophole exploit I discovered in a game. When in a dungeon, your magic power would slowly recharge with every step, but also risk running into a monster encounter. But I happened to realize that _rotating in place_ did the former and not the latter. So just by pressing the right arrow 300 times between encounters to recover 75 MP, you could cast the top-end magic nuke spell on every single monster group, virtually achieving god mode.
  - danielweber 14y ago
    I'm not too familiar with the NES port of U3. Could monsters walk over chests? Did monsters in dungeons drop chests? In dungeons, if you were standing on a location already holding something (chests and strange-winds, basically), a monster couldn't show up, because it would have no place to drop its treasure chest.
ralphleon 14y ago
I have the exact same experience. Ultima7 made me a developer, and was my first dive into editing bash scripts (that fucker was impossible to get working in windows95). Enabling the debug mode and hacking on gumps was my favorite pass time.
bstar77 14y ago
My Ultima experience started with VI, but I remember distinctively walking into Electronics Boutique and seeing Ultima VII on the shelf for the first time. I could not believe the screenshots were real, it looked like everything a RPG should be. Ultima VI is was really got me into coding world simulations, but Ultima VII really showed the potential of the genre. I think that's why Ultima VIII and IX were such a disappointment. The interactions, exploration and focus on virtues that hooked me into these games. I could care less about the graphics if these elements are well done in the new game.
- gavanwoolery 14y ago
  I started on V but VI was really a leap forward for me. There was an Electronics Boutique in the Fairfield Mall (a good half hour from where I grew up) which was an amazing experience as a kid: you would walk into a store and learn about 50 new games, no trailers, just your imagination fueled by box art. The internet has kind of destroyed that sense of wonder/mystery, I feel sorry for future generations. :)
  - bstar77 14y ago
    I agree 100%. For me it was Egghead Software in the late 80's early 90's. I also had fun working in Babbages in the early-mid 90's while I was in high school. Unfortunately, those years were mostly dominated by Myst and Mortal Kombat sales. I think that's why I liked Egghead so much, no BS just computer games/software.
    - cmalpeli 14y ago
      I worked at Babbages as well. Don't forget the NeoGeo ;) Ultima VII was a wonder to me when it came out.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

danielweber 14y ago

It was Ultima III that first made me realize that all data lived on the disk and that I could alter all of it. And I did. Maybe I'm weird but it's fun to read the assembly for Ultima 3. I was stuck in the Apple world so I stopped playing after U5. I bought the Ultima-giftpack on GOG.com before Christmas, but still have only had the time to work through the first 3. I'm savoring them, still.

T-hawk 14y ago
Me too... Ultima III was part of my introduction to hacking, but on an entirely different platform. I had it as the NES cartridge, mostly oblivious to the franchise's history on the computer platforms. I also had the Game Genie cheating device, whose codebook had a fairly rich set of codes for the game, changing your characters' health and stats and such. There were enough closely related codes (30 strength, 60 strength, 90 strength) that I started seeing the patterns, working out how the Game Genie code letters mapped to bits and represented the data values. So then I started synthesizing more codes that weren't in the book: hey, adding one to this letter changes the next stat instead, that must be a memory location. What happens if I add 16 to it, nice it changes the next character. Ultimately I never really played the game with hacked characters, since the challenge of the game wasn't the stats but in exploring and mapping the dungeons and hidden areas. (I had nightmares for years about getting lost in Ambrosia.) Other NES games were much more interesting with hacked stats, notably Final Fantasy I. Ultima III on the NES also contained the first major loophole exploit I discovered in a game. When in a dungeon, your magic power would slowly recharge with every step, but also risk running into a monster encounter. But I happened to realize that _rotating in place_ did the former and not the latter. So just by pressing the right arrow 300 times between encounters to recover 75 MP, you could cast the top-end magic nuke spell on every single monster group, virtually achieving god mode.
- danielweber 14y ago
  I'm not too familiar with the NES port of U3. Could monsters walk over chests? Did monsters in dungeons drop chests? In dungeons, if you were standing on a location already holding something (chests and strange-winds, basically), a monster couldn't show up, because it would have no place to drop its treasure chest.

ralphleon 14y ago

I have the exact same experience. Ultima7 made me a developer, and was my first dive into editing bash scripts (that fucker was impossible to get working in windows95). Enabling the debug mode and hacking on gumps was my favorite pass time.

bstar77 14y ago

My Ultima experience started with VI, but I remember distinctively walking into Electronics Boutique and seeing Ultima VII on the shelf for the first time. I could not believe the screenshots were real, it looked like everything a RPG should be. Ultima VI is was really got me into coding world simulations, but Ultima VII really showed the potential of the genre. I think that's why Ultima VIII and IX were such a disappointment. The interactions, exploration and focus on virtues that hooked me into these games. I could care less about the graphics if these elements are well done in the new game.

gavanwoolery 14y ago
I started on V but VI was really a leap forward for me. There was an Electronics Boutique in the Fairfield Mall (a good half hour from where I grew up) which was an amazing experience as a kid: you would walk into a store and learn about 50 new games, no trailers, just your imagination fueled by box art. The internet has kind of destroyed that sense of wonder/mystery, I feel sorry for future generations. :)
- bstar77 14y ago
  I agree 100%. For me it was Egghead Software in the late 80's early 90's. I also had fun working in Babbages in the early-mid 90's while I was in high school. Unfortunately, those years were mostly dominated by Myst and Mortal Kombat sales. I think that's why I liked Egghead so much, no BS just computer games/software.
  - cmalpeli 14y ago
    I worked at Babbages as well. Don't forget the NeoGeo ;) Ultima VII was a wonder to me when it came out.
deleted 14y ago
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