Ultima 2: hotel raising stats

[andwan0]

Anyone notice the differences between PC/MAC and C64/ST versions?

I read and seen many Let's Play of raising your stats via the hotel clerk... by 4 points per 100 coin.

But in Atari ST (the version am playing), no matter what - it's always 1 point per 100 coin.

Is this a bug or anyone know the correct procedure to get the 4 points per 100 coin?

[Tillek]

There were subtle differneces in different versions. I started re-playing all of them recently and the Atari 8-bit version of Ultima 1 didn't do things exactly the same way (or even 100% the same way the documentation was laid out).

[leech]

I have wanted for many years to be able to play through every one, yet last time I tried, part one glitched on me and wouldn't let me kill Mondain. And previuosly we never had a working copy on the Atari 8-bit of part 2, so have never really played it.

 

A while back I read about the plot, and it surely seems the strangest of all the Ultima games. Sad that the franchise dwindled off so badly, would have prefered an Ultima 15 over yet another Final Fantasy game...

 

What would be the 'best' version of 2 to play? I was considering play8ng through all of them in Dos, since it is the only OS with all, but you can only transfer from 4 to 5 to 6, which I could play on the ST.

[andwan0]

Tillek: I am currently playing through Atari ST Ultima II so will let you guys know if I complete it fine. I think am okay with paying the hotel clerk 900coins for a 9 point stat increase, just takes little longer than PC/MAC versions I guess (coz they get 4points for 100 coin or up to 36 points for 900 coin)

leech: I think PC version is easiest way to play all Ultima games. (plus PC update graphics for Ultima3,4,5 and there is the EGA upgrade for Ultima 2 PC)

I recently found excellent Let's Play (with clear voiced commentary) on youtube by grugtar. They're good and short so you won't get bored and he completes the games too.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQPAZnhDKPmHHSeqXr8vqEM_5olll-0RS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQPAZnhDKPmEDGy5oEDK8u3qZYEh3lK8i

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQPAZnhDKPmERFB7brtdIYrS_KZ1I_nKO

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQPAZnhDKPmFkRIdJ8b8yz1sD4ej6y4sk

I'd play PC versions if I have time, but am so busy that the only time I get to play is on my Android phone during long commutes.. so I play Ultima 1 using cAndy Apple, Ultima 2 on Hataroid (Atari ST emulator), Ultima 3 on NES emulator, Ultima 4 on SMS emulator, Ultima 5 on Hataroid (Atari ST emulator), Ultima 6 on SNES. (save states are a godsend - and I wish DOSBox Turbo implements save states in near future)

Already completed Ultima 7 on Android Exult.

Edited January 19, 2017 by andwan0

[Goochman]

I played U1-3 on the Apple II just to see how the originals were.

 

I like the Atari 8bit versions of 1-4 but am in the minority. Actually I dont like any version of U1 - it really was a school assignment that went public IMHO.

[+DarkLord]

Ugh, never could stand the NES versions of Ultima.

 

Stick with the ST for Ultima 3 and 4!

[Tillek]

Tillek: I am currently playing through Atari ST Ultima II so will let you guys know if I complete it fine. I think am okay with paying the hotel clerk 900coins for a 9 point stat increase, just takes little longer than PC/MAC versions I guess (coz they get 4points for 100 coin or up to 36 points for 900 coin)

 

I owned U2 (3 and 4) on the Atari 8-bit from back in the day, so that will probably be the way I go on that one. I got U5 and U6 for the ST on Ebay.

 

I don't do emulation generally speaking.

[leech]

Yeah, I think it would be part of the fun to not emulate. And I kind of wanted to do the impoting of characters from one game to the next. Terrible thing about that though is from what I had read, you basically just get half of your xp for the next game, so there is still that bit of grind to hit level 8.

[Tillek]

Yeah, I think it would be part of the fun to not emulate. And I kind of wanted to do the impoting of characters from one game to the next. Terrible thing about that though is from what I had read, you basically just get half of your xp for the next game, so there is still that bit of grind to hit level 8.

Well, for this "Ultimate Quest" as I call it, I know I can't play all the classic RPG's out there.... My life expectancy just isn't that long and .... job... So I was going to start by playing the ones I actually have on hand (like with boxes and manuals). For Ultima 1, I only had a single disk (but it was an original, I got it in a lot of disks with an 800xl, but no manuals or box). 2-6 I have either from childhood or ebay on the A8 or ST. My brother got me 9 for christmas back in the day and I also bought the Ultima Collection for the PC back in the day which will cover the rest..... (as soon as I dig it out of the storage unit).

 

After that, I have to see what I have laying around since half the time I got these games in lots and I don't know half the stuff I have.

[+SoulBuster]

Is anyone going to play the Underworlds? I have played and finished them both. I remember playing IV BITD, but I cannot remember if I finished it.

[Goochman]

Is anyone going to play the Underworlds? I have played and finished them both. I remember playing IV BITD, but I cannot remember if I finished it.

 

I finished Underworld II on the PC back in the day - was alot of fun IIRC - I heard Underworld I had some issues though?

[Tillek]

The goal is to hit them all. The goal..... We shall see.

[leech]

Good luck to all of us on this quest.

 

This just brings back memories of the copy my older brother had brought home of Ultima IV. Apparently the copy protection made it so you couldn't copy one track of the disk. Which if that one track was empty or readable, it would mean you could never kill anything. Every time you attacked something, it would only say "lightly wounded." So for a long time we never played it.

 

Eventually we got a happy drive, and somehow we managed to find out about that empty track, scratched up a floppy disk, and fortunately with the happy drive copying program (which weirdly could only copy by track vs sector this way) we copied a crappy error filled track over the empty one.

 

That fixed the game so we could kill things. But there were two other sectors that hadn't copied! The area around Empath Abbey and... I can't seem to remember where the other one was...

 

Anyhow, I took it upon myself to learn Disk Wizard two and I tecreated the terrain piece by piece. 00 was deep ocean, 01 was shallow ocean, grass was next.. so on. I ended up wit fixing the map by trial and error, found the town icon.. filled up the sector with it, wntered on every square unitl I found it... mapped out the surrounding area so that the map matched... it was pretty glorious.

 

I think I was smarter when I was 12 years old than I am now...

 

Wventually I got good enough at it that I gave every character 9999 health and magic wands in the game (normally not possible due to class restrictions.)

 

Good times!

[andwan0]

Is anyone going to play the Underworlds? I have played and finished them both. I remember playing IV BITD, but I cannot remember if I finished it.

currently playing on PC... but I want to try the Japanese PSX version too

[Asaki]

2, I like the PC version with EGA patch the best, but that's not saying much, since I didn't enjoy the game all that much.

 

3 I played on the Game Boy Color, and enjoyed it a lot =) I might give it another run-through some time, now that I can use my EverdriveGB instead of Goomba Color with the music disabled.

 

4, I'm not sure about. PC DOS is the most nostalgic for me (got it for free with PC Gaming World), but has a lot of speed issues...every version kind of has pros and cons, I think. If I had a Mockingboard, I would probably go with the Apple ][ version.

 

5 and onwards are definitely PC for me.

 

I finished Underworld II on the PC back in the day - was alot of fun IIRC - I heard Underworld I had some issues though?

I never had any issues with the first game.

 

I'm still working my way through #2...I'm not sure I like it as much as the original. Instead of having one world, you have a bunch of little pocket dimensions, and it's confusing to try to keep track of everything. I think where I left off is inside of the Wizard testing grounds (or whatever it was), and got myself completely lost in a dimension inside of that dimension =)

 

I also thought the graphics were better in the first game, but IIRC they had to outsource the graphics on the second game in order to meet deadline.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Asaki

[zzip]

Yeah, I think it would be part of the fun to not emulate. And I kind of wanted to do the impoting of characters from one game to the next. Terrible thing about that though is from what I had read, you basically just get half of your xp for the next game, so there is still that bit of grind to hit level 8.

 

fun? lol, playing these games on real hardware is like "Insert this disk", now insert that disk, now insert that first disk again even though I just read it-- constantly! Back then it was all we had, but now I'd much rather play with all the files installed on hard drive so I'm not distracted by constant disk swapping.

[leech]

 

fun? lol, playing these games on real hardware is like "Insert this disk", now insert that disk, now insert that first disk again even though I just read it-- constantly! Back then it was all we had, but now I'd much rather play with all the files installed on hard drive so I'm not distracted by constant disk swapping.

Ha, I bought one of the SIO2SD/PC Combo things, so all I have to do is boot it up into the menu, tell it to insert the disks, then start it on up. Though for some reason Ultima 2 was refusing to see it was the player disk... but that's as far as I got. Still get to play it on real hardware. I've decided to try as hard as I can to still use real hardware, without returning to the painful days of floppy disks.

 

Though I am kind of curious how close I got my modifications of Ultima IV to how it's supposed to be.

[+DarkLord]

 

fun? lol, playing these games on real hardware is like "Insert this disk", now insert that disk, now insert that first disk again even though I just read it-- constantly! Back then it was all we had, but now I'd much rather play with all the files installed on hard drive so I'm not distracted by constant disk swapping.

 

Interesting. You've obviously not kept up with the Atari ST scene for the last several years.

A huge number of titles have been converted to run from hard drive or other mass storage

device. Many have trainers, cheats, enhancements, and quite a few now take advantage of

(or at least now run on) accelerated machines as well. I personally can't remember the last

time I played an ST game that I swapped disks on.

 

I've got an Ultrasatan in my STacy. It holds two 2 gig SD cards. Totally silent, very fast.

 

Try here for a start:

 

http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php

 

and there's also Dbug, who have done great conversion work as well.

 

I feel like I've got it all. A portable, fast (40mhz 68030, 40mhz FPU, TOS v3.06),

mass storage device equipped (gigs of space), Atari. No emulation needed or

wanted.

[zzip]

I played U1-3 on the Apple II just to see how the originals were.

 

I like the Atari 8bit versions of 1-4 but am in the minority. Actually I dont like any version of U1 - it really was a school assignment that went public IMHO.

 

I like the Atari 8 versions too, but only if using a display that has artifacting, and has the correct artifacting color scheme-- ie not red water/ blue trees - ick.

[zzip]

I have wanted for many years to be able to play through every one, yet last time I tried, part one glitched on me and wouldn't let me kill Mondain. And previuosly we never had a working copy on the Atari 8-bit of part 2, so have never really played it.

 

A while back I read about the plot, and it surely seems the strangest of all the Ultima games. Sad that the franchise dwindled off so badly, would have prefered an Ultima 15 over yet another Final Fantasy game...

 

What would be the 'best' version of 2 to play? I was considering play8ng through all of them in Dos, since it is the only OS with all, but you can only transfer from 4 to 5 to 6, which I could play on the ST.

 

Probably the original Apple II version is the best. The other versions all have one quirk or another it seems. I personally always hated the Atari ST version. I like the atmosphere of the Ultima games, but I felt that making Ultima II a GEM applications ruins the atmosphere. Fortunately the other ST Ultima ports didn't have this issue.

[leech]

I'll agree with that, the problem with the ST version wasn't necessarily that they used GEM, it's that the colors they used in it were terrible. But Ultima games have notoriously had weird colors. One of them (I think Ultima 3 if my memory isn't failing me) had red water on the Atari 8-bit.

 

Maybe if you tweaked all the colors in the control panel to make it match? Not sure if that is even possible, I do remember the color scheme being pretty crap in the ST version.

[zzip]

 

I'll agree with that, the problem with the ST version wasn't necessarily that they used GEM, it's that the colors they used in it were terrible. But Ultima games have notoriously had weird colors. One of them (I think Ultima 3 if my memory isn't failing me) had red water on the Atari 8-bit.

 

Maybe if you tweaked all the colors in the control panel to make it match? Not sure if that is even possible, I do remember the color scheme being pretty crap in the ST version.

 

Yup the ST U2 colors especially. That white background when it was 'supposed' to be black. I think I tried the control panel tweak and it was unsatisfactory.

 

Actually the 8-bit version didn't necessarily have red water. What happened is they ported the graphics straight from Apple. Apple used a technique commonly called "artifacting" to produce color. It happened because your pixels were higher res than your screen, so if you arranged pixels in certain patterns, certain colors would magically appear. But if you got a high-res monitor, you lose this effect, and all you see are cross-hatched patterns in place of color. With artifacted color, the Apple II could produce 6-colors: white, black, (the real colors) and red, green, blue, purple from artifacts.

 

The Atari 8-bit could produce artifacts too in 320x192 mode, Although it could only produce 4 colors total. The problem was different models of 8-bit and/or TV would produce different artifact colors. Sometimes it would be red + blue, sometimes it would be blue + green or purple + green or whatever. That's why sometimes you get the red water. I think Apple saw this as an official way to produce color, while Atari saw it more as a trick, and didn't care about getting the artifact colors accurate across models.

 

My Atari emulator lets you tune the artifact colors and I've tweaked it so that water is blue and foliage is green for the Ultima games, and they look pretty true to the originals

[Goochman]

U2 works fine with the 800. With the 800XL Atari "shifted" the color clock and hence the artifact colors were swapped so Blue=brownish red and brownish red=blue. I think with U4 and maybe U3 you could tell it which system you had and it would adjust the artifacting to be correct.

[leech]

That's brilliant, I always wondered how the water became red on that one, yet Ultima IV was fine.

 

I just loaded up Ultima 2 on Hatari. Oddly it works on the Falcon, but not under Falcon resolutions, Low res was kind of terrible, but it does work under ST High. But I think the timing is off from running it under Falcon emulation, since I'd click once and it'd mostly click twice instead. It does seem to only use 4 colors as well.

 

Time for an 'enhanced' version?

 

I'm thinking the older 8-bit versions of 2 were black and white anyway, weren't they? I know Ultima 1 was.

[leech]

U2 works fine with the 800. With the 800XL Atari "shifted" the color clock and hence the artifact colors were swapped so Blue=brownish red and brownish red=blue. I think with U4 and maybe U3 you could tell it which system you had and it would adjust the artifacting to be correct.

I had the 800XL with U3, and that's probably why I had the red water. I now have both, so I could definitely test this out.