Milano Italy-based professional photographer, Enrico Ricciardi - who is also a noted computer software collector - has put together a lavish Ultima-inspired calendar that has received the blessing of series creator Richard "Lord British" Garriott himself. While neither Ricciardi or Garriott have the rights to the Ultima license, the end product, named "Mystik 2010", still has a lot of the famous series' spirit. Check it out here and be sure to check out the photographer's other works while there (as well as the behind-the-scenes making of the calendar itself). They all have a very slick and sexy European feel to my American eyes.

Ultima VIIBy request, this week's Matt Chat covers Ultima VII: The Black Gate. Ultima VII is a masterpiece of the early 90s, with tremendous scope and important innovations that would influence many later games. It's definitely not hard to see this game's influence on later hits such as Diablo (1997) and Baldur's Gate (1998).

Wrath of Denethenor is an early Ultima clone written for the Apple II and C64 by Christopher Crim and published by Sierra On-Line in 1986 (c64) and 84-85 (Apple II).

Wrath of Denethenor is an early Ultima clone written for the Apple II and C64 by Christopher Crim and published by Sierra On-Line in 1986 (c64) and 84-85 (Apple II).

The author of a Tandy Coco RPG, Paladin's Legacy has made it available.

Check out http://paladinslegacy.spaces.live.com/

Check it out;

Title Screen
Paladins Legacy Title Screen

Dungeon
Paladins Legacy Dungeon

Stats

Hail, brave adventurer! That's right--it's time for me to start drafting the chapter on Ultima for Vintage Gaming, the forthcoming book by your very own Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton. Thankfully, I've already done much of the necessary research for this title for Dungeons & Desktops, but I'd still like to hear your stories about the Ultima series. What is the best Ultima? What is the worst? What do you consider the most important innovations introduced by the series? I can think of several right off the top, such as the focus on ethical decisions and the more personality-driven character creation system of later games. The series is also known for introducing really memorable characters and stories, years ahead of the more character and plot-driven JRPGs. Other factors worth considering are the heavy attention given to the interactive world in Black Gate, and the radical changes made to the engine from game to game.

Surfing around I ran into this page here. Some amazing guy has enhanched and recoded much of Ultima III for the c64.

So much so, he compressed the original two disks into one disk. Apparently the code was really bad, they left most of the Apple II stuff un optimised, the text notes that the graphics were internally in Apple II format in RAM and were converted on the fly each time the tile was blitted to the screen.. Yikes. No wonder it was super slow.

Anyway, this version plays so much sweeter.

I also like the removal of the forced Sosaria world map save!

We've been having a bit of a discussion about Ultima in the Gates of Delirium Live - Post 11 blog comments, and I was curious what everyone's thoughts were on the most authentic, interesting and error-free versions of each of the nine main Ultima games, not counting Akalabeth (though we can throw that in there too). This is both for my own selfish reasons of wanting to play these at some point (and to do it only once for each game) and also because I think this would prove to be an interesting discussion as I know everyone is very opinionated about the series. So, assuming you have access to any version - and any version's optimized hardware setup (for instance, you have an Apple II with two Mockingboards or a C-128), which would you pick, and in what order, say up to the top three systems for each version of the game? I'll start with my own only partially informed opinion.

Sony's PSPFor $20, Electronic Arts plans to release the following games on one UMD disc for the PSP: B.O.B., Road Rash II, Budokan, Road Rash III, Desert Strike, Syndicate, Jungle Strike, Ultima: The Black Gate, Haunting Starring Polterguy, Virtual Pinball, Mutant League Football, Wing Commander, Road Rash, and Wing Commander: Secret Missions.