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A must-have collection of a truly groundbreaking series.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 10, 1999
Author: Amazon User

No serious computer gamer should be without this collection. Nine of the most important and influential CRPGs ever to be released in one collection is something that should not be missed. And nearly all the games are excellent. Though the early Ultima games don't have the depth and complexity of the later entries in the series, the continuing fabric of the universe and the tapestry of the story progress and grow as you move from game to game. The games also serve as a highly entertaining window to gaming industry, allowing you to see how technology grew and changed over time. Whatever your reasons, there is no excuse for not getting this marvelous collection of important--and extremely entertaining--games.

The best and most important CRPG series ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: November 13, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Created by Richard Garriott (AKA Lord British), this collection spans fifteen years of roleplaying history. If you want to know how games progressed during the past twenty years, get this compilation. If you want to play good games, get this compilation. If you're looking for a good roleplaying experience, get this compilation. If you're looking for the latest in gaming greatness -- don't get it. The last game in the compilation was published in 1994, if I recall correctly. Don't let that stop you from playing, though. If you have the stamina to go through all of the games, you'll be happy you did.

Going through these games is time-consuming and often frustrating. Unlike other computer role-playing games, all of these are completely open-ended. You aren't specifically directed from point A to point B to point C; instead, you must figure out on your own what to do. To me, that makes these games much more enjoyable, and much more rewarding; they require you to think. To others, it might not be so fun.

Why four stars, then? Well, if you're like most of us, and running a PC with Windows 95 or 98 installed on it, you're going to have trouble getting some of these games running. Some will be too fast; others won't work at all unless you pull some technical wizardry (or have someone else do it for you). These games are designed to run under DOS, which these days is about as common as the Dodo. So: for all of you having trouble getting these games to run, contact me. I can help.

Antic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 27
Date: November 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

A nice collection of antic games, but it lacks refurbishing. The box is highly deceptive - none of the games run under Windows 95/98 - only the helps system and the sneak peaks. Several interviews with the creator add some spice for the hardcore fans though. I wouldn't recommend it for anybody but the hardest fans or the extreme enthusiasts. My recommendation to Origin - update the games before republishing! Follow the LucasArts example with X-Wing and Tie Fighter.

If you like ULTIMA games, you will love this!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I had played ULTIMA II, III and V when I was younger. I loved them! I bought the collection so that I could work my way through all of the games. It has been wonderful! I had no trouble installing and running the software. Some of the games need the speed adjusted, but the instruction manual tells you exactly how to use the enclosed program MOSLO to get the speed just right. I had no problems after that. It has been nothing but enjoyable. Sure the games are old, so if you aren't into ULTIMA or old computer games you may not like the collection as much. But if you are nostalgic about computer games, then go for it - you won't be sorry!

Some of the best RPGs of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: January 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This collection is a mixed bag, but for the price it's a great deal. My impressions on the games herein:

Ultima VII - Worth the cost of admission. Even now it is the best game in the series. The plot and the graphics totally immerse you in the world of britannia. Although the graphics are a little dated it still doesn't look too bad today. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Ultima VII part 2 - This game could have been wonderful. However, there is an extremely violent and unnecessary plot twist near the end that pretty much killed my motivation for continuing to play. I thought the rest of the story was a bit thin as well. The game is also rather linear.

Ultima VIII - This game sucks, and the reason why has been adequately explained elsewhere. It does, however, have the best music featured in any Ultima, if you have a General MIDI-compatible sound card.

ULTIMA VI - I've just started playing this one. I prefer a point-and-click conversation system, rather than typing my words in, but i'm enjoying myself in any case, and the plot is very good. The world is very detailed, only superseded by Ultima VII.

Ultimas 0-5: The games I described previously I played when they came out (except VI). The rest of these depend on whether you're a fan or not; they are REALLY old, and somewhat simple by today's standards. But they represent some of the most important achievements in computer role-playing games. Have a look.

The Best of All

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First, let me say that I do not own the game, nor have I played every single one, but, in my oppinion, Ultima VII is the best game of all time. I don't mean best Ultima game, I don't mean best RPG, I mean of all time, and unfourtunatly this is the only way to get the game. True Ultima IV is considered a clasic, which should make you want to get this more, and I think don't dissagree, but Ultima VII, at least the first part, is the greatest. I've been shoping around, and I've also seen that no where can you get this game for a lesser price. Ultima: Collection shows the evelution of the RPG, get it for your colection.

Edit: I now currently own the Ultima Collection. The Greatest RPGs ever made. Check out some of the remakes of the clasics out there.

Serious improvement needed.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: April 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The Ultima Collection features some of the greatest role-playing games of all time. Yet many of these games are very old and very difficult to tolerate for people who did not play them on their first release. Certainly, when these games were first published, they probably represented great technological improvement on previous games, but technology, and particularly graphics, has evolved considerably since Ultima VIII was released in 1994. The way it is marketed right now might only appeal to those who originally played the games (not me, I only got my first computer in 1997, but I had already played Ultima IV on 8-bit Nintendo, which was WAY better than the PC version featured on this CD-rom), or to people who consider writing doctoral theses on the history of the development of computer gaming. The rest of the population might simply overlook these games, no matter how significant they were in the development of role-playing games, because of their poor graphics.

More important is the question of playability. Poor graphics do not help, but the most annoying thing about these games is that they have retained their basic characteristic of making use of DOS. To me, and to many other people who have begun using computers after the arrival of Windows 95 or 98, DOS means little more than that annoying C:\>. I know very little about DOS myself, and I have been unable to play some games in the collection, including the famous two parts of Ultima VII. "Akalabeth" and the first six "Ultimas" are easily playable through Win 95 or 98, but Ultima VII (both parts) and Ultima VIII require a special DOS configuration, which I have been unable to use, and the information included in the booklet has been of almost no help.

Even worse is the question of sound. A paragraph from Origin's booklet included in the Ultima Collection reads, "Akalabeth and Ultima I-V use the PC speaker for sound. Many current multimedia PCs do not include a PC speaker. If you do not have a PC speaker you cannot hear sound effects in these games" (Ultima Collection reference card, p. 15). Origin therefore knew that these games would not be 100% compatible with today's computer systems, yet allowed these games to be re-released in their original format, and this is what annoys me most.

If Origin re-released these games, we might assume that it is because the company viewed them as eventually profitable. But if the company saw the previous Ultimas as cash cows, couldn't they have been more profitable had they been completely redesigned, from the graphics to the used interface, and sound as well ? What I fear, however, is that if they had indeed redesigned these games, the result might just have looked like Ultima IX: Ascension...

Excellent Games, but not quite complete

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The Ultima Collection contains some of the best role playing games every seen on a computer screen. The games themselves are above reproach(except for the slightly misguided Ultima 8) unfortunately the entire series seems to have been slapped onto a CD without much thought to the gamer.

While the installation program seems strait-forward each game must be tweaked before play. Using the slowdown utility moslo is fairly painless for Ultimas 1-6, the problems begin to crop up when running Ultimas 7-8. These games require a system reboot with a bootdisk. I remember the good ol' days of trying to manage multiple configurations and boot disks. An expereinced gamer won't have too much trouble setting this stuff up, but a novice may not be able to play the games at all! Perhaps now that Ultima 9 is finished Origin will give the series the treatment it gave to Wing Commander and tweak the games for speed and allow them to run under windows.

The manual is little help dealing with these issues, but does provide copy protection and basic keyboard commands for all the games. The actual manuals to the games are contained in Windows help files on the CD. The manuals attempt to reproduce the design and graphics of the orinal docs. The result is a difficult to navigate and often impossible to read. A set of PDF files that could be easily navigated(such as in Myth:The Total Codex) and pritned would have been very welcome.

But the greatest problem with this collection is what isn't here. While the collection does include Alkalabeth (Richard Garriot's precursor to Ultima 1) it lacks some of the other excellent games to bear the Ultima name. The Ultima Underworld series broke new ground in how roleplaying games used 3D, and the Worlds of Ultima games took the Avatar to fascinating places beyond Britannia.

Judged on the strength of its games, the Ultima collection deserves a 5. The docs and configuration problems knock this down to a 4. If you have ever had an interest in Ultima, this package is still worth your time and money.

Perfect!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In my opinion Ultima is a great game, sure the grapics are abit outdated, and if you go behind a building you cant see the guy, but its a good game! Its quite realistic with the explodeing oil flasks and the non-magical weaponery, and you drown if you fall in the water (who wouldn't if they were wearing heavy armor and fell into deep water?) Even thoough it has terrabley outdated grapics its a good game. Also Untima On-line (its not included in the pack) is very good.

Best games ever made!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Ultima 6 and 7 have to be the best games I have ever played. I remember nights where I would stay up all night crawling thru a dungeon in 7 with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up because the game was so thrilling to play. Sure the graphics of 6 are outdated, but anyone who has played thru it entirely knows the gameplay more than makes up for it. These games had a very strange atmosphere which made you wonder what would happen next. Another great thing about them is you can move/steal any object and kill ANYONE at any time which adds up to months more entertainment besides just the great story. Ultima 8 however was a horrible action type game made by EA and not the original director. But 6 and 7 are a fantastic deal at this price, especially for collector like myself. The only gripe I have is that Ultima7 was not redesigned for windows and you may have some problems getting the mouse/sound to work. It would have been easy for them to redesign it for Win98 and would have saved alot of people headaches. Still this is a fantastic piece of gaming history. BUY IT NOW!

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