[comp.sys.amiga.games] Ultima V mini-review

DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (11/11/90)

Well, I received Ultima V in the mail today and I've played with it some.
Unfortuntely, I can't say anything nice about this porting job. The problems
mentioned earlier are indeed present (not hd-installable, only uses 1 floppy,
etc. etc. etc.). The keyboard routines don't work well. I could only get the
keyboard to work at all after patching the interrupt routine to do a proper
handshake. Even then, it doesn't really work right (it loses keystrokes --
guess the programmer  never heard of buffering).

As for the graphics, they are no better than Ultima IV on the Amiga. The music
that exists (and only one tune is ever played, as far as I know) is fine. (?!)

In short, I was very disappointed.

-- Dan Babcock

judd@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Steve Judd) (11/12/90)

In article <90314.221117DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>Well, I received Ultima V in the mail today and I've played with it some.
>Unfortuntely, I can't say anything nice about this porting job. The problems

I was really, really hoping it wouldn't turn out this way, but I suppose it
was to be expected.

>
>As for the graphics, they are no better than Ultima IV on the Amiga. The music
>that exists (and only one tune is ever played, as far as I know) is fine. (?!)

At least on the C-64 version, there was music for towns, castles, Blackthorn's
Castle, etc.  Unfortunately, you needed a C-128 to hear them.  I could forgive
the graphics if the sounds were excellent -  I still haven't heard any of the
music from Ultima V.

In "The Official Book of Ultima" it says that Origin designed character editors,
map editors, etc. to streamline development.  Sounds more like canned programs
to me, as it starts making them all look the same.  From your review it would
appear that they are satisfied with their junky little Amiga editors, and aren't
planning on improving it.  Unfortunately, it seems that Origin, and possibly
even Lord British, has become more interested in making a quick buck than in
creating true entertainment.  Bummer.

>
>In short, I was very disappointed.

Sigh...

>-- Dan Babcock

					-Steve
--
judd@tramp.colorado.edu        //  "With language like that, how dids't thou
...!ncar!boulder!tramp!judd  \X/    become an Avatar?"

kadoi@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jeff Yasumoto) (11/12/90)

Yes, the review is surprising, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that
Lord British himself is going after the buck like everyone else.  Again,
from this past summer's discussion with him on Ultima VI for the Amiga,
he did say to watch for it, since it'll be like the IBM-PC version that's
currently out now.  As well for the Worlds Of Ultma games...

Disclaimer: remember, this was said during the summer, and things could've
changed by then.  But I still seriously doubt he'd screw us over with piddly
little games.  He's too much of a nice guy for that. =)

2flntopaz@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (11/12/90)

In article <979@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>, kadoi@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jeff Yasumoto) writes:

> Disclaimer: remember, this was said during the summer, and things could've
> changed by then.  But I still seriously doubt he'd screw us over with piddly
> little games.  He's too much of a nice guy for that. =)

If that's true, then why does this terrible version of Ultima 5 exist?  I
prefer my C-64 version of Ultima 4 over the Amiga version.  And from the
way it Ultima 5 sounds, I can add that as well.  Ultima 3 for the Amiga
wasn't that bad and had some decent music.  How did the quality go down
from there?

David Poland
2flntopaz@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu