Ultima & The Commodore 64
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- Опубліковано 30 жов 2021
- A look back at all 6 installments of the Ultima RPG franchise on the Commodore 64 plus the origins of the series.
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Check CSDB.DK for the enhanced Ultima C64 Games.
csdb.dk/
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www.pinterest.ca/euro_brendan/ - Ігри
This is fantastic, filled with so much detail. Well done.
Thank you sir thats a great compliment coming from you , cheers
I blew an entire summer playing Ultima III on the C=64 as a teenager, and a good part of the next year completing Ultima IV. I can still hear the music in my head to this day. Thanks for the video!
Cheers no probs , glad you enjoyed it
Sounds like a summer well-spent.
My friend and I both had c64's, and we spent the entire summer one year, if I wasn't sleeping over at his house, he was sleeping over at mine, and we tag-teamed the game all weekend.
One of us would take a nap, wake up, get a news update, and we'd trade off.
He passed away in his sleep in December...
This is pretty much the best and most inspiring game documentary I have ever seen! Who can watch this and NOT immediately want to play Ultima? Thanks mr Bastich!
Cheers thank you , that was my intent 😀👍 now go enjoy the world of Britannia 🕹️
@Spel Mastarn I couldn't agree more. I already loved Ultima but watching this makes me want to play them even more. Bastich did a phenomenal job on this one.
Ultima IV was the first game I played that completely made be forget it was a computer game. It wasn't tiles, it was a world with people to talk to.
Yeah true I felt the same way , it was a complete world
One of my biggest gaming regrets is not getting into the Ultima games. When I had my C64 the series was already on its 3rd or 4th installment and I figured I'd missed the boat so never really gave them much of a look. Going back and playing them now just isn't the same as being 12 or 15 years old, hunched over the keyboard till all hours and poring over every inch of the printed manual looking for clues. Sadly some things you just can't emulate :(
It's never too late to play old games , just put yourself in the mindframe and you'll be pleasently surprised 🕹️👍 , thanks for watching
I didn't know about Ultima for the VIC-20. But when I was introduced to Ultima 3 I had to upgrade from my VIC-20. The majority of games in the early 80's were just like coin operated games, with 3 lives and barely any story. Ultima changed that.
Yeah they totally did ! Brought real stories to games when they had absolutely none .
A great game, you needed quite a fair bit of imagination on the side. But the scope of the worlds in these games was just mind boggling. Excellent documentary!
Yeah totally , like everything fantasy based back then a good imagination was key
Ultima VI on the Commodore was my first personal experience playing the series. One odd detail that stuck to my mind is that the chair object used for Lord British's throne can be moved around in that version, and there is a corpse under it.
Thats funny I never knew that but sounds like Garriot humor 😂😂
Temple of Apshai was my first game when I got my C64 back in the 80's. This started my hobby in computer gaming and the Ultima series was one of my favorite series. Very very very fond memories of that time. Thanks you so much for doing this video and now you have another subscriber. ❤❤❤
Cheer thank you , enjoy the channel
Rembered when they delayed Ultima so as to not hurt kids grades. Mom paid $74.95 for Ultima 4. That was a lot of money back then. Spent soooo much time playing it.
Yeah RPG'S were particularly expensive back then ... But the ammount of content in them was amazing
@@BastichB64K when you pay much less than a dollar an hour, when you can play for hundreds of hours it is so worth it.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories. My first computer RPG was Exodus. Played a lot of Pen & Paper RPGs at that time, too.
Great game to start with ! My first Ultima game as well 🕹️👍
Can't really afford to commit to a monthly patreon subscription but just wanted to thank you for all the excellent work on your channel. Superbly done mate.
No problem dude just glad you enjoyed the vid , share it up if you like it 😀👍
Nice vid, thanks! Saw the box of Ultima VI in the shelf...still got my box also, filled with nice drawn handbooks, a map of Britannia and even a little piece of black moonstone. Back in those days boxed games were filled with many goodies. :)
Yeah i used to love all those trinkets , it really made buying a game special
Ultima IV on the SMS was my indtroduction to the seires, was completely blown away. The music is still a total earworm to this day.
Later played a PC game called Excelsior which is a great Ultima clone and well worth checking out.
Still wanna try out the sms version , i saw it in a local retro game shop .... I really want it 😂👍
I remember Excelsior! It was a total ripoff and tons of fun!
@@Will-xk4nm I can't remember where I got it, probably on a compilation CD but I fired it up and thought "This is Ultima!" and played it for days.
@@BastichB64K I had it boxed but without any of the trinkets so no map. made the game a lot harder!
I played Ultima 2, 3, and 4 on the C64 and Ultima 1 and 5 on the C128. Ultima 5 was awesome on the C128 as it had a full 16 tunes soundtrack. This brings back so many memories for me.
Cheers , thx for watching
So many hours I spent playing those Ultima games. I started on 2, which I loved... then 3 was so easy cuz iirc, you could transfer characters from Bards tale, and my Bards Tale characters were gods. Still, so many hours on these games as a kid. Very well done docu, too. Danke for the memories.
Thanks for watching , fantastic collection of games 🕹️👍
Nice! Ultima III was my first too! It's like that music is now embedded into my DNA. Lots of good times in front of the 25" console TV in my room with friends playing games.
The music in that one is real memorable , so dark 😂👍
Criminally underrated content and channel. Fantastic production from top to bottom, start to finish. Well done!
Cheers thx , much appreciated
I played a bootleg version of Ultima V on the PC back in '89. I was 7 years old. Since I didn't have the manual, I ended up translating (and learning to read) the game's runic alphabet all by myself. Something I can still read to this day. It was the first secondary language I learned :)
Awesome that's impressive 👍
What fond memories playing these games. And I still can, for I still have my C128D, and it still works!
Nice 👍👍👍
My first RPG was Bards Tale on C64. I loved playing it but never finished it, hats off to anyone who did. My party kept dying every time I went underground.
Those initial treks into the underground were brutal , no doubt
Great games and great documentary. 😊👍 Thanks for making this video, B. I never played the Ultimas on C64 (SSI gold box sets were my intro to cRPGs back in the 8bit days) but played a lot Ultima 6 on PC in the early 90s.
Cool thanks for watching , yeah played the PC version as well .. was totally lost in it for months 😀👍
A video as good as the games covered....! :)
Wow! Thx 😀🙏🙏🙏🙏
These games pasted me by and you can understand the graphics were not the type to draw you in. Gameplay and story was key.
Crazy to think they crammed a big world in a 64K machine and kept the franchise going for so long.
Also nice to see modern cracking groups still making these games more playable and accessible.
Entertaining and informative video, nice work.
Cheers thank you , yeah the worlds created in these games are amazing especially considering memory limitations , they felt like epic novels when i used to play them .
Fantastic video. Didn't spend a ton of time playing the Ultima games as fantasy wasn't really my thing, but was always really impressed with them, and remember a friend writing a map editor for the Atari 800(?) version of one of the games. Amazing what got packed into such trivial (by today's standards) RAM and CPU cycles. Thanks for another great video!
No probs , thank you for watching 👍👍👍
Great memories playing Ultima 4 on C64. Loved trying to take on Lord British and his guards.
😂😂👍🕹️ yeah great games series
Garriot is a master at writing these encounters that actually make you think
i wish modern rpgs make you make you think about world and how to deal with them, not just tactically
Ultima NPCs feel more real than modern games
Thats very true 👍 well said
walking in the forest at night was super scary -- I'll never forget the fright of suddenly coming across one of those fairy ppl
😂👍
My computer/console progression never quite crossed paths with these games, but it’s great to watch this video and get a taste of the experience. Great stuff 👍
Cheers thx for watching 🕹️
It's rather strange... I owned most of the Ultima games, but never really played them hardly at all. I did play and win Legacy of the Ancients, Legend of Blacksilver... and loved those games dearly. I really need to sit down and play the Ultima games. Thanks for making this.
My pleasure , I also played and finished Legacy and Blacksilver .. what brilliant RPG'S
Awesome video BastichB. I can only admire the time and effort you put into making these documentary series. Very well done man, keep it up!
My pleasure , glad you liked it
Once again a superb work of yours, thanks so much Brendan! Deserves at least one thumb up for each Ultima game. 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Sweet thx , glad you enjoyed it
Nitpick: "Sosaria" was a retcon in relation to the original Ultima and Ultima II. It wasn't until the rerelease and redesign of the early games that references to Sosaria appeared in the manuals for UI and UII
Sosaria wasn't actually an official name of Ultima's land (appearing in the game manuals) until Ultima III, and the death of Exodus caused geologic upheaval that created the final Britannia map that was used for most us the rest of the games. I remember this because I played all of the Ultimas (including Akalabeth) in real time on the Apple ][ as they were released, and followed the mythology. Sosaria was a one-off. Until Ultima V, every game had a map that was different from it's predecessor. Also, "the age of darkness" is a similar retcon that likely came from that rerelease I mentioned earlier.
Keep in mind that Garriott was basically a teenager with a successful and profitable career during an era where copyright in computer games wasn't paid much attention to. He basically just threw everything he loved as a nerdy teenager into his early games without any cohesiveness (star wars land speeders/blasters/light swords/TIE fighter battles), Dr Who "time lord", Time Bandits gates, Tolkien orcs, "balrons", etc.) Garriott borrowed a whole lot from those early days. It really wasn't until Ultima IV that he really began his own completely original world building.
Great video! Thanks for taking the time to put this together with lots of great information on each title. As with many other cRPG fans, Ultima is one of my favorite game series and U3 was the first game I got when I first got my C64. :)
Cheers thx , seems like a lot of people like yourself and me all started on Ultima 3 which i find very interesting
I appreciate the superb commentary. I'm wearing my ultima necklace right now and this is taking me right back to my adventures in ultima 7, underworld, and going bush in ultima online. The Great story telling talent that birthed the Ultima series is timeless and treasured now as much as it ever was.
Yes it is 👍👍 thanks for watching
Loved this so much. Playing U4 on the C64 was my real introduction to videogaming. Thanks for an excellent retrospective!
My pleasure , thx for watching
I simply loved the Ultima games, the first one I played was Exodus and I was totally hooked from that day forwards and bought Ultima 4-5-6 day one. I cannot imagine the 100's of hours I spent playing these superb games. However Ultima V gives me mixed emotions, I simple adored the game but at the time I was really getting into it, my grandmother passed on, and to this day the Ultima V music makes me shed a few tears. but that aside, the Ultima games were amazing and I think the only game that got close to them was Morrowind. Thank you for this superb video!
Thanks for watching , they really are a wonderful series of games.
This was a fantastic documentary! I didn't know about the remastered versions, and also didn't know about the professor to the Ultima series which essentially became Ultima 1. Great stuff as usual!
Awesome! Thanks for checking it out , tons of fun researching and playing the games again .
Awesome documentary. I didn't know there was a version of Ultima VI for the C-64 as by then, I had given up my C-128 and was now a PC user/gamer. Very interesting. Wonderful documentary.
Thanks a lot for watching , much appreciated
Ultima 6 was my first, true, RPG that I played. My dad bought it for me on the Amiga 500, and it was glorious.
Sadly, as I reached the final cave my save got corrupt so I never got to finish it.
I did finish the Ultima games after that thought, (7 and 8) and the two Ultima Underworld games
Thats a pity about the save file , i played a couple of c64 rpgs that i got really far in then i had a load disc error at some point ... Very dissapointing 😭😭😭
I like the “history” videos you make. Both the Epyx and the System 3 are so cool to watch. I’ve never played Ultima But I sure like this video!
Cheers thank you for watching
Ultima has god tier music, would love to see a modern ultima or even a remaster
Music is pretty brilliant 🎶🎶👍
Lots of good remakes of Ultima music on UA-cam. Pieces of 8-bit has done much of the series, sometimes more than once.
I too would love Ultima remasters. Ultima 4, Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld seem like obvious choices to remake!
There is several remasters such as as Ultima V - Lazarus using the Dungeon Siege engine, good effort too, fun for a while, but it doesn't the beat the sense of freedom and non-linear gameplay of the originals.
@@MarkWhich unfortunately you can no longer purchase the version of Dungeon Siege required to play Lazarus. That's the problem with Mods rather than remakes or remasters. Dungeon Siege is almost 20 years old now.
Pure gold!! What a source of content you are!
😀👍👍👍 thx dude , glad you enjoyed it
Fantastic! My favorite CRPGs and this is a great docu!! Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. Lord British will dig it.
I hope Lord British likes it 😀🙏 , thx for watching
Back in the 'olden days I played these on the C64... Ultima 4 had such a profound impact on me that I wanted to go beyond the game, enough so that I had to know how the games were made and how they worked behind the scenes and got in to programming assembler on the C64 and this all eventually led to me finding my calling as a computer programmer.
Thats pretty cool , the best stuff is always inspirational 👍
Great video as always! Love all the details and I appreciate all the effort you put on on this videos, these are some really cool documentaries, keep up the great work you do!
Cheers dude 😀 thanks for taking the time to watch em 👍👍👍👍👍👍
This is a great video. I have all the games in original boxes with maps. I played then through college and beyond. Thank you for the really good memories.
I wish i had all of them in physical form but I have quite a few . Such great adventures and memories 😀🕹️
Great documentary 👍👍👍I enjoyed every second 👏👏👏
Cheers thanks for watching , I appreciate it
Played and finished Ultima 3 and 4 back in the day. Great Games!!!!
Such great experiences 😀👍
Brings back memories of the port of Ultima IV on the Sega Master System.
Good times.
Still wanna try that version 🕹️👍
@@BastichB64K Not the best version, obviously. But at the time playing it in 1990, it was great.
Man, great video. Really well made and presented. This sort of stuff is what I'm looking for!
Cheers thx , check out my documentary playlist for more vids like this 👍👍
Ultima III on the C64 was my first experience of the Ultima games as well!
Yeah it seems like a ton of people started with that one as well
this is actually bringing tears to my eyes... so many memories. first for me was also ultima III: exodus for nintendo. then my friend moved in with a c64, which he talked me into buying later. after i bought my amiga...
Cheers thx and enjoy 😀👍👍
Thanks again for another great documentary. This is my most favorite RPG :)
I remember playing Ultima III on Fujitsu Micro 7 (FM-7), ported by Starcraft. Fun memory.
Another fun memory or fun fact: I played Ultima IV on X68000, which port was very... interesting (hint: s*cks). It had some very interesting arranged soundtrack, which you may actually like, but the overall quality was so poor. It was so slow mainly due to the programmer's incompetence. Fortunately, this technical issue was fixed in the Ultima V port.
I had been playing Ultima IV on my old FM-7 until it gets broken, and having high expectation for this port for X68000, which my parents had just bought me. X68000 was a really powerful splendid machine compared to most 8/16bit Japanese computers then. Who does not have high expectation? ;)
Anyway, I finally managed to play through the whole game a few years ago with the DOS version, and felt so accomplished.
That's a pity the x68000 was a poor version , I'd still love to own one of those computers ! The arcade conversions were fantastic 👍
I also played Ultima III on C64 as one of my first computer games, and I'll never forget how immersive it was. Well done, and thanks for another great video!
Cheers and thank you for watching it 👍
Another stunning video. Your channel is the Gold Standard for Retro Gaming goodness. So many amazing memories.
Thx , I really enjoyed making that vid 👍
awesome vid about an awesome game Series ! the G*P versions are really nice done.. keep up the good work Bastich!
Thx , cheers for checking it out it was another fun series to cover
Thanks so much for making this awesome History video, i've played and finished most of these, it was a great trip down memory lane, for me, i think the SSI goldbox series, specifically the forgotten realms were the most impactful on my childhood and i had similar memories of myself and childhood friends gathering around the tv trying to tackle these new and innovative RPG's. Long live the C64!
Cheers thank you for watching , I'd love to cover the gold box games in the future .. its a big task though with so many 😀👍😂
@@BastichB64K Hahah yeah i totally understand there is just too many! Maybe one day if you had the time, you could just do an overview, I remember being blown away when i was a kid, cause it was the first time my characters could move from game to game, even these days, thats pretty rare!
@@brettolsen615 i unfortunately cant do an overview .. seems too cheap and easy to me so if i do it it has to be all or nothing 😂😂😂 but seriously I'd love to do all the c64 released Gold Box games , ill add it to my list
@@BastichB64K Hahah your just too awesome, but there are way too many goldbox games mate! You could do all the Forgotten Realms ones on C64 that at least isn't such a big list... thanks again for all your amazing content mate, i really like your style :)
@@brettolsen615 😂👍 cheers
Thanks for this! The Ultima series was my favorite on the C64. I especially loved Ultima IV
Thank you for watching ✅
Thanks for video. I played Ultima sereis on only Apple II computer when I grew up. Now, I got real C64 to play my *upgraded* Ultima 3 & 4.
This video serves me as reference point with background story. Thank you!
Cheers no probs , enjoy the games
Epic docile. Thanks B. I have never played a Origin RPG if you can believe that. I do have Savage Empire and Martian Dreams on GOG, but my C64 restoration is almost done, so maybe a spin on that platform is called for.
Definitely try out the remastered versions once your C64 setup is complete , great games
Wonderfully produced video of the franchise.
Never really got into these but I used to play the dungeon crawlers favourite being captive by Tony Crowther.
Cheers thx 🙏 , I've never played Captive before .
Excellent video. One of my favorite series in the early days. I had no idea they made one for the Master System. I had to look that one up....pricey...
Yeah pretty pricey !! I kinda want it though 🤔🤔😭😭😂😂👍👍
Thank you for this documentary
My pleasure , thank you for watching
Excellent video. The overlaid music, and composition was just great. Will subscribe for sure.
Thank you very much , i appreciate that 😀
I used to load this game just to listen to the theme. I still have all my original copies of it and completed the entire series by 1986 I guess. Or around there. Anyway, games back then were fantastic because the environment looked like whatever your imagination could conjure up in your mind.
Yeah imagination played a large part in rpgs of this era as visually they were well below everything else but gameplay was well beyond 🕹️👍
Great video B. :-) I still remember those loading wait times for U VI on the C64.....practically impossible to play as you were more disk jockeying than playing the game. I still find the whole Ultima series as being a great evolutional overview of what rpg games were in the early days until the 3d created worlds of U IX.
Yeah the old loading was a pain thats why I was trying to highlight the new updated C64 versions for people to play easier now ✅ cheers for watching 👍
The most insufferable experience for me was Defender of the crown on tape for the c64. There was leterally more loading done than playing.
@@JonasRosenven i cant even imagine playing it on tape , i had the disc version so it was an awesome experience as a game
@@BastichB64K Playing it on 1571 disk drive instead of casettes was like jumping into the future. Defender of the crown would say "insert casette 2 side one". You would have to rewind the tape to the start and let it go from there until it reached the point on the tape where the data the game needed actually was :)
Good work my friend, glad to have found your channel :)
Cheers thank you for taking the time to watch the vid and welcome 😀
Great overview of the series, thanks! 3 was the first for me on the C64 as well, but I'd played 2 on the Apple ][s in high school, great memories for sure from this era of gaming!
Yeah it seems a lot of people started on 3 from the comments , i thought it was only me 😀👍 great series though
@@BastichB64K Yeah, i think like you mentioned, availability/access to 2 was an issue for many. We had to sneak into our computer lab before and after hours to play it on the Apple ][s. I did what you did though and circled back and played a lot of the remasters. I did buy Shroud of the Avatar and have enjoyed that a bit, though I know it's only considered a spiritual successor and certainly has its issues. It was still really cool to enjoy those memories of opening up an Ultima box and seeing that map again :)
Great work bashB thank you
Cheers i appreciate that 🙏😀
Great work Sir thank you
Cheers thx , appreciate the view 👍👍
That was great B! I didn't know there was an enhanced Ultima V or a C64 version of VI. VI looks awesome (for an 8 bit C64 version of the series). People should really check out the enhanced version of IV. Probably the best version of the game. Wonderful version of the music and the tiles! Just a heads up - the version of IV sold on GOG is the PC-DOS version. With limited colors and VERY limited sound. Thanks again. Very well done
No problem , thanks for watching . Those C64 enhanced versions are awesome I just wanted people to know about them so they could enjoy these games now on whatever version of the c64 you choose. 😀👍
Great documentary!
Cheers thank you
Fantastic documentary. 😊
Thank you for watching 😀✅
Finally someone who shares my gamer name. I’ve used this since I started playing Gemstone III on AOL. 😊
😎👍
Didn't know about those remasters, thanks!
Cheers , well worth checking out 👍
@@BastichB64K The whole video was great, by the way. Very good research and terrific production.
@@Malvenu418 thx , the c64 versions deserved a real video out there , hopefully it delivered 😀🕹️👍
Thanks for a great video!👍🙂
Cheers thx for watching
I am ignorant of this series and your video is the best I found ! Well done ; thank you.
Context : Sven (Larian, BG3) praised Ultima 7 in the recent D&D interview, so...
Cheers and thanks for watching
Great video, never really knew what this series was.
Cheers thanks for checking it out , glad to shed the light on it 👍
Would you please cover Magic Candle 1 (or even the whole series)?
I actually tried to a few years ago and was having major difficulty finding c64 versions that actually worked 😭 if you know of any I'd be interested 👍
Great video! Always interesting to see how the C64 dealt with 10+ years of technological advancements
Cheers for watching 😀👍
Best video you done , this could make your channel reach the sky, i wish you that, coz you doing amazing job, bringing my memories fron when i was 7
Cheers dude , thx for the kind words.
Good stuff man!
Thank you sir 🕹️👍
thank you sir, that was fun
Cheers bo probs , thx for watching
I wish someone would make SID versions of the whole PC soundtrack for Ultima 6. I have midis of it on my phone to this day.
Awesome and thanks.
Thx for watching
My favorite Ultima 6 version was the SNES . Full screen and controller . There was some stuff cur from the PC but me and my friend made are own players guide for the game in 5 subject binder . Maps of all towns , dungeons , underworld and etc . I even painfully hand wrote down all the paragraphs from all the books in the game . Best of times .
Yeah we would hand map everything as well it was so much fun
Awesome! Thanks!
Thank you for watching
My RPG experiences began with Wizardry & Ultima on the Apple II but Ultima 2-4 I spent the most time with. Ultima 4 blew me away at the time. It was far beyond anything for years to come and it wasn’t the type of game where you could simply grind exp until your party was unstoppable (like Exodus).
Yeah these games were a massive part of my 80's and early 90's RPG diet at the time .... Who knows how many hours were spent roaming the countryside of Brittania
Played U3 and U4 on the Apple 2+gs. My first rpg and the best. Would love to see series remastered for modern systems. Great job on video
Thx for watching much appreciated
what a great video. thanks
No problem thx for watching
God, I have so much nostalgia for Origin and SSI.
Amazing companies , endless enjoyable experiences 🕹️👍
Well done!!
Cheers thx ✅
This was a great video. I was an Apple2 person, so I only really noticed when U6 was cancelled on the Apple2 in lieu of going all-in on the 386/486 PCs.
Thx 😀, how they managed to pull off the C64 version was crazy fir Ultima6
omg I remember all Ultima games I remember getting map cloths and black rock those are great games
Great series , one of the best !!
I appreciate the videos
Cheers thx 👍👍
I spent a lot of time playing Ultima games on my C64. I hated the slow loading time and would often leave my C64 on overnight just to avoid waiting a long time.
FWIW Ultima 6 for C64 was the only official 8-bits port. All other U6 were released on 16-bits or higher platform.
I still have all of my original stuff: Ultima Trilogy, 4, 5, and 6 with nearly all original materials still in the boxes. I picked up 7 and 8 for the PC, never found 9 locally and when I played it after downloading it, the changes were too much for me to enjoy it.
Yeah i got most of the later PC ones , 9 is terrible unfortunately
wow brings back old times
😀🕹️👍
GREAT video. Thanks!
I played U3 and U4 (my favorite), and later U1 (the C64 version). U5, however, turned me off because I really missed the music and I didn't have a 128. (Add in a girlfriend at 14, and my Ultima playing days were over. :) Never did U5+..)
Cheers for that & thx for watching
Pure RPG Gold!!