Free Ultima 1-5 for Apple?

[PascaL]

I dunno if this project is legal, but...

http://www.virtualapple.com/

Basically, it's a web-based Apple emulator with tons of games you can play thru ur web browser... including Ultima 1 - 5.

[Patrick Elliot]

Hmm. I prefer stand alone systems. You know, the type you can program and use just like the original, not just run a handful of games. Like this one:

http://pages.ripco.net/~wizwom/applewin/index1.html

It can't support IIgs, but trying to find one that does is really difficult, if not nearly impossible. You just can't find the ROM images for them and the ones you do are usually the old and buggy 1.0 version, instead of 3.0, which was the last one they released for it. I also don't much trust IE, even when you are running something that 'should' be safe...

Also to be noted is that the ultimas for PC off the collection disk often have bug fixes and improvments that the originals, even for Apple II systems, didn't have.

[painful]

I own an Apple IIc and IIgs with all the extra hardware, so this isn't really an issue for me. BUT, it *IS* possible to find emulators that support IIgs, and if anyone is in need of some links I'd be happy to provide them for IIgs and IIc emulators, or any other info for that series of computers.

[Patrick Elliot]

Yeah. Finding the emulators isn't that hard. Its finding ones that run on anything other than OSX *and* finding a version 3 rom (or even v1.0) that is a nightmare. I ended up selling my GS. I never quite got all the stuff I needed to do anything decent with it. You can't really program the damn thing without a HD, since trying to run compilers off of disks just doesn't cut it and the documentation for the interfaces wasn't exactly consistant between languages (or even with the same code in machine language) most of the time. It was too big of a pain in the rear to fiddle with and I didn't have near enough games or anything else to play on it to make it worth keeping.

-----

As for PascaL's suggestion of virtualapple.... I rate it this way (scale 1-10):

Function: 7 - It works OK, though Bard's Tale II worked a tad odd when running character creation. Never having played it before this 'may' be a bug in the original game. However, it isn't a full emulator, since you can't use the system monitor or any other things (or if you can, its not obvious how).

Usability: 5 - Played for several hours and got characters up to a decent level, then tried to figure out how to save things permanently. Found a right click menu option to save a permanent copy of the disks, **but** it apparently only works if you then reboot the emulator, so I lost everything. A warning would have been nice, but having it work as expected would have been even better.

Replay: 1 - See above, but then add the fact that since the emulator is not 'installed' on my system, just the disks and maybe a cookie or something, you still have to go back to the web page to use it again. What happens if you lose the cookie? My guess is that it would overwrite your saved disks and you would lose everything again (though I may be wrong). There is no way to install the entire thing to your system and keep it there that I can see, if there was, you could probably using it without IE at all by coding a simple form to hold the control.

Overall, it is a decent idea, but in practice ActiveX components that do this sort of thing and run only in IE are more of a pain in the rear than they are worth, even when they work halfway decently.

[PascaL]

All true.

I though it was a novell endeavor, though.

In other news, I just started playing Ultima 3 on my iBook with the Lairware Mac version. It looks and plays great and I'm really surprised at how addicted I am. heh.

I'm thinking I'll play my way all the way up to Exult. Hopefully the Dungeon Siege versions of 4 and 5 will be playable on the way.

[Patrick Elliot]

I started playing through them too. Got through 1, started on 2 and got annoyed. Those early ones where primitive in the extreme. Rather go back and play

http://www.virtualapple.com/wrathofdenethenordisk.html

even if it isn't actually an ultima game. Before U4, I think, came out, this blew 1-3 completely out of the water. In fact, in some respects, the ultimas on the apple didn't really exceed it until 5. They did add stuff like being able to hold a conversation with characters, while denethenor still used the 'everyone says one thing' model, but it still did some stuff that was really unique for the time. I do suggest finding disk images you are sure will work with the AppleWin to play it though. There are a lot of disks involved and the last thing you want it to run the game in 'IIgs', 'transwarp' or 'fastest' mode. A lot of the monsters are dangerous enough at 'IIe' speeds.

----

I should also add that IE uses every underhanded trick and obscure system component imaginable, so after trying out 2-3 games the ActiveX crashes the browser, at least on my system. Sigh.. One of these days I really need to come up with a new HD and install a stable OS on it. Though it will likely take me a month to get everything I currently have installed up and working on the new install...

Anyway, it appears the component does install itself permanently, though you still have to visit the damn pages to play the games. The settings probably get written to the system registry, which isn't much better than a cookie imho. Not surprising these guys came up with this, they made some of the most insane hacks and demos for the IIgs imaginable back in the day.

[cyberfugue]

The Lairware Mac version of U3 is indeed awesome. I registered that not long after it came out - I usually don't register shareware, but that was definitely worth every penny.

[frosty]

The New URL for the Virtual Apple website is as follows:
http://www.virtualapple.org

[kimminho]

Why told my Apple`s Ultima free?