And just to follow up that point, a lot of this does have to do with nostalgia. I remember very distinctly when I young in the 80's being over my friend Brian's house and his brother playing one of the Ultimas (either II or III) on the family's Apple IIe with green monitor that was sitting in the living room. It seemed like such a sophisticated and amazing experience, with the arcane commands and rough, but understandable icon- and tile-based imagery. And then in talking to Brian about Ultima II (meaning it was probably III the brother was playing) and going to all the various planets and what-have-you, it seemed like a truly extraordinary game experience. The closest I ever got to Ultima on my C-64 was pirated copies - I think particularly of IV - which was obviously NOT the way to approach something so intense as an Ultima game (I even hand-copied the map onto a large sheet of stiff rolled paper). It's no wonder I never got very far or felt the "magic" that I felt from afar.
Of course I also had come to acquire SSI's Phantasie after seeing the magazine ad for it and the amazing cover art. To my surprise, the C-64 graphics were far superior to the Apple II graphics featured in the ad. The game truly captured that D&D-like experience I so craved on the computer (having enjoyed it on a regular basis in the real-world with my friends). Of course it was not without its own set of trials and tribulations, as the game was prone to crashing in certain dungeons and accidentally wrote over the second side of my disk, having to pay SSI for a replacement copy. Still, I got through it and devoured the sequels (with II essentially being more of the same, but a smoother, less buggy experience, and III adding some unusual elements). As I've said before, it saddens me that IV was only released in Japan for the MSX and Sharp X68000 computer systems (luckily I have the MSX ROM, so I can try to play it on the real hardware at some point - I've thus far only played the game briefly on a Sharp emulator).
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
And just to follow up that point, a lot of this does have to do with nostalgia. I remember very distinctly when I young in the 80's being over my friend Brian's house and his brother playing one of the Ultimas (either II or III) on the family's Apple IIe with green monitor that was sitting in the living room. It seemed like such a sophisticated and amazing experience, with the arcane commands and rough, but understandable icon- and tile-based imagery. And then in talking to Brian about Ultima II (meaning it was probably III the brother was playing) and going to all the various planets and what-have-you, it seemed like a truly extraordinary game experience. The closest I ever got to Ultima on my C-64 was pirated copies - I think particularly of IV - which was obviously NOT the way to approach something so intense as an Ultima game (I even hand-copied the map onto a large sheet of stiff rolled paper). It's no wonder I never got very far or felt the "magic" that I felt from afar.
Of course I also had come to acquire SSI's Phantasie after seeing the magazine ad for it and the amazing cover art. To my surprise, the C-64 graphics were far superior to the Apple II graphics featured in the ad. The game truly captured that D&D-like experience I so craved on the computer (having enjoyed it on a regular basis in the real-world with my friends). Of course it was not without its own set of trials and tribulations, as the game was prone to crashing in certain dungeons and accidentally wrote over the second side of my disk, having to pay SSI for a replacement copy. Still, I got through it and devoured the sequels (with II essentially being more of the same, but a smoother, less buggy experience, and III adding some unusual elements). As I've said before, it saddens me that IV was only released in Japan for the MSX and Sharp X68000 computer systems (luckily I have the MSX ROM, so I can try to play it on the real hardware at some point - I've thus far only played the game briefly on a Sharp emulator).
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.