Ultima IV - NES, or PC version? Which is best?

[Gabriel]

 

 

Yeah, sorry about that. I meant NES in that sentence when I said PC.

 

What do you mean about Ultima 5 using the Ultima 6 engine? Ultima 6 was on the SNES, not the NES.

 

I really like the Dragon-Warrior style of engine, particularly for those games... but I definitely don't want to lose any of the plot.. I don't mind adding plot, just don't want to lose too much of it. You say that it's streamlined... just curious in what way if you don't mind going into a little bit more detail... thank you!

 

...

 

No way! Do you mean in "spirit" or do you literally mean that Dragon Warrior / Quest used the Ultima engine on the NES? That's really cool, I was totally not aware of that!

 

Dragon Warrior was my first venture into RPG games... actually... any RPG games. I didn't play AD&D until I was in middle school, and I didn't start playing the Ultima games until that point too;

 

 

Ultima 5 having Ultima 6's engine:

 

Ultima 5 on the NES uses something more akin to the way you explore and fight in the PC version of Ultima 6. Towns are merely part of the world map instead of being discrete tiles you enter to progress to a town map. Combats do not have a combat screen and merely occur on the world map without any prompting. It's been a while since I tried it, but IIRC the graphics are pretty bad too.

 

 

Losing the plot

 

You don't really miss out on any of the plot in Ultima: Exodus and Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES compared to their computer counterparts. By "streamlining" I had meant that some game elements had been pared down. For instance, in Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, you still have reagents, but you no longer have to mix them into specific spells. Instead, the game simply recognizes you have the required reagents and lets you cast the spell. Instead of an 8 person party, you have a 4 person party. Conversations have been simplified so they are no longer a word game. You simply press to talk and depending on other in game triggers you will get a text response. Basically they make the game more accessible. When I was younger, I used to feel that these changes dumbed everything down. Now I view them as realistic concessions to make the game more playable. It is definitely Dragon Warrior like.

 

JRPG inspirations

 

Basically Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord are the documented common ancestors for nearly all JRPGs. Dragon Warrior's similarity to Ultima II really jumped out at me when I was a teen.

[82-T/A]

 

Ultima 5 having Ultima 6's engine:

 

Ultima 5 on the NES uses something more akin to the way you explore and fight in the PC version of Ultima 6. Towns are merely part of the world map instead of being discrete tiles you enter to progress to a town map. Combats do not have a combat screen and merely occur on the world map without any prompting. It's been a while since I tried it, but IIRC the graphics are pretty bad too.

 

 

Losing the plot

 

You don't really miss out on any of the plot in Ultima: Exodus and Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES compared to their computer counterparts. By "streamlining" I had meant that some game elements had been pared down. For instance, in Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, you still have reagents, but you no longer have to mix them into specific spells. Instead, the game simply recognizes you have the required reagents and lets you cast the spell. Instead of an 8 person party, you have a 4 person party. Conversations have been simplified so they are no longer a word game. You simply press to talk and depending on other in game triggers you will get a text response. Basically they make the game more accessible. When I was younger, I used to feel that these changes dumbed everything down. Now I view them as realistic concessions to make the game more playable. It is definitely Dragon Warrior like.

 

JRPG inspirations

 

Basically Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord are the documented common ancestors for nearly all JRPGs. Dragon Warrior's similarity to Ultima II really jumped out at me when I was a teen.

 

 

Thanks, I really appreciate the detail here... I'm definitely going to spend the time now to play those games!

 

And honestly, I agree... I don't see those things as concessions, but more as making the game more playable to the modern player. I would never have the time to mix reagents and type out everything.

[bikeguychicago]

I believe you can download Ultima IV for PC from GOG games for free. Perhaps that will help with your decision.

[82-T/A]

I believe you can download Ultima IV for PC from GOG games for free. Perhaps that will help with your decision.

 

 

I actually own them all, on PC, NES, and SNES... but so lazy that I'd rather sit here and type about it, than actually go install the game from the collectors CD, or go hook up an NES or SNES.

[Great Hierophant]

Ultima I-V, Akalabeth and Ultima 1 : The First Age of Darkness, were all developed for the Apple II computers and in my opinion, are best experienced on them. Ultima IV has music on several systems, but I think most people turned it off because it was very repetitive. The PC port was not among them.

 

The computer interfaces are fairly intuitive, but that is what people hard quick reference cards for.

 

While the NES version is more colorful than either the contemporary computer versions and in many ways the SMS version, it still is a lite-version of the original. A good deal of text is eliminated which the SMS kept intact.

[Goochman]

U4 on the PC is the way to go. You can get the U4 Apple 'feel' on the Atari 8bit version also, but for ease of play you get install everything on the PC hard drive and not worry about disk flipping.

 

U4 on the console's is not the same so you will miss out on some of the story elements.

 

Having played them all my opinion on them is as follows:

 

U2 - More an 'action' type RPG

U3 - beginnings of a more complex environment but small world with Avatar story

U4 - Maturation of complex environment - Avatar story flushed out but connection of world, story and elements not complete

 

U5 is when the story and world really started coming together. You will notice in U4 some frustrating things designed in such a way just to be difficult vs having a reason but the Avatar story is complete and in some respects Origin was never able to break free into a different story after this (Yeah U7 had a ton of expansion but it all boils down to the Avatar)

[82-T/A]

U4 on the PC is the way to go. You can get the U4 Apple 'feel' on the Atari 8bit version also, but for ease of play you get install everything on the PC hard drive and not worry about disk flipping.

 

U4 on the console's is not the same so you will miss out on some of the story elements.

 

Having played them all my opinion on them is as follows:

 

U2 - More an 'action' type RPG

U3 - beginnings of a more complex environment but small world with Avatar story

U4 - Maturation of complex environment - Avatar story flushed out but connection of world, story and elements not complete

 

U5 is when the story and world really started coming together. You will notice in U4 some frustrating things designed in such a way just to be difficult vs having a reason but the Avatar story is complete and in some respects Origin was never able to break free into a different story after this (Yeah U7 had a ton of expansion but it all boils down to the Avatar)

 

Ok, I'll give it a try on the PC. I think I actually already have it installed on my DOS PC... just have to check.