Sources

The sources used for this series include the following:

Sources

The Ultima Codex and Codex of Ultima Wisdom - Fantastic fan site and adjoining wiki. Excellent source of information and especially helpful on mechanical matters.

Tolkien Gateway - Informative wiki on Tolkien and his works.

eXoDOS - A vast collection for DOS, including complimentary media (scans of feelies, guides, etc.)

Sierra Gamers - The homepage of Ken & Roberta Williams, cofounders of Sierra Online.

Data Driven Gamer - Excellent articles on the nature of the math and mechanics of games.

Game Corner Guides - A collection of guides for various rpgs, with a good collection of Ultima ones.

Pix's Origin Adventures - A fan site dedicated to note just Ultima but all of the Origin Systems games.

I - Zero to Hero

Starting Out

Okay, here we go, somewhere in the Lands of Lord British. Aesthetically it is a significant step up from Akalabeth immediately. This is the 1986 DOS remake of it, however but the Apple II version wasn't that far off. The Apple II version had simpler graphics, was less colourful but the basics were there all the same. Little (albeit monochrome) guy on the map, bright green forests, dark blue water. If I can get a snap of it of my own sometime, I'll update it with a comparison. In the meantime, after the empty black spaces between sites on the Akalabeth overworld, this feels so much more alive. The smidgen of shading around the edges of the trees and their spacing helps give it just a hint of three dimensionality where previously everything felt very flat. Finally, the water does, in fact, animate, even though it pours down the screen like a waterfall. The motion goes a long way.

As discussed in the previous entry, we start out much better equipped even at a glance. When we started Akalabeth we were ready to go nowhere but to an immediate grave but here we begin with a pack full of food, a purse full of coins and some points full of hits.

We are also equipped this time - daggers ain't much and neither is leather armour but its something! Why, we might actually make it to a town or dungeon. On that subject - Daggers are a puny weapon, good for up to 8 damage on their own and with the possibility of being thrown. I'll have to see how that works in play. Meanwhile, Leather Armour is similarly 8 points. From that we have an evasion of ~28%. I'll want to buy some better armour if I can afford it asap.

That leaves Gold Crowns. If copper pieces are pence and this world is decimalized, that would likely mean 100 copper pennies to 1 gold crown. So, the coins we carry translate to 1 gold coin. Why would this be relevant? Well, if there is a carrying capacity system in play, this means its translating every 100 coins into an item with 1 unit of weight it can directly add to total weight of the inventory. Huh. Since items don't have independent weight values, this kind of means Ultima is sort of using something similar to the slot system a lot of modern Old School Renaissance style RPGs use! Maybe I can adapt Ultima for Mausritter...

I do appreciate that we don't start in the town this time. This makes it clear that the game has begun and lets us get to grips with the movement. For an absolute newbie at playing any game, if they did skimp on the particulars of food and what not, they actually have a chance to piss about and starve to death or wander into a tomb or something. This, to me, conveys some immediate agency - the world is huge and already open to you. You can just play, right away. Going to visit Lord British may be necessary but just as in Akalabeth, it is in your hands. This is something that the games have always embraced - and something that continues in it and my beloved spiritual successor, Exile. These are, ultimately, sandbox games and though they lead towards a singular ending, the path you take to get there and order of events lies in your hands. That has always been such a compelling feeling for me and it reinforces the sense this is a world I am going to explore. All the same, I'm definitely barrelling off in the direction of somewhere I can unburden myself of coin and burden myself with shiny, sharp objects.

And so we arrive at the jolly castle of Lord British, with his very jovial jester and I'm sure perfectly pleased princess in the perfect prison. Gwino, the jester, makes merry over that fact, holding the key out of reach. Mark my words, one day we might have a notion to wipe that greasy grin off your face, you saturnalian son of a bitch. Not quite sure where all the alliteration is coming from, I think Jesters just do that to me. The Armour, Food and Weaponry stores do not sell to me - I may only transact with the King in the castle. I could, however, steal from their reserves but I imagine the guards would pound me into dust if I slipped up. Talking to the King, he asks if I'll support his patreon or if I'm his uber, so I take on my first quest.

If I offer pence, I can buy additional HP; every penny pledged to him nets me 1.5 HP. My first quest is to find the Grave of Lost Souls. No idea what or where that is but, well, it's not like I imagine he knows either - its lost and that's my job! I imagine that the area around the castle has been, to some extent, pacified and the old dungeons are emptied or sealed off so adventurers like me have to go further afield to keep ourselves in iron rations and charms.

First though, we stop at the city of Britain. Uh, Britian. Its at this point, I realise that the spelling fix patch I had thought I installed isn't sitting quite happily. Apparently, Gwino should be "Gweno" as well but I wasn't apt to notice that. One patch later, we're ready to explore Britain. Lord Eldric offers to sell me some finer armour but anything better than my sweet leather jacket is far outside my price range. Still, I pick up a Mace for 8 coins (16 damage, doubling my output). They have Rope and Spikes - but this is a weapon that does no damage. The idea was to use them to avoid pit traps which would drop you down a level but with them removed, it serves no purpose now. Bit odd, since they removed the useless Steal spell but the Rope remains. Shaking my head - don't they know You Have To Cut The Rope. I head to Li'l Karelia's Finnish Grocery and I'm admittedly a little surprised to find Sosaria has a Finnish diaspora. Food's 4 for 10 at my Intelligence and I hope that I'm smart enough not to buy Surströmming. Not that its bad, I'm just going to be dungeoneering and you don't want that in a confined space.

Groceries bought, I catch a ride from Scooter's Super Duper Transport, Incorporated. Yeah, that's the name. I buy a horse for 35 coins, hopefully it doesn't explode. In theory they will cut my food consumption by... well, I'm not sure. The Codex says food consumption is 1 every step and the horse makes it 1 every 2 steps but DDG says it goes from 0.5 to 0.47. Since I am only eating food every 2 steps already, I believe the latter is probably the case, and my food consumption decreases by... uh 14%? Yay? Well that should add up over time. I steer as clear as I can from that sashaying bard, Iolo, though. If I'm at risk of getting my daggers pinched, I want nothing to do with his larks. I pop by the pub for a drink before I'm on my way and learn something significant.

A THOUSAND YEARS? Someone should really show him the door. It looks like Lord British really could only chase him off for a while and have us pick up after him last time. Things are not going well for Sosaria. With the gem preserving his life force, I intitially get some strong Lichy vibes from him as is - the manual does, in passing, also refer to him as a necromancer. That said, this is at least a little reminiscent of another dark lord whose object of power prevented his total destruction until it was undone. Perhaps we need a few bobbits to handle this for us or maybe Gandalf can leaf through the Akalabeth playthrough for advice and turn into a turbo-lizard. Apparently I got lucky though, as the bartender is really talkative.

You know, this sounds like another story, actually - but one it got to first, I feel. The Ultima games were, I have heard, influential on the development of Final Fantasy. It only truly hit me when I ran the tabletop game, Fabula Ultima, whose name is an homage to Final (Ultima) Fantasy (Fabula). I feel as though Final Fantasy found may have drawn elements from this but made it its own, though perhaps I'll get into that more in the future should I play through FF1 again. This is also where it diverged from feeling like Lord of the Rings - there's no stopping him in the here and now, but maybe we can stop it from coming to this. Also, time machine. Straight out of the gate we're getting a little gonzo. I sit in for a couple extra drinks and hear some other things. Firstly, I must already be drunk because he tells me that I can become a space ace if I destroy twenty enemy vessels, then insists I destroy the evil gem. I must have been pretty plastered by the end of it since he assured me I was playing a great game! Thank you for your metatextual analysis, Varg, but I already know that.

Horsing Around with Monsters

I am now blessed by horsie and must explore to find the lost grave of soul, but I don't know if soul is even dead. Exploring around, I encounter the city of Paws >w< and have my first random encounter! Yep, they can get you on the overworld too, now!

Ah, dear old friend from Akalabeth - The ever infuriating Thief! I'm uncertain exactly how the HP calculation is informed - their hp may be random as per BGG, though the Codex suggests they have 32 HP in the Overworld and a minimum of 10-12 HP in dungeons according to BGG, increasing with Dungeon level. The damage of the Thief in the overworld is extremely dangerous at this point - 2-20! Meanwhile, their damage in the dungeon is up to 6 damage, so I wonder if they get backstabs when they're out and about. They still steal items - but only in dungeons! In their case, they steal the highest rank of unequipped weapon apparently, though in my experience it seems to be the worst weapon I have. The art from the Apple manual and the game are fairly simple - shadowy cloaked figures. I do love a good wavy dagger - not sure how effective they are but they do have a nice insidious air. Enjoy the Thief just doing his job, his expression suggests he's about to give you a quote way over estimate on door repair though. I like that one, it could easily double for a player thief. The manual points out that thieves were always an issue in Sosaria - Mondain might have made things worse but banditry has always been a plague.

No sooner do I defeat one, another appears, and then another new foe jumps out at me!

This is the Evil Ranger; 102 HP in the overworld, 2-13 damage here vs. 1-2 damage in the dungeon and only 10 HP there. Hardier than the thief but mercifully not as damaging. These fellows represent rangers have fallen into the service of Mondain who use their faultless tracking skills to take advantage of the populace of Sosaria.Artwise, they seem to have taken a loan of the cloak from the thief and damn what a cloak it is! I'm a little boggled by how much weaker the dungeon version is of them compared to the Thief where, if I'm reading it right, the Ranger has significantly more HP on the overworld. As soon as I say that, however, I realise a possibility for why that might be. The Ranger is at home in the wilds - not the confines of a dungeon. The Thief, however, may not be quite as strong as these woodland warriors but is much more at home slinking in the shadows. Having almost immediately lost a heft chunk of health, I amscray back to Lord British and pick up a fine batch of Hit Points.

I chart out some of locations, though hold off on entering just yet. As I map out the north of the continent, I am run into a celebrity! Give a very special welcome to Mr Fozz-ieee Beeear!

I didn't know he was Sosarian!

Me neither! He's never been Sosari about his act before!

DOHOHOHOHOHO!

The little sprite is adorable, I love the emerald green eye. They have such a teddy bear aspect. The illustration... well, I love how shaggy the fur is, but I'm not sure about the head. It makes me think more of a lynx or a bobcat though I think that might be the proportions. Its feels a little bit too big for its body. HP-wise we might be looking at 32 points, and dealing 2-3 damage per hit. Surprisingly puny, I would have thought them a lot stronger than the thief! The manual doesn't have a lot of notes on them - only that they tower over folks and they have big ass claws so I'm doubly surprised to find them so easy to beat.

A little ways east of the newly discovered city of Yew, I spy sighting of something city of New!

Ah, its our very own tourist trap! Though probably no more than a log, it's flotsam that deals 2-21 damage, with 53 HP. I quite like the sea serpentesque art and the unusual red and blue colour scheme. I'm surprised to see her with scutes down her neck though in the illustration. Not sure I've seen that before! What I am seeing is stars as she really does hit like a freight train - the highest damage of any overworld monster!

Apparently they were thought a myth until the frigate Pembroke got sank in front of a fleet. There was, in fact, a frigate Pembroke in our world - it survived the Second Anglo-Dutch War but was sank after bumping into the HMS Fairfax in 1667. If you don't know what the Second Anglo-Dutch War, I desperately want to say it was a war over who had the spiciest takes (in terms of who could take the most spice from exploited colonies) but its more complicated than that. It is, however, how New Amsterdam became New York. We got into a lot of scrapes with the Dutch over trade shenanigans. Funnily enough, all these fights led to a lasting animosity and led to England coining the term "double Dutch" to mean "gibberish". This has always struck me as funny because, I mean, its so utterly and toothlessly petty but also because linguistically Dutch is perhaps the closest other language to English except perhaps Frisian. Well, and Scots, but there's already massive overlap between the two languages.

Oh, speaking of Scots, Nessie. I don't believe there's ness-essarily a Loch Ness in Sosaria, but we've already seen that there's a Finnish community and, I mean, we aren't from around here ourselves. Its possible they were named by visitors from Earth for their resemblance to the legendary Loch Ness monster. What a tangent! Anyway, I got blasted by a warlock.

Amazing haircut on this dude, nobody tell him he looks like the old "My Hair is a Bird " meme. This is the Wandering Warlock, our first ranged attacker! He fires bolts of arcane energy up to 3 tiles away, dealing 2-17 damage and having a most impressive 112 HP, the most of all overworld creatures! The word draws from an Anglo-Saxon word, wærloga, meaning a breaker of oaths, a traitor or a deceiver. This led a conflation between the original oath-breaker in the eyes of medieval Christians - the devil. In time, it came to mean one who followed the Devil and in Scots came to refer to the male equivalent of Witch. Thanks Wikipedia for all the tasty etymology =9 The manual says they've been studying under Mondain and implores us to put them down because "the arcane arts should never be used for wicked purposes". Yowza, I better not use Blink to prank anyone then. Double yowza, why am I taking damage? Oh. Oh you son of a bitch.

Trent, you motherfucker! This is such a nasty trick. The sprites animate, so the eyes blink and I didn't even notice them at first. Well played, Ultima. You got my ass again. I love the spider-limb like claws of the illustration as well. 92 goddamn HP, 2-17 damage. The manual warns me they'll look like any old tree until you get close and god help me if I didn't just walk into them and try to keep moving north as it whacked me wondering what the hell was going on.

And following that engagement, we come across the Orcs! Overworld sprite is adorable with the little... horns? Ears? Helmet? Oh this is taking me back to my difficulty parsing the goblin sprite of Exile. Dungeon sprite is the classic from Akalabeth. Very classic orcs in both illustrations - I enjoy the broad, lantern jawed look of the second manual illustration. In the dungeon, they get 10-36 HP minimum and dish out up to 53 damage - out in the field they get 52 HP and only 2-3 damage. Interestingly, the manual refers to them as "pig-visaged" but that seems not quite true here. Orcs often appear as pig-like in early D&D and D&D inspired media but the illustrations don't bear that out here. Check out these 1st edition orcs from D&D.

As I wrap up exploring the north east and find the Mines of Mount Drash, I run into a pair of Knights!

On the left we have the regular knight (72 hp, 3-5 dmg) and on the right the forest dwelling counterpart, the Dark Knight (72 hp, 2,13 HP). For a second, with their angular body parts, I thought the knight might be a robot or golem - the Dark Knight more clearly, to me, resembles someone in mail and tabard. Illustrationwise, I still love the Dark Knight drawing from Monty Python's Holy Grail and I really dig the regular Knight's winged helmet and unicorn-style barding. Unless that is actually a unicorn, though it lacks the distinctive goat's beard that classic unicorns possess. The manual suggests each has fallen to evil, with Knights seeming to have merely abandoned chivalric codes and the Dark Knights being corrupted by the will of Mondain. Considering the extra damage they'd have, I'd buy it. I'm taking so much damage and making very little money so I decide stuff this, its time to go where my foes are much punier and make my fortune.

I've only mapped the northside of the continent so far, but the Dungeon of Montor isn't far from where I've last been ganked and it might do me well to explore.

Dungeoneering

Dungeons follow a similar formula to Akalabeth - randomly generated, first person grids. In Akalabeth monsters were spawned at the start of the level and were replaced whenever the level was re-entered. According to DDG, when a monster is slain, new ones spawn. In theory then, it might be a little more dangerous but a little easier to grind.

The UI is a significant improvement however, revealing the Level I'm on and having that nice bold blue border to divide up the command line, stats and the dungeon itself. I scoop up some coins from a coffin and, distinct from Akalabeth, it does not respawn on a refresh. This makes me think that some things won't respawn, meaning if I want to keep the cash flowing, I'll have to press on or get fighting. Coffins are occasionally trapped - sometimes you'll find a monster instead (approximately 40%, unless a monster already occupies the space). Coffins don't actually get used up when this occurs which means that multiple monsters can spawn from one coffin. Huh, the tomb builders must have been clowns.

And fight I do! We run into our old buddy, the Giant Rat! They got even pointier in sprite and appear to have lost their tail curling in from the side though I imagine its behind them now. The left illustration has a delightful smugness about it, a little bit of the Templeton spirit in its heart, whilst the right one feels truly giant and fairly vicious to boot! They dish out up to 11 damage and a minimal of 10-13 HP. Decent fodder for dungeons, so long as I don't whiff too hard on the offensive. According to the manual, these guys are a result of Mondain's necromancy, made worse by the fact there's abundance dead things to gobble up in the dungeons. Interesting point, necromancy is as I recall a corruption of words meaning dark divination or, you know, black magic and was, thus, synonymous more broadly with witchcraft and harmful spells than with the dead.

Oh I just love the Halloween cut-out decoration aspect of the giant bat! Similarly, the janky teeth of the left sketch gives me a feel of a spooky temporary tattoo. The right illustration has really strong hatching and I very much dig the suggestion of stalactites and stalagmites in the background. On that subject, stalactites mean "dripping" and stalagmites means "drops". That might have helped me remember which was which if the wide awake nightmare of Angela Anaconda hadn't already put "hang tightly" and "stand mightily" in my brain. Sometimes you just watched shows you had no interested in when you were off sick from school. These adorably festive cookie cutter shapes have up to 13 HP base and deal up to 17 damage. The manual suggest they are, in fact, a form of vampire bat, though I am going to imagine the ever adorable flying fox due to how cute they are as is.

Well, that's new! Can't move through it so I'm guessing that is what a wall of force looks like. I imagine I'll need the Destroy spell to remove it.

Another buddy from the before times accosts me, rocking a classic Jason of the Argonauts look on the left with the formulaic Grecian shield. It and the other sketch both have some wicked looking sockets, which is in contrast to the sprite. They still have that crack along the skull from Akalabath, he really should get that looked at. I enjoy how perturbed they look with those tiny eye sockets. ._. Up to 11 HP by default and up to 3 damage. The manual describes them as the progeny of Necromancers and Liches which, um... well, the product of them, certainly, but progeny makes it sound like Liches and Necromancers have a steady thing going. Fighting it out in the dungeons for a while as I map, I walk out with a couple hundred extra HP easy so, uh, looks like I won't have to buy Lord British any more dinners if its this easy to get Health. With the high spawn rate, I replenish my funds rapidly too and decide to head to Paws uwu

This is a longshot but I suspect Paws is named for Powys, a part of Wales. I feel like it would make some sense with Lord British having some arguably Arthurian elements with his desire to peacefully unify Sosaria and, well, his connection to Britain. Arthur was said to be King of the Britons, a Celtic people. I haven't done much Early Medieval History but I believe after the arrival of the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and other Germanic peoples, they were pushed to the fringes of the island, into Cumbria, Wales, Cornwall, etc. The arrival of Anglo-Saxons usually doesn't go great for local populations.

In Paws, nya, we have a number of merchants who sell different items to those we previously attained. Towns are divided into two plans, which each sell alternate items. Cold Steel Creations will sell us Daggers (which we already had), Axes and Swords, which deal 24 and 40 damage respectively. With a Sword only costing 27 coins, I'm immediately picking that up. Hammer n Anvil will sell me the same items as Britain; Leather (got), Chain Mail (16 def) and Plate Mail (24 def). Not believing a ghost will haunt me forever if I do so, I easily ignore the Chain Mail and go right for the Plate for 129 coins. The landlord at Teaser's House lets me know I should watch the wench and I pick up some food from The Brown Bag. Looks like they have a grocery chain in Sosaria. Quality Transport Ltd. will sell me a cart. Most guides note that it has no benefit, but DDG suggests it drops food consumption to 36%, meaning in theory I should consume 1 food every 3 paces. I'm moving on up in the world. When I return to the dungeon, something is waiting for me.

Its a chest and I luckily unlock it, nabbing an extra 10 coins. Most of the other ones I find though deal 1 point of damage. I imagine they deal damage based on the level of the dungeon they're found on. Its not much, but it'll be a while before I need them for anything but food now. The upper most level of the dungeon has been mapped at least.

These dungeons appear to be significantly less labyrinthine than they were in Akalabeth at a glance. Walls form vertical lines, interrupted by doors. There might yet be surprised, but I think it'll be easier to map if they're mostly like this. As I explore, I discover I'm deeply unsure about the damage numbers as Giant Bats are dealing 17 damage pretty frequently.

I'm uncertain what determines the random seed for this game - perhaps the stats selected at the start, combined with the ancestry and profession?

Looks like we gained our first level so we went for a quick trip to the city of Moon! Cosy little place, no Transport merchant but no mighty need for that anyway. The proprietor of Ye Olde Local Pub tells me I must go back in time. Buddy, I'm already back in 1986. Maybe you should go back in time and realise your pub should be Þe Olde Local Pub, using the archaic letter Thorn as a combined TH instead of a Y. This is an old issue where things have applied Ye instead of Þe due to a corruption of the old letter. Ye would be plural "you" if I recall correctly. I know you know it exists, your runic alphabet uses it! Anyway shout out to my Þ using friend, it always makes me Þink of you when I see it :Þ

The Tempered Steel offers a new upgrade, granting us access to the Bow and Arrow. This means we should get an attack at range 3 and ups our damage to 56. Natural instant buy. It offers a Wand as well which could be useful, if I made any use of the Magic Missile spell. It'll increase damage by 100% but can't attack. Easy pass for now - I'm sure we can do better. Max's Armoury offers me a Vacuum Suit (32 Def) and a Reflect Suit, the best armour in the game, with a Defence of 40. That would appear to be a space suit and some kind of shielded or power armour. Naturally, we'll snap up the latter. Mystic Mylinda sells me ten Ladder Ups, which will save me a lot of time getting back out of a dungeon once I hit Level 10 down there. With that down, I now have the best armour, quite a lot of HP and a powerful ranged attack. As I round the south coast, we bump into another aquatic beast.

The Dragon Turtle is akin to the Ness Creature, albeit with 92 HP and only deals up to 9 damage. The big difference is that they have a ranged attack, which makes it annoying to line up a shot against them as they can attack in diagonals and we can't. Supposedly their shell is tougher than enchanted plate, but I'll probably not have to worry too much with my bow. I love the animated image of them breathing fire on the map and I like that the illustration bursts through the waves, though I'm a little surprised they don't possess the same horns displayed on the cover. I mean, it has to be them if anything, since there's no other dragons in the game.

From here, the City of Tune offers to sell me a Great Sword (48 dmg), an Amulet (+50% to Magic Missile) or Staff (+200% to Magic Missile) but neither will allow regular attacks. Adorably, I tried to sell to Kurstable's Corner and they informed me they have plenty of booze already. Stores can only buy what they sell which makes a lot of sense, when you get down to it.

Montor appears to be little more than a tower, providing weapons and food. I wonder if its name is derived from "Monitor". A quick trip in to the city of Fawn, I stop at Dr. Cat's Pub and after a long night of drinking, I finally learn that Princesses will grant great rewards to those who free them - especially for those who are level 8 or more. I'll need to keep this in mind for later, when stars no loinger sworl arund my hedd.

After searching all across the land, I find no sign of the Grave of the Lost Soul. I can no longer put it off. I must take to the sea.

II - A Certain Circumnavigation

Boat Trip

I'm well outfitted now for most threats and have the food and HP to spare. After spending some time shaking down thieves and rattling bones for loose change I opt to buy a boat. I could buy a raft but I opt on a Frigate as:

a) The Frigate has a better food consumption rate.

b) The Frigate has guns.

And, most importantly:

c) Yarrrrr.

So, we go down to Level 3 and great googly boogly!

Okay, the Giant Spider. I was genuinely startled at how big it is in the dungeon! I enjoy the little face on the left illustration, the mouth parts above the mandibles give it a kind of :> face. The darkness that wraps it in the right illustration meanwhile gives it a great sense of foreboding, ready to drop down on the next someone to pass through the door.

Which is kinda how it got me.

Damage wise, she does up to 29 points apparently and up to 18 HP base. Not that it helped it much against the bow. The manual claims they have a paralysing sting (well, bite I'd imagine) and that they're very fast but neither seems present here.

The Viper's back, and I was about to say they still don't fortunately have a poison attack since a snakebite is venomous - but I'm pleased to reveal that the manual says that "their venom-laden fangs bring a swift yet painful death".

🎊CORRECT TOXIN ASSESSMENT🎊

Still pretty pleased to be working with Mondain, look at that big grin. I like that they have a kind of triangular body shape, it makes me think of the gaboon vipers. Up to 27 base HP, deal up to 40 damage which may be representative of that toxic bite. I noticed I was taking a lot more hits, but that might well be due to encountering...

The Gelatinous Cube! I do appreciate that it captures the vibe of the D&D monster, which is actually deceptively hard to notice rather than the luminous lime green block of gelatine it often is depicted as. It's quite hard to notice when it's on the other side of a doorway, too. The illustration gives it a more substantial form, more like a blob of flesh or perhaps a jello-mold. This thing is nasty and borrows from one of the common threats of D&D. Not, surprisingly, actual gelatinous cubes, which have a paralytic touch - but from most of the other classic slimes! See, Green Slime, Black Puddings, Gray Oozes, etc. have a capacity to rapidly dissolve metal. What's that mean here? It means that it ate my beautiful reflective armour in an instant. It appears to have a 50% chance to use that instead of dealing damage on a successful attack. The manual, at least, warns about this!

Here we got the Cyclops! Fairly straight forward, big burly dude. If they were any more classical, they'd probably have a horn coming out of the head ala the 7 Voyages of Sinbad. Reminds me I need to rewatch that. It'll probably end up on here if I do! They can wallop for 68 damage - nothing to sneeze at but outclassed by the Rubik's Bane above. Up to 73 HP by default. I'm starting to think I need better weapons or maybe better stats. The manual adds a remark that they predate humanity in Sosaria. In drawing from Greek Myth, I believe that makes sense. In the mythic tradition, some of the earliest Cyclopes (Greek for "Round Eye") were some of the children of Gaia and Uranus and thus kin to the titans. They got imprisoned by the Titans but were liberated by Zeus during the Titanomachy (the war between the Gods and Titans after the whole to-do where Kronos tried to eat his godly children). In exchange they fashion Zeus' Lightning Bolt, Poseidon's Trident and the lesser known Helm of Hades that help level the playing field in the war. Typically though, cyclopes in media are more likely to draw from The Odyssey where the oafish shepherd cyclops Polyphemus makes hell for Odysseus and his men, largely by eating some of them. There's a lot of that going around in Greek myth, honestly.

After emerging from the dungeon and replacing my armour, we get another sneaky son of a bitch, frustratingly firing across a mountain range, making it hard to get at them.

This is the Hidden Archer, who has a similar sneaky sprite, akin to the (sigh)... akin to Trent. Instead of eyes, you get a little hint of the arrow peeking out of the treeline, reminiscent of the art on the right. 52 base HP, up to 9 damage base and a range of 3. Another enemy that catches me off guard; I like the classic woodland archer look, they have a little bit of merry menergy to them. The manual makes sure to call them out as cowards and suggests they use barbed arrows.

The Frigate costs most of my funds but she's a beauty. Its cannons will give me an 80% hit rate and, theoretically, should do up to 70 damage on a hit. It'll also reduce my food consumption down to ~1 in every 5 steps. In our exploration, we discover a lonely landmark. This is the Pillars of Protection and visiting it surrounds us with magical energy. After our visit we come away that little bit faster, gaining 2 points of Agility! I think Stamina might have been more fitting, but perhaps it is protecting us effectively from the bullshit of Bards and Jesters. These landmarks improve a specific attribute by 10%, though revisiting them grants no benefit - currently. At a second island, we hear the words "TURIS-SCIENTIA-MAGNOPERE" and our intelligence blooms! 3 points there! According to the Codex, this is Latin for "Knowledge of Incense Very Much", but contributors speculate this might be a corruption of "Turris scientiae magnae operae" which would produce "The great works of the tower of knowledge". Maybe more time at the Tower of Knowledge would improve the Latin spelling on the way back to Britian. I'm charmed by it in all honesty, especially considering its taken much from the spellchecker to keep my text from straying too far from my own intentions.

Revisiting the Pillars we receive another 3 points of Agility! By going back and forth between these landmarks, we can gradually increase our attribute scores. The back forth is a little tedious so I break away from it, having given a little improvement to each stat. It will become easier, though surely there is a better way.

That wraps up The Lands of Lord British at least!

Well, it wraps maps on them, at least - I do actually need to work on quests here. It occurred to me I had no idea if I'd checked in at the other castle.

The Castle of the Lost King makes me wonder what tyrant has set himself up here - another Lord like Lord British? Is a regent ruling in his stead? Who was the Lost King? Was it Wolfgang, the father of Mondain? He has been the only one specifically stated as King before. The local liege asks me to go slay a gelatinous cube and will not acknowledge my previous conquests, so its back to the dungeon store to pick up a few hundred pounds of jelly.

The kings withhold the essential pieces of the time machine. I suppose we are being tested to see if we're a bad enough dude to slay the the presiding evil of our time. I sale west and, judging by the shape of the islands, I find the Lands of Danger and Despair. I poke my head into a dungeon, The Morbid Adventure, and discover the random generator gave a room with all of three spaces to move. At first I write it off, assuming this is just one of those things that'll happen with with a purely random generator (perhaps there was a cave-in in this dungeon?) as I try each wall to see if I can advance. Nothing. Then I recall the 'Inform' command - sure enough, I discover a secret door by the ladder. Another difference from Akalabeth - in that game, you could just walk through walls that contained secret doors, here you must search for them and then they reveal themselves as doorways. I haven't, thus far, bothered to go searching for them as most dungeons have been very basic, so I would have probably missed this mechanic.

Lands of Danger and Darkness

Making landfall in LoDaD the first local Lord wishes me to find the Tower of Knowledge - since I'm already knowledgeable of that, I zip there and back (picking up some attribute points on the way) and turn the quest in. I'm granted the red gem, an important component of the time machine, should I ever find the thing. I'm being tested, I suppose, to see if I have what it takes to go back in time to defeat Mondain. I might have proved myself to Lord British in Akalabeth but the rest of the regents want me to see that I'm up to it.

North of the continent another landmark waits... marked by a sign post, this one literally is just a sign post. The aptly named Eastern Sign post bids me "GO EAST TO GO EAST", presumably because it is not a sign post in the east but one that informs about the east. Another castle has us meet the lord Shamino who wants me to slay a Balron. Though I bluster about my previous experiences in the time of Akalabeth, he would be quick to point out that was a Balrog and a Balron is something totally different and legally distinct. The White Dragon gives us a massive boon just for telling him where the school is.

This is the next means to improve our attributes! Strength gets a boost equal to 9.9 - Strength/10 according to Data Driven Gamer. So, these boosts will go down over time, but the increase from visiting the landmark will only go up. Speaking of which, off the north shores of the continent, we finally find the Grave of the Lost Soul, the words "Vae Victis" haunting us as we gain 2 points of Stamina. "Woe to the vanquished". It was apparently said by the great Gallic chieftain Brennus, who had humbled Rome in battle. Demanding a thousand pounds of gold, the Romans got the money together but grumbled that the scales were rigged and they were paying too much. Brennus tossed his sword onto the scales, unbalancing the scales and increasing the demand, and gave to the Romans a hearty "Deal with it, bitches". Why here? I'm not certain. My initial impression is that grave commemorates someone who lost some distant battle (perhaps then a play on lost soul) and, in time, they have themselves become lost, forgotten. Our Stamina raises as we steel ourselves, prepared not to become lost in the same way.

After mapping out both Danger and Despair, we bump into a kraken.

The Giant Squid isn't too much to be worried about, at least at this stage - 72 hp, up to 11 damage, probably going to be dealt with after a couple of broadsides. The manual describes them pulling ships down into the depths so I'm a bit surprised at how low the damage is. I like the sprite - I think the eyes are the little rectangles on the side with the little red dots being used to demarcate the fins. The illustration is fun too thanks to the scale indicated by the nabbed human. I do love how they keep making simple backgrounds for them, they're a nice bit of presentation.

Lands of the Dark Unknown

Off in the Lands of the Dark Unknown, we find the ironically named town of Wealth - a grocery store, a weapon shop and a bar. Perhaps the name is aspirational? Ironically the the city of Poor is vast and has all essential services. Dav's House of Suds provides me with a great amount of alcohol and a new bit of gossip - that most lakes and ponds have magical powers. I wonder how to tap into that. I approach the pond near the entrance to town and try a bunch of commands - Transact does nothing, Inform tells me the name of the town, I kick the water to no avail (well, I fire my bow into it...). Drop gives me a few options: pence, weapon, armour. Dropping coins into the water is what does it, like a wishing well. In the case of towns, they have a similar rate of HP gain as giving money to a king, but they're generally easier to get to than the castles as the towns are all over the place. They also have a chance to drop a random spell, too, making it much better to use the people's pool than the royal fool. Each town will have All ponds in towns do the same thing. How about castles? We head over to the Castle of Olyumps. I presume that Olympus is the name of the ruler, not that Zeus holds court here.

The great western pool gives Gold/10 points to a given stat. This is enormous, up to a maximum of 99. This is great for any of the core attributes, of course - less so for HP. If HP is selected, it'll drop to 99. Ouch. Bad water. I'll be using this pretty sparingly to avoid that. The other two pools? The north pool gives a random weapon (providing you drop in at least 10 gold), the south pool gives a 3 food for every 1 gold dropped in. That is an amazing rate of exchange compared to the grocery store as is and it would solve the ongoing cost of living crisis fairly quickly if not for the fact we're probably getting a lot of wet bread. Once our Intelligence improves, the rate of exchange might not be quite as good, but its 4 gold for 12 vs 4 gold for 10 food here.

I give myself some time on the North Pool and get a Mace (long outdated for me), a magic Triangle (+200% to Magic Missile damage, but this is a weapon, capable of dealing 88 damage in melee!) and a bunch of other junk until I'm granted something new.

A fucking Phazor. This thing is not set to stun at all, dealing a wild 112 damage. Its the second best weapon in the game, though Magic Missile with a Triangle might do up to 165 damage at maximum Wisdom (and if the math is correct, possibly 594 in the final fight with maximum Intelligence as well...) and it does it up to 5 spaces away. I'll be keeping this for now and seeing if I can manage better later on. There are two shapes of castle, with the other kind having a single pond with an east and west side - east gives food, west gives stats.

After that we swing by the Southern Sign post, which is good for a whole 1 point of Charisma. No worries, it's the least important stat in this game. "Omnia - Mutantur" we hear. This is Latin for "Everything Changes", probably quoting Ovid's Metamorphoses. The full line is "omnia mutantur, nihil interit" - everything changes, nothing perishes. I have not read Metamorphoses but I think this is a beautiful sentiment. Nothing is lost or destroyed, it only becomes something new and different. It encourages me not to fear death but to view it as another transformation. Thanks, Ultima. That truly lightens my heart.

We pop by the Black Dragon's Castle and they want us to take out a Lich. Since the king is human-shaped, I do imagine the white dragon and the black dragon are simply titles, akin to Dracula (meaning son of the dragon). Back aboard the boat I start finishing up this map and discover that there's actually a missing dungeon on it - the long mountains peninsula on the eastern side of the continent is not marked on the map but it has the homely name of The Slow Death.

As we round the east coast, a new threat emerges!

Pirates! They are similarly decked out with cannons as we are, though they in theory only do up to 7 damage. They're tied for the toughest opponents in the game on the map though, with 112 HP. Nice serviceable art, I find sailing ships pretty hard to draw well. Thanks to them, mercantile matters are at a standstill upon the seas. Following these escapades, we round the continent to the final sign post of the area, simply known as "The Sign Post". We hear the words "ULTIMA THULE". Ultima, as per the game's name, means last, final or furthest in Latin whilst Thule (I believe pronounced Too-Leh) is originally a Greek word of unknown origin. Thule refers to a mythical island (or, possibly, island chains), believed to be beyond Britain. Ultima Thule would be the island at the furthest extent of these, presumably from the Mediterranean perspective at least. Some of the proposed sites are the outer islands of Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland or Greenland. Mythically, it came to reflect unknown and distant lands. In this case, it might represent the fact this is a remote island, north of the Lands of the Dark Unknown or, as it is The Sign post, it might refer to the world of Sosaria itself, a world far away and foreign to Earth.

With the mapping completed here, that leaves us with the Lands of the Feudal Lords.

Lands of the Feudal Lords

As we make landfall, we're bothered by a Necromancer.

Yeah, that's it. This guy doesn't even get a picture in any other manual besides the original Apple II manual. Kind of a shame, honestly. To their credit, I do love the hexagonal patterns and the way that either power radiates from them or else the clouds align, as though time and space are pulled out of joint by their dark magic. 92 HP, up to 9 damage and no ranged attack for these casters. A speedbump.

Heading west, we find the Pillars of Ozymandias. "My name is Ozymandias, / king of kings, / look at my works, / Ye mighty, and despair / Nothing beside remains." Probably the most well known of the sign post quotes so far, quoting Percy Shelley's sonnet, Ozymandias. These words are writ upon a pedestal below what is now a shattered and scattered statue. Ozymandias is the Greek name for Rameses II, the Great. Rameses lived an apparently exceptional life, filled with victories in war and overseeing the expansion and development of the Egyptian kingdom and elevated to godhood during his life. In 1818, when the poem was first written, his whereabouts were unknown - his body would not be found until 1881 and the language of hieroglyphics were not fully understood until 1821. How much did we know about Rameses at this point? We did not even know his name outside of the Greek. The poem carries such a weight of time to it - in his time Ozymandias was a great and powerful king, but the lone and level sands stretch far away and his empire has been worn to dust.

I reflect on this for a long and quiet moment.

It is a poem I've heard often quoted and even memed about. Its one I've enjoyed plenty of jokey references too, though it resonated strongly for me. Examining it in this context though, a shadow lays over me. Where is California Pacific Company that published the first couple of games? Where is Sierra Online? Origin Systems? Where, itself, is Ultima? A game whose first entry went from selling perhaps a dozen copies to 30,000 almost overnight.

It has been 27 years since the maligned Ultima IX. Its successor, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues came out 12 years ago, promising a bright future but dwindling and going through a couple of studios. For many people the game's failure diminished the statue of its creator. Where now is the hand that mocked and the heart that fed? I think of Interplay and Black Isle. Fallout continues to boom but what of the sculptor whose passions shaped them, before they became someone else's product to shake for coin? Under the yoke of Electronic Arts, how much longer does Bioware have under under the masters that saw Origin die? Soon enough, the sands shall be level again.

I feel ice inside me for a moment. I gain some Stamina. I don't know how much, sorry. The game is turn based but as I left it on the overworld, it automatically passes once in a while and the message scrolled away.

Man.

Perhaps, with this in mind, I can examine what it means for Sosaria. What is will not be forever. Mondain has rules for 1000 years but this too shall pass. "Omnia mutantur, nihil interit", you know? But then, in time, so too shall Lord British no longer be with us and what of Sosaria itself? Well, we'll have to continue playing the games but even the world shall shift in time.

The next landmark is the Pillars of the Argonauts, where we find a Dagger and hear the words "Fortes - Fortuna - Adiuvat", which is "Fortune favours the brave/strong". Fortuna both means Fortune but is also the name of the Roman god of luck. The Argonauts were the sailors of the ship Argo (hence, Argo-Nauts), Argo itself coming from Argos, meaning swift. They sailed with Jason in the search of the Golden Fleece, probably most famously portrayed in the Ray Harryhausen classic, Jason and the Argonauts. In addition to the explosion of fantasy paperbacks in the 60s and 70s, Harryhausen's films had a fairly significant influence on the visuals of early fantasy games. This landmark checks our inventory to see what weapons we possess and gives us the weakest weapon we don't currently have, so zipping back and forth between it and Ozymandias we soon come up with a few new weapons, including a Pistol, a Light Sword (not a Saber) and, eventually, a Blaster (120 damage, baby!).

At Castle Randorin I pledge myself to slay a Carrion Creeper - a crawler no more. The Jester stole my Phaser, which confirms that they steal the best weapon.

III - The Grand Campaign

Quest Round Up

The campaign is fast drawing towards its ends now. The world is explored, though I have not delved deep into the dungeons nor have I spoken to each lord about their quests. I do a quick run down of each, completing all of the quests that simply require me to visit a landmark.

The Lands of Lord British

Lord British - Find the Grave of the Lost Soul. Completed, Strength Bonus.

The Lost King - Slay a Gelatinous Cube. Completed, Red Gem.

Lands of the Dark Unknown

Lord of Olympus - Find the Pillar of Ozymandias. Completed, Strength bonus.

The Black Dragon - Slay a Lich.

The Lands of the Feudal Lords
Lord of Randorin - Slay a Carrion Creeper.

Lord of Barataria - Find the Southern Signpost, Completed, Strength bonus.

The Lands of Danger and Despair

The White Dragon - Find the Tower of Knowledge. Completed, Strength bonus.

Shamino - Slay a Balron.

In the process of this I learnt that the pilgrimage style quests are actually repeatable, so I can keep increasing my strength. Interestingly, no landmark will let you do this - I suspect one of the Stamina increasing ones was maybe unintentionally duplicated. As previously stated, the bonus gained towards Strength here diminishes the higher your Strength, making it the hardest to max out. Not only is it tedious, but sometimes I forget I need to talk to the king twice - once to turn in the quest and another time to pick up the quest again, so sometimes I come back only to be told to go to back. I just decide to settle for 73 and keep things moving.

Now that I have 99 in each of the other core attributes though, I'm ready to move on and handle the remaining quests. The final three kingly missions will add to the time machine development. If I'm going to find them though, I'm going to have to finish my dungeon delving.

My Old Stomping Ground

We're back in the Dungeon of Montor. I map out levels 3 and 4 - sans armour just in case anyone slimes me.

This one pushed me to actually look for secret doors, otherwise I'd have been stumped pretty quickly. This level's important for my questing, as its the source of the Carrion Creeper.

Formerly named the Carrion Crawler, after the D&D monster of the same name, its gone through some revisions. The original form is very clearly based on the D&D monster - hell, it has 7 tentacles instead of the original 8. These creatures were invented for D&D to have a reason that dungeons weren't just full to the brim with rotting corpses. Since paralysis and other status effects are not a thing as is, it isn't quite as dangerous as the original monster. I like the alternative take on it in the illustrations, that transforms the tendrils into prominent mandibles, though it does give it something of the aspect of another D&D monster, the Ankheg. They'll deal up to 202 damage on a hit, with up to 134 hp by default.

Mimics are back! Not two stacked on top of each other, in that case it was literally a mimic in front of a chest. 127 damage and 59 hp. Not a lot to say for them, kind of the classic! Unique mimics are fairly thin on the ground but very welcome when they appear. I take a break from the dungeons to get some much needed tech support (I now have speakers again and have seen Iron Lung!) and when I return to the game, I decide to see if any new items have unlocked. Reflect Suit is the best we get, but...

Aircar and Shuttle. The Aircar I imagine is something like the land speeder from Star Wars, or possibly a Jetsonian flying car. It has guns, consumed 0.14 food per step (so, 1 food in 7 spaces) and has a set of blasters that should deal up to 80 in theory. It can't enter woods but that is slightly trumped by the fact it can fly over water. There's also The Shuttle but I'll get to that once all these monsters are slain. Speaking of, a few more on the way!

Digging Deeper

The Minotaur! Base HP is up to 109 and their damage is ~175 so we're really getting into the high damage foes down here. Originally, their name was typo'd as "Minatour" but that has since been fixed. The actual name, Minotaur, comes from the the mythical bull-headed beast that was contained within the Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete - literally "Minos' Bull". The King was supposed to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, but he loved the bull too much and spared it. Poseidon, kinda miffed to be a robbed to be robbed of suitable bloodshed (as is the way of Greek gods), laid a curse that led ultimately to his wife giving birth to the minotaur. Not sure what she did in all this but, well, Greek gods, like anyone with a lick of power, are kind of assholes. Here, however, they're a product of Mondain being a nasty little freak and trying to crossbreed species to make super soldiers. More on that shortly.

The wireframe remains adorable, seeming prepared to either dance or hug the hero. The illustrations are a bit more intimidating. I do love the one-legged armour on the left and on the right between the musculature and stoop, they appear to be as wide as they are tall. I like the movement of the hoof - either hoofing the ground prior to charge or already moving headlong down the hall.

As an aside, I thought that it is weird that we add -taur as a suffix to things akin to Centaurs whilst the suffix is clearly indicative of bulls. So, as I am wont to do, I reached for the etymology. I wasn't sure - and it turns out nobody else is quite sure either. It might predate the Greek and distorting to the more recognisable -taur suffix. It might translate to "piercing bull" or "bull slayer" or reflect that centaur might charge like a bull but who can say?

The Ettin is a form of classical giant, often rendered with two heads. The word "Ettin" tends to get pronounced these as says as, well, Ett Inn, but the original old English would pronounce it more like "Eatin", which for a cannibalistic giant I feel more could be done with. The word in turn derives from "jötunn", Norse word for giant. Media tends to depict them with two heads to distinguish them from other forms of giants - I'm not 100% certain of where this started. It has been some time since I read the Narnia books, but I believe they are described as having two heads there. "Ettinsmoor" and "Ettensmoor" show up in Narnia and Middle Earth respectively which might have aided reinforce their place in modern fantasy canon. D&D probably helped cement this distinction for the Ettin and its shown up in one form or another all over (for example, the two-headed ogres of Warcraft). I have read some folklore that alluded to them having multiple heads but this was in modern compilations and I don't know how close it was hewing to the original story. They deal up to 106 damage and have at least 36 HP if I'm understanding the data. On the art, I do like how shaggy the illustration is on the right whilst the left illustration captures the wireframe's simplicity neatly. Wireframes stay adorable, okay? love the roll of 4 on two dice look of their heads.

 Finally, we have my character from Akalabeth in all their glory! I adore the lizard man's fabulous little pose in the middle here and I think the right illustration is one of the better pieces from the manual with how well it defines the tight musculature of the creature. The manual specifies the lizardman was an early experiment for Mondain, which was continued in the minotaur. It might have been perfected in the minotaur based on how much stronger they seem - with the lizardman possessing up to 84 hp and dealing up to 150 damage. This suggests to me that the magic amulets might have been remnants from Mondain's experiments. Probably for the best we stopped juicing up with those...

I wonder what the origins are for the lizardman in fiction writ large. They have a long tenure in pulp fantasy and weird fiction, with the serpent men showing up in Robert E. Howard's The Shadow Kingdom and a reptilian civilization that fell into a decline in HP Lovecraft's The Nameless City. I'm uncertain of the origin of the apparently atavistic lizardman - Howard's serpent people are cunning manipulators that make a play to replace King Kull with one of their own whilst Lovecraft's denizens of the nameless city once oversaw a most advanced society that withdrew from the world to enter stasis. The Silurians of Doctor Who seem to echo the reptiles of the Nameless City as well and, though they have a complicated relationship with humanity, they too prove to be highly intelligent. Where does the primitive conception of the lizardman come from? Is it from the ancient nature of reptiles themselves, seemingly unchanged for millions of years? I hope that it is that because I have concerns otherwise.

Apparently I missed this guy a bunch on the surface. This is the Hood - peasants that have become outlaws under the influence of Mondain. The manual describes them as a nuisance and, especially at this point, they are easily steamrolled. Small touch but I like him clasping his cloak to conceal it behind the tree. They have up to 22 HP and deal up to 5 damage by default.

Darkness Growing - Level 7-8

The dungeon's running out of steam now as sadly no new mechanics have developed in a while. Most of what we'll be looking at in the next sections are the monsters as such as we work towards our last goals in dungeoncrawling.

This is literally D&D's Beholder, albeit here known as Wandering Eyes. Since D&D does claim their invention (officially showing up in OD&D's Greyhawk Supplement back in 1975, we tend to get them named things like Gazers, Eye Beasts or Ten Eyed Oracles, etc. My favourite take on them is actually Exile 3's Gazer/Eye Beast.

Something about the bright red and squiggly tendrils. In contrast to the classical beholder - which, to me, does feel like its right out of a Ray Harryhausen film - they feel more like an aberration to me, something otherworldly. The left illustration feels very traditional, I think it works well - possibly better than the illustration on the right which feels merely surly. Here they deal up to 255 damage with base HP apparently being up to 160. The manual claims they have a hypnotic element but mechanically they seem to have no abilities.

Next up we got the Tangler! The manual describes it as looking like a vine covered tree stump and I think the illustration gets that across pretty well. The wireframe meanwhile, well... its a Roper. Its another monster straight out of D&D, this time from The Strategic Review #2. Not as recognisable as the Beholder, its been a mainstay of the game for a very long time. From the look of things, later Ultima games add back the face that the Roper has to it and shifts the name towards the closer "Reaper". Up to 233 damage and apparently on the lower end of the health spectrum for this level - up to 58 hp. I do like how gnarled the art is for it and its facelessness feels like a nice break in form since most of them do have features.

The Lich as we know it is another thing popularised by D&D, with the word originally coming from an old word for "corpse". The term probably received popularization from Clark Ashton using it for both the dead and undead. He was no stranger to undead wizards giving us The Return of the Sorcerer - which if you wanna check out, I recommend the Night Gallery adaptation of it, since you'll get Vincent Price in the bargain. This iteration, being a floating skull, is almost certainly a Demilich which is often depicted as a jewel-encrusted skull and a cloud of bone dust. The original take on this and probably inspiration for this execution is Acererak, the antagonist (if you can call a dusty old bones full of bone dust sitting in a death trap an antagonist) of the legendary S1: Tomb of Horrors. I really love the illustration for this since it breaks the conventional box of the image, replacing it with swirling motes of dust or eldritch flame. They have up to 254 HP by default. I'll be skipping damage from now on as everything now deals up to 255 damage according to The Codex - with the exception of...

THEY'RE BACK! And what a return! I think this is my favourite art in the game, hands down. It truly gets the vibe of them down pat as these perfectly nasty little goblins. I have no notes on the illustration. The wireframe though, I do have one complaint about. See, in the last game, the colour of the levels and monsters shifted as you descended... but the Gremlin's eyes stayed white. Now that everything is purely monochrome, that uniqueness has been lost. Its a shame but its small potatoes. These little buggers are still the worst - and this time they survived long enough to steal my food! If they do damage, I didn't catch it - save for watching my food drop from over 2000 to around 200. The manual claims them to be the kin of the lizard men and trolls so perhaps they are a creation of Mondain. I don't know about trolls though - they don't know show up in the game. I think its possible they may allude to traditional trolls more than D&D trolls, meaning they might turn to stone in sunlight. No wonder they're so voracious - they're entirely dependent on whatever comes down into the dungeons. Data Driven Gamer gives their base HP at only up to 107, so I might have gotten really unlucky and gotten robbed whilst I was paying less attention to them.

Oh and whilst I remember - the myth of the gremlin was popularised in WW2 though in some form might date back to WW1. We've always had puckish sprites and fairy troublemakers in our myths in Britain, but the gremlin is specifically made its fun through mischief against airplanes.

Finally for Level 7-8, we have the Wraith, with up to 205 HP base! In terms of folklore, whilst Wraith can be a ghost of any kind, in Scotland I've most often heard it used in reference to an apparition of someone who is, for a moment, still living. Typically, its a death omen, for the person about to die but more commonly it appears to a loved one. In terms of the fantasy genre, they're a kind of insidious undead, popularised by the Ringwraiths of Lord of the Rings, servants bound to Sauron. D&D has cemented them otherwise as spectral things, capable of draining the life from the living. The shapeless heaped cloak of the wireframe is nice, though I think the left illustration is my favourite take - simple but clear in its ominous quality. I like the environmental art of the second illustration but the art of the entity itself is a little too simple for me.

Hunting Demons - Level 9-10

The last foes to fight lurk down here in the bottom of the dungeon. There's a lot more force walls down here so I made sure to pack Destroy spells to clear up some of them - the ladder down to 10 actually seemed to initially be blocked off by one before I poked around for secrets.

The Daemons are back and we have a bit more confusion on their form now! Both illustrations suggest cloven hooves this time, one suggests spines on the elbows and the other suggests spins on the back of the legs. We do have clarity on them having a tail spade this time, albeit none of that is apparent on the in game wireframe. Just about the only consistent thing between them is they possess legs and have horns. The head shape got even weirder and I think I really like the various strange takes on that in the art - the long mouth in the left illustration vs the huge nose or cavity in the right illustration. They truly feel very ominous. I can't quite parse the shape of the in game daemon that well though - the blocky projections on the sides may be arms, they may be wings. Possibly they are weapon pods and daemons are outfitted like a Mad Cat. In any case, they get a base of 333 hp according to DDG and apparently didn't show up in the world until Mondain brought them in from goodness knows where.

The Invisible Seeker takes the occasionally hard to notice elements of the Gelatinous Cube and takes it further into full invisibility. Except... not quite. Notice anything odd about this screenshot? It took me a second.

There's a hole in the ceiling but no ladder. Invisible Seeker can effectively obscure other things in the corridors. I didn't experiment with everything it might block but I believe it might obscure other monsters and doorways - possibly coffins and chests as well. Base monster has up to 109 HP I believe but the sneakiness goes a long way. They're so sneaky, that I realised I had to go back and correct "Invisible Stalker" to "Invisible Seeker" since the former is another D&D monster. The way the manual describes them is quite nasty, suggesting the first sign of their presence is seeing wounds apparently opening themselves from nowhere. Yikes. Appropriately there's no art of them in the manual.

Speaking of D&D monsters, we got the Mind Whipper! The Mind Flayer first shows up in the Strategic Review #1 back in 1975 - one of the first additional monsters added to the game. Whilst Mind Flayers definitely consume brains, Mind Whippers seem to drain mental energy at least - they have a 50% chance to drop your Intelligence by 40%. They're a bane to casters and meant that I had to boost my intelligence again once I was done with this level. They're quite tough too, with 171 as the base max. I really like the use of darkness in the illustration of them, it gives a real sense of foreboding. Placing them atop the short, curving stairway as well gives a feeling of coming up against HP Lovecraft's take on Dracula.

Xorn! Or, well, Zorn here. These guys also show up in D&D but the nature of D&D wikis is frustratingly often in universe (thanks Forgotten Realms fandom wiki ^u^) or incomplete, I wasn't sure that I could find out where they first appeared. Apparently, they first showed up in print in the 1977 Monster Manual for AD&D (published before AD&D itself was released because. Well, D&D was like that). I recalled they showed up in the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth... and then discovered that actually they first show up in its tournament run iteration in 1976 - The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth. D&D, why. D&D please. I'm very curious if there was an inspiration for the D&D monster but unless I dive into a lot of D&D videos, it might be harder to track down due to some of the issues with documentation and with the wikis I've run into. Maybe if I arrange candles around a surviving copy of "Up the Garden Path" I can summon Jon Peterson to do an in depth, academic write up of the origins of the monster manual.

Anyway, these dudes are mineral eaters from the elemental plane of earth. They're basically okay, but they love them some gems and will hassle adventurers to give them up like a child trying to get cereal made from raw artificial sweeteners. They can burrow through just about anything - which the manual mentions as well. I'm curious if they actually do that in game - it felt like they did but things were pretty hectic on level 10. These dudes have up to 252 HP base. Art wise, I like how strange and alien all takes of them have. The two illustrations both take that in different directions - the 'face' on the right one is a bit more "ordinary" but the extra detail makes it look more fantastic. I particularly like the texturing on its hide, giving a kind of fleshiness that could just as easily be rockface.

And finally...

The Balron! I'm... actually not as into the look for this game. They're a little too traditional demon, a little too humanoid and, man. I want to be kind, but I'm of a certain age and I can't help but see "Mr Blobby With Wings" with the in game art. The art on the right is suitably intimidating though, I really love that its lit from below which ends up casting the head into deep shadow. Very nice touch. Sadly, a bit of a step down from the cover of Akalabeth. 414 health here and the last creature to deal with before we're done!

When at last I have all of the beasts slain, I swing by each castle and turn in the quests to collect my payment in magic gems. They don't spend, but they do let me advance further with the quest.

I wasn't completely sure how to do this, so I just wandered into the Armoury and started stealing. I was hoping to pick up a Triangle for later to make use of some magic missiles since my inventory had been emptied by thieves and jesters. The guards seemed to be pretty peeved about this so I had to make a run for it afterwards. All is forgiven on a return to town, at least - but it will not be the last I antagonise the royal court.

Ascension

Speaking of which!

Back to bothering Shamino. Its time to free the princess but, sadly, the Unlock spell gives me no aid. Sadly, I'll need the key for this. Your time has come, clownette.

I have to go out blasting, cutting through the swarming guards.

The medieval princess is thankful but, tragically, as I'm no space ace, she won't reveal to me the secrets of time travel. This is one of those moments where I feel the desire to express "I really just said that" but it hews a little too close to "well, that just happened" for comfort. Anyway, this is going to require me to go to space!

Oh its just. Literally a NASA Space Shuttle. I guess that makes sense, I mean, Lord British's dad worked for NASA and all. It does add to the weird soup of the game's vibes and I genuinely do find that fun. I'd argue it might be symbolic of some kind of spacecraft at least.

The galactic gas n' go is kind of a nightmare. Firstly, you have to be precise with landing against it and back out very gently lest your scape the paint and shields off by being even a pixel askew. Secondly, fuel is expensive - 500 gold a shot at least and you'll be using it any time you make some active movement. Finally, don't even try The Special, its not worth it.

You get an option of two different ships once you're up here - the bottom ship has better shields (5000) and lower fuel (2500), the left ship has lower shields (1000) but better fuel (5000). Each is a better option than the shuttle for combat (1000 for each) but neither are outfitted for re-entry so you have to remember to switch back, lest your welcoming back in Sosaria be a little too warm. We have three views of space; the top down for local navigation (seen above), the map view (seen below) and the first person view (seen further below).

The plus signs denote space stations like those we've docked at. The diamond/circles indicate stars, perhaps other worlds. The "H" symbol may reflect "Hostile" craft but those crafts also have an H shape. I believe those sectors can have multiple craft, too.The empty spaces reflect, well, empty space.

The goal is to take out 20 enemy craft, keep on top of fuel and shields return to Sosaria. As I pause to consider the how and whys of this, it suddenly hits me.

Why am I doing this exactly?

The sci-fi elements I'm totally fine with. Sci-fi and fantasy used to be very willing to play with each other. Considering the shape of the enemy fighters, we're clearly drawing from Star Wars here though Star Wars was hardly an outlier. One of the first D&D adventures, Temple of the Frog, has a guy with power armour and a sword that fires lasers and that came out in 1975. Are these guys a threat to the world? Is this preventing the arrival of other strangers such as ourselves? Hath the Kilrathi catched the ire of the Lords of Sosaria? I guess Princesses just think Han Solo types are pretty cool. I can't really fault them for that.

To get around, we go into first person mode and hit H - for Hyperjump!

Its a bit hard to keep track of the enemy fighters as they seem to jump around a bit as you fly and tracking them across the screen uses fuel every time you in put a command. Fortunately, the crosshair does slide about freely once you input a direction and you can pull it back to the center with the spacebar. I'm still not quite sure how it works but I just keep at it until its done. Not a lot to say unfortunately, though it is a nice little change of pace. I kinda wish more games were bold enough to drop big gameplay changes mid to late game but, as I say that, I recall the abysmal combat and stealth in Dreamfall so... perhaps not all the time. The declaration that I was a space ace came up and disappeared in seconds so, sadly, I can only report that I am still a Space Ace.

I think its funny that Space is capitalised but not the Ace, haha. I do appreciate that it lets you know just in case you missed it though. Now, to make this known to Lord British's captive audience.

Temporal Hijinks

And here we go!

Fortunately, the Northwest appears to be in Lord British's lands and its parked right outside of the Dungeon of Perinia,

Here goes nothing!

Back before the gem of immortality's creation, I launch myself across the room and start blasting the old warlock with magic missiles to no avail. The gem's power keeps him protected still. Approaching, he hits me with the Mind Blaster - dealing hundreds of points of damage - followed by a Psionic Shock.

Unable to do much, I use the profoundly unused keyboard command - "Get" and pick the object up. The power of the gem tears through my HP as it explodes in my hands, reducing me to I believe 20% of my health in the process. Me and Mondain on a more level playing field now. I'm coming for your ass, wizard.

To try and outpace you, he'll routinely turn into a bat and run around the room, so chasing him around with a broom (or staff in this case) is somewhat helpful.

And there we go... Time unfurls as we slumber and come the day of our awakening, we are recognised somehow for our deeds. I suspect Lord British might exist somewhat outside of the norms of time and space but perhaps we'll get into that more later on. I'm sure things will be just peachy in Sosaria from here on out!

IV - The Verdict

Well, so, that was Ultima! I had an absolute blast playing it and its been nice to revisit it in a way where I could share it with my friends! Let me see if I can't organise my thoughts a wee bit.

What I Loved

The game is such an overall immediate improvement over the original game.

Though folks on the overworld did kick my ass quite a bit early on, the dungeons were a lot more survivable starting out. The ability to buy a wider array of weapons and armour coupled with buying spells and not having to make it a gamble any longer helped grant a sense of agency. Akalabeth ended up feeling like quite a lonely world but UIltima I feels alive! The roaming monsters and vast number of towns and dungeons give the world a real sense of scale vitality. Though the towns share maps across continents, they make it feel like there is a world of people that we are actually working to save. I almost took for granted that this world has people in it! Besides Akalabeth's unseen Lord British and merchant, we have a number of merchants running different stores, we have the pub, we have the ever annoying bards and jesters, the guards and princesses. On top of that, there's such a variety of creatures now, with more unique abilities amongst them. I always felt excited for the possibility of encountering something completely new and seeing what tricks the game might play on me.

The UI and controls are a significant improvement as well. Not having to press "A" three times to attack is a pretty basic quality of life adjustment but it is appreciated. Readying weapons and spells goes a long way, especially since once you've readied one spell, you can cast it over and over as long as you have a stock of it. I'd also add that I think removing the Lizard Man spell was an extremely good idea as well as capping attributes. The one-two punch of causing your stats to soar and having no limit to them completely broke the first game and could do so within minutes of starting. The landmarks will get you there eventually but it takes a lot longer, for a lower result and it requires you to actually explore the world. I appreciate that little nudge to come to acquaint myself with the lay of the land.

I appreciate some of the dungeon changes that showed up. The addition of coffin (summoning a monster on a bad roll) and chest (dealing damage on failing to pick) add some dynamic elements though the rewards are a bit slim. We also got the wall of force which is like a reverse secret door - you can see through it but you can't traverse through it. Later levels using a lot of them makes the wizard a really helpful class since you can bypass them with the Destroy spell. As a kid, I loved this kind of shit in games - it felt like the first taste of environmental alteration in a game.

As a last point, I really love how bold the game is and willing to play around with multiple elements so it isn't just a dungeon crawler. Even if killing monsters in dungeons is still a significant element, the necessity to actually investigate and learn what we need to do to beat the game made me feel a lot more engaged. The game can be a little obtuse - but its a lot more obtuse if you don't go looking for answers. Yeah, some of those answers are randomly provided by rumours, but you still need to be looking and listening! The space stuff was a refreshing change of pace even if the execution left a little to be desired. For 1981? Wow.

What Could Be Better

All that said, there are some things I do wish were a little different. The big problem I have is, sadly, the dungeons.

One thing I really loved in Akalabeth's aesthetic was the gradual shifting of hue the dungeon had as the player went deeper - from white then blue then progressively more red. It helped make the dungeon levels feel distinct. Akalabeth gradually added more elements to the dungeons, with secret doors becoming more necessary to navigate and adding traps. Ultima I ends up cutting the traps and the one-way descents which makes the dungeon feel simpler in some ways. It makes them feel a bit more repetitive. Finally, there's still no real reason to visit multiple dungeons in this day and age. Back then, I can imagine it being fun to explore and master multiple dungeons when you don't have other games going on in kind of an arcade fashion but it just doesn't do much for me. I still wish there was some unique items we could find in dungeons to help distinguish them.

Outside of that, I find it kind of bugs me that Strength is so restrained as a stat. Perhaps this was in response to how easy it was to break Akalabeth simply by doing more damage but here the better spell selection and control over those spells means that you don't need to be as reliant on Strength. That and the power of weapons can kind of eclipse Strength rapidly. This means that the Fighter is still kind of underpowered and doesn't really get anything though, honestly, by the end of the game, anything is one-shotting most opponents.

What Would I Change

It goes without saying I'd probably like to create more transparency on how the various mechanics work. I think I'd probably reincorporate pit traps - which were present in the earliest release of Ultima I. I'd probably add loose gold and items back as well. Whilst HP is easy to grind up, gold can be a bit slow at first.

I'm not sure I'd do away with the multiple random dungeons - it feels like ultimately they help the world feel larger even if I don't feel they contribute too much individually. I think I'd revisit the Fighter. My thought would be to give them a reduction to damage that scales with Armour Tier. Late game enemies hit really hard and it'd be nice for them to have something with them lacking the Kill spell.

Last Word

A significant improvement over Akalabeth in almost every conceivable way and pretty fun to get into. My recollection is that Ultima II even weirder in its way. I remember digging it. I'm looking forward to moving onto it - I got a little bit stuck here and there and I had a bit of a rough time with my radiator so my room was boiling hot for ages and it was hard to work on this. All good now though!

Ultima II doesn't seem to have quite as much information on it, so the info provided will be a little slimmer. I think I got carried away in some places, citing more in depth mechanics for some things. I don't know that I needed to source info on HP and damage though most monsters don't have any distinction besides those elements. Some have ranged attacks in the overworld and one monster per floor has an ability besides just attacking. I'll still try to explain how known mechanics work where I can but I'll probably not get too far into the weeds next time. I think as it went, I got a bit bogged down. Still, I had a lot of fun with this and I learnt a lot about how I wanted to write things. I really enjoy the layout of Leaflet for this, its been genuinely fun to learn and given me a lot of inspiration. I might go back and re-organise previous posts along these lines but probably it'd be better to repackage them later.

Thanks for reading!