Richard Garriott's ULTIMA II (1986)

At a time of considerable hedging by software manufacturers, Sierra On-Line were among the earliest games companies in the States to declare unconditional support for the ST, and their recent conversion of Richard Garriott's Ultima II was the first major fantasy role-playing game on the market for the new machine. It is therefore of some interest to examine both how the new 16-bit version compares with its predecessors, and how well it has succeeded in adapting the game to the ST environment.

First of all, congratulations are due to Robert Heitman (who is credited with the conversion) for making full use of the ST's Gem interface in setting up the game mechanics. In general, the essentials of the game are unchanged; the plot line is the same, the maps are identical, and a slightly scaled-down version of the original icons is used. One huge improvement over the Apple version becomes apparent the moment the package is opened; whereas the 8-bit version was spread over two disks and required an extra character disk, making a total of four sides which had to be swapped around the drives, the ST version comes complete on a single disk. Once the disk is copied and booted (using the original as 'key'), no further swaps are required. Needless to say, there is also a vast improvement in the overall speed of play. 

On a high-resolution screen, the first thing that strikes one is how much more information the new version can display. On the Apple version, a 10x20 grid map took up virtually the entire screen, leaving four lines at the bottom for the movement log and current status; on the ST version, a very much larger map (on a 13x21 grid) takes up about a third of the screen. Unfortunately the extra space is not used very efficiently, the principal addition consisting of a large inventory window which is redundant for much of the time.

The principal innovation, however, is the mouse-driven nature of
the ST version. Movement is achieved by placing the mouse arrow in front of the player icon in the direction desired and pressing the left button; the arrow can then be moved around in any direction, with the icon tagging faithfully behind. One immediately obvious bonus is that diagonal movement is now possible. Having done away with the need for arrow keys, Heitman also ingenuously dispenses with multiple keyboard commands by assuming that at every stage of the game there will be a single obvious 'preferred action' which can be initiated by pressing the left mouse button.

For example, since there is no useful transaction with non-playing characters (NPCs) outside of towns, it is assumed that when meeting with one in the wilderness the only likely intention will be combat; the automatic action is therefore Attack. Similarly, upon going through a locked door the action is “Open door with key” (if carried), on reaching a town or castle icon the action becomes “Enter”, and so forth. The pre-programmed reaction can be modified, at least as far as transaction with NPCs is concerned, by pulling down the "Intent" menu which offers a choice of "Transact", "Attack", "Steal" and "Bribe".

The slickness of the all-mouse driven conversion obviously owes something to the relatively unsophisticated nature of Ultima II, and it will be interesting to see how Origin go about converting its much more complex successors. In this case, however, it makes for a very fast game - almost too fast, indeed, since by pointing the arrow and keeping the button pressed down a character can surge halfway across a continent, crash through a succession of combats and enter a town with almost no thought or effort on the player’s part.

Turning now to some thoughts on actual game play, the first thing to consider is initial character creation. A choice of four professions is offered: fighter, thief, cleric and wizard, with only the last two having access to spells - in my opinion, one of the weaknesses of the original scenario, given that this is a single-character game. However, spells can only be cast in dungeons, and as it becomes obvious after a while that going into dungeons is virtually unnecessary (only one item of any importance is to be discovered there, and even that can be found elsewhere, though in small quantities), it makes more sense to opt for fighter or thief. By the same token, it is pointless to build up either intellect or wisdom, as these abilities are of use only in casting spells.

Transactions are limited to comments by NPCs, and the vast majority of these are inane - on the other hand, the few clues provided should be carefully noted. Gold is of critical importance, as almost any progress you make will depend on your finances. Apart from simply exploring, your first concern after surviving the first few hours and learning how to restore hit points will be increasing your abilities. This can only be done by finding one specific NPC in an Earth city and offering to bribe him; the results of this rather irrational transaction are random, and you may well want to revert and start over when you see the results. Concentrate on building up Strength, Stamina and Agility, plus a small amount of Charisma which will get you a better price on a few essential items. Speaking of reverting to a previous position, remember that every time you go through a time gate or enter a site, your game is updated. 

The next major problem will be getting access to the various means of transport, which involves careful exploration of all available sites. You will, of course, need a supply of keys, and getting these requires some nasty fighting - the only relatively safe way of surviving the process is to pick a fight somewhere where you have a quick escape route lined up, before reinforcements arrive. Keep in mind that the most powerful vehicle (the space ship) also requires the ultimate in personal protection, or you could become raspberry jam.

You will need a specific item in hand before you can approach the endgame with any hope of survival; getting authorisation for this requires a very long journey, and you can get the first clues about it from clerics in any castle. Precise information as to location is available elsewhere. Once you have secured authorisation from the right person, you must claim the item from another NPC. Unfortunately, an inconsistency in the scenario suggests that what this particular NPC does is give you a clue as to its whereabouts - in fact, you have to get the item from him. This being an extremely venal game, try Bribery.

There it is: an extremely efficient conversion of a classic game which, though in some ways dated by comparison with its more sophisticated successors, has been given a new lease of life thanks to the speed and power of the ST. 

First published in ST User, Summer 1986 
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder

Two Games from Epyx (1986)

Epyx Software recently released two colour-only games for the Atari ST: Rogue and the Temple of Apshai Trilogy. Rogue has a long and honourable history as a mainframe programmed game, but both these games were originally designed for the Commodore 64, and frankly, despite boasting greatly enhanced graphics, it shows. Both are, by modern fantasy RPG standards, unsophisticated dungeon crawls in which a single character roams through various levels, clobbering monsters and collecting treasure. There's literally nothing more to it than that, since whatever magic comes into the game is tied to objects such as weapons or potions - you don't actually get to cast any spells.

Temple of Apshai is a real non-starter; the graphics are primitive and the levels boringly repetitive, while the ‘trilogy’ bit in the title simply means that the levels are split up into three groups (a total of 12 levels). You very quickly realise that all you can do is march up and down, bopping creatures (mostly giant insects) on the nose and running for home when supplies get low. None of the monsters are at all impressive, and there isn't even much in the way of progression from one level to another; this was confirmed when, out of sheer boredom, I ran a roughly fourth-level character through some of the twelfth-level rooms and got him out again in one piece. Apshai could, I'm afraid, be described as Packman with none of the excitement.

Though very far from state-of-the-art, Rogue is a much better game than its stablemate. The original game's ASCII characters have been replaced with graphics - a touch cutesy but quite competent, with a nice line in shadows (look for the hovering bat, for example). An elegant touch is the fact that every time you descend a level, the map of the dungeon, its contents and monsters are generated afresh, so there's no point doing any mapping; you can switch from large-scale view to an overall map of the level which takes up the entire screen, except for a window on the right which shows all your possessions in the form of icons. 

A large number of characters can be generated and saved, but be warned - if your character is killed, his file vanishes even if previously saved. The only way of surviving to the bottom of the 26-level plus stack is to keep a blank disk in the second drive and copy a character file over every time you save. Things get tougher and tougher as you move down, and I can guarantee that making it all the way through without several ‘resurrections’ is impossible.

There are lots of magical items to collect, the most important being rings, staffs and scrolls. You will need a Scroll of Identify in order to find out what most of these items do, particularly as their function is randomly allocated each time a new character is created; a ruby ring might protect you in one game, but in another it might simply infuriate monsters. However, within each character game it pays to experiment and keep notes.

Probably the most essential item is a Ring of Searching, without which you keep falling into traps and missing secret doors. Next you will need a good selection of long-range and offensive staves, of which my favourites are ‘Teleport Monster Away’ and the Staff of Polymorph, which changes the monster type (though you may, of course, get one that's even nastier). Staves have a limited number of charges, so go easy on them. Also crucial is a ‘Make Visible’ ring, without which phantoms remain invisible but still lethal.

Your way back up to a higher level is magically blocked until you reach level 26 and find the Amulet of Vendor, which allows you to travel in either direction. The best strategy, therefore, is to thoroughly explore every room on the way down in order not to miss any important items; once the amulet is secured, you can hightail it back to the upper levels and renew your armoury before plunging ever deeper.

The program includes a Guildmaster’s Hall of Fame which lists the top 10 characters, including name, rank, amount of gold gathered and an icon of the monster which killed them. Alas, this is a posthumous honour, and the only way of getting on the list is by being killed or resigning - which amounts to the same thing, since in both cases the save file is wiped. The ranking, incidentally, is based on the number of gold coins carried.

Rogue is clearly not very strong on plot or imagination, but it's fun in small doses and might even become addictive after a while. I can recommend it as a kind of ‘solitaire’ RPG, something to play for a few rounds in between more serious pursuits; as such, it could keep you amused on and off for a long time. Oh, and beware of the Drain Life staff - it drains it from you, not from the monster. Nice touch, that. 

First published in ST User, Autumn 1986
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder