EA finally did it - they put modern ports of Ultima I-IX on Steam. VII includes Serpent Isle. It also has the two Underworld games, but not the two Worlds of Ultima games (Savage Empire/Martian Dreams). Are these ports any good? Do they come with 'achievements'?
>>12916741They're just the PC versions, get them on gog instead.
Outside of Wing commander and road rash these are just straight ports of the original versions. So no updates or anything like that for ultima or crusader
>>12916741They look to be just cheap and quick direct ports running through DOSbox and dumped onto STEAM. Not sure if they'll get any future updates to improve compatibility. GOG is still the best source for Ultima and Wing Commander.
So does EA still own the rights?
>>12916741You dope. The majority of what they dumped on Steam are just the GOG releases (which is just the retail games bundled with an outdated build of DOSBox) and slapped an EULA agreement on it.The only releases that had any actual effort put into them are:>Wing Commander 1>Wing Commander 2>Wing Commander 3>Wing Commander 4>Wing Commander Prophecy >Privater 2: The Darkening>Road Rash
>>12916741>>12918597To be fair, I just checked, and it indeed uses DOSbox, but it is fairly well put-together.I hope this doesn't mean there aren't plan for a remaster...Or maybe this is just to build hype? It's a crime that the original Ultima octology is without a proper remaster.
>>12918625Are they doing this so that Garriott can't yeet the rights back and make a shitty cashgrab slopgame?
>>12918803No, it was settled in courts. He's getting the rights back regardless of what they do. They probably dropped these on STEAM to make a quick buck, and potentially kill any money he might get from trying to re-release them on STEAM.
>only 2 days on STEAM and already a jap is going nuts in the community screenshot sectionThey really do love Ultima over there in Nippon, don't they?
>>12918805>They probably dropped these on STEAM to make a quick buck, and potentially kill any money he might get from trying to re-release them on STEAM.Yep and also the moment he gets the rights back, he'll probably have to fight again to either transfer the rights of this release, or be forced to ask it off Steam. Meanwhile the money from sales will keep going to EA.>>12918807Not as much as they do Wizardry. The difference is Wizardry got great Famicom ports while Exodus only got an okay one, and the Famicom was Japan's gateway into RPGs.
>>12918625>>Privater 2: The DarkeningThe fact they put effort into this is crazy
>>12922934I'm more surprised by how much Road Rash is selling. It's almost got 1,000 reviews and it only just released on STEAM like 4 days ago.
The fuck?I just bought these along with the gold box classics, getting ready to read the manual like it's the greatest hype track this side of the Mississippi, and instead I saw that the manuals aren't even included in the Notes section like a bunch of other old games.How am I supposed to know how to play, or what my goal is?
>>12922934why do you write like a Jewtube comments section zoomer? Kill yourself.
>>12924243What the hell did you expect from fucking EA? It's EA, they raped and murdered the best vidya studios mercilessly 25 years ago and now you expect that some Jeet they hired to put these on Steam is going to give a shit to deliver a complete package? Fuck EA, fuck anyone who gives them money, including you.
>>12916741That's cool and all, but I'm still boycotting EA.>>12924243You're a stupid cunt for giving EA money in 2026 and should kill yourself.
>>12924332>>12924464I'm too old to try and keep track of which companies are worthy of being bought from or not.I saw the games, I wanted the games, and the price I believed to be fair enough. End of story.Who cares what they're apparently planning to do with my $25. I know what I'm going to be doing with what that $25 got me. Having a great time.
>>12924332This.>>12924464Also this>>12924481kys liberal
>>12924481>I'm too old to try and keep track of which companies are worthy of being bought from or notRetard.
>>12924243gog for referenceI don't have the others Ultimas besides IV though
>>12924243Okay, nevermind. I just downloaded Underworld and Age of Darkness. They included the manual and other books in the game files, just not linked in the steam library page.But I skimmed through the manual for 1, and it doesn't explain the controls at all, so now I'm not sure what the humble 1982 child is supposed to do now. Trial and error?
>>12924243What is this anon? What am I looking at?
>>12924539STEAM version has all of that except the interview with Richard Garriott.
>modern portsThey are mostly emulated and just the GOG versions.
>>12916741Most of the Ultima series is(or was?) free on GOG for years.
why do people basedgape every time some old game gets put on Steam? If you wanted to play it you could have done it whenever you wanted to, why is it a big deal when it gets listed on Steam? And in this case they were already on gog for years, you didn't need to pirate if you're a dumbass on that end. What the fuck?
>>12925070I double checked my GOG Ultima copies and I only have one PDF file for Ultima 1 which is called 'manual' and that includes just the lore and beastiary and so on. Usually these PC games had a separate tech sheet which had keyboard shortcuts and whatnot.However 'Ultima Collection' iso has Ultima 1 which has its manual as a text file and it has a separate 'Getting Started' section.>https://files.catbox.moe/mugjfr.zipKeyboard shortcuts are pretty much the same in every game before Ultima 6 though.
>>12925493something I found out six hours prior if you'd direct your attention right above your post.I was expecting it to be easily accessible from the right side of Steam's library page like Morrowind does here.
>>12925892*here. Not sure what happened with the image.
>>12925532Was. They decided to start charging for them a while ago.
Ah fuck. I wanna play both series out of curiosity, but I'm on a tight budget.I don't know if I should invest on Ultima or Wing Commander series?
>>12926071They're all on GOG, and it's not too hard to find torrents or reuploads for free.or, just buy one of each series because they're dirt cheap.
>>12926096But I do wanna play each series in chronological order tho.Guess I'll start with Wing Commander series since they actually put some effort to restore FMV cutscenes into HQ.
>>12918807They loved Ultima and Wizardry because they were early RPGs before even Dragon Quest and had depth and/or difficulty that their own domestic games didn't for a long time. He's posting screenshots from Exult though, since base U7 didn't have those kind of paperdolls. Those were ported over from Serpent Isle.>>12925070They typically included a reference booklet with the keyboard controls, and you can probably use a search engine to find .pdfs for all of manuals and ref booklets
>>12925579>basedgapeWhat is meant by this?
>>12925579Why do people basedgape every time some old game gets ported to another retro console? If you wanted to play it, you could have done it whenever you wanted to. Why is it a big deal because it now runs on a different thirty-year-old box? The original has been playable through emulation for decades. Were you waiting for someone to put it on your preferred obsolete hardware before you could give a shit? What the fuck?
>>12926306
>>12926720Ah, I see. Case closed.
>>12918796From what EA said when they announced it was pretty much that during the buyout they found the source code for all of them and just re-released them after.
