Ultima 8 Pagan IBM PC MS-DOS 1994 Origin Systems

Ultima VIII: Pagan

Origin Systems released Ultima 8: Pagan for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in March of 1994.

Ultima 8 is the sequel to Ultima 7 of 1992.

Ultima 8 wisely eschews the oblique perspective of U7 in favor of isometric perspective. However, the screen-scrolling is still choppy and yet six years before Ultima 8 came out there were MS-DOS games that featured super-smooth per-pixel hardware scrolling.

I have to wonder if Origin Systems had ever heard of the Amiga. Because the Amiga was smoothly scrolling isometric playfields in 1986.

Unwisely, Ultima 8 maintains the sluggish multi-layered pop-up UI of U7. In addition, there is still no visible grid or tiling for precise movement and positioning. On top of that, the viewpoint is too zoomed-in and cramped.

Thus, Ultima 8 is as sluggish and cumbersome to play as U7. Playing Ultima 8 is like pulling teeth; players constantly need to wrestle with the controls and pop-ups. The controls are made much worse by the inclusion of platforming.

Solutions:

• First, you give players bigger playfields for more breathing space.
• Second, you code a smooth scrolling routine or you make U8 flip-screen like Origin Systems wisely did for their subsequent Crusader games, which are built on the Pagan engine.
• Third, you add a visible grid to the playfield so that players can accurately move and position their Avatar, especially during combat.
• Fourth, instead of pop-ups you have dedicated screen-modes. For example, you don't have an inventory pop-up, you have a full-screen inventory mode. You don't have a character sheet pop-up, you have a full-screen stat mode. And players switch between them.
• Fifth, turn-based combat system, not real-time.

What Ultima 7 and 8 tried to do was give players detailed close-up graphics and environmental interaction, but it just doesn't work, it isn't important and it gets in the way of gameplay, exploration and role-playing. Fallout and Baldur's Gate are much better cRPGs than U7/U8.

I gave Ultima 7 of 1992 4½/10. And while U8 features a much better perspective, nothing else was improved. And yet U8 came out two years after U7. So that means U8 must get a lower score: 4/10.

Ultima 8 Pagan Features & Omissions

• Playfield presented in isometric perspective
• Height-mapped playfield
• Non-smooth screen-scrolling
• Seamless transition
• Real-time "combat system"
• Avatar constituted by 3x stats: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence
• Mana, AC, HPs, Carry-weight
• Movement: Careful step, Walk, Run, Standing jump, Running leap, Jump and grab
• Draw Weapon / Combat Stance, Sheathe Weapon, Swing Weapon, Kick, Advance, Block, Retreat, Throw
• No companions
• Colorful graphics and detailed animations
• 1,200-frame Avatar animation
• 8-way sprite rotation and movement
• Sprites are not drop-shadowed (weak)
• Linework around sprites is too thick
• Color scheme is too dark
• Hardware mouse cursor menu navigation
• Set in Pagan, not Britannia

Ultima 8 was lead-programmed by Tony Zurovec and designed by Andrew P. Morris and John Watson.

Ultima 8 Pagan Technical

Ultima 8 Pagan displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 and features a full-screen active drawspace.

Ultima 8 requires an i80386DX 33 MHz CPU, 460,800 bytes of free conventional RAM and 3,580,000 bytes of XMS RAM.

Ultima 8 music supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Wave Blaster, Sound Canvas and General MIDI MPU-401. Ultima 8 4-voice digital sound effects support Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Sound Blaster 16/ASP.

Ultima 8 was distributed on 8x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Pagan: Ultima 8 Installation Program. The install size is 21 megs and consists of 32 files.

The Pagan Speech Pack was distributed on 3x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Pagan Speech Pack Installation Program. The install size becomes 36 megs and consists of 42 files.

cf.

• Ultima 7 IBM PC MS-DOS Origin Systems 1992
• Ultima Underworld IBM PC MS-DOS Origin Systems 1992

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