my gods, ultima viii: pagan has become even more visually enchanting with time. the colours are so vibrant and rich compared to any other game in the series
it's the little things that bring the world alive in this scene. the gargoyle on the corner of the house drips water out of its mouth into a puddle below it.
the wall sconces flicker yellow light on the sides of the buildings.
the stonework used throughout the game is heavy, moody and sullen.
the colour palette is composed of highly saturated colours that contrast strongly with one another.
despite the many isometric rpg's that came out, there is not a single game like it.
one of my most cherished and irreplaceable retrocomputing devices is my peerless Roland SC-55.
while the MT-32 has been emulated quite well, the SC-55 always lagged behind in emulation - most attempts at it sounded pretty terrible, even using good soundfonts.
(and hauling around my SC-55 + midi & 3.5mm & usb cables just to play games in dosbox was painful)
in comes Nuked-SC55: it is a chip-level emulation project that just nails it.
it took about 30 seconds to build with cmake. i'm now going to try integrating it with dosbox, so i can finally play 90s DOS general midi games! (ultima viii pagan, here i come)
happy to confirm that the SC-55 emulation with Nuked-SC55 is perfect. i don't mean "pretty close" or "99%" ... it is the same sound coming out of my physical hardware. 👏 incredible work by the author and their team
track: Ethereal Void, by neno vugrinec (Ultima VIII: Pagan)
In 2021 the musician Pieces of 8-Bit released a remake of the Ultima IV soundtrack on YouTube. Last year the #xu4 project was contacted to help create a music module for the game. This soundtrack has been updated in 2024 and is now finally available for xu4.
What section of a game world did you want to explore more deeply than allowed by the game? One of mine is the Hive in Riven - iconic enough that it was the box cover art, and such an evocative design, but we only get to see the smallest section of it.
@ThreeOhFour this is far less engimatic than the hive, but this location in ultima viii captured my imagination for a decade
in a cave near mythran's home, there is a set of massive, locked, double doors. i searched under every skeleton and behind every chest for months, trying to find a way to unlock them. my buddy at school and i talked for months about what we thought might be behind them.
we graduated, and never figured it out.
15 years later i found out that the doors could only be opened by summoning a golem, using a single pixel of dirt in the area. the golem pries the doors apart and it leads to....
... a big empty room 😆
this was supposed to be a teleport/transition area to the Lost Vale expansion, that never got used in the final game.
some things are best left to the imagination i guess.
A CS specialist of @novalauncher (my favourite #Android launcher. I'm a pro and beta user for years! Highly recommended Android launcher!)
And a fan of Richard Garriott's #Ultima series (check their profile banner - Ultima 4 opening sequence? I think a later version of U4.)
Someone playing Ultima is a good sign that the Nova Launcher's CS team is in good hands. Role-players can understand a customer, and can think far ahead, thus they can improve the processes.
13 years ago Adam Smith wrote the finest piece of personal journalism ever written on games. every few days i sit down for breakfast and stare at the lone boiled egg on my plate, and start laughing.
"And there was always at least one among them, could have been anyone, who would order an egg. It’d just arrive, plonked down in front of them unceremoniously, a massive plate with a single egg in the middle of it. Even though it didn’t matter that they were eating an egg, in that it wouldn’t have any effect on their social standing or health, it really did matter because it never failed to make me smile.
Which poor bastard is on the eggs tonight, I’d think, watching as sweetmeats from every corner of the world were laid out in front of the gathering. And then, BAM, there it would be. Egg on a plate. No cress. No mayo. The purchaser wolfing it down, hoping no one had noticed, trying to hide their shame."
Highlander TV. This time, with a serious continuity. The original franchise messed its continuity.
Highlander MMO. It should be a sandbox MMO and there should be three modes: unli-life (subscription); limited permadeath (buy-to-play, or a store item); permadeath or 1-life (free-to-play).
a. Unli-life: Players can resurrect again after they were defeated by a Highlander. However, they resurrect as a new character (for obvious reasons). They only carry with them their previous character's assets, fame, and what not.
b. Limited permadeath. After XX resurrections (similar to unli-life), the last chance is permadeath. A player will have to completely restart. OR, if they don't buy a resu store item, they'll have to completely restart.
c. Permadeath. Players always restart fresh after being defeated by another Highlander. They won't inherit anything from their previous character.
Ultima TV + Films.
Ultima 4 should be a TV series. With all the virtues playing an important role (that's the plot anyway).
Ultima 5 can be a film.
Ultima 6 a TV series.
Ultima 7 Part 1 a TV series.
Ultima 7 Part 2 a TV series.
Ultima 8 a movie.
DragonLance TV + films.
TV Season 1 a prequel to War of the Lance.
War of the Lance first movie.
TV S02, the side-stories during War of the Lance. It complements the first movie, and sets the stage for the second movie.
TV S03 + Movie 3.
We can also have a Lord Loren Soth spin-off. Which culminates into meeting Mina, which will set the stage for a possible Mina spin-off (and the death of Takhisis).
The Knights of Solamnia spin-off. (Web series?)
The Blue Lady spin-off (web series? Also a good supplement for the War of the Lance movies.)
And so on.
Forgotten Realms
TV series for Azure Bonds. S01 to S05.
Can have a spin-off series for Curse of the Azure Bonds, focusing on a the unfortunate party. Maybe for 2 seasons only.
I wonder why none of the Ultima series has been remade. There's so much there, but the old interfaces of the ancient personal computer days make it harder to approach. Ultima IV is older than me lol.
Last week I posted an article on the symbolism and artistic intents found within the iconic painting for Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar (there's a lot).
On a whim I decided to send the article directly to the artist, Denis Loubet, who lives in Austin, Texas. I didn't expect a response.
Rather than walk away with just a superficial 'toot' about this amazing box art, I decided to write down ALL of my thoughts on why I believe this painting is a high watermark for game art. Most everyone recognizes the image instantly, but once you really LOOK at it, and analyze it, it's amazing.
[1/2] had some fun with some obscure video game history this morning
if you grew up playing Ultima, Crusader or Wing Commander, you might recognize the name.
recorded almost nowhere is the location of Origin Systems' building during its peak productive phase in the late 80s/early 90s. there was a single mention of a road in Shay Addams' The Official Book of Ultima which led to some cross-referencing in corporate databases
so here it is: a mapped drive to Origin's sleek 1980s office building, as it stands today just outside of Austin, TX.
(now for rent if you need 20,000 sq ft of work space!)
Another two-parter, this time covering Ulitma IV: Quest of the Avatar, a game that’s considered a CRPG milestone and highpoint of the series for its introduction of an easily exploitable morality system and keyword-based dialog system.
I’m playing the PC port available on gog.com, available free as of this posting, with an enhanced VGA visual and music patch, which includes some minor bugfixes.
Celebrate #DOScember with some bonus #Ultima VI - going live an hour early at 12:00 PM EST with more dungeoneering and fun! Join me at https:// twitch.tv/ladyailuros
An analytical playthrough of Ultima III: Exodus. A huge leap forward for the franchise, and a reaction to Richard Garriott’s disastrous experiences with Sierra On-Line in that he founded his own company – Origin Systems – to publish it.
I’m playing the PC port available through Gog dot com as an Ultima 1-3 bundle.
this week’s #zerowaste#plotterart project was turning a discarded accountant’s book of columnar paper into custom stationery
the #cartography data is a hand drawn vector map of #ultima VII: the black gate, including both fire isle and ambrosia. it was rendered to paper by my trusty HP #plotter