Ultima VI: The False Prophet Retrospective

[u/DoubleTFan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aQB1gIdV_Y

[u/DjiDjiDjiDji]

There's something really interesting about watching devs emboldened by the advances in computer tech launch into their biggest project yet, only to be blinded by ambition and leave the final product to be a bit of a mess filled with feature creep, obvious cut content and bugs out the wazoo... in 1990. Things never really change. Bonus points for the part where they had to somehow send bugfix patches before widespread network access

[u/RogueJello → u/DjiDjiDjiDji]

The first Civilization game shipped with a show stopping bug for EGA adapters. (Worked fine in VGA) I thought I got a bad copy. Nope massive bug and no way to get a patch.

[u/DeliciousPangolin → u/RogueJello]

Lands of Lore had a bug in the original version where you could lose a critical item near the start of the game and then - many hours later - discover that you couldn't finish the game. I think it did get patched, but downloading patches wasn't exactly widespread in 1993.

[u/RogueJello → u/DeliciousPangolin]

Yeah I remember. Seems like some places would send you a disk in the mail? Maybe also some BBSes? My memory is hazy.

[u/Mikeavelli → u/RogueJello]

Yup, with the bigger companies you could send a letter and get a patch disk in the mail. Computer game stores would sometimes stock patch disks as well.

[u/RogueJello → u/Mikeavelli]

Oh interesting, I don't remember ever seeing a patch disk at a computer store, but then again Civilization is the only game I remember having such a terrible problem. I'm sure games back then had a variety of issues, I just don't remember ever having one that made the game unplayable.

[u/APeacefulWarrior → u/[deleted]]

Such a foundational series. Lord British was way ahead of his time.

[u/VagrantShadow → u/APeacefulWarrior]

For me Ultima and later the D&D Goldbox games really brought me to the world of western rpgs. Bear in mind, I didn't play these games but rather watched my older cousin playing them, even still, just watching them, with the simple graphics and animation, these games were captivating. There was this real sense of adventure in the game, even if it didn't look like there was on screen.

Still to this day, I think back to watching cousin play Curse of the Azure Bonds and it can just make me smile. That game is real special for me.

I tip my hat to both Ultima and those amazing D&D games that SSI made.

[u/[deleted] → u/VagrantShadow]

Curse of the Azure Bonds rocks hard. I got the gold box games on a cd in like 1995 and that’s the only one I managed to fully complete.

[u/TravUK → u/APeacefulWarrior]

We don't talk about Shroud of the Avatar.

[u/MisterTruth → u/[deleted]]

I love me some good long-form YT content and boy howdy does Majuular deliver the goods

[u/ACardAttack → u/[deleted]]

I love his deep dives into random rpgs. Im not a huge Ultima fan, but I've enjoyed his videos on them

[u/FuneralBiscuit → u/[deleted]]

He really has skyrocketed to one of my most favorite YTers. He and Mandalore are two people who I drop everything for when they release a new video.

[u/SPorterBridges → u/[deleted]]

Similarly, here's a drive-by shout out to The Digital Antiquarian's write-up on Ultima VI. Dude's been running a blog devoted to covering classic computer games on a regular basis for the past 13 years. And doing a fine job of it.

[u/TheMoneyOfArt → u/SPorterBridges]

Specifically he is covering the history of adventure, computer role-playing, and related games and media in chronological order. It's an incredible effort, and his writing is very enjoyable

[u/NeroIscariot12]

I love this dude's videos but his voice and his presentation style is so calm and soothing, he always puts me to sleep lmao. I still haven't finished his Ultima V video yet. Oh well, time to start binging again (and fail again).

[u/FuneralBiscuit → u/NeroIscariot12]

I watched this one last night and fell asleep. I woke up this morning, put it on, and fell asleep again. Woke up this afternoon, put it on, and actually finished it. This about par for the course on all his videos but I like it that way lol

[u/HeresiarchQin]

I love Majuular's videos. A bit of pity that the strange Ultimate 6 SNES port was not mentioned as that was my first Ultima experience haha.

Can't wait to see his retrospective of Ultima 7 and SI, with how dark they were and also basically the swan song of the series.

[u/BenjaminRCaineIII]

I know Ultima VII is the crowning achievement of this series, but VI holds a special place for me. I guess it was partially just the point in time that I got to experience it. I played the earlier Ultimas, and loved how with each entry, you could see the incremental improvements in the game design. But the leap from V to VI was gigantic. I still remember playing it and leaving the starting town for the first time and realizing that there was no jumping out of the town and into a zoomed-out overworld map. The entire overworld was one singular, gigantic map and you seamlessly moved in and out of different locations. It just blew my mind.

[u/dizzyelk → u/BenjaminRCaineIII]

I feel that no rpg world has felt as alive as Ultima VII's did. Just watching people open and close shutters depending on the weather and lighting the streetlights at night or being able to watch the baker making bread. Nothing has come close since.

[u/Superbunzil → u/dizzyelk]

So many super esoteric details too

Sherry the mouse like clock work will tell a bed time story in real time in the nursery in castle Britannia depending on the day of the week will change the story too

[u/Acoha]

Majuular’s videos are incredible and this retrospective series is even more so. To anyone that’s interested in old school RPGs, this channel is a must watch.

[u/danwin]

This is a really well produced and researched video essay. Love to see essays with actual work put into them