Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Origin Systems released Ultima VII: The Black Gate for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.3 in April of 1992. Ultima 7 is a cRPG that features icon-driven mouse control, a multi-layered GUI, close-up detail and a high degree of environmental interaction. The initial release of Ultima 7 was bug-plagued.
Ultima 7 is the predecessor of Ultima 8 Pagan of 1994.
In Ultima 7 windows can be dragged about and moved over each other. However, in comparison to cRPGs with snappy full-screen UI modes the sluggish "pop-up UI" of Ultima 7 is a downgrade; a gimmick. In addition, Ultima 7's oblique projection is awful; the worst you will ever see in a top-down game. And its screen-scrolling is unbearably choppy. And there is no visible grid or tiling for precise movement and positioning. And you have to hold down the mouse button to continually walk the Avatar. Ultima 7 is so advanced that it doesn't subscribe to point and click movement; it shuns it! Thanks, Origin Systems: I love holding down the mouse button all the time as I derp about, looking for something -- anything -- of interest.
Note that there is nothing wrong with oblique projection per se, only Ultima 7's employment thereof.
Ultima 7 was coded by 19 programmers, lmao. Why did they need 19 programmers to code this garbage? Oh, that's right: it's Origin Systems -- the biggest bloaters of game assets in the early 90s -- who laid out one million bucks to make Ultima 7. Don't know about you, but I don't see a million bucks worth of design, data and art assets in this turd. What I see is a wasted opportunity. And an epic-level embarrassment.
Ultima 7 displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. And while Ultima 7 features seamless transition and its graphics are well-drawn and colorful, such aesthetics are utterly ruined by the oblique perspective and choppy scrolling. Ultima 7 looks good in screencaps but looks utterly awful in motion; so much so, that I consider viewing Ultima 7 in motion to be hazardous to one's eyesight and a trigger to motion-sickness.
It is clear to me that Origin Systems could not code 2D VGA well: two years before Ultima 7 came out there were MS-DOS games that featured super-smooth per-pixel hardware scrolling.
Why didn't Origin Systems code Ultima 7 to display in non-standard square-pixel VGA 320x240 (for per-pixel hardware scrolling). And why did they employ oblique perspective when UPtG had shown that isometric was the best perspective eight years before Ultima 7 came out?
Were Origin Systems of 1992 really that ignorant of 2D engines? Or were they just lazy?
Overall, I give Ultima 7 4½/10. So much money, so much manpower -- and yet a naught but a turd resulted.
Then again, the Ultima franchise has always been massively overrated by those who wear one-inch-thick poindexter nostalgia goggles. Ultima is a horrible franchise, ugly games, just awful. cRPGs would be a lot better off if Origin Systems never made one; if Ultima never existed.
Ultima was to cRPGs what King's Quest was to adventure games: a stain.
And it was Ultima 7's degenerate design that enabled Morrowind.
Ultima 7 Technical
Ultima 7 requires an i80386SX-16 MHz CPU, 561,144 bytes of free conventional memory and 1 meg of XMS memory. Ultima 7 employs its own memory manager, known as Voodoo. Ultima 7 is not compatible with EMS memory managers.
Distributed on 6x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes, Ultima 7 extracts and installs to hard disk drive via PKUNZIP archive extraction utility v.1.1 by PKWARE Inc. The install size is 18 megs and consists of 201 files.
Ultima 7 audio supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Roland MT-32 or LAPC-1.
Ultima 7 Part Two: Serpent Isle PC DOS 1993
Origin Systems released Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.3 in March of 1993.
Ultima 7: Serpent Isle was distributed on 7x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via PKUNZIP Fast! Extract Utility v.2.04c by PKWARE Inc. The install size is 22 megs and consists of 226 files.
Ultima 7: Serpent Isle requires an i80386SX-16 MHz CPU, 586,097 bytes of free conventional memory and 1,024,000 bytes of XMS memory.
Ultima 7: Serpent Isle audio support is as per Ultima 7: Black Gate.
Ultima VII Part Two: The Silver Seed PC DOS 1993
Origin Systems released Ultima VII Part Two: The Silver Seed for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.3 in 1993. Ultima 7 Silver Seed is an add-in expansion for Ultima 7: Serpent Isle.
Ultima 7: Silver Seed was distributed on 1x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskette and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via The Silver Seed Installation Program. The install size becomes 32 megs and consists of 233 files.
Ultima 7: Silver Seed requirements and audio support are as per Ultima 7: Serpent Isle.
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