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Comment by block_dagger | Hacker News Reader

Ultima VII: Part 2 is one of the best games ever made imo. I still remember waiting for the UPS truck to deliver it to my rural childhood home. One of the great things about these games is that they were packaged with real maps, ankhs, sometimes coins and other artifacts. Really pulled me in as a youth. I wore an ankh as a necklace for several years and still consider Garriott a personal hero.

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7:2 is amazing but I’d put 5 over it. Five was the last of being able to “talk” to the game. Something that we haven’t been able to do really in mainstream games until now with LLMs. I’m really hoping for an updated 5 style with really conversations here soon that gives the same sort if magic 4 and 5 did for me then.

Yeah this is one of the things that made me sad when dialogue heavy - especially voice-acted - games became the norm. Wizardry VII was another good example, it really increases immersion when you have to remember things and prompts aren't just multiple choice. But I suppose people said that about drawing your own maps too, and I'm not sure I want to go back to that. :)

Should you want to try map drawing again, it's alive and well in games like Grimrock, Etrian Odyssey, and others. In Etrian Odyssey, you use the lower screen as a map drawing tool.

Ultima III for me. That game has a VIBE. It's like the King Crimson of games

Apparently about 700 people agree with you: https://www.ranker.com/list/ultima-games/video-game-info

The ranking they give is:

1. Ultima VII: The Black Gate

2. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

3. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

4. Ultima VI: The False Prophet

5. Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle

6. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

7. Ultima III: Exodus

8. Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

9. Ultima Online

10. Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

and then 5 more, including Akalabeth.

I never played VII at all, but I did play II, III, and IV, and I agree with the relative rankings here.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss in 1992 was I think the first PC game I really obsessed about. From the first-person 3D (well, 3D environment, 2D sprites) combat, the runes and repairing items, it was an early "immersive" game. I took copious notes as well as buying any games magazine that had gameplay tips. Its sequel, Ultima Underworld 2 (1993), never really captured me in the same way.

Apparently a sequel to both was released in 2018 but was considered, charitably, "unfinished": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_Ascendant -- What an ignominious ending to a well-loved series.

It was a "sequel" in name only. In reality, a kickstarter cash-grab with neither attention to detail nor significant effort put into it. Not as bad as the utter fiasco that turned out to be "shroud of the avatar" [0] but still a solid FU to those who backed it.

It's more than clear that old school gaming pioneers have completely ran out of ideas and are taking advantage of a nostalgic playerbase in order to keep the cash rolling in (I hear Garriott's latest NFT game has vanished), cratering their reputation in the process.

They are not the ones to push the medium further. Fresh ideas will require fresh, young, unknown visionaries.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMxjwtxn6NI

Ultima VII: Part 2 was my favourite of the series as well. The world of Serpent Isle had such a rich setting, and folklore. There was something really haunting and beautiful about the world they created. I feel like they really took the things that made U7 great, and perfected it. In case anyone hasn't read it. Here's a great interview with one of the lead designers that explains why the story pivoted in the way it did:

https://ultimacodex.com/interviews/bill-armintrout-si20/

100% agreed about U7 being kind of the best game ever. It was utterly mindblowing for me back in South Africa in the 90s, pre-internet, to have this massive "living" world. It's unfortunate that U8 was such a let down :/

Same site as TFA talks about U8, and it treats it fairly (which is hard to do with a game that followed up U4-7)

U7 was my original introduction into what I now consider "good" games. Changed everything for me :D

Same experience with Ultima 9 - except I never got to play it because my computer wasn't up to the task. I had the map on my wall for years though.

My computer was barely up to playing U VII and unfortunately I played it over summer break the year it came out, and a bit the following, and never finished it.

Instead I got all the spoilers for Starflight from Usenet and finished it.

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