Ultima V
Encyclopedia
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988
) is the fifth entry in the computer role-playing game series Ultima.
, the player (as the Avatar) is summoned back to Britannia by his old comrades Iolo and Shamino using a magic coin, which was included as a trinket in the game's box. Lord British has been lost on an expedition into the Underworld, and a tyrant
known as Lord Blackthorn now rules Britannia in his stead. Three powerful beings known as the Shadowlords have corrupted Blackthorn and terrorize the eight cities of Britannia. Blackthorn enforces a strict, fundamentalist version of the Virtues, which leads to results that are anything but virtuous (for example, citizens are required to give to charity or else face execution).
Over the course of the game the Avatar learns that the Shadowlords sprang from three shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality (destroyed at the conclusion of Ultima I
) and represent the antithesis for the three principles of the Avatar - Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice. With the help of his old companions and some new ones, the Avatar forms the Warriors of Destiny in order to eliminate the Shadowlords, undermine Blackthorn's rule, and rescue Lord British to restore him to his throne.
The game deals with the issues of fundamentalism
and moral absolutism
.
s follow daily routine schedules. This game has been lauded as realistically portraying a culture living under a dictatorial regime; its tone is much darker than that of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.
As in Ultima IV, the player can interact with non-player characters (NPCs) by typing a word or phrase that signifies the topic to discuss. The NPCs will say what they care to share about a subject when it is mentioned, and the player can repeat key words used in the NPC's response to ask for further details. Sometimes, an NPC will ask a question of the player, and the player must give an appropriate response to keep the conversation active. As in Ultima IV only the first four letters of player spoken text are read by the game i.e. for 'shrine' the player need only type 'shri'.
The Shadowlords constrict the player in a cage from which he cannot escape if the party gets too close (in spite of Shamino having escaped from a conflict in the opening sequence) and they cannot be destroyed by combat. There are three Shadowlords: Faulinei, the Shadowlord of Falsehood; Astaroth, the Shadowlord of Hatred; and Nosfentor, the Shadowlord of Cowardice. Each of the lords represents the antithesis of one of the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. Each Shadowlord's name must be learned by the player in order to defeat them. Their names also summon them if spoken by the player. The Shadowlords are defeated by locating a corresponding shard for each one in the underworld. These must then be destroyed in the matching flame; i.e. the shard of falsehood must be destroyed in the flame of truth.
The Shadowlords appear at various times in different towns, and affect the towns people greatly. If the Shadowlord of Cowardice is about, the people will run away from you, afraid. If under the effect of the Shadowlord of Falsehood, they will try to steal from you. If the Shadowlord of Hatred is affecting them, they will try to attack you.
In addition to traveling by foot, the player's party can ride horses, sail ships, and row skiffs. A much less conventional form of travel, moongates are magical portals that appear at night in eight key locations across Britannia; stepping through one transports the player to another moongate, determined by the phases of the two moons. Ultima V added a notable new method of transport: the Magic Carpet
. Found early in the game, the Magic Carpet is a handy way of traversing the game world, as it can float over almost any terrain, be it swamp, rivers and coastal waters, or even lava.
runic alphabet
for some game text, adding some letters to make a complete one-to-one correspondence with the English alphabet (plus a few runes to represent some common two-letter combinations). While all the earlier Ultima games since Ultima II had used runes on accompanying material such as maps and manuals and Ultima IV had shown single runes on the screen in specific situations, Ultima V was the first part of the series to incorporate multi-letter runic texts into the actual on-screen display.
; the limits of that system (excluding the 16-bit Apple IIGS
) were increasingly becoming a hindrance to further technological advance, and thus all later games were developed on PC
systems. This was also the last time in which Ultima creator Richard Garriott
did a major share of the actual coding
; in the later parts he acted as a game designer only.
Like the previous two games in the series, Ultima V was also ported
to the NES
by Origin and published through FCI
/Pony Canyon
; it was released as Ultima: Warriors of Destiny in 1991
. Each of the NES games had significant differences from the originals; this NES version was, however, a less faithful rendition of the source material than its predecessors had been. Introductory parts were cropped; graphics and gameplay were relatively limited (a clear example is that the swamp terrain was represented by magical poison fields); and there were few music tracks.
The Commodore
version of Ultima V lacks a musical score when played on a C64
, due to lack of available RAM. The game's music will only play when it is run on a C128
in the C128's native mode. Additionally, the included fast loader of the Commodore version will only work on (American) NTSC
C64s because of its intricate timing, so users of the slightly slower (European) PAL C64s were forced to select a third-party floppy disk drive type at the initial menu and had to live with very slow loading. On the C128, the native fast-loading code of that system is used, so that this problem disappears.
Amiga and Atari ST versions appeared in 1989. Their graphics were directly ported from PC thus not utilizing the capabilities of the machines. Also the soundtrack was reduced to few pieces when compared to Commodore 128 version.
All editions contained: the game media; a cloth map; a metal coin (approximately 1.5 inches in diameter depicting a three circles inside a six-pointed star); The Book of Lore; Lord British's Odyssey; A quick reference card; a player reference card (version specific); a registration post card.
The game box differs between editions only by screenshots on the back. The Atari ST version depicts (left to right): a giant mouse in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a headless; and, battle screen with player casting 'In Flam Hur' on various skeletons. The IBM version depicts (left to right): a fountain in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a horse; and, the interior of an inn.
described the game as "well worth the wait", citing the improved graphics and storyline of the game. Minor criticisms were directed at flaws in the documentation and combat system.
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon
#137 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.
was released as a modification
for Dungeon Siege
.
In 2006, a fan-made computer role-playing game engine called Nazghul was released. Inspired by Ultima V, it is designed to create Ultima-style games.
In May 2008, a complete remake of Ultima V was created for TI calculators (TI-89, TI-89Ti, TI-92+, and TI-V200).
1988 in video gaming
-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:*January 8, Konami releases Super Contra....
) is the fifth entry in the computer role-playing game series Ultima.
Plot
After having mastered the eight Virtues, attaining Avatarhood and retrieving the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in the previous gameUltima IV
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima computer role-playing games. It is the first in the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy, shifting the series from the hack and slash, dungeon crawl gameplay of its "Age of Darkness"...
, the player (as the Avatar) is summoned back to Britannia by his old comrades Iolo and Shamino using a magic coin, which was included as a trinket in the game's box. Lord British has been lost on an expedition into the Underworld, and a tyrant
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
known as Lord Blackthorn now rules Britannia in his stead. Three powerful beings known as the Shadowlords have corrupted Blackthorn and terrorize the eight cities of Britannia. Blackthorn enforces a strict, fundamentalist version of the Virtues, which leads to results that are anything but virtuous (for example, citizens are required to give to charity or else face execution).
Over the course of the game the Avatar learns that the Shadowlords sprang from three shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality (destroyed at the conclusion of Ultima I
Ultima I
Ultima, later known as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness or simply Ultima I, is the first game in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It was first published in the United States by California Pacific Computer Company, which registered a copyright for the game on September 2, 1980...
) and represent the antithesis for the three principles of the Avatar - Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice. With the help of his old companions and some new ones, the Avatar forms the Warriors of Destiny in order to eliminate the Shadowlords, undermine Blackthorn's rule, and rescue Lord British to restore him to his throne.
The game deals with the issues of fundamentalism
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
and moral absolutism
Moral absolutism
Moral absolutism is an ethical view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of other contexts such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Thus stealing, for instance, might be considered to be always immoral, even if done to promote some other good , and even if...
.
Gameplay
Warriors of Destiny featured much more polished writing (earlier games were riddled with some spelling errors and uneven vocabulary) and considerably greater detail than previous games. It was the first Ultima to implement a time-of-day system in which the sun rises and sets, and non-player characterNon-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s follow daily routine schedules. This game has been lauded as realistically portraying a culture living under a dictatorial regime; its tone is much darker than that of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.
As in Ultima IV, the player can interact with non-player characters (NPCs) by typing a word or phrase that signifies the topic to discuss. The NPCs will say what they care to share about a subject when it is mentioned, and the player can repeat key words used in the NPC's response to ask for further details. Sometimes, an NPC will ask a question of the player, and the player must give an appropriate response to keep the conversation active. As in Ultima IV only the first four letters of player spoken text are read by the game i.e. for 'shrine' the player need only type 'shri'.
The Shadowlords constrict the player in a cage from which he cannot escape if the party gets too close (in spite of Shamino having escaped from a conflict in the opening sequence) and they cannot be destroyed by combat. There are three Shadowlords: Faulinei, the Shadowlord of Falsehood; Astaroth, the Shadowlord of Hatred; and Nosfentor, the Shadowlord of Cowardice. Each of the lords represents the antithesis of one of the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. Each Shadowlord's name must be learned by the player in order to defeat them. Their names also summon them if spoken by the player. The Shadowlords are defeated by locating a corresponding shard for each one in the underworld. These must then be destroyed in the matching flame; i.e. the shard of falsehood must be destroyed in the flame of truth.
The Shadowlords appear at various times in different towns, and affect the towns people greatly. If the Shadowlord of Cowardice is about, the people will run away from you, afraid. If under the effect of the Shadowlord of Falsehood, they will try to steal from you. If the Shadowlord of Hatred is affecting them, they will try to attack you.
In addition to traveling by foot, the player's party can ride horses, sail ships, and row skiffs. A much less conventional form of travel, moongates are magical portals that appear at night in eight key locations across Britannia; stepping through one transports the player to another moongate, determined by the phases of the two moons. Ultima V added a notable new method of transport: the Magic Carpet
Magic carpet
A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet that can be used to transport persons who are on it instantaneously or quickly to their destination.-In literature:...
. Found early in the game, the Magic Carpet is a handy way of traversing the game world, as it can float over almost any terrain, be it swamp, rivers and coastal waters, or even lava.
Runic alphabet
Ultima V used a modified form of the Elder FutharkElder Futhark
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
runic alphabet
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
for some game text, adding some letters to make a complete one-to-one correspondence with the English alphabet (plus a few runes to represent some common two-letter combinations). While all the earlier Ultima games since Ultima II had used runes on accompanying material such as maps and manuals and Ultima IV had shown single runes on the screen in specific situations, Ultima V was the first part of the series to incorporate multi-letter runic texts into the actual on-screen display.
Development
Warriors of Destiny was the last Ultima developed on the Apple IIApple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
; the limits of that system (excluding the 16-bit Apple IIGS
Apple IIGS
The Apple , the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The "GS" in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced graphics and sound capabilities, both of which greatly surpassed previous models of the line...
) were increasingly becoming a hindrance to further technological advance, and thus all later games were developed on PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
systems. This was also the last time in which Ultima creator Richard Garriott
Richard Garriott
Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...
did a major share of the actual coding
Game programming
Game programming, a subset of game development, is the programming of computer, console or arcade games. Though often engaged in by professional game programmers, many novices may program games as a hobby...
; in the later parts he acted as a game designer only.
Like the previous two games in the series, Ultima V was also ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
by Origin and published through FCI
Fujisankei Communications International
Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. is the American arm of the Fujisankei Communications Group , an important Japanese media conglomerate of television and radio channels, magazine, newspaper, record and video game companies. The Fujisankei Communications Group owns about 100 companies,...
/Pony Canyon
Pony Canyon
is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966 , which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiary of Japanese Media Group, Fujisankei Communications Group.-History:...
; it was released as Ultima: Warriors of Destiny in 1991
1991 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....
. Each of the NES games had significant differences from the originals; this NES version was, however, a less faithful rendition of the source material than its predecessors had been. Introductory parts were cropped; graphics and gameplay were relatively limited (a clear example is that the swamp terrain was represented by magical poison fields); and there were few music tracks.
The Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
version of Ultima V lacks a musical score when played on a C64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, due to lack of available RAM. The game's music will only play when it is run on a C128
Commodore 128
The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines...
in the C128's native mode. Additionally, the included fast loader of the Commodore version will only work on (American) NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
C64s because of its intricate timing, so users of the slightly slower (European) PAL C64s were forced to select a third-party floppy disk drive type at the initial menu and had to live with very slow loading. On the C128, the native fast-loading code of that system is used, so that this problem disappears.
Amiga and Atari ST versions appeared in 1989. Their graphics were directly ported from PC thus not utilizing the capabilities of the machines. Also the soundtrack was reduced to few pieces when compared to Commodore 128 version.
All editions contained: the game media; a cloth map; a metal coin (approximately 1.5 inches in diameter depicting a three circles inside a six-pointed star); The Book of Lore; Lord British's Odyssey; A quick reference card; a player reference card (version specific); a registration post card.
The game box differs between editions only by screenshots on the back. The Atari ST version depicts (left to right): a giant mouse in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a headless; and, battle screen with player casting 'In Flam Hur' on various skeletons. The IBM version depicts (left to right): a fountain in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a horse; and, the interior of an inn.
Reception
A review in Computer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
described the game as "well worth the wait", citing the improved graphics and storyline of the game. Minor criticisms were directed at flaws in the documentation and combat system.
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#137 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.
Ports, mods, and tributes
In December 2005, a fan-made three-dimensional remake of Ultima V called Ultima V: LazarusUltima V: Lazarus
Ultima V: Lazarus is a fanmade remake of Ultima V. The game uses Gas Powered Games' Dungeon Siege engine, and that game is required to play the remake...
was released as a modification
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
for Dungeon Siege
Dungeon Siege
Dungeon Siege is a computer role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Chris Taylor showed Dungeon Siege years in production for the first time at E3 2000...
.
In 2006, a fan-made computer role-playing game engine called Nazghul was released. Inspired by Ultima V, it is designed to create Ultima-style games.
In May 2008, a complete remake of Ultima V was created for TI calculators (TI-89, TI-89Ti, TI-92+, and TI-V200).
External links
- Ultima Wiki
- Big, Big Maps of Old, Old Games — Collection of Ultima V maps
- Ultima V (PC Version) video at YoutubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- Ultima V Ending (PC Version) video at YoutubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....