Holy christ, I just tried this game and boy, it's complex and tough! O_o;;

This is the first time I've actually bothered printing out a keyboard command list. :p And taking notes. Plus, I've got the feeling I've fouled up my character creation process.

How about you folks? Anyone's played Ultima before?

I played it many moons ago on Apple IIs, and more recently via Gametap (Ultima does work on the Mac build of Gametap). You pretty much have to have the keyboard commands in front of you as well as a pad for note/map taking. I usually doodle a map while taking notes, so I know where I've been. In general I think the gameplay holds up well (other than not being party based, I prefer party based). Really what has today's flashy RPGs added to the genre, not much I'd say. More flash, less fun. Man these old ones, everyone I knew used to play them, you'd go to school and talk about the previous night's quests what not talkin with your buds about Ultima, Zork, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy.

I never played Ultima I, but Ultima II was the game for me that jump started my fascination of role-playing. There are definite influences of the early Ultima games in Eschalon.

Ultima 4, bought 3 but never played it - Commodore/Amiga. Love, went as far as 6.

Eh, haven't made it very far in the game 'cos I've been too occupied with making maps and I'm already getting irritated. :p I've always preferred a game with an inbuilt map so I know where I'm going.

Btw, so far, there hasn't been any story in the game. I assume what I need to do is to wander around and fight monsters in the outdoors or dungeon to raise enough money to purchase spells, weapons, etc., so that I might proceed to complete the quests bestowed on my character?

I didn't play it when it first came out, but played it when it was re-released somewhere between IV and V. IIRC I was supposed to be studying for a psych final the next day and rode my bike about 10 miles to the game store instead, bought it, rode home, and played most of the way through. The psych grade suffered.

Ultima III was my first, then I bought and played through II, and bought every one new after that until VIII.

hi , I also am a big fan of Ultima. I have played them all but id have to say Ultima Online was major fun for a long time, have any of you tryed it? befor You had to pay to play it online, now you can download the hole game and play on free servers like this one http://www.uogamers.com/

It has everything you can want in a RPG , pvp, housing , boats you could fish off of, horses to ride , ect heres a screen shot of one of my chars but i dont play it anymore its old and has been out for a long time and just got board of it after a couple years of playing it lol.

http://img130.imageshack.us/my.php?image=loluoop0.jpg

This game is good , but Eschalon will be better cause its newer , fresh game. just thought i share this so you can see what its like enjoy ;o

(the memory hazes a little with the years)

The first Ultima I played was Ultima II for the Atari 800 around when it came out (1983?). The first Ultima I completed was Ultima 3 on the Atari 800 in late '85. I played IV on the Atari and then 5 and 6 on the PC (did you know the PC version of Ultima 5 had a Hercules monochrome driver and hi-res tiles?) About that time the Ultima 1-6 collection was released and I played (the port) of Ultima 1 on the PC.

If I recall correctly, Ultima 1 wasn't quite as unified in the way it handled maps/world map/dungeons compared to the ones that followed (ditto for the specialization of commands I think).

It's good to reflect on how we played without a mouse, or anything resembling a windowing GUI, but still enjoyed it because that was the norm for the time.

Now, as for taking notes. I recently found an old 5" x 8" spiral bound notebook I used for playing Ultima IV -- I had filled it with notes - maps of all the dungeons - I was able to determine they were 8x8 grids with wrap-around so I could try and make sure I didn't miss anything.

I also kept record of every conversation - every keyword and response - so I knew what to ask of whom. I had details of every quest.

Automaps and Quest Logs were inventions that significantly changed how we played RPGS, and generally for the better - it was nice to keep all those notes, but now it's "been there - got the T-shirt".

Agreed with Spiff. Modern games should offer tools like that. We gripe and moan about how coddled modern gamers are, but if we were offered auto-maps way back when, we'd have taken it without hesitation.

My first "Ultima" was II, which I played on an Apple at juinor high school. Because I had no guide as to what keys did what, I quickly died before figuring out all four cardinal directions. (Which were Return for up, / for down, and the left and right arrow keys.)

I've tried the original Ultima I in an Apple emulator, and the remake on the PC. The remake is much more playable, obviously. I will say this, though, Ultima II has a visceral satisfaction to the game play, much like Diablo. Especially once you get the ship and you get past the hard curve.

Adamantyr

Yeah. You could fire the ship's cannon from a safe distance offshore while the monsters stacked up on the shoreline. It was sweet revenge.