I saw a website with the full intro for Serpent Isle. It was cut down a bit, because it was getting hard to fit the game on floppies. Uncompressed and installed, U7:SI was something like 40 megs and they got it on 7 floppies, right?

 

Anyway, they had to cut the movies down to get it to that size.

 

The ending video is especially neat (and screwed up). Progressively, the endings from U7, U7:SI, and U8 make for great story. Despite everything that you did, you were still hosed and manipulated, which set-up the big show down in U9.

 

Too bad U9 was a huge disappointment.

I made it to Trinsic in Ultima IX, but then something happened and I quit playing.

 

Then to start playing all the way from the beginning was something I didn't really feel like doing unfortunately.

 

I was hoping to see the end of the Trilogy of Trilogies

It was a sad, sad Ultima.

 

There is a fan patch for the dialogue though.

I just completed Beneath a Steel Sky and -- although we are talking about graphics here -- I noticed how much better the voice acting was in this game produced over eleven years ago, let alone the comedy (I see they actually employed a comic -- are they allowed to do that? ).

 

It's really important to get the non-graphical parts of the game right, first. I had no issue with playing this old game (apart from finding that putty!), and it seems that developers made more effort to provide the supporting multi-media when they didn't have flashy graphics engines to distract and wow the audience ...

The last good Ultima was Ultima 7. They started to go the wrong way with the series in Ultima 8.

I haven't played Ultima V onwards ... I might go back ... maybe ...

Ultima 8 was wierd....not the usual ultima experience. Very action oriented....and hard IMO. I got stuck, but the world wasn't very "versatile" in that you were much more limited in what you could do, especially compared to Ultima 7

Ultima 8 was wierd....not the usual ultima experience.  Very action oriented....and hard IMO.  I got stuck, but the world wasn't very "versatile" in that you were much more limited in what you could do, especially compared to Ultima 7

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There were some real problems with Ultima 8. First of all, there wasn't enough jumping from platform to platform. Then when the patch came out there was a new bug that allowed you to jump wherever you liked, rather than a fixed distance every time - totally confusing and counter-intuitive.

 

However, they did succeed in getting rid of most of the boring dialogue and storytelling that so plagued the previous games in the series.

Ultima 8 and 9 were the worse of the bunch. I liked the Ultima story telling up to 7.

Hehe, there was a quaint charm about the dialogue in Ultimas...like "Name" "Job" and "Bye" hehehe

 

Although it is pretty dated by today's standards

Ultima 7 was one of the wordiest games I have ever played. There was tons of dialogue.

 

Most RPGs only have dialogue that pertains to the plot, and backstories of major characters. Random farmers had tons of dialogue just to discuss their lives and view on the world in Ultima 7.

 

Ultima 8 had a great concept. Instead of being a powerful Avatar with powerful items, magic, tons of friends, and resources available, now you're a weak peon dropped in an unfriendly world.

 

You had to master four very different magical systems, and find your way back home. It was too linear and too short for an Ultima, but it wasn't horrible.

Well we seem to have digressed from the initial intent of this thread. Thanks for the input and if the Ultima series warrantes further discussion, plase feel free to discuss it in this forum: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showforum=41