History of the Ultima series. Part 10: Ultima VII: Black Gate + Forge of Virtue

Note: This game was passed on me on a fan engine
Exult, because of this, permission and dolls are others and there is a Russifier and
A few more useful functions.

Work on Ultima VII began almost immediately after the release of the last number of Ultima. In parallel, she was conducted by the development of Martian Dreams, Savage Empire, and Wing Commander I and II. All of them managed to go out before the release of Ultima VII. In the case of Wing Commander, this is a fairly important fact, since it was this series that brought Origin the most money in their entire history. And Garriot, being as much ambitious as not longevable, considered this the opportunity to expand Ultima VII, having an expanded budget at hand. When the calculation will summarize, it turns out that these ambitions cost a whole million dollars.

One of the key differences from the development of past parts and the Origin approach was generally the distribution of workers on the tasks. Previously, everyone was engaged in what he had enough time and effort. So the plot could be written by an unskilled programmer, and the musician could program. Now everyone was sitting in their places and engaged in their tasks. Accordingly, this was supposed to increase the quality of each aspect.

A similar, more professional approach led to hiring a large number of new employees: artists, programmers, scriptwriters. Each group had to do considerable amounts of work due to too ambitiously terrible terms.

One of the tasks of programmers was the solution to the problem of limiting MS-DOS’A in 640 KB memory, because the graphic component of Ultima VII required a lot of resources for those times. All the options that they looked at them did not satisfy them. And they created Voodoo-their own memory manager, who created many problems and with the then generations of computers and is not very focusing on the future, because of which it will cause problems in the future.

But perhaps the most important acquisition of Origin was Raymond Benson, a writer and musician who already had games with games and was looking for a job in Austin in connection with a move to Austin. Seeing once an announcement about the hiring of “artists, musicians and programmers” in Origin, he decided to try. In a sense, we can say that Origin has found a second spectrum (only with a less impressive career in the gaming industry). He, like the spectrum, differed in worldview, the circle of interests and life experience, due to which his work was both better and more accurate.

But throughout the whole process of ORIGIN, problems have been harassed. One of these was a high duration of work together with small salaries. This is not surprising when taking into account the status of the company and the lack of alternatives in Austin, where the company was located. He loved to boast of achievements in relation to the deadlines for which the work was carried out, Dallas Snell, calling Origin the best first of all for this reason.

The second important point is the source of income. As already mentioned, two parts of Wing Commander brought the studio a lot of money. But these “a lot of money” were 90% of the entire income for the whole last year, and one Wing Commander II brought them directly. This caused tangible concern in the company, because if Ultima VII fail, then Origin may come to an end, it simply will not withstand such a sharp growth of the company with its incomes and expenses. The company’s life hung in the balance again.

Was an ordinary, unremarkable day. Avatar sat at his computer. But the image on the screen began to change in an unnatural way. The good -natured and cute landscape was replaced by a overflowing black background, from which a red, stone face crawled out. It spoke: “Avatar! Know that Britain entered the new age of education. Know that the time has come for the only Lord of Britain to lead his people! Under my instruction, Britain will blossom. And all people should rejoice and give them to the new … Guardian! Know, and you will bow to me, avatar. You soon recognize me – I will be your companion, assistant and your master!”.

Realizing that he needs to be in Britain, Avatar went to the circle of stones behind the house. He thought to use Black Orb, but to his surprise, the lunar gates already expected him. Doubt only for moments, the avatar entered them.

The first thing he saw was two, somewhat worried people. One of them was Iolo. He briefly explained the situation. For two hundred years have passed since their last meeting and the events of the “False Prophet” that magic is leaving this world and all the magicians have gone crazy, and seven virtues gave way to another religion – brotherhood and that few people believe in avatar.

But the second person interrupted the conversation. He suggested examining the stalls. After a couple of seconds, the earthquake began and Iolo does not know about its causes, but he advised to ask Lord’a British’a. Having entered, the cause of anxiety became clear. On the floor lay a mutilated corpse of a man with cut off limbs. At the other end, a winged Gorguli was nailed to the wall with a pitchfork. The mayor had a request to investigate this matter.

The investigation in the city did not last long. It became quickly clear that the murdered person was a blacksmith, whose services were used by the brotherhood. But the work was not done, since the victim refused it, which caused a bunch of disputes and the battle between him and the head of the local branch of the fraternity. A little later, he was killed by a man with a hook instead of a hand accompanied. Throughout the investigation, Guardian will repeatedly make itself felt by his comments and a rejuvenated laughter. All further evidence indicates a ship that has recently sailed to the city of Britania.

In the capital, the avatar meets with the king and tells him everything he knows. He, in turn, says that this is not the first murder, but he has no clocks. But, oddly enough, they found themselves at Chuckles. Having “played” with him “Game”, he gives a piece of paper with a series of inappropriate jokes and a fire at the end-a gypsy-seeker near Minoc’a.

Immediately manage to get acquainted with the founder of the Batlin’s fraternity. Having decided that it will be easier to find a connection between the murders and the brotherhood, the avatar decides to join the brotherhood. Batlin gives an order to take the sealed box to Minoc, telling it not to open. Having no confidence in the fraternity, the avatar opens it and reads the note embedded in it. It becomes clear that the murdered blacksmith worked on some three keys to some kind of protective mechanism for the brotherhood.

In Minoc’s, Avatar saw a crowd near a sawmill. There were two corpses. And this time, the evidence is more obvious – the candelabr in the middle of this scene belonged to the brotherhood, no one else has. During the transmission of the casket, the avatars are reproached for excessive curiosity and that there is no trust in him. The gypsy says that the Lord of the Time wants to meet him, but only Wisp’s knows his location.

Returning to the displeased Batlin’s, the avatar receives the following order – to bring the gold of the fraternity from the Destard dungeon. It is safe there, according to Batlin’s. But having arrived there, Guardian suddenly helps the avatar, warning him about the trap, and the main thing is that he did not lie at that moment. Breaking through to the chest with money, it turns out that it is empty. Upon returning, Batlin apologizes and says that he did not know about any dragons. Realizing his oversight, he decides to attach Avatar to the Brotherhood and give him a medallion.

It remains only to look for the lord of time. But all searches lead to a series of running around. First in the abbey, then to Emp’Am, then to the loggers, and again to Emp’Am for their whistle for wisp’a. WISP answers, but also asks for a service – a notebook of a scientist Alagner’a. He, in turn, asks to find out the answer to the question of life and death at the martyr in Skara Brae.

Skara Brae has become a terrible place. This is the land of the dead and here is the lich – this is our old familiar magician horance. And the inhabitants of the city are dead and roam, not finding peace and being an energy subtopit for the lich. The alchemist Caine, the same martyr, explains that the error in creating an elixir to expel the lich led to such. In fact, the perpetrator is the mayor who incorrectly conveyed the recipe.

Caine will not give answers while Lich is alive. Avatar remains to begin to exile. He creates a potion according to the correct recipe and leads to the feelings of a local blacksmith to assure the cage of souls. Having performed the ritual correctly, Horance becomes the same and there is no more lich in Skara Brae. It remains only to destroy the well of shower – the source of the power of the lich and the dungeon for shower. This is done by the mayor, donating myself.

Having received answers from Caine, solving the labyrinth of Alagner’s and agreeing with WISP’s, the avatar finally finds out where the lord of time. That ban in the temple of spirituality and you need Black Orb to get to it, and since the avatar did not take it with him, it remains to ask Lord’s British’a.

Having got to the Lord, he explains the situation. Problems with ether, a voice in the head of people and broken lunar gates – this is all the result of the work of three black stone generators. And those lunar gates through which the avatar went is the work of the Lord of the Time himself. First of all, he asks to destroy the spherical generator and free it. Returning back and deciding to return the notebook Alagner’s, the avatar discovers his mutilated corpse.

It also cannot be destroyed by the generator, since the sphere is protected by a barrier that teleports violators to a burning bead. The Lord of Time offers to find enchanted sand clock Nicodemus’a. But problems begin to search for them. But in any case, they are not fascinated, and Nicodemus was crazy because of the problems with the ether.

The first to destroy the pyramid that controls the ether. Froggybet-casino.uk But not to get to her without a fascinated ether ring. But before it should still be found. Penumbra should enchant it. Having reached her and waking up, she says that she also goes out of the sum and it is necessary to fix it.

As they adapt, it becomes clear that the same black stone is able to level the negative effects of the ether. Most of this is telled by Rudyom – a magician who, before he went crazy, studied this stone and even invented a tool for influencing it. Taking several stones and this tool, returning to Penumbr’s and decomposing stones to it. And now she agrees to enchant the ring.

Further actions are clear and simple. First of all, the destruction of the pyramid and its guard will lead to a complete recovery of reason for all magicians. Also in the wreckage, the thing is necessary to complete the main task – a miniature pyramid. Such things, according to the Lord of the Time, should be in every generator.

Now, with enchanted sand clock, it is time to destroy the sphere and take the miniature. Unfortunately, this completely disconnects the work of the lunar gate and, as a result, both the Avatar and the Lord British are locked in Britain.

The last generator remained – cube. Having talked with various believers, it is obvious that he is on the personal island of the Brotherhood. Since the avatar is already his member, it will not be difficult to pass. Having decided the riddle there, the last generator also fails, it remains only to pick up a miniature.

It remains only to find the black gates, the portal through which Guardian is going to go to Britain. But the only remaining tip is the hook. Lord of time, offers to go to the lair pirates. Having arrived there and using the cubic cube, it becomes clear that the black gates, like the future residence of Guardian’a, be on the island of Avatar, but it does not make sense to go there without a key. Going around all the lair, having hit the caves and searching for the shelter of the hook, we find it.

But before solving the problem with Guardian’s, you should deal with earthquakes. Having asked Lord’a British’a, it is learned that at the time when Avatar only received his title, three more temples were built. They were supposed to be located on the island of Fire, the place where Exodus was once defeated. But the island sank after a while, and now some powerful force raised it from the depths.

Arriving on the island of Avatar meets the strange magician Erethian’a. He explains that he raised the island, and that he is studying the remnants of Exodus’a here. Without seeing this at first, the avatar takes turns in turn of the test of love, truth and courage. Each of them seems to be a talk statue. Having passed the first two trials, the statues hint that everything is not so simple here.

The last test is not given as easy as the first. It has a battle with the immortal dragon. Victory in it is not possible, but having made sure of the courage of the avatar, she gives him an etheric stone.

Having wandered around the castle, you can stumble on a mirror with a demon imprisoned in it. He asks to use the etheric stone to release it. Erethian says there is no danger, and the demon will simply become a prisoner of another prison – etheric stone. So it happens.

Having talked with Erethian’s about the last test, he conjures the blacksmith with all the necessary tools and provides a workpiece, on which he himself once worked. Working on a sword, Avatar understands that without additional magical energy, the sword cannot be used due to its weight. But such a source is already in a pocket – a demon in the air stone. Having combined them together, the avatar creates an unimaginable power sword, capable of destroying even an immortal.

The last test with such weapons becomes simple. And the last statue says that the essence of Exodus’a is returning. Having asked Erethian’s for help and hoping for his excessive self -confidence, the avatar receives instructions on how to put the end. But in the end, who understood Erethian warns him of further actions, because he does not allow him to just destroy the subject of his study.

Realizing that people’s safety is more important, the avatar follows the instructions. In fact, this is the same process as the transmission of the Code, but this time in the middle of the three principles will be the medallions of three principles laid on the core left after Exodus’a. The lenses were preserved in the museum of the capital. After fulfilling all the conditions, the portal began to appear in the abyss. Erethian is trying to stop all this and kill Avatar, but is mistaken in the pronunciation of the spell and kills himself. After receiving a new weapon and preventing another threat, the time to go to the black gates.

Arriving to the island of Avatar and passing through a huge series of obstacles to the Hythloth dungeon, the avatar reaches the place where the gates are located. But Batlin, Hook, Elizabeth, Abraham and Forskis (wingless Gorguli) are already waiting for him. Batlin is still trying to agree, but the rest are implacable. The battle begins, the outcome of which is already a foregone conclusion. All enemies were killed, except Batlin’s who managed to escape.

It remains only to arrange miniatures in their places, and use the Rudyom’a tool and this will end. But Guardian continues his speeches. He is trying to convince Avatar to throw Britain and return to the ground through these gates, because this is the only capable portal. But he was not heard and the black gates are broken.

Let the loser, Guardian does not curse anyone and continues to gloat. He with a grin tells Avatar that let Britain be saved, but now there is no one to protect his native land. Thinking if he made the right choice, the avatar leaves the hall with fragments of black gate.

This time there is nothing to say about the character generator. Because he is not. There are only two lines: name and floor. No distribution of skills, no gypsies, shaman or zigmund Freud. All this went from the license plates. From this moment you start for a character with a pre -planned set.

As for the game itself, it is both close to its roots in the form of the first four parts, and has developed a series of elements from the fifth and sixth (for me, the fifth is the line between these stages).

On the one hand, we have an extremely attractive picture. Landscapes, environment, change of day and night along with a change in the weather, all this is done at an extremely high level. You are amazed periodically by the shadow that the clouds are discarded to the ground and smoothly flying away. And then the realization comes that the world, which visible to the eye, has a much greater depth. Yes, the buildings, walls and so on are voluminous, have several floors, and they are voluminous, but that something happens high in heaven and this is not just an insignificant picture, but a full-fledged, existing object delights. Questions “Where did the money go for the game?”And” What did so much iron required in the game?»Frozen.

The gameplay is directly … not so unequivocal.

One of the features of Ultima VII is its management, which transfers all functions to the mouse. Everything on it: movement, use of objects, viewing the environment, entering the combat mode and so on. This, on the one hand, made it possible for a more interesting experience and an extreme degree of interactivity. Each item can be raised or moved and this is not pushed (p) standing directly close to the subject + direction of the push, but simply by capturing the mouse and free movement in the available area. And the fact that you cannot take or moved is current not because of the ban, but because of weight and size (presumably). And in a compartment with the volume of objects, this turns into another interesting detail, with which you can make a working staircase from barrels, boxes, tables, chests and so on. But this management also brought problems.

This is the inventory. Free movement of things in space = free their location in the inventory. Yes, some things are joined, but not all. If you do not engage in the management of bags, then this leads to an unnecessary waste of time to search for various important things. It can be a plot item, weapons, armor, the same fucking key or a fucked food. And remember that the overload is still present. This would be a huge problem if it were impossible to buy a cart or find a carpet carpet (which is easy to find at the very beginning and which reduces the problem of Backtracking’a. He is here, he is annoying, there is nothing more to say about him), to pick up barrels and chests, to amuse them by making a “trunk” and most of the problem disappears.

And yes, the food has returned. Perhaps even more annoying than before. She kills the characters again, but not immediately, as in Ultima III, but still. Its receipt is not difficult, but use. In the first parts, the characters themselves ate food, which was found in baggage. Yes, very fast, but on your own. Now every will ask you for food right from your hands. But besides the very fact of constant climbing into bags for such a little thing, there is also a misunderstanding who wants to eat. Companions talk about this, but they do not have voice acting, and under portraits there is no designation of their status. Their hunger (and only he) can only be seen on the screen of their statistics.

Keys have the same problem. The game is not enough to have a key in her pockets, she wants to use it mandatory. But there are too many items in the game in principle, and the key takes up very little space and there are a lot of them in the game. What feeling awaits you after checking a dozen keys and understanding that none of them are suitable. Some of them, of course, are near the door they open, and sometimes you can understand that this the key is no longer needed, but this does not always happen.

Moving from the windows of the inventory to the “real” world, you cannot forget about the combat system. This is what Ultima VII adopted and developed from Ultima VI, this is her atrophied battles. Remove from Ultima VI the ability to manage companions and step -by -step and here are the battles from Ultima VII. You and the avatar, in fact, do not have control. You can tell him a specific moment when to beat and where to move. There is still magic, which, like in MD, uses only one – an avatar, and it adds control in battles, but they do not become better from this.

And here the attributes of the characters enter the battle. But not all. The magic and skill of battle added to the already standard strength, dexterity and intellect. From an increase in the first three two (and health) to improve and can also be increased directly. The increase in parameters occurs when training with coaches, each of which affects them in their own way. But it is difficult to say which of the parameters is more necessary, or rather useless. Strength also increases weight and HP;Dexterity – presumably increases, firing accuracy and battle that increases the shooting (?) and fencing;Intelligence – increases the chance of Casta and magic (manna), and only the avatar needs it. As a result, the power is the most useful, simply because of its obvious influence and usefulness for all.

But the most attractive thing in Ultima VII is the world. More competently spelled out, in which there is a lot of interesting and little superfluous – the world. It is filled with unexpected events, optional dungeons-heads, characters with its stories and quests. Yes, Ultima VI also had individual characters and optional dungeons. The latter were even in IV and V. But they were all felt less interesting and intriguing. In this triple, one could walk around the world and not meet anything interesting, nor a cave with giant bees and nudists, nor bandits who have a harness element of a magic armor. And the dungeons were only represented by slasher, in which neither the Sebn themselves nor their reward were worthy of attention. The characters in Ultima VI are not so connected with the world. They told their stories about their lives, but the minority of them has a connection with the world: their stories are forgotten and do not lead anywhere from the point of understanding of a person, or with Gameplay’s. In Ultima VII, all this works. Is it because Origin finally hired a qualified writer or because of a combination of accidents, I don’t know.

But I know for sure that Ultima VII rightfully deserves its cult status. Not because of fleshy, not because of the central topic (I take its place smaller, but from the same no less important), not because of RPG component or something like that. In a sense, it is not so important in the form of a game. Its great value in the experience that she conveyed and manages to transfer and now. Garriot and Origin all the time tried to make a sandbox in which it would be interesting to be located. They wanted to make a living world, with its natural course of time inhabiting it by people and the elaboration of the world in which all this happens.

And the main storyline somehow fades into the background, for the reasons for its simplicity and evidence. And to be honest, then who did not understand what the Brotherhood and Guardian are? And how interesting is the story in which you need to run the floor of the world again to buy a sand clock and find out that you have found them in vain? Yes, history takes the player in many interesting places and indirectly develops interesting topics, but also leaves many more. It sounds familiar, is it not true? Let me not be the person who can scatter such statements with complete confidence, but Ultima VII, by the majority is considered the ancestor of this approach.

But, unfortunately, the 1998 public had to endure even more problems with the game that hid its virtues. The excessive haste of Origin led to a huge number of bugs. Someone disappeared the keys, somewhere the walls of cities disappeared, to exit from which there was a password (protection against piracy), and new elements appeared in random places. This created a negative attitude towards the game, intensifying with game magazines, which, even if they talked about the game well, left a shade of doubt in the form of statements such as “broken masterpiece”. Origin tried to fix these problems, asking the players to send them the preservation of the game and that they will fix everything. But, again, according to information from magazines, it turned out only to the third patch.

And another problem was system requirements. They were tall, but also not completely valid. Some people wrote that even having a computer more powerful, they still had freezing, to say about the rest. A considerable part of these problems were because of the very Voodoo, which created part of the freezes and could cause the release of the game.

As you can expect, the game was not so well sold. I did not find information about accurate numbers, but some sources say that these were not the most terrible numbers. Sales were compared with Wing Commander II and Ultima Underworld and it turned out that in addition to that they were two times less and sold better. But why then “not the most terrible numbers”? Because this is not the end of their bright strip, and to the bottom, they have not reached, but, unfortunately, soon ..

Ultima VII: The Black Gate

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

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For the sake of interest, I can shed a little light on what it was for the Voodoo memory manager and why he created so many problems who wish to play the original Ultima 7.

Computer memory is a set of numbered cells. All cells have the same size of 8 bits (at present, for completely ancient computers or exotic controllers, this may not be the case). Such a cell can store a number from 0 to 255. To store and use large numbers, memory at the hardware level combines two, four or eight cells, allowing you to store values ​​up to about 64 thousand or 4 billion. For 64 bits, numbers are so large that it makes no sense to break the tongue, trying to pronounce them.

Processors rarely operate with memory data directly. Usually they require that the data be loaded into one of the registers, small memory cells located inside the processor itself. The size of these cells usually determines the processor bitterness. The first MS-DOS computers used 16-bit processors. T.e. It was convenient to turn to 64 kilobytes of memory. In computers, there were initially up to 1 megabyte memory. The problems of convenient memory appeal were solved in different ways. For IBM PC, the solution was in segmented addressing. The whole memory was cut into 64 kilobytes with slices, each of which was called a segment. The segment number was recorded in one of the special processor registers. Then you could gain access to the desired cell through a displacement, the value in the form of just the number or number recorded in another register. And it looked like this: the processor, read the meaning in memory, which is at such a displacement from the border of such and such a segment, and write it to this register for further use. Not too comfortable, but better than nothing.

Another important point is that it is convenient to work only with data located in the limit of one segment. Otherwise, you will have to constantly switch the segment and use more complex mathematics to calculate displacements. Therefore, another trick was used. Segments overlapped each other. Each new segment began with an indent of 16 bytes. This value in DOS was called paragraph. T.e. Each segment had 64 kilobytes minus 16 bytes of the previous and 16 bytes of the next segment. Together they covered 1 megabyte memory. This at the same time answers the question why using actually 32-bit addresses DOS could not use more than 1 megabyte memory.

All together was called the real regime. It exists in modern processors as a compatibility regime. Starting from 80286 Intel processor tried to add multitasking and implemented a protected regime for her. In it, not the segments number were recorded in the registers, but the selector numbers. What is the difference? And the fact that the segments of the real regime are strictly tied to physical memory addresses, thereby numbered cells. In the protected mode, the programmer is a special table, which indicates the processor how much he wants to have segments, how long and starting with what memory address should they be located. The processor remained 16-bit, so that the segment could not be more than 64 kilobytes, did not allow displacement, but if desired it could be made less.

Processor 80386 became 32-bit. Its internal registers have become 32-bit. And the protected regime was also updated by modern page addressing. They also became 32-bit. This means that the size of the segment could become up to 4 gigabytes! Of course, for compatibility in the real limb of the segments were tuned to the same 64 kilobytes. Tuned ..

And here some programmers realized that they could be stepping aside. That if you switch the processor to a protected mode, set the boundaries of segments in 4 gigabytes, and then return to real mode? The old 16-bit core code DOS will not notice anything, it uses old 16-bit registers. But the code of their program … Yes, their code could freely turn to all memory within the first 4 gigabytes. What was much more than more than ever installed on any home computer of that time. So there was an unreal regime. Truly, voodoo and black magic!

Usually this is a perversion that is nothing other than a dirty hack, the authors of Demok used. They can be understood. Cheap and angrily. And the computer for demopati can be tuned as the author of the demo. But use this in a product that should be sold to ordinary users thousands of circulations.

By that time, there were many memory management standards. EMS and XMS, which once were separate expansion boards inserted into the slots of the first IBM PC and which were now emulated using the “magic” of the protected mode using a software driver. DPMI, used in games like doom and others released in the early 90s. It was just to provide access to a program running under DOS to access capacized capabilities. Windows with his memory manager, which starting with 3.1 worked exclusively in protected mode. They all knew about each other and knew how to share memory, t.To. Everyone used a protected regime.

But this is not something that was dirty abused over the processor and required the absence of any other memory managers in general for their work. Fortunately for Origin, the user then were mostly competent. Especially gamers. Squeezing everything out of meager iron, they were familiar to have several options for downloading a computer. It was necessary to add one more. For Ultima.

But by the second half of the 90s, the Windows 98 Ball, which has become the only system. A system in which the program of unreal regime would not work. And users for whom manual spelling of configs has become a Chinese diploma.

Lich. Unless, of course, he did not change the floor. And this is not an attempt to obey a new feminite.

This is the Classic of Chekhov. 🙂 “Rounding up to this dance and looking at the nature of the window, my hat flew off.”
Having got to the lord of time, the avatar receives answers from him. Something like that.

The same. I understand that it is not for me to perform with the three at school on the Russian tutor, but here is a simple rule. The proposal breaks if the actor changes in the process without clarification in the form of a name or pronouns. Here to a comma, the actor is an avatar, after – a generator. 🙂

Or level or annihile. Something one. 🙂

But, unfortunately, the 1998 public had to endure even more problems with the game that hid its virtues.