Life Off the Grid, Part 2: Playing Ultima Underworld
filfre.net
filfre.net
https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifyi...
https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/
https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-...
Please tell me this code shipped and that it is possible to trigger this mode by creating the right mock file on an emulated system!
I remember that I was playing UW when I found out my Grandma had passed, the first family death I was old enough to remember. I was also playing it when my first GF had her friend call me to announce she was breaking up with me.
I played every ultima since - and was in Beta for UO and we played MANY accounts simultaneously when we worked in Intels DRG game lab in 1997 - where the Intel campus had a T3 - and our lab had a dedicated T1 - we used to play ~6 accounts simultaneously logged in across our gaming test desks - playing on Intels latest gaming machines (This is where we first tested out APG cards and the Unreal engine against Celeron machines - to prove that a <$1,000 computer was a marketable and game-capable machine)
That was the golden days of my gaming - but I truly do owe my career to Ultima.
(I was there when Lord British was Assassinated)
UU had irregularly shaped rooms and hallways, inclines and declines, the ability to be at two highets depending on where you are on the map (bridges over water you can swim under) which even DOOM, the successor in engine technology to Wolfenstein 3D didn't support, etc.
The multi-height thing was a real annoyance, by the way. For example, my path-finding code really wanted to be 2D (and of course it was mostly expressed in 2D) but had to understand that you could do things like take a bridge over (or even jump over) a gully and then walk around and cross under your original path.
While not quite as early as Wizardry (or even a few of its sequels), I always found Might & Magic 1 and Might & Magic 2 to be far superior to Wizardry in a few areas, such as exploration and world building.
Edit: Clarified that I found M&M superior to Wizardry in a few areas. UU and M&M2 are some of my all-time favorites, and I would be hard pressed to state which one I like more, since they scratch different itches. I've gone back to play both multiple times before.
Great game. UU2 was ok too.
The best moment and most memorable to me was getting the taper, and having never ending light.
(I backed it)
Ultima V
ANY Bards Tale
Masters of Orion
Bard's Tale here[2]
Master of Orion has not been reached yet I think (It was released after UU).
OTOH, the thumb would obscure part of the screen. One could fix that by using a scheme similar to how the DS port of Mario 64 worked: wherever you tap-and-hold is the center of a simulated analog joystick, and the strength of the movement depends on how far away you move from the center of this point.
The rest of the UI would also need some modifications obviously (given the lack of a right click mouse button).
Still, I wonder if a slightly updated port would be successful.
Also, it is interesting that people are playing old games and blogging about them. At the time these games were released, we didn't really have the same venues to discuss said games. So why not now?
(I suppose you could be playing a VR game that has a VR computer to access HN, but if that's state of the art in VR tech, give me well written blog posts about 30 year old games)