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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.

This has nothing to do with a Review

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: February 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I know that the Ultima games are awesome but I can't play any of them.

This title has been on backorder since early January. Don't waste your time ordering. I will get my software the day after never..!!

beware dont buy this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 50
Date: May 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

i bought this game but its graphics are primitive its just that i will never buy another origin title after this.
i threw it to the garbage the day after i played it for the 1 time.
Don't Buy This Game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard to Use.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I never got into the ultima title so I thought this would be a great way to get into it. It advertised it was the complete first eight titles in one. However it was only the first three adventures and they are uncompatible with the newer computer systems despite the claim it would be. My computer locked up every time I tried to play it. Over all I found it very disappointing.

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...

The games are excellent but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: September 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have had problems with not only the Ultima 7's but EXODUS and Ultima 2 as well. They barely work on my computer and are a mess to start or deal with so I don't play them. As for 7 and serpent Isle, these were very good games even graphic wise but now that my old SBPro card has been damaged I can't play them despite the fact that I have a SBLive. I warn you, there are NO cards that use ISA slots(required for these games) You can't buy them, you can't special order them, and half the "tech-heads" I talk to don't even know what they are! You'd better have a good ISA card if you want to buy this product. Or Roland Daughterboard which cannot be purchased anywhere these days.

A collection Ultima fans will enjoy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I got hooked on the Ultima games since I was 12, starting with Ultima III and Ultima IV. Although I hadn't played the previous ones, I must say that the remake of Ultima I is definitely worth a look. Ultima II however, leaves much to be desired on graphics and sound (why not a remake?). Ultima III is an OK version, and Ultima IV is when the games began to get better. If you don't get too picky on the graphics and sounds, you'll enjoy both. As for Akalabeth (the precursor of the games), I think it was included more because of its historic value than for its game play.

Ultima V goes through major graphic and sound improvements, well worth the time to play and enjoy, as well as Ultima VI, which perhaps has the best storyline. But the real juice on this collection is with Ultima VII part I and II (Serpent Isle). These two games make this collection worth to buy; the storyline for both is amazing, plus you get the bonus add-ons for both (Forge of Virtue and Silver seed). Guaranteed to provide hours of game play, loss of sleep and numb fingers...

Unfortunately, Ultima VIII: Pagan was the big deception. Poor controls, an amateur-type 3D graphics engine and an archaic spell-casting system (will keep you mixing reagents for hours), left the fans disappointed. Too bad Richard Garriot (aka Lord British, the Ultima games producer) wasn't called for this one; the result may have been another. As a bottom line, I'll recommend this collection to true Ultima fans and to game players that want to get a good idea of how role-playing games evolved and have some fun in the process!

You can never go home again

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let me first say I'm a hugh fan of the Ultima series. I played Ultima IV-VI on my C64 back in the day and eventually replayed VI on the SNES (which was far better).

Fast forward to now. Maybe my tastes have changed or games have but I couldn't sit more than five minutes and play any of these.

1. Ultima I-III - 4 color (I and III can be upgraded to 16 color through patches), top down view. These are for historical purposes only. Not even hard core Ultima fans would have fun playing them

2. Ultima IV-V (IV has a 256 VGA patch you can download, V is in the works) top down view - If you solved these a long time ago, you won't have much fun trying to solve them now. Maybe first time players would have more fun, as they should start the series with IV.

3. Ultima VI - (256 VGA color and isometric view) - the first 'modern' one. This is the last one with turn based combat and somehow feels smaller than the other ones.

4. Ultima VII pt1 and pt2 - (256 VGA color and isometric view) - The combat system gets annoying (no more turn based system) but feels HUGH compared to VI. VI pt2 is a continuation of the story.

5. Ultima VIII - (256 VGA color and isometric view) - An experiment that just didn't quite work. They tried to turn Ultima into a 'action adventure' which could have worked on a controller based console system, but is akward on the PC. Don't waste your time playing with this one.

In conclusion, newcomers might buy this to see how Ultima basically began our current RPG games and old school players will enjoy a trip down memory lane but both people will put this on their shelves after 5 minutes.

Fairly Good

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I recommend buying this because it's a compilation, and it's worth it to get all those games. It's even cooler because it has video interviews with the creator of the games, and I like to see stuff like that.

There's only one real downside about the games. If you want to play Ultima VII (both parts) you can't be running an Expanded Memory Manager and some sound cards require Expanded Memory Managers to work so on some systems (mine included) you cannot have sound in the game. The audio in the rest of the games work fine.

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.

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