From: Jeremy_Reimer@mindlink.bc.ca (Jeremy Reimer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.misc
Subject: Ultima III Review
Date: 7 Sep 92 08:22:15 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

Firstly, I'd like to say that this stuff is (c)opyright 1992 by, well, me.  It
really is.  No foolin'.  :)

Secondly, I'll add a plug.  You'll see these series of reviews in (drumroll) an
upcoming issue of Game Bytes!

----------------

                        TALES OF FORGOTTEN ULTIMAS

                              By Jeremy Reimer

                                 ULTIMA 3

PREFACE

This is the third in a series of documents describing the games in the
Ultima series, written by Richard Garriott.  I hope to have similar
documents completed for the second trilogy (Ultimas 4, 5 and 6) and the
new Ultima 7 soon (under the banner TALES OF LEGENDARY ULTIMAS), hopefully
before Origin releases Ultima 8! <grin>

EXODUS: ULTIMA III

Ultima III was the first game written under the Origin label, soon after
the company itself was formed by Richard and a few of his friends and
relatives. Again, the Apple ][ version was released first, but this time
Commodore 64 and IBM conversions were written soon afterwards. Richard
admits that Ultima III was the best programming job he had ever done at
the time, but that a rich, full storyline would have to wait for Ultima
IV.  Many of the design features that are found in Ultima IV, V and even
VI to some extent were first realized in this game.

Ultima III was the first of the Ultima series to take a dedicated effort
to play and win.  It involved garning many more clues than in the
previous two releases, enough to warrant the first Ultima cluebook
(Secrets of Sosaria) to be published.

GAME SPECS

The IBM version uses CGA graphics only (Well, this was 1983!) but the
colour schemes are different than in Ultima II.  Most stuff (all the
NPCs and player icons) is completely white, along with the water,
walls, and almost everything else save for the screen borders (magenta),
the grasslands and the forests (both cyan).  Sound was limited to PC
blapping, although there were more sounds for magic spell use and other
events than in Ultima II, even a zeerwwwww sound at the beginning when
the title screen is displayed.  Thankfully, a [V]olume Off toggle key
was added in this game!

The game came on one 360k disk, with instructions for making a savegame
disk from scratch.  The game could not be run from the hard disk, even
with the key disk in A:, although all the game files and save game files
can be kept on the hard disk for fast access.  Under Desqview I just put
the program name as A:ltima.com and the directory as C:ltima3, this
seemed to work fine, and no problems running at 33 Mhz (again it plays
better at 16)

THE STORY

Ultima I told the tale of the land of Sosaria, caught under the evil
spell of the Wizard Mondain.  By travelling back in time and destroying
his Gem of Immortality, and then Mondain himself, the evil wizard was
vanquished and peace returned to the land.

Ultima II was the strange one of the bunch, the "Dallas bad dream"
installment, for it took place on Earth, where you had to defeat
Mondain's former apprentice and lover, the evil sorceress Minax,
although you did defeat her not on Earth but on "Legends", a continent
which might have been like a warped Sosaria.  Future documents would
suggest that the whole game was really played on Sosaria, but it wasn't.

In Ultima III, the player is transported back to Sosaria again, this
time the four continents of Ultima I have merged into a giant continent
that spans the globe (continental drift?)  This continent of Sosaria
would later become Britannia, and eventually assume its familiar
inverted L shape, which would remain basically unchanged all the way to
Ultima VII.  The evil this time is Exodus, a weird combination of
man-machine described as the progeny of Mondain and Minax, the result of
one of their affairs (just what were these two UP to anyway??)  Exodus
lives on a new, fiery island guarded by the Silver Serpent, and the
object of the game is to explore Sosaria to find a way to get past the
Serpent and defeat Exodus him(it?)self.

Lord British sits on his throne as usual, and as in Ultima II the docs
suggest that he is the ruler of all the people, but again there is no
evidence to support this in the game.  I imagine that this was really a
sort of "self-proclaimed" rule... until Ultima IV when the cities really
did band together and Sosaria became Britannia.

Speaking of cities... where are the six other city-states that will
become Jhelom, Skara Brae, Minoc, Trinsic, Moonglow and (New) Magicinia?
Only Britain and Yew are familiar, as they were in Ultima 1 (but not in
Ultima 2)  My theory is as follows (ehhhh!  ehmmm!)

City Name in U3   In U1?  In U2?  Will become in U4-7  Reasoning
---------------   ------  ------  -------------------  -------------
Britain             Y        N        Britain          Obvious
Yew                 Y        N        Yew                " (and in woods)
Faun                Y        N        Skara Brae       On small island
Death Gulch         N        N        Jhelom           On larger
                                                       mountainous island
Devil's Guard       N        N        Minoc            Inside mountain
                                                       enclave
Moon                Y        N        Trinsic          Near river, on plain
(no match)          -        -        New Magicinia    There just isn't
                                                       another island
                                                       city.
Montor (East and    Y        N        Moonglow         Not on island, but
        West)     (single town)                        similar names.


The plate tectonic activity required for the transformation to the
Ultima IV landscape is rather funky.  The Montors, in the southwest of
the world-continent, break off to become Verity Isle.  The remaining
continent will have to split half-way down a north-south line, zoom
around the smallish ocean and crash into itself on the other side.  This
would leave Minoc near the new ocean where formerly it was in the middle
of a plain. The Valarian Isles, home of Jhelom, would have to scoot
around the new ocean to find their new home, and Skara Brae would have
to slide down the western end of the new continent, but in general
everything else would be in its proper places, including Britain, south
of an old bay but just north of a new sea.  Well, maybe.  <grin>  Oh,
and some disaster must befall the old Dark Forest in the South before
the New Dark Forest emerges in the north, growing out of Yew.

GAME PLAY

Unlike Ultimas 1 and 2, the main game play takes place on about 1/2 of the
screen.  The main map window sits to the left of the screen, and in the
upper right corner there is a display of the character stats, below which
is the dialogue or "command" window.  This three-window display would
remain essentially unchanged until Ultima 7.

When you start the game, you have the option of travelling alone or in a
party of four players.  If you choose to travel in a party you are allowed
to create four characters, all of any sex, race and skill, which you are
allowed to name yourself.  I thought this was pretty neat.  The docs say that
if you travel alone you will have the chance to pick up retainers during
game play.  I didn't get a chance to test this, but as there was no
"join" command in the docs or in the .EXE, I think it may be unlikely.

The landscape is familiar, with forest, mountains, grassland and water
tiles.  Swamps appear to be missing, but in their place we have the new
"Dark forest".  Ultima 3 is the first of the Ultimas to "blot out" any tiles
that are out of the direct line of sight of one's character.  As the
docs say, this takes a little getting used to, but it makes the game
more interesting. When in Dark Forest, you can only see one tile in each
direction, which makes it possible to "hide" things in forests... like
towns, and within towns, helpful people with important hints.  It's
always fun to find someone hiding in the trees.

New tiles on the surface of Sosaria include the "treasure chest" tile,
which appears whenever you defeat a party of monsters.  In this game a
treasure chest will block monsters from passing but not the player.
This would change in Ultima IV, where the chest would not block
anything.

Space travel, a part of both Ultima 1 and 2, is gone in Ultima 3.  Instead
we have the first known appearance of the Moon Gates.  The numerical
equivalent of the phases of the two moons of Sosaria is listed at the
top of the main map screen.  (In Ultima 4, this was replaced with a
graphical representation of moon phases).  The phases of the first
moon indicate when a Moongate will appear in various places, and the phase
of the second indicates where one will be teleported to.  Moongates appear
for three phases of the second moon.  This is more complex than the
"time-gate" system of Ultima 2.

Combat is different in Ultima 3 than before.  In the previous two adventures,
all combat took place on the main map scale-- that is, you saw one orc
coming toward you and you pelted it with arrows before it could reach you,
or when it did, you both squared off for battle, moving little unless one of
you retreated.  In Ultima 3, monsters as well as players travel in parties,
the size of the party a random number up to eight.  When a single Orc reaches
you on the main map, the view changes to a full-sized "combat view"-- which
differs depending on the terrain you accompany, coastal, grassland, forest,
or coastal vs. pirate ship.

Dungeons, not optional exploring as in Ultima 2 but vital to completing
the quest, have had their graphics revamped from wire-frame wall images
to filled polygon 3D images.  Unfortunately the monsters are invisible in
the dungeons until you encounter them (and switch to the overhead view for
the multi-player combat)  You can see solid cubes that are treasure chests,
and up and down ladders, but other things like fountains and mysterious
artifacts are either just explained in the command window or displayed
as a multiple-tile picture. This can get confusing because as long as
you remain on a square you will continue to see the tile picture, even
if you rotate to the left or right.

There is no colour in the dungeons at all, everything is white (well, this
is CGA) but they are still fun to explore.  "Viewing", done by magic
gems this time and for every Ultima to follow up to 6, can be done on each
dungeon level to make mapping far easier.  However the map only shows walls
as a solid block, anything other objects are displayed as a question
mark (?).

SPELLS

The magic system has been revamped, instead of buying one-use spell scrolls,
the magic-using character has a given number of "magic" points that
replenish over time.  Cleric and Fighter spells are completely separate,
and are much more varied than before.  Both classes share similar spells,
like Light and Ladder Up/Down but these spells have been given very
imaginative names.  The two spell "books" included with the docs are
entitled the Book Of Amber Runes (Mages) and the Holy Liturgy of Truth
(Clerics).  Some classes, like Rangers and Druids, can cast both
types of spells, although they usually have fewer Magic points to distribute.

CHARACTER TYPES

The player can choose to be a Human, Elf, Dwarf, Bobbit (like Hobbits)
or a Fuzzy (like a elf-dwarf with lots of fur).  Different classes have
different maximum attributes, for example the Fuzzy peaks out at Strength
25, but Dexterity, Wisdom and Intelligence can go up to 99.  Humans peak
at an even 75 across the board.

Besides the race of a character, you can choose to be a Fighter (no magic)
a Cleric, Wizard, Thief (can steal and can cast Negate Time spell as well
as detect traps), Paladin (fighter with Cleric abilities), Barbarian
(fighter with limited Thief abilities), Lark (Half Mage), Illusionist
(half mage, half Thief), Druid (both cleric and mage, regains magic points
at twice the normal rate), Alchemist (half Mage half Thief) or
Ranger (both magic types and fighting skills, but limited in each)

The best classes I found were the Druids or Rangers... Rangers had the
ability to wear +2 magic armour and +2 plate mail, something the other
characters could not.  However, these items were hard to find!  Druids
were valuable because they regained magic points faster than other
characters.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

Standard commands remain as in the previous two Ultimas. [A]ttack,
[B]oard Frigate, [C]ast spell, [D]escend ladder, [E]nter town, [F]ire
cannons, [G]et Chest, [I]gnite torch, [J]ump, [K]limb ladder, [Q]uit and
save (STILL doesn't quit!) [R]eady Weapon, [S]teal, [T]ransact (talk),
[U]nlock door, [W]ear Armour, [X]-it craft, and [Z]tats are as in Ultima
2.

New commands are [P]eer at a gem (to get overhead map, replaces [V]iew),
[L]ook (replaces [I]nform and search of Ultima 1, although you must
supply a direction and the command doesn't give you place names), [H]and
equipment between members of your party, [M]odify order, for changing the
default stances of your party members when attacked (forward, rear, etc),
[N]egate time (similar to rubbing strange coins in Ultima 2), the [O]ther
command used for typing in special commands and the wonderful [V]olume
off!

The [O]ther commands include SEARCH (for shrines), DIG (for hidden weapons/
armour), BRIBE (to get pesky guards to leave), INSERT (needed in the end
of the game to insert cards into panels), and SCORE (haven't a clue what
this does, but I found it in the .EXE so it must do something-- I didn't
need it to finish the game though)

Spells and and equipment (armour, weapons, etc) must be referenced by
a single letter (A through P), that corresponds to that item (the Player
Reference Guide lists these) after a command is issued to [C]ast, [R]eady,
etc.


MISCELLANEOUS

A few notes:

- Ultima 3 has the first instance of "special" armour and weapons (these
  are called Exotics).  They have limited range but are very powerful
  and are required to pass force fields and penetrate the castle of Exodus.
  Some of the locals talk about them, to find them you have to <dig> on
  two of the small (one and two tile) islands off the coast of Sosaria.

- The first instance of corruption in the towns and castles--- guards
  can be <bribe>d.

- Four cards are needed to defeat Exodus, the ultimate evil, and you find
  them by <search>ing the holy Shrines on Ambrosia.  A nice balance.

- You need four 'Marks' to get past the Snake-- actually you need only
  one, the mark of the Snake, but to get it you need the other three.
  The "marks" are found in dungeons-- they are on the eighth level (the
  last level in all dungeons) and consist of a tile of hot metal.  Touch
  it and it leaves a 'Mark'.  I'd call it a burn, but never mind.
  The "King", Lord British is supposed to "Favor" a Mark, probably the
  Snake one that I could never find in any of the dungeons.  The others,
  Fire, Force and King, were all easy to find.  Maybe if I'd searched the
  dungeons a bit more I could have found Snake, or if I figured out how
  to get Lord British to say anything except for "Welcome my child.
  Experience more!" I could have gotten the Snake mark legitimately.
  As it was, after hours crashing around in 8th level dungeons and standing
  stupidly before the King, I decided to cut my losses and just change
  the single bit in the savegame file so I would have the Snake mark.
  Hey, that's some powerful magic, eh? That's more cheating than I would
  normally like to do, but I was getting a little riled and wanted to
  finish the game, having solved all the rest of its puzzles on my own.

- Lord British has a big grin on his face and is NOT very helpful.  In
  fact he doesn't seem to help you at all.

- Frigates never seem to come when you want them to.  Once I waited for
  so long for one to show up that I figured something must be wrong with
  the game, and I had to start all over again.  Sure enough, the next time
  the ships did come, but very infrequently.  It wouldn't be a problem if
  the whirlpool didn't go around destroying ships whenever you parked them
  on land.  If you were on the ship, the whirlpool would take you to
  Ambrosia, and you could commandier another pirate ship there to take you
  back.

- The city of Dawn appeared in the middle of the forest whenever the two
  moons were both full (0,0).  You had to be right next to it or it would
  disappear (also in the forest you couldn't see more than one square in
  any direction).  This I found really neat-- the idea of a city that
  appears so infrequently-- it never disappears when you are in it, though.
  The people inside are friendly and remind you that "Dawn lasts for but
  a brief moment!"

- In one of the dungeons there was some scribbling on the walls that said
  G, T, & C!  What this was supposed to mean is beyond me.  A hint?  Maybe
  the initials of some of the people at Origin (Garriott, ? and ?)

A few items of Historical note:

- Britain and Castle Britannia are back again as they were in Ultima 1.  It
  is interesting to watch how the two evolved, growing and expanding, until
  Ultima VII, where the castle, Britain, and Paws were all one great
  sprawling conglomerate.

- Lord British is once again invincible as he was in Ultima 1.  No amount
  of damage can kill him.  All other NPCs can be killed, though, although
  they will be resurrected if you leave the town or castle and re-enter.

- The "Blue Boar" tavern and pub arrives in the town of Moon.  As Moon
  becomes Trinsic, I would guess that the pub changes location to Britain.
  The pub in Britain in Ultima III is known simply as "The Pub".  With
  such lack of imagination, no wonder they went out of business. <grin>

- Iolo is back with Gwino (but where is Gwenno, Iolo's wife?) as Jesters
  in Castle Britannia. Iolo sings the same song as in Ultima 1, the now-
  legendary "Ho eyo he hum" and Gwino replies with "Muh eh oye oh"  What
  masters of language.  While Iolo will leave the castle and train as a
  bard in Britain, and go on to bigger and better things, the new kid
  jester frolicking around the front entrance, Chuckles, seems to enjoy
  his job so much that he will remain right up until Ultima 7.

- Dupre is found at The Pub in Britain, doing his usual pub-tour of the
  land.  Talk (well, Transact) with him and he laughs, "Drink up!"

- Shamino, not the King Shamino of Ultima 1 but perhaps his son, is found
  in West Montor, saying "Good Food!" This represents the first time that
  the "Big Three" of Iolo, Dupre and Shamino have all appeared in an
  Ultima game.  They will be in all future games, truly the Kirk, Spock
  and McCoy of Ultima.

- The Good Fighter Sentri is found in West Montor enjoying some "Good Grog"
  with Shamino.

- Ambitious frigate sailors who pilot their ship into the whirlpool will
  find themselves awash on the mythical island of "Ambrosia".  As far as
  I know, the next big trip to this island doesn't occur until Ultima 7,
  but I may be mistaken.  In any case this island contains the first
  appearance of shrines.  There are only four of them, not eight, and
  they look more like real shines than the stone circles of later
  Ultimas, and they will increase strength, dexterity, intelligence and
  wisdom attributes if given a donation.  Also when searched they reveal
  the four "cards" needed to defeat Exodus and win the game.  This marks
  the first time that multiples of anything were needed to win, and
  although the magic number is four and not eight as in all later Ultimas,
  it is a great aspect of the game play.  Ambrosia is the size of a
  city, 64x64 tiles, even though it seems larger.

- Many monsters in the dungeons share similar graphic tiles.  One group
  is that of the balrons, daemons and gargoyles.  Ultima 6 fans will
  recognize the gargoyles, described by a Britannian guard as bearing a
  "certain resemblance" to daemons.  Here, they completely resemble them!
  It is interesting to reflect how in the later Ultimas the standard
  "hack and slash" philosophy has come back to haunt the player.
  In Ultima 6 it was the gargoyles exacting their revenge but finally
  being won over by an apologetic Avatar.  In Ultima 7 the player meets
  the last of the Cyclops race, driven underground by men ages ago
  (in Ultima 1 they appeared much more often) and hunted down by
  adventurers, despite being a peaceful race.

- The Time Lord makes his first appearance.  You meet him in the bottom
  of the dungeon Time, he is a glowing figure made up of tiles.  He
  tells you the correct order to insert the cards into Exodus in order
  to destroy it.  After you see him once he disappears.  The dungeon
  Time is inside the mountains and can only be reached via Moongate.


THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

Exodus is not much more than a castle surrounded by fire.  Inside are
force fields and powerful monsters and guards, and random firebolts that
attack you.  Where the "throne" (or is it the head) of the castle should
be, there is nothing but a patch of earth, beyond which lies the four
slots to place the cards into, and above them are a bunch of what look
like moongates all in a row.  Walking on the earth you get attacked by
it!  Being attacked by the ground is a new experience!  You can kill the
ground and move on to the next tile but it is hard to tell which parts
of the ground are attacking you and thus which parts can be killed!
This was the hardest part of the game.  Once past the killer ground you
are free to insert the cards into Exodus and watch as the whole castle
crumbles.  How you survive is not really explained (probably have to
swim back to your Frigate)  The screen vanishes, replaced by rows of
text congratulating you and telling you to wait for Ultima IV!  It
says to report Thy feat but to whom is not stated (all later Ultimas
will tell you to report thy feat to Lord British).  Does Richard Garriott
really read all the notes from people saying they finished? <grin>

CONCLUSIONS

The ad people were right.  "Once you played one, you'll want to play
them all!"  Ultima 3 is a dramatic conclusion to the First Trilogy-- The
Triad of Evil: Mondain, Minax and Exodus.  The final confrontation
is more sinister and scary even than the first two, and the focus of the
series is pretty much set after the end of this game.  Lord British will
unite Sosaria, the new eight city-states will take on the eight virtues
and build new shrines in monument to these virtues.  Sosaria will become
Britannia, and the hero of the first three games will take on a new
name-- the Avatar, hero of virtue.  This tale, told in Ultima IV, will
then set the stage for the Second Trilogy-- the Avatar Adventures, as
the Avatar first gains virtue, then is tested when Lord British is
kidnapped in Ultima V, and the final test in Ultima VI against a new
enemy-- or is it an enemy at all?  And with the second trilogy complete,
the stage is set for the third-- already well in place with the stunning
success of Ultima VII and a new evil in The Guardian.  Already Ultima X
is being planned-- as full Virtual Reality with 3D goggles and gloves
being supplied in the box.  Along, I hope, with a cloth map.  As much as
things change, there are some things that should stay the same.

                - Jeremy Reimer

--
Jeremy_Reimer@ |"Anti-ninjas were the most feared assassins in the world.
mindlink.bc.ca | Instead of appearing out of thin air, throwing metal stars
---------------| and messing around with bo staffs and numchuks they simply
aka THE JAGUAR!| shot people and then drove everyone mad with pointless
---------------| conspiracy theories for years afterwards."
Stealth Sig#42 |  --From "N-Man #3"
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