It's way too late to be playing Ultima

So what? No one can stop me!

Ultima III: Exodus World Map

Ultima III: Exodus might look like it has a small map, and it some ways it is, but the developers really squeezed everything they could out of this relatively small space. Because of the line-of-sight feature, you can't always see everything that's on the screen. This makes exploring more exciting because you actually have to walk around the mountains rather than just looking at the edge of the screen. The world loops around the edges, but unlike Final Fantasy 2, you can't just walk around forever.

Towns and dungeons can go unnoticed by players for YEARS, without the help of a guide. The same thing happens inside cities, where the line of site blackout can hide gigantic buildings through clever placement of walls and doors. The towns are almost as big as the world map itself, and overall Exodus is a monster of a quest. 

Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest certainly have bigger maps, but they've streamlined the RPG to the point where those world maps get eaten up quickly by new players.

Also, FF and DQ are rarely non-linear experiences (although they have their moments). Ultima is basically an RPG sandbox, allowing you to go anywhere, visit towns in any order, shuffle your party around, kill townspeople, steal, and generally have a romping good RPG time.

It's also worth nothing that Exodus was released 3 years before Dragon Warrior and 4 years before Final Fantasy. In those years, it's sad to say, Squaresoft and Enix made the world maps bigger, but the gameplay was undeniably dumbed down and the player was forced on a "quest" that was more like a "hallway with occasional doors." Ultima IV, released only 2 years after Exodus (and still before 1 year before Dragon Warrior and 2 years before Final Fantasy) upped the world map to an insane level, easily topping DQ and FF in terms of realism, complexity, and number of locations. Ultima IV also had a text parsing system which allowed the player to talk to NPCs and get clues on solving the quests. So why didn't other games follow suit with legitimate gameplay advances? Why do no games today use text parsers?

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny Tileset

The tileset posting continues! Ultima 5 boasts 512 tiles (compared to the 256 of Ultima 4), and one can easily tell the difference when playing both games. Overall, however, there is a lot of wasted nonsense like the pink "Shadow Realm" tiles, "sitting down" tiles, and the four-frames of animation for everything.

The class sprites are greatly reduced, no more Tinkers, Druids, Paladins, Wizards, Rangers, Fighters, Shepherds, or Bards... instead characters use either the "Rogue," "Knight," or "Wizard" sprite. Yet, with the lack of diversity, the artist uses space within the tiles more more effectively by filling in more space (so there is less black) and making everything look realistic through shading and eliminating the representation of unimportant/awkward sprite features such as necks.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I'm making good progress in Ultima 5, although some of the new mechanics are annoying at best. Picking up loot has become a veritable chore, and the DAY/NIGHT system is poorly implemented as far as I can tell. Basically there is nothing new to explore at night, and the towns and shops close down in the dark.

On the positive side, the player is no longer burdened with protecting his or her Avatarhood, and can lie, cheat, steal, run away from fights, and murder like the good old days of Ultima 1-3.

Download Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for FREE (Legally!!!)

The Ultima IV tileset is enjoying surprising amounts of traffic, so I thought I'd follow up with another cool download. This came as a nice surprise, but you can actually grab Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar on gog.com 100% for free. It's hard to complain about free. They've also got deals on the other Ultima games as well, so check those out if interested. Don't listen to any haters talking about the games "not aging well." Those people can gtfo my internet.

The PC version is much better than the somewhat-butchered NES port, but I like the NES box art (pictured above) a little more. I suppose the NES version has it's charm, but it's still more of a curiosity than anything else. Thankfully I've had the PC version since the days of AOL, so I never bothered with the NES port.

The NES port of Ultima III: Exodus, on the other hand, is quite brilliant.

Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar Tileset

Last week I finally finished Ultima II, which allowed me to return to my 7-months-in-progress game of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Tonight, all I have to do is reach the depths of hell and recover the lost codex of the Avatar.

So in honor of this historic event I'm posting the Ultima IV tileset in all its glory. More posts on various Ultima-related escapades forthcoming.

Overall it's an amazing tileset that can teach new pixel artists a lot about economy and representation (particularly of environments). My only criticism of the graphics is the decision to use 4 frames of animation for the enemies. 2 frames per monster would have been plenty. Sorry it's slightly messed up at the bottom, that was a mistake I made when adjusting the colors to more-accurately reflect how they appear on a very old but brilliant 14-inch CRT monitor.

All Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Dungeon Maps

An elegant and compact set of all the dungeons in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Ultima 4 is probably the most imitated game of all time, and pretty much every RPG since has been a failed attempt at mimicking the greatness of Ultima 4. 

Adventures in Ultima

After watching Deeds of Yore, I was inspired to finally finish my Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar game. However, that didn't happen. I decided to play the original Ultima, although not on an emulator. Like most other dos games I'm running the Ultimas on an old Windows 95 computer which I've scrapped together. This version of Ultima is actually a port to DOS from the Apple II original. Some of the graphics have obviously been ripped from Ultima IV, and I was almost disappointed that the graphics weren't more primitive. The towns have a Roguelike feel to them, and offer you the chance to buy or steal items, armor, vehicles, food, beer, hp, and receive quests. No one town has everything, so you'll be force to explore the countrysides.

And the countrysides are vast. Ultima, quite frankly is a huge game. Without maps it almost impossible to navigate around. I've been lost for hours trying to find Lord British's castle. I needed a break from playing, so I'll post the story of quest so far.

It's late at night, and the only light is coming from the Monitor connected to my 1.78 Mhz machine. Ultima runs smoothly, slightly faster than it would have run in the past. Occasionally signs can be a challenge to read, and without an emulated dosbox I can't adjust the CPU speed. This Windows 95 machien is capable of running Dosbox, but the mouse isn't working and I don't feel it's worth the effort.

It's far too late to write a full, formal review of Ultima I. The game is famous, and I'm almost passing out at the keyboard so whatever. This is more about my adventures in this incredibly non-linear game anyway.

After many deaths, I got lucky and stole some great gear. I can attack from a distance and I''m not sure what the Reflect suit does, but it's expensive. Maybe it blocks spells as well.

This is just my old computer and my netbook. I may have been listening to the song from Deeds of Yore.

Every time you die, you keep your exp but HP and Food go down to 99. It's a brutal system because EXP makes the game get harder by increasing the overworld monsters.

Almost kicking ass now! I've got a some gold, food and HP. If I keep exploring this cave my numbers will only get better.

In this picture, I'm seriously into the zone.Repeated trips into the dungeon beef my character up in no time. The key skill here is "risk vs reward" as the player is tempted to remain in the dungeon for as long as possible, but it can be quite dangerous. Even on the first level of the dungeon it's easy to get lost and mobbed.

All the monsters use these awesome wire-frame designs. The pictures don't do justice to how brightly these things shine in an otherwise dark room. The vector graphics are a refreshing change of pace from the Ultima IV monsters roaming the overworld.

This skeleton is one of the better early-level monsters. The programmers even went through the trouble to generate 2 different skeleton sprites for variety.

The town of "Imagination." Not much is going on here, but at least I can steal some weapons and buy some food. The towns are all single-screens, and I love how you have to put up with absolutely 0 town bullshit. You get want you want and you gtfo.

Orcs lurk in the lower levels, and the difficulty increases dramatically.

I tried to push it to the limit and failed. This is one screen I've seen dozens of times already. You keep your armor, but you lose your weapons... You really don't want to die in Ultima.

Starting over from scratch isn't easy, but it's workable. However, the more I level up, the more monster appear on the over-world. Travel is beginning to be a problem.

Stole a Phazor from the King. Unfortunately it sucks as a weapon. 

After some extensive dungeon leveling, I'm back on a roll collecting massive amounts of gold. Only a few more trips down and I'll have the gold to get the super fucking awesome hovercraft, which will let me explore more of the world and complete some of the quests the Kings keep offering.

See it, want it, buy it, own it.

Cash rules everything around me.

Ok, I just got my hovercraft and it's time to cruise around killing shit and amassing sweet glory through adventure!

30 seconds later I lost the hovercraft.

In my fervor I parked the hovercraft at an island dungeon and subsequently died in said dungeon. I'm not even sure if my hovercraft is deleted or not... After so many deaths, which I didn't describe because deaths suck, and losing 2 hovercrafts (Yes, I actually lost another hovercraft a few hours before the one pictured above) I called it a night and decided to post the pictures I had taken. 

Well, it's the next morning and I'm probably just going to restart the game because I'm level 6 and the monsters are literally clogging the overworld when I try to explore. I'll have to redo a few quests, but in the long run I feel this is the better option. Because I restart with only 100 food, after one trip to a dungeon I need to purchase more from the towns. It's on this trip that the overworld swarms me with Necromancers, Dragons, Dark Knights, and Pirate Ships. It might be doable, but I'm sick of trying. 

So, readers, don't die in Ultima and consider taking breaks after you've been playing for 6 hours.

Ultima II Box and World Map

I beat Ultima today after playing constantly for three days. It's an epic journey which I'm editing and getting ready to be posted soon, but in the meantime I thought I would kick off the Ultima fun with these Ultima II box scans and world map.

Attempting to get Ultima II to run on a Windows 95 machine presented it's own set of challenges--it took me over 2 hours to get the game running properly and patched correctly. In the end I was successful, and maybe I can package my files together to make it easier for others to play this classic.

The early Ultima games blend fantasy with 20th-century technology in a way that wasn't really done again until Final Fantasy 7. It's certainly unique; nothing else feels quite like Ultima.

DOOM Cheat Codes

Type in the following codes at any time. These are, of course, pretty well known, and I'm just posting them here as a resource because I forgot to save and need to warp to level 1-5.

dbehold# When # is one of the letters below, this gives the powers of an item:
"R": Radiation shielding suit.
"I": Partial invisibility.
"V": Invulnerability.
"A": Computer area map.
"L": Light amplification visor.
"S": Berserk.

idchoppers1 Gives the option to select the chainsaw.

idclip No clipping in Doom II (see idspispopd below for technical details).

idclev##2 Warps to level E#M# or MAP##.

iddqd3 GOD MODE, This cheat reveals information if used while in automap mode, showing additional data the second time it is used:

First use: full automap (reveals unexplored areas, including invisible linedefs not shown by the computer area map powerup).

Second use: full automap with items, monsters, players, obstacles, and decorations.

Third use: the automap is restored to normal.

idfa6 This is the same as idkfa below, but excludes the keys.

idkfa7 Grants full megaarmor protection (200%), all weapons, full ammo, and all the keys.

idmus##8 Plays music from level MAP##

idmypos9 Shows the player's coordinates and compass direction in HEX

idspispopd10 No clipping

Wolfenstein 3D Review, Resources, and DOS vs GBA Comparison

Holy crap look at that dude kick the shit out of those Nazis. He doesn't even need the goddamned machine gun. He's just firing it because he's angry.

Released in 1992, Apogee's (Commander Keen and Jill of the Jungle, later they would become ID software) Wolfenstein 3D was the first first person shooter worth playing. Some early examples like Battlezone might prove to be exceptions, but Wolfenstein 3D and Doom really set the standards of quality for the genre. The music is subtle yet tense, the graphics are realistic for the time, and all the sprites and artwork feel polished, even if enjoyably dated.

Wolfenstein 3D was banned in Germany, and subsequently developed a large cult following among German teenagers because of its restricted status. It's a little harder (impossible) for countries to ban old software for censorship reasons now.

Anyone who grew up in the 90s probably knows this game; it was everywhere. Everyone had this game on PC. Your friend probably gave you a copy on 4 (holy hell) floppies.

Despite the marketable title, it's technically not 3D, but uses a 2D map and "ray-casting" to create a 3D environment similar to the old Windows Maze screensaver. It doesn't get much better than this (unless, of course, you happen to be playing DOOM, but I'll save that review for later).

Originally released as Shareware, the first 10 levels were free, but the next 50 would cost you. Despite this, the game was heavily circulated on BBSes and the early internet. The source code was released in 1995, like many of ID's other games.

You play William Joseph Blazkowicz and you're captured in a Nazi castle. It's going to be a serious pain in the ass to escape. You'll have to defeat zombies, ghosts, nazis, giant Germans, and Hitler himself to escape.

This game is brutally difficult on the default setting. The mazes are disorienting, the damage is hefty, and enemies abound. You'll need to develop your mental mapping skills because you won't have access to any sort of map. Even using an online map will prove somewhat confusing.

The flaws only increase the appeal of the game. The environments are repetitive, but so what? Isn't everything to some degree? Wolfenstein 3D provides a legitimately tense adrenaline rush, and that's just not something you can get from most FPSs these days.

Each level is pretty long, taking an experienced player around 7 minutes to clear, and around 15 (or longer) for a first timer. You can save your game, but you are only provided with a limited number of lives in the beginning. The game is, as mentioned, divided in 6 episodes of 10 levels each, which adds up to hours actions.

Like a lot of things discusses here, you'll of course need DOSBox, a DOS emulator for Windows and Linux. Mac users don't despair, a Macintosh port exists, as well as a PS3, Apple IIGS, Acorn Archimedes, Super NES, Atari Jaguar, Amiga 1200, Game Boy Advance, iPhone, 3DO, Nintendo Wii, and Steam versions. Many versions are censored or altered, so research a version before purchasing.

I have, however, played the GBA version and it is excellent. Wolfenstein 3D fits perfectly on the system, even if the people are somewhat pixelated the controls are smooth and if you find this game cheap, consider it a steal. You could, naturally, take the less-legit route and play the game in VBACE (the only GBA emulator I can recommend, it's light years faster than regular VBA). And google search to coolroms or emuparidise or something for the rom.

You can download the full version of Wolfenstein 3D here. This link'll do for now, I'll upload it to the Postmodern Software download page soon-ish so there can be a permanent link on the page.

One final important consideration: the controls for the windows version are terrible. If you have a gamepad for your PC (why don't you! You can buy a PS1/PS2 to USB for 7 bucks on eBay!) you can use the fantastic, free Joy2Key application to easily map the controls onto ANY gamepad.

If you even hope to make it through the game these days, you'll probably want to start decoding the maps. I'm not sure I understand how to read them, but it should be pretty easy. I just didn't see a map key anywhere but maybe I'm overlooking it. Even if there isn't a key, printing out the first level and decoding it myself would clearly be possible.

If you only print out 10 pages a day no one will notice at work. You can have a really nice Wolfenstein 3D strategy guide. Color printers are a huge plus. If you could get color copies for 15 cents a piece (I doubt it), creating a guide at FedEx would cost $9.00. GameFAQs, of course, has a collection of Wolfenstein 3D guides if you want to be confused by the level AND someone else.

Finally, Wolfenstein 3D serves as a major inspiration on the less-revolutionary, yet-still-more-fun 8bit Killer, a free indie game created by Locomalito. I reviewd the game a long time ago, and a download link has been in the sidebar for years, so you've probably already heard all about it. If you haven't yet played Wolfenstein 3D, you'll immediately notice similarities between level 1-1 and 1-2 and the free-roaming levels in 8bit Killer.





Screenshots from the DOS version. For GBA comparison squint eyes.

Mutant Warzone OST Album Art Sneak Peak

Another piece done for the upcoming OST! I intended for the main character to be either male or female depending on the player. Duke would be the male version, so here is the female protagonist.

Monuments of Mars

Monuments of Mars is 4-part platformer released by Apogee in 1991, designed by Todd Replogle (who no longer works in the video game industry, I ran across an interview with him from 2001 where he discusses the video game industry, he is oddly quoted as saying "I'm not sure there is a future for the video game industry. Unless one has the capability of using both the left and right hands independently, I doubt video games will sell like they used to." What the hell man? You picked a bad time to get out of the video game industry, it's since exploded into billion-dollar-bills lining the pockets of corporate fatcats. You could have been one of those fatcats) and they are, to say the least, brilliant.

Unfortunately, Monuments of Mars doesn't run in Windows anymore, and you have to emulate it using DOSBox, a DOS emulator specifically designed to run old computer games. You might, however, have a problem obtaining the final 3 chapters to the Monuments, because only the first part was released as shareware, and the others have been lost to the internet aether. Luckily I came across a download page, and you can download all 4 episodes here.

But before we go any further, adjust your expectations. Monuments of Mars provides a few things, like fun puzzles, (troublesomely) addictive gameplay, and powerful (artistically) graphics. But it's riddled with problems. It's curious, often when reviewing games we point out the flaws to no end creating a heap of broken shards, nothing and a shallow blindness that refuses to acknowledge good design. I've played games my entire life, and I can easily be bored, distracted, or uninterested in some "perfect" games. Other games don't have to be perfect, because their merits are strong enough to exalt the game. For Monuments of Mars, I'll break it apart, but by the end of the article I hope the Monument is re-assembled to the satisfaction of the Martian overlord.

The game uses CGA graphics, meaning only 16 colors in their entire program. During gameplay, however, you'll see five: Black, Red, Brownish-Orange, and Green. Unsurprisingly, the art turned out well, and the lack of colors adds to the game by encouraging creativity. Monuments of Mars has the same intense light that classic arcade games possessed(LINK), the luminous glow of neon on black. This method of display has always been eerily popular. Why do we like bright colors on a black background so much? Does it remind us of the stars, glowing against the vacuum of space? Of signs and city lights ripped out of T.S. Eliot? How many games have you played that are bright colors on a black monitor?

The hit detection isn't spot-on (a result of the graphics engine used, FAST: Fluid Animation Software Technology. Apparently, the used fluid very loosely, because the movement is jerky. FAST registers hit detection based on the sprite's bounding box, so... don't get too close to anything or you'll explode. This engine was previously used in two other games, Pharaoh's Tomb and Arctic Adventure, to which Monuments of Mars bears more than a slight resemblance), walking up and down hills is slightly odd, and there is no music (I've created a Monuments of Mars playlist, mainly involving Dragonforce), and the sound effects are "clicky."

You have infinite lives, and this makes you something of a demigod. Or a Prometheus, dying only to reborn. A viking warrior living eternity in Valhalla. Take our pick, the actual story can be read in one of the screenshots.

There's a typo in the story... but I get a kick out of things like that. I know 8-Bit City is speckled with typos, despite my best efforts to edit and proofread.

Some levels will kill you in the first second, hilariously exploding your spaceman 7-8 times before you wise up and hold left as the level begins. There is a save function, so infinite lives is a nice feature because it saves you the trouble of actually having to save. Each level takes a few minutes to complete (after the initial "tutorial" levels, I use the term in quotes because there are no explicit tutorial levels, just some easy screens at the beginning that teach you about the engine) and some of the trickiest parts come right at the end of a stage. I wonder if part of the appeal of video games is that you can correct your mistakes, and learn from them... a luxury we don't have outside of digital worlds, and even then, not always. In this sense, video games are quite capable of transcending time (though still bounded by it).

Each stage is a single board, filling a single screen. You'll have to navigate your spaceman around enemies, collecting triangles and air tanks, sometimes stepping on a certain tile, falling through a certain hole, or grabbing a specific triangle will create/destroy some blocks, and alter the level. Every level is a puzzle, and you have a limited supply of laser beams (which, oddly enough, are represented by the air tanks you collect). You'll explore the barren Martian Landscape (and it does look a lot like Mars), Martian ruins (possibly those from Total Recall), and what appears to be construction sites.

I think the graphics that made me appreciate this game as a child, though outdated in 1991, we have the opportunity to refer to them as classic, but whatever you call them, they do a great job of suspending your disbelief and immersing the player in a sprawling landscape. With 80 levels spanning 4 games, Monuments of Mars makes a massively monumental monolith.

If you decide to give this game a try, take comfort in your independence, because no one else is playing it. No one else is writing about it, there are no FAQs (though one website has maps), or discussions other than this article. It's proof that fun games are often forgotten, and exposes the bias that time has on video games.

Had Monuments of Mars been released (sigh, how often do I say something along these lines) in 1981 it would have out-shined (or at least compared to) the arcade games of the time. they missed a chance to release this game on the arcade (for the scene was already dead and dying by 1991), it would have been a hit.

Released today, I think the game could see a renewed fan base and enjoy a healthy amount of popularity, provided it was priced accordingly. If released on WiiWare, I think the game would prove more than popular. People are willing to shell out 5 bucks for almost anything, and 80 levels of the distilled essence of pure platformer would be perfect. It couldn't hurt.

In order to best enjoy Monuments of Mars, purchase the shareware 3.5" floppy from a local drugstore, or download it off of UseNet, install it to your IBM 486 and sit in the dark while you play. You better be running the game out of DOSShell. Because sometimes Old School just isn't Old School enough and I want to play a game so archaic it echoes the chalk murals of the cavemen. Like T.S. Eliot said when saw the Lascaux murals, "Art never improves, but... the material of art is never quite the same."