I have a great deal of respect for anyone who finished this without a guide or hints from the outside.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I don't remember how I beat this on the NES when I was a kid, back before there was even Gamefaqs. It was probably with the help of Nintendo Power.
@starofjustice1 Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim That'd be pretty good. I explicitly remember Ultima 3 not getting much coverage from NP.
@jalefkowit Жыл бұрын
I had the MS-DOS port as a kid. Never finished it. Took me months just to realize that Lord British would promote you if you talked to him after gaining some experience 😆 There’s lots to say about this game, but man was it bad at explaining its workings to the player. (Or maybe I was just a dumb kid, who knows.)
@astonmartin8537 Жыл бұрын
Won, without guide, just need paper to write down hints.
@ChunterInfo10 ай бұрын
@@astonmartin8537that's how those games were won The solution itself is really short, it just takes a long time to travel everywhere and grind levels
@AndrewJens Жыл бұрын
Amazing; thanks for this. Every decade or so I get the urge to revist my childhood and play an Ultima game. Your playthrough appears to have plugged the gap so I'll see how I feel in about ten years.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad to have been of help, and thanks for the Thanks. I'll be covering the others in the series gradually, and look forward to tackling IV after a short break.
@Beer4Breakfast Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlimis the break over yet…
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
@@Beer4Breakfast I've got two non-Ultima games to cover - Deadline from Infocom this week, their first mystery interactive fiction game, and King's Quest from Sierra next week. Then it's on to Ultima four!
@TheRadicalOneNG Жыл бұрын
You're a real scholar for taking your time to do these deep dives of the Ultima games, when I was a kid my first experience with Ultima as the Nintendo port of Exodus, and I had no idea what I was actually doing back then. Seeing your playthrough of the most complete version is incredible to see all the stuff I missed/didn't understand.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I'd seen the Apple II port of Ultima first when I was in grade school, but Ultima III was definitely the first one that I was able to actually finish - even if a lot of that was sheer luck!
@moreliberty1 Жыл бұрын
I share that sentiment. A childhood friend had a copy of Ultima III on his Apple II and we would often load it up and spend a couple hours playing. We were basically just wandering around and getting destroyed by monsters. Seeing what is actually involved to progress in the game, I am convinced that we barely scratched the surface. Michael has edited out most of the grinding and I am still left in awe of the magnitude of grinding necessary.
@macehilmatecilof4140 Жыл бұрын
I have a copy of it for nes, but like you i could never really figure out what to do. Imma watch this and then give it another go. I beat dragon warrior on nes, but that game is simplistic and easier to understand (still another great rpg)
@macehilmatecilof4140 Жыл бұрын
I have a copy of it for nes, but like you i could never really figure out what to do. Imma watch this and then give it another go. I beat dragon warrior on nes, but that game is simplistic and easier to understand (still another great rpg)
@macehilmatecilof4140 Жыл бұрын
I have a copy of it for nes, but like you i could never really figure out what to do. Imma watch this and then give it another go. I beat dragon warrior on nes, but that game is simplistic and easier to understand (still another great rpg)
@faethore8541 Жыл бұрын
I loved Ultima III as a kid. It was the first computer RPG I was ever introduced to back on my friends Commodore 64 when I was about 12 years old. We played it for months writing down notes for all the clues and mapping all the dungeons on graph paper (keeping it all in an old Trapper Keeper). We ended up having to call someone (can't remember who) to give us a clue on how to find Dawn. By the time we got to Exodus we were way over leveled. We got so obsessed with this game that we stopped playing D&D for about 5 months. This game was life changing for an 80S gaming geek like me. Richard Garrott is a gaming god. :)
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Sounds a lot similar to how deep I fell into Wasteland a few years later.
@smithsmith6402 Жыл бұрын
I miss these kinds of open world RPGs. Seemed like they were everywhere back then, these days I can dig through a dozen rpgs and find I'm stuck on rails in every single one.
@ddarko0810 ай бұрын
My very first RPG. I absolutely fell in love with this world. Was a master class in presentation for its time, with multiple books included, many written in character. Loved all the artwork, just sucked me right in. Especially loved the music for this and IV. So many great memories of these games, all starting for me with Exodus, on my 800xl. I wish I still had my originals, with all my hand drawn maps on grid paper. Thank you so much for this trip down memory lane!
@karmatic_dev Жыл бұрын
What I like about your videos on Ultima is you've done them as if a new player, going through clues and such. And then adding expert knowledge on top, makes this really fun, as if I'm playing it myself :) thankyouu
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad the format is working out for you!
@tulenvakiproductions Жыл бұрын
Ah my favourite RPG series back in the day
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Space Rogue is on the list of possibilities. If I could find a good spin on Elite I'd add that too, but it doesn't have as much meat on its wireframe.
@davidg4288 Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim Elite Plus was released for DOS in 1991, I think it is VGA at least. I've never played it though. I did play the DOS CGA release. I'm not sure I'm qualified to pilot a Cobra Mark III any more.
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
Oh wow I had forgotten Space Rogue. Goodness, I haven't thought about that one in years!
@EmblemParade Жыл бұрын
I have a lot of fondness for this game, which I played on the Atari ST about 5,000 years ago. I didn't save the original map but a friend bought a box for me on eBay as a gift, and it's now framed beautifully on my wall. Honestly, I don't remember if I ever finished the game: I have zero recollection of that mainframe computer. But I was so enchanted by the world, the music, the freedom to go anywhere, the diversity of things to do, and the ability to talk to NPCs. It doesn't hold up well as a complete game, but it blew the young me's mind as to what computer games could be. Just wandering around and discovering secrets by accident ... wow, I felt like a real explorer and adventurer!
@lazyp666 Жыл бұрын
Barely played the ultima games, but I love watching any video about them. Looking forward to IV, and all other content you put out.
@ScavengerFX Жыл бұрын
Just finished the video. I played this when I was just a wee child on the C64, so I never got anywhere after level 5 of the characters. This was really enjoyable, thank you!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
C64 version was one I never played (despite having a C64) but I hear it was a good one.
@jameshill2450 Жыл бұрын
These videos make me SO glad that I didn't come across the Ultima series at all until Underworld. That's one of my all-time favorite games, and if I had associated the names with these games I might have skipped it.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
It was one of those series you had to grow with to enjoy the early games - there wasn't anything better at the time.
@SpikeTheNeuropsych Жыл бұрын
You tripled your channel with this series! Very nice! Please review the other Ultimas
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I'll be taking a break to cover Infocom's Deadline and maybe something else, but then get back to Ultima IV.
@picahudsoniaunflocked54268 ай бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim A rad "special feature" might be a Lord British character history/analysis, informed by or in parallel with the non-fictional counterpart's biography. Like plotting that long arc after or at a key moment in the series.
@BuyMeThingsnow7 ай бұрын
As a kid, I inherited the nes cartridge + the nes strategy guide from my older brother, and out of all the rpg's I owned I never managed to make a lick of progress. I remember trying several times, finding the games open world and freedom intriguing, but I could just never figure out (or never had the patience to both grind AND trial and error it) how to genuinely make meaningful progress or power up. This has been a very interesting series. I don't think I could ever enjoy playing these games myself due to the grinding and pace of it all, but I do find the history and the insight of how they were meant to be played (treating the game as a riddle to be gradually figured out) very interesting and enlightening. Great series and thanks for this.
@TimeKitt Жыл бұрын
Nintendo version has your party trailing behind you. While neat visually, the NES can only render 4 sprites per row, so the moment you were level with any npc or monster, you'd get flicker. The woods got pretty annoying to with this, since monsters could target any party member, so you'd have to search around for the chest. Horses help a lot there since speed will be the only way to avoid any enemies when you just want to travel the woods, and one town's horses are faster than the other's, so it's important to pick the right one.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Good NES specific tips!
@KenjiMapes10 ай бұрын
I loved this game as a kid. I remember the felt map & the cool guise books it came with. The graphics look primitive now but it was pretty groundbreaking back in the day as this was the era of full color video games which were monochromatic prior to this. Also, the scope & breadth of the Ultima III Exodus game was quite ambitious. Most games of the era were one dimensional & basic. The scale & depth was ahead of its time. It was the precursor to Diablo & is the granddaddy of ARPGS. Ultima on C64 & King’s Quest on IBM clones set the new standard of ARPGs. I wish that I still had my C64🫤 Thanks for taking the time to give such a deep take on this. Good stuff👍🫡🙂
@MichaelCoorlim10 ай бұрын
Glad you appreciate it. My first big C64 RPG was Wasteland - I look forward to eventually covering that one as well.
@Dreamshadow1977 Жыл бұрын
Great video. Watching the three early Ultima games reminded me of a shareware RPG creator I found called DCENGINE. It was a mid 90s shareware BBS find that gave me hours of map making, NPC design, and dialogue crafting. I think I started six games in it... never finished any. But it was an awesome tool for eleven year old me who loved RPG titles. The graphics tiles could be edited, but the default set mirrored Ultima II pretty closely. Every so often I find it again on some random Abandonware site, then it disappears.
@schnittmagier5515 Жыл бұрын
Thank you. Take you time until you touch 4 to keep it fun for yourself. It's always nice to know what type of experience you had when playing it for the first time and now playing it again.
@NevTheDeranged Жыл бұрын
oh man, I'm ready! I played through this game multiple times on the NES, and I'm 100% sure they had to cut content to make it fit on a cartridge, so I'm extremely psyched to vicariously experience the full game.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Surprisingly most of the changes had more to do with the NES not having a keyboard and using the Dragon Quest style menu system instead. The NES version did have changed dialog - altered to make it less poetic and more straightforward where clues were concerned, but most NPCs had a lot more to say overall.
@NevTheDeranged Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim Wow, I read the Fuzzy novels as a kid but never connected them to the Fuzzy race in the game. That's wild. I would never have imagined the NES port had *more* dialogue! The graphics and music were certainly different, but as I didn't own a PC at the time, I had nothing to compare them to. I do seem to recall there was a named NPC called Sherry, who if you brought her flowers, gave you a compass? Am I remembering that right, or was that from another game? My party was a Ranger, Thief, Cleric, Wizard, all equipped with the strongest ranged weapons I could afford- I never wanted to come to blows with baddies if I could help it. I let the Ranger. "Bcang" lead (don't ask me how I came up with the name, I have no idea, it may have been short for something?), but always let the thief open chests and pick locks, of course. IIRC, instead of a single character, the whole party was shown walking in a line- which meant monsters had a better chance of catching you, especially in dark forests where you couldn't see where they were.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
@@NevTheDeranged Yes - Sherry was a NES exclusive character. The compass was a great item that would teleport you to the Castle at any time - even in combat or in a dungeon. Each character in your party could carry one at a time.
@NevTheDeranged Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim It's also interesting that Ambrosia in the NES port used a totally different tileset, making it seem much more mysterious and special. I have fond memories of sneaking through the forest mazes, desperately hoping not to encounter too many demons before I could find a shrine, while the eerie music urged me onward. In fact, all the music on the NES version was a little bit intense, at least in my memory. Definitely a fantasy vibe, but with an edge of urgency and danger in it. I don't think ranged attacks worked in the overworld map on the NES port, either for monsters or the player?
@AlexanderOsias Жыл бұрын
Played this on an Apple back in the day. One thing that used to give trouble was random high level monsters chasing you on the world map - so we took advantage of treasure chests, which monsters could not go through, and created walls around Lord British’s castle and cities. Go through the wall on one side, and the monster would be stuck (linear follow logic) as you went out the other.
I'm getting into this series for the first time, (just finished Ultima 2!) and your videos are such a great help. Hope you cover the rest of the series. 👍
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I'm covering Sierra's King's Quest next, then returning for Ultima IV.
@Maioly Жыл бұрын
"we run into some gargoyles which gives us the chance to try out our new cleric mas murder spell" *grumbles nervously looking at ultima 5*
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
Hahaha! Lets not get ahead of ourselves ;)
@finieous198 Жыл бұрын
I finished Ultima III in 1985 while in high school. Great game!
@astonmartin8537 Жыл бұрын
Loved this game as a kid and loved the music.. Loved to see remake of this game.
@unimpartialobserver Жыл бұрын
I thought I was going to be sorry that you're not going straight for U4, but then you said "Infocom". Really looking forward to it (massive understatement), and in the meantime, I'm just going to have to peruse the rest of your vids!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Thanks! I'll be covering Deadline next, and at some point I'd like to touch on Lurking Horror, Suspended, Planetfall, and a few others.
@DevinParker Жыл бұрын
I was pretty obsessed with this when I was a kid. My best friend and I were introduced to Ultima through our mutual friend's copy of Ultima II (the suggestion of time travel and the time doors captured my imagination); shortly afterward my friend got Ultima III and I got Ultima IV. The best part about thes games for me were the "feelies": the cloth map, the illustrated booklets, and (with Ultima IV) the metal ankh. They added so much to the mystique and atmosphere of the game, filling in the suggestion of a world beyond what the sparse graphics and game text could convey. Watching you play through this showed me just how short younger me came to getting anywhere in these games. I never managed to progress very far and certainly wouldn't have had the commitment and cleverness required to actually complete any of them. Watching you play through the Ultima games is granting me a measure of closure that I appreciate. I don't remember how we got it, but around the same time I had a copy of a similar game called Questron. My friend and I played that quite a bit; his favorite activity in that game was to go to a casino and win so much money that the guards would all try to kill him. It also had its own equivalent of the Man o'war that it called the Piercing Pungi.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I remember Questron. I may cover it at some point... it's pretty obscure, and they ripped off Ultima so bad that they were forced to pay a license for the engine.
@heavymetalelf Жыл бұрын
Michael, once again another great playthrough of a classic game I always wondered about, and once again I don't think I'm still sad I never got around to it on my NES. I definitely agree that it's leaps and bounds ahead of the prior two. I'm excited for Avatar because I remember reading about it (and this one) in the old "How to beat Nintendo games" books. I read about Exodus over and over again. They recommended two fuzzy clerics and two bobbit wizards as the best possible party. Or maybe I've reversed it. Thanks for a wonderful, no nonsense experience. I especially enjoy that you give a taste of the grinding and then skip over it, but don't skip it entirely. It really helps give a feel for playing the game. Looking forward to your next game!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I was strongly considering a 2 Wizard, 2 Cleric party, but for showing off the tactical combat elements decided that the standard Fighter/Mage/Thief/Cleric party was better.
@lillyclarity9699 Жыл бұрын
this channel looks fun!! I'm surprised I haven't heard of it and that you've got such relatively low view counts but I'm sure this channel will get popular sometime, these videos have been highly entertaining!
@freemanacount5609 Жыл бұрын
"Analytical Playthrough" is my new favorite genre. I'll watch all the Ultima you put out!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad to hear it!
@Boldra Жыл бұрын
Thanks for making this, it was well-paced and included a lot of my favourite memories. Just the right number of fights. I had forgotten about the floor! I think you could have lingered a bit more on the defeat of exodus though. When you do Ultima IV, please use more gems (or seeing spells). You have a cloth map, but the audience could use some context.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
You raise some good points. I was considering a sidebar on the screen with the map (and maybe hand drawn dungeon maps) but it would probably be easier to just buy gems to pop every time I entered a new area.
@AccessAccess Жыл бұрын
Played it on a Mac. The ability to use the mouse as well as a lot of features from the Mac's GUI making it into the user interface was a big deal for us, similar to the way Wizardry worked on the Mac. You could cast spells by selecting them from a menu, character creation took place in a window with various stat boxes and selections, etc. Also fixed a lot of the bugs in the earlier versions of the game like gold wrapping around.
@lostxj Жыл бұрын
I really enjoy this longplay documentary style presentation.
@bookbagfox Жыл бұрын
I’ve been wanting to see in depth videos on Ultima for years. This is fantastic.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad you're liking the series! There's more to come.
@jeffreygordon7194 Жыл бұрын
This was the first thing in my feed on Sunday morning. Seems like the algorithm approves.
@Kaedevirus Жыл бұрын
When you said your voice is dying and you started tripping over the words, I felt that. I tend to train people at my work and it tends to take couple hours for couple days straight and, even on the first day, my voice dies and my mind twists, which makes me repeat stuff over and over until I stop for a second and collect myself.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Feels like I used to be able to talk for longer without getting tripped up. Part of getting older, I guess!
@sloanekuria3249 Жыл бұрын
Wait, Dupre was an alien the whole time?! Thanks for these videos. My first was really VI, but I enjoyed the IDEA of the V and earlier games, even if I couldn't quite... get there to play them.
@Aboveup Жыл бұрын
Recently stumbled on your channel with your Ultima videos appearing in my recommended feed. You've done a great job covering the series, and I look forward to your future videos.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the kind words!
@jucarave9 ай бұрын
Amaizing content, this is what I hope more views would do. Loving the series so far!
@superdoonz1 Жыл бұрын
I remember the manual's description of the Yell command: "Useful when being chased by a dragon: 'OPEN GATE!!!!' "
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Not an actual thing you can do for more than a few reasons!
@DrSarcasmo Жыл бұрын
Man, I still have my cloth map from my C64 version I bought the day it released in 1983. And I still have my notebook where I wrote down all the clues and mapped all the dungeons. Hard to believe it's been 40 years since I played it!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Those artifacts are gaming treasure.
@marafolse8347 Жыл бұрын
Great stuff! One of my favorite small KZfaqrs now
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad to hear it!
@ingiford175 Жыл бұрын
Had a love/hate relation with the city of Yew.... This brings back many memories.
@georgepayne9381 Жыл бұрын
You did a great job solving the mystery of what was going on in this series. I'd never have found my way through as a kid, if only because I'd never think to just stab random townsfolk to see what happened. What was with classic CRPGs and murdering innocents? Might and Magic had that too; I remember one of them has you visiting kings to decide who rules, and you have to murder your way through their castles to talk to them. AND THEN THEY'RE GLAD TO SEE YOU. I watched your videos for 1 and 2; they have you murdering guards and jesters there and murdering the priest here. I really want to know what was going through these developers' minds. Was it just the whole objectivist "do anything it takes to get what you want" mindset? Maybe it's just a joke and it all comes from Monty Python's version of Galahad killing his way through the swamp castle just because it was part of his "idiom." I'll go with that so I have some hope for humanity.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I think in Richard Garriott's case he was just coming up with gameplay challenges and not considering the moral reality of the setting. This changes big time in Ultima IV, and it's a big enough impact that it changes how a lot of CRPGs take those actions into account.
@VerityFraser Жыл бұрын
I wish I got more into these games as a kid. Still really interesting to see an in-depth retrospective!
@Garrette63 Жыл бұрын
I think these games can be your gateway into expanding your channel. A lot of people have heard of Ultima but are not necessarily from the time when they were released. I think a lot of people are enjoying the retrospective without having to actually play them, especially the very old ones.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
That seems to be a common sentiment in the comments that I'm getting.
@Nworb1990 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for playing these. My first ever video game was Ultima 7 when I was like 7 in 1997. Started playing UO in 2002. Ultima will always have a place in my heart
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
You get it.
@Nworb1990 Жыл бұрын
@MichaelCoorlim in fact my UO account is still active today! I have a castle on Pacific.
@Tjomi Жыл бұрын
I just saw your ultima 1 through 3 videos and i really like them. The games are to old-school for me to play but seeing you play through them really gives me a lot of respect for these older games. Good job.
@mikewyz Жыл бұрын
Thank you for doing these. I got a copy of Ultima IV in the late 80s and a friend helped me with it but we had no manual. I enjoyed the game but never finished it and I've often wondered about the preceeding and following Ultimas.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Glad I could help you get a good look at them.
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
I retroactively played this one after playing Ultima IV (a defining experience of my teenage years, Ill comment further on that when you get to IV). I played the enhanced version on the Amiga and while I did enjoy it, it mostly made me appreciate how far IV had come. Sidenote, my friends and I used to be so glad we had played the Commodore versions of Ultima as we felt those versions were superior to PC. We used to sneer a lot at PC games but ironically, Ultima Underworld came along and we were so wowed we jumped ship to PC. I do miss the stuff that used to come in these old boxed games. The Ultima series was a bit of a gold standard for this stuff. I still have my cloth maps around somewhere.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Oh yeah - early days PC versions were pretty dire. I had a C64 too, for a lot of the early games.
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim Yeah I have a lot of affection for the C64. It was my first PC. Commodores custom graphics and music chips really were amazing for the day. I played Ultima IV on the C64 and had to borrow my friends floppy drive to play it. One of the best summer holidays ever :)
@SM-pv4sn Жыл бұрын
Really enjoying these detailed playthroughs of the Ultima classics, would really enjoy seeing the rest of the Ultima series and other similar classic games covered. I played all these as a kid, but never did get through the immense slog to beat them. There's a lot of videos out there covering these games, but not many covering all these great details.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I love doing research, and it'd be a shame not to discuss it!
@Muffysb Жыл бұрын
Thank you for doing these! I had Ultima III for the Atari 800 and never even came close to beginning it (let alone finishing it). It's cool to see it all unroll with your commentary. Questron was the only Atari RPG I really tried to win at the time...but even that I couldn't make headway against.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I've played Questron, but mostly I know it for being forced to pay Origin for the license to Ultima because it was so derivative.
@brianparker5323 Жыл бұрын
I have very fond memories of this game. First was playing it an lunch at school on the Apple IIgs they had. I eventually got the nes version and played it constantly. I remember abusing the party creation system to make characters, put them in the party then transferring their starting money off them, then getting rid of that character. I recall it being a very tedious process to get my starting money up. In retrospect I have no idea if it was more efficient to do that, or to play the actual game. Either way, solid game, great retrospective. Keep up the good work!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Yeah I think that was a "cheat" that a lot of us used in these games. I remember doing it in Might & Magic, and later Wasteland.
@gwivongalois6169 Жыл бұрын
Players back then must had the patience of saints. "How do you find the correct moon setting? You try all of em."
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Back in the day we loaded games off of cassette tapes. You'd set a game to load, go have dinner, then come back and wait a little longer for it to load.
@shinankoku2 Жыл бұрын
Ahh, Ultima III. Putting druids to the sword in the ‘town’ of Yew for Fun and Profit. I don’t think R Garrett thought that through all the way.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
He really didn't start thinking about the moral implications of Lord British having a secret torture dungeon until Ultima IV.
@davidg4288 Жыл бұрын
Lord British was always kind of a jerk, charging you money so you can help *him*. Later on he becomes downright incompetent. Also Ultima III is the first Ultima (I think) where you can kill Lord British, I won't give the spoiler here but it's easy to find. Richard Garriott obviously could take a joke and either put that stuff in himself or later left it as an easter egg if his programmers did it.
@heatherharrison264 Жыл бұрын
This is the easiest way to grind for gold in the early game. The clerics go down easily, but there is still danger - the chests they drop can be trapped, and trapped chests do some serious damage. Since the towns reset upon exit and re-entry, this murder spree can be repeated indefinitely. This game requires so much grind that it encourages the player to be a murder hobo. Because the first three Ultima games had trained me to be a murder hobo, I had a bit of a tough time with Ultima IV at first until I figured out that the game requires the player to not be a jerk.
@shinankoku2 Жыл бұрын
@@heatherharrison264 Roger that. I finished 2 and 3 and started 4 and 5 but never completed them … the difficulty to fun ratio was just too high for me. By the time 6 rolled around I was in college and didn’t have enough time to game by that point.
@heatherharrison264 Жыл бұрын
@@shinankoku2 I was in middle school when Ultima IV came out, so I had plenty of time on my hands. It took a while, but I finished it. The tedious, grindy, repetitive combat is its weakest point. I eventually figured out how to sector-edit the floppy disks to modify the world map in a way that bottled up a lot of the roaming monsters so that I didn't have to fight them all the time. I loved that game at the time despite the grind, but I've tried to play it recently and have a hard time tolerating it. I never finished Ultima V at the time - it was just too much trouble despite the excellent story and world building. I eventually finished it many years after it came out. Nowadays, I see little reason to play the original since a great fan-made remake - Ultima V Lazarus - is available as a mod for Dungeon Siege. There is also a similar remake for Ultima VI, though the original is still quite playable due to a much better game engine. These remakes are long games, with additional NPCs and quests that weren't in the originals, but they are great Ultima experiences, and while Dungeon Siege is a bit of a janky and primitive engine by today's standards, it is a lot more modern and streamlined than the originals. Combat in Dungeon Siege can be tough, but it is real time with pause, so it goes a lot more quickly than the original Ultima V, and there is an easy difficulty option for people who are more interested in the story and exploration than the fights. Ultima IV could really use a remake, but I haven't heard of any fan groups taking it on.
@Ryusuta Жыл бұрын
Loving the ET music they got playing in the towns and castles.
@JayTor2112 Жыл бұрын
I remember trying to play this on my C64, brutally hard game. RPGs did't F around back then.
@MonochromeWench Жыл бұрын
Considering how things are in the future games you can really tell that with this game Richard Garriot was really starting to figure things out. It is what you'd expect for the game that was between 2 and 4.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Very true. Given that he reconstructs the engine from scratch every time, it's impressive how long he goes as basically a solo developer.
@mikesol1162 Жыл бұрын
I love the way you look at these games. Very entertaining. I hope to see you take a look at the early Might & Magics at some point.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
They're on the list of potential late 80s/early 90s games.
@InterCity134 Жыл бұрын
Man the memories of playing the Atari 800 version of this in 1984. I recall my copy had a bad sector for the map where terrain was all water in a line , which meant one key town wasn’t on the map; had to reconstruct that map fragment with a disk editor. Fun times this game was. Then came ultima 4 and I had to go to college and ran out of free time to play that through all the way just as I’d started to figure out how the character mechanisms worked there…
@astonmartin8537 Жыл бұрын
One of my favorite games as a kid.
@Darhan62 Жыл бұрын
I played it on the Apple II+ in the mid-eighties. Each Ultima I played seemed subtantially better than the previous one up until Ultima V. After that they changed up the graphics so it was difficult to compare them. I started with Ultima II, which consumed pretty much my entire Christmas break one year. One fun thing about Ultima III was creating a whole roster of characters and then choosing different party configurations for replays of the game. The graphics on the version in this video are substantially improved over the basic graphics on the Apple II+.
@Boldra Жыл бұрын
Ah yes! I had forgotten you could import characters! I think that had a significant role in how I beat the game : somebody gave me a disc with a level 99 thief and I used it to train up my own characters
@JustMe99999 Жыл бұрын
Looks much better than the CGA I played it in when it came out! I started with Ultima II as a kid and played them all as they came out.... Ultima VII was a masterpiece, one of the greatest RPG games of all time.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Have to agree there - Ultima VII and part 2 were my favorite entries in the series. Traded a Death of Superman comic - still in the bag - for a copy.
@JustMe99999 Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim It's too bad that 8 was bad and 9 was a crime against humanity.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I want to think that giving 8 another chance will be worth it... but its production was rough so my expectations aren't high.
@torinriley7569 Жыл бұрын
A non-GOG option for people wanting to play this game who are DOS game enthusiasts would be the Exo-DOS game preservation project; which does take up a fair bit of hard drive space but is also pre-configured for modern systems and has unaltered and uncut copies of the games unlike Gog, who often will trim down games and edit files to reduce size. Its by far one of the most complete collections of DOS games, maps, and manuals, albeit also a tad legally dubious.
@kericmason11 ай бұрын
If you hand off gold, you can carry four times the amount of gold (fill each character rather than just character 1), just remember to avoid joining gold. That cuts down on the number of trips to Ambrosia.
@MichaelCoorlim11 ай бұрын
Good tip, but I just hate juggling gold.
@picahudsoniaunflocked54268 ай бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlimHate juggling gold? First Sosarian problems! [/jk]
@ChadQuick270WАй бұрын
Poison was a major pain in the *** in this game. At least in Ultima 4 and 5 you could cast “Cure” right off from the start as long as your character could use magic (and that was guaranteed in Ultima 5). Also in Ultima 3 a party can be wiped out quite early if they get a full “pack” of Balrons, Dragons, Man-O-Wars, etc. There doesn’t seem to be the “waiting until you’re higher level” before the real tough battles begin like in Ultima 4 and 5. I’m enjoying your commentary a lot. I started with 3 and will watch 4 next then back to 1 and 2. Hopefully Ultima 5 is soon to be uploaded.
@MichaelCoorlimАй бұрын
I'm having difficulties with 5. Finished it, had some technical problems with the video, basically have to do it again and the thought of replaying it right away is painful. But we'll see what happens and how quickly.
@ChadQuick270WАй бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim yeah Ultima 5 is a monster of a game, even with a clue book. The Underworld is a major pain!
@hastur-thekinginyellow8115 Жыл бұрын
I really hope you are planning on doing Ultima IV! It is where I started and in my opinion the best of the entire series.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Absolutely. Taking a break for an Infocom game and King's Quest, then back for IV.
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
Heh! I love that they use the brick tiles for the ships. I am certain they are wood in IV? Other random observations, I forgot about individual gold and food. What a chore that was. Finally, I never thought about Fuzzies and the emps. I completely forgot Fuzzies were even a race but the connection between them and the emps in VII seems sound to me. Its like LB put that on the back burner til he found a way to bring them back that in a way that was thematic and not copyright infringing :) Edit: I forgot about the wind. Its like my mind has blocked out the worst elements.
@antoxa17264 ай бұрын
i do wonder if fans will ever try and fix Ultima 8, ore perhaps 9 if that's easier. Ultima deserves a big fanbase in the modern era
@joeneighbor Жыл бұрын
Thanks for this. I had U3 on the Commodore64 and never finished it. Been wanting to play it again. Incidentally, I forget which exactly, maybe U4. But it says at the end to write to Origin systems to say you have completed it. I did and got a signed certificate thing back in the mail which was pretty cool. Assumed it Richard Garriott. Whom I've talked to a few times while I was a game dev.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Yeah, a few games have you send away to Origin when you win.
@fentonryan Жыл бұрын
Fun little 'cheat' for the NES version: In Exodus castle, you can hit 'b' to reset the random encounter counter each step - so you avoid all random fights until the 'floor' fight at the end. It only seems to work there for some reason (maybe a dev cheat left in). It basically means you can level, get a ship, ambrosia spam a bit (get cards), get marks, then bee-line it to the end, with no grinding needed in that version.
@glarynth Жыл бұрын
To this day, I have to remind myself that Exodus is not the third book of the Bible.
@MrPete19853 ай бұрын
Putting this on Watch later list. I played the heck out of the NES version
@lpslucasps Жыл бұрын
I mostly agree with your take on Ultima 3 - it's competent and interesting, but not exactly great. However, I do have a little bit of a soft spot for it. I love the trope of a hidden, unknown world as big as the "main" map, and afaik U3 was the first RPG to use it with Ambrosia. And the final "fight" against Exodus is quite creative!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I'm critical of Ultima III because that's what I'm doing - critical analysis - but I hope it comes across that I respect the game for what it does right, what it creates, what it adds to the CRPG genre. There are a lot of "firsts" in the games, for all their problems - they do have a historical place of honor. However, as fond as I am of the games, from the comments I'm getting it's clear that a lot of people would rather watch deep dives into these older games than play them themselves. And honestly? I respect that 100%. They're not easy to play, and some of the design choices make them not terribly fun compared to what comes after. That doesn't make them less important. Just not good for a casual non-nostalgia playthrough, I guess.
@fireflocs Жыл бұрын
4:45 Ain't that a shame? It's always so much more special when the opposite happens, and the fantasy work embraces its non-humans. God I love OddWorld.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
OddWorld was really fresh feeling for just that reason.
@Frostfly Жыл бұрын
The first PC game I ever purchased, I think i still have all the stuff that came in the box.
@snowdenwyatt6276 Жыл бұрын
The Fuzzies probably disappeared in later installments by choice rather than legal action. For some reason (probably involving mishandled copyright) H. Beam Piper's first Fuzzy novel entered the public domain rather quickly while his (and others') sequels did not. As a result anyone can write and publish a Fuzzy novel as long as it doesn't copy the story any of the sequels.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
It's probably related to the removal of the other fantasy races after III then. Richard Garriott's Sosaria/Brittania became a lot less derivative as the games went on.
@UnderTheSkin13 Жыл бұрын
Ever since Spoony touched on the Ultima games I've wanted to make one like them myself. Maybe even a bit of a remake, but it's a whole different beast from making a linear RPG, it would take a hell of a lot of planning that I don't have the time for right now. Maybe someday.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Might be doable in stages... start with a game like Ultima 1, where you need to drop down in dungeons and kill certain monsters at certain levels. Then layer on some innovations from other games, stage by stage - more towns and NPCs, clue chains to follow to enable the end-game, etc.
@davidg4288 Жыл бұрын
I'll have to get that patch, the ship spawning is especially bad in the DOS version (yes I played it in its day!) and you end up bored out of your mind waiting for a ship to appear. The non patch fix for this is to get a ship or two and stash them up beyond the snake where the whirlpool never goes. Ships docked elsewhere have a good chance of being destroyed by the whirlpool. The improved graphics and sound are great too, someone went to a lot of trouble to do that!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
It's really a nice patch, has a few other fixes possible worked into it. You can decide what parts of it to activate depending on what kind of experience you desire.
@davidg4288 Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim I just downloaded the patch and tried it in DOSBox-0.74, I haven't tried the options yet. I used the Ultima Collection version for the patch and the Exodus Project patch recognized it fine. There are plenty of enemies with the patch, including ships. VGA and stereo music are nice. I keep getting lost though and had to dig out my moon gate and spell cheat sheet.
@The3Basics Жыл бұрын
I really enjoy your videos and on the whole find them a positive affirming experience. However - and please don’t take this criticism as it’s no fault of your own - but no playthrough video will ever be able to re-capture feeling being an eight-year-old playing the game for the first time, in a world where this was cutting-edge and again, please don’t take this as a criticism because there’s nothing anyone can do to escape that fact. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that the success of these games are so little to do with their functionality or even retrospective innovation, but something undefinable that they meant to us kids way back when and how these dinky graphics somehow evoked an imagination more vivid than what 4K can produce now. So please continue to post. I’m really enjoying these. Thank you.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Absolutely. And I'm not trying to recapture that experience; instead I'm approaching them as a game developer and narrative designer doing an analysis of the games' elements. I don't shy away from critical commentary but when I mention a flaw or a problem it's not because the game is "bad," it's because "this is where the state of game development was at this time." Obviously Ultima as a series has a long way to go in 1983, but I'm going to do my best to keep that historical context in mind.
@The3Basics Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlimabsolutely, you’re doing a fantastic job and apologies again for my melancholic overreach. I will add however that sometimes the non-intuitive/obscurity of the mechanics and puzzles of these early games had a bizarre appeal in the pre-Internet days. Like it was some secretive, hermetic knowledge that when it became open to you, bestowed a special sense of ownership. A road no-one else had travelled. The secrets were so much more secretive back then.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I think that a big part of it was that the kind of person willing to get these games running on a PC in the first place had to solve a puzzle just to play, to get the game running with the right kind of expanded or extended memory and to get their sound card working at the same time as their other hardware. Just running programs in DOS could be half hacking.
@The3Basics Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim ha… very true. I have some fantastic memories of tinkering when I was a teen, installing cards and mucking around with DOS. The arrival of Windows took away some of that magic. Btw, would love to see a Bard’s Tale analysis, there’s not much up about it online. I’m a fiend for SSI Gold Box/Silver Box series but I feel that’s been covered more. Although maybe Hillsfar or War of the Lance could be an interesting aside. There’s definitely some more obscure ones but you’re not likely to get much interest if it’s too niche. Look forward to the next whatever it is!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
@@The3Basics My secret evil plan is to lure in new viewers with the big popular titles then when they're good and hooked give them videos on the more obscure stuff, like Autoduel or Sundog: Frozen Legacy.
@QueenAleenaFan Жыл бұрын
Weird to hear about Exodus and then find out its truth.
@SeanHollingsworth8 ай бұрын
I stull have my maps for Ultima 3, 5 and 6. I've used them as dust covers for printers, etc. . . It's probably time to put them back in their game boxes after over 35 years. ;-)
@stampedetrail200311 ай бұрын
Of all the early Ultimas I think III is the one I've played the least. It might be time to go back and see what was missed, I only recall annoying grinding.
@zadig08 Жыл бұрын
Love the videos, thank you! Sometimes the music can be really grating, but thats not your fault.
@Numdenu Жыл бұрын
How did Minax and Mondain have a computer child? Probably involves using their time manipulation to go to the future and code one. Thanks for the playthrough!
@Mandrake42 Жыл бұрын
I never figured the logic of this one either. That reveal was like "Wait, what now?"
@durianthesleepy Жыл бұрын
Nah, nah nah. All of that "child" stuff is misconception from unenlightened minds of their enemies. Which couldn't grasp the ultimate goal of Mondain after achieving immortality was to make an absolutely kickass gaming PC. Minax was there to help debug and optimize the thing. Using time travel for that might seem strange but CTRL Z wasn't invented yet. I don't know the specs but the whole thing was watercooled by the oceans of Sosaria and his controller setup was so amazing the gargoyles are still talking about it.
@RPGMusings Жыл бұрын
Great video! One game I would really like to see you run through is Questron - released by SSI in 1984. My brother and I played the hell out of that game on our C64. Questron is my second favorite game of that era, after Ultima IV. It is very much in the vein of the Ultima series, but has some extra little additions that make for a very enjoyable playthrough, and I think it has the best, most satisfying final screen/text after completion of any game in the early-mid 80s.
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Makes sense, since Questron basically licensed the Ultima engine (after they were forced to in court)
@RPGMusings Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelCoorlim Truth... but I didn't know any of that at the time, so the business and IP concerns were not thought of - I just enjoyed the game. :)
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
@@RPGMusings Sometimes that's all that matters!
@BaneMcDeath Жыл бұрын
bonim anima tueri amen bonim anima tueri amen bonim anima tueri amen May the good soul be protected, amen May the good soul be protected, amen May the good soul be protected, amen EVOCARE - to evoke
@BaneMcDeath Жыл бұрын
The GBA Ultima 3 port project has a part 2 that is much harder and utilizes some interesting features and commands. The FM-Towns version has an interesting ending and cinematics. I would love a remake of the entire series utilizing bits of each version and maybe more options like in Ultima 4-8.
@Gimili10 Жыл бұрын
Good, not great. Lord British was still learning but at least the nonsensical objectives are gone and it's not so hard to figure out what to do without a guide.
@YourLottery Жыл бұрын
I seem to remember grinding for gold in a town. You had to bribe or kill guards...
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Death Gultch. You can bribe your way in, and steal some chests which sets off the guards. Skipped it because the PC version doesn't have any clues there, and grinding Snake Dungeon Level 1 is faster. Might be worth visiting for clues in the NES port.
@ShanghaiFlyer56 Жыл бұрын
Obviously the best way to get gold is to take out life insurance policies on your hapless crews
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Look at those low rates!
@LorneShiaman-mo5dv2 ай бұрын
I remember not having a guide and maped the dungeons on graph paper
@MichaelCoorlim2 ай бұрын
Back in the day we had no other choice!
@donwald3436 Жыл бұрын
Woohoo it's up!
@damienparoski2033 Жыл бұрын
My suggestion for an 80's rpg game? I would point to one of my favorite and most memorable games, "Quest for Glory: So you want to be a Hero".
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Quest For Glory was a good series. It's definitely on the list.
@itchykami Жыл бұрын
Oh, there was a bug spawning fewer monsters, that tracks very much with my experience. I think I played a whole game with 1 monster.
@JamesPotts Жыл бұрын
Now I want to play again, but I'm torn. The PC update is great, but I miss the Mockingboard score.
@sulrich70 Жыл бұрын
Very comprehensive!
@aznluvr79 ай бұрын
Awesome man, I prefer the NES version, but probably only because that's what I grew up with. Great music too!
@MichaelCoorlim9 ай бұрын
NES version was probably my first exposure to III, but I'd played 1 on the Apple II at the library.
@mikehunt9884Ай бұрын
there were non humans in subsequent ultima games, Gargoyles (winged ones and non winged ones), you could have some on your team even, and they're even featured in UO as a playable race.
@MichaelCoorlimАй бұрын
Yeah; gargoyles and Emps were the "friendly" races in U7.
@palindromial Жыл бұрын
I don't know if this still works in the version you're playing but in the C64 version monsters on the world map could not cross treasure chests. So if you strategically placed them, around a town at a river/lake where you also had a boat, you could "amass" lots and lots of monsters just outside those chests. Taking the boat around they would try to move towards you a little and when you returned they'd eventually all pile up at the chests again. I don't know why exactly, but I had endless amounts of fun with that as a kid. 😀
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
Works that way in the PC version and it is a legit early-game tactic.
@PeterRoesler1 Жыл бұрын
Love your series so far! Any thoughts to Alternate Reality: The City? Probably one of the best opening songs of the era!
@MichaelCoorlim Жыл бұрын
I've got it down on my "maybe" list. It'd be higher if they'd actually made the other games in the series, but cancelled series depress me a little.