VICTORY Thanks to Exult

[monotremata]

Well I started Serpent Isle back in November 1993 when I got it for my 18th birthday..

It only took 16 years off and on but today I FINALLY managed to finish the damn game thanks to the lovely lovely Exult team.

Id say Exult 1.4 is good enough to be considered an official release..

I only encountered a couple minor things.
One was the fact that after the Banes are released, Yelinda wandering around in the swamps causes her to get poisoned and eventually die unless you do it rather quickly. I was long past getting the companions freed and back in my party and was moving towards going to Sunrise Isle when I found her dead in the swamps and couldnt get the armor. Had to go back to right when I saved it entering the White Dragon's Castle and she was still alive.
Not a big deal as long as you know you have to get her quickly but I think there should be some flag in there that makes her invulnerable or at least immune to poison..

The only other issue Ive seen were some wierd graphics corruption. This only seems to happen on my Windows laptop and not my Mac. At random youll be doing whatever and the graphics pallet changes to some horrible bright neon colored display. Kinda like the old themes in Windows 95 like Hot Dog and what not (anyone remember that?). Wandering around for a sec it will usually reset itself. Maybe this is one of them bugs with SDL 1.2.14 but the last couple of compiles I did on my Mac used the same version and never saw it there..


Gotta say you guys have done some fine work.
Maybe now that Im out of Ultimas (dont think Ill bother with VIII or IX since I never owned either one and they dont sound as up to par with the rest of em) Ill start playing with Exult studio and make my own!

[torgus dragon]

Go play ultima 5 lazarus. It is amazing. Basically u7 in 3d with a plot you don't know. Sooooo amazing I'm doing it right now and am very! Impressed. Turn off fog and run it in a window with the rez pumped and you are golden!

[TDI]

IMHO U8 is worth playing. It's very different from previous ultimas, don't expect it to be like U7... it's a different game, but the atmosphere, story and magic system are pretty good.

[monotremata]

Hehe yeah Im afraid of the Super Avatar Bros references Ive seen to U8 but Ill probably give it a go.


I have Lazarus somewhere or other. I never did get around to playing it. I got frustrated locating a copy of Dungeon Siege for the Mac and ended up redoing the PC version of V a year or so ago instead hehe.
Guess I should resume my search since I ended up finishing Exult on my PC anyways..

And just a side note, another nice job.. I started SI on my mac, and simply copied the entire data folder to the PC and picked up where I left off no probs.. Baldurs Gate II didnt even work that nicely.. I had to start the game over cause it ruined my save game at the guy at the end of the game.

[Paulon]

U8 isn't a bad game really. At least post-patch. The jumping prior to that was a nightmare. But ingame look up a book called Eye of the Boulder, The Runes of the Myth Drainer. It's a parody commentary about Eye of the Beholder 3 that unfortunately is a pretty good summation of U8's potential as well. Great concept, but poor implementation.

[Scythifuge]

If Ultima VIII had the interactivity of even Ultima V, the freedom of Ultima VI, and at least the amount of NPC's that Ultima VII has, it would have been the best Ultima at the time. At least it had climbing. I loved that aspect of the game. The dark, almost gothic music, environment, and story is amazing. I remember being very angry at the lack of Ultima aspects, but I couldn't stop playing this game.

It was also a landmark game. People like to claim that this or that game is a "Diablo clone". In reality, Diablo is a clone of Ultima VIII, but with less NPC's, environment, and more weapons, armor, items, and enemies.

[Earthquake Damage]

RE U8

Overall U8 is a fun game. It could have been one of my favorites had it been finished/polished properly. IIRC there are some noticeable loose threads.

I'm also not fond of the magic system. It's not that the magic system isn't awesome, but it's too cumbersome. The game doesn't pause while the backpack's open and it doesn't pause when targeting (most notable exception: Grant Peace), which makes it very difficult to use many combat spells (incl. nearly all offensive spells) effectively. Supposedly the Pause key will pause the game and let you target things with the cursor (so sayeth this guy: http://kobrakai.nullneuron.net/ultima/ultima8/u8p1b.htm ) but my experience in DOSbox suggests otherwise (I never tried to pause back in the day).

[Warder]

Ultima VIII has way, way, way more interactivity than Ultima V

[Scythifuge]

I can sit in chairs in Ultima V.

[Earthquake Damage]

That's just you wanting to hate U8.

[monotremata]

'I can sit in chairs in Ultima V.'

And get busted for eating the food on the table in front of you too!

[Wizardry Dragon]

I actually recall being quite entertained by Ultima VIII when I first got it, it just doesn't hold up to comparison to other Ultima games, which had so many firsts in the genre.

Wizardry dragon

[monotremata]

Sometime in 1994 my PC was stolen by a relative (long story) and I lost all my old Ultima's, Wizardrys, Kings Quests and what not.. So I was 'out of the loop' and completely missed U8 coming out. By that time my consoles were the thing so I was more sucked into playing Street Fighter and Donkey Kong Country on my SNES/N64/etc..

I didnt see the game until about 1997 or so and was just like 'WTF did they do?'..

That said I think Ill start it today. I remember starting it when I got my Ultima Collection cd in 98 but not getting much farther then the first 20 minutes or so of gametime before I said 'screw it lets beat all of em in order again'..

Now Im wondering do I give Pentagram a try or just play it in DosBOX?
I noticed Pentagram gets about as many updates as Exult does and it says its still unfinished...

[Danswan]

if you got a good processor on your pc, then go dosbox. if not, pentagram is okay, but it was glitchy and the combat ai of monsters was terrible when i last used it.