Ultima The Ultima Underworld I & II Thread

[octavius]

Congrats on finishing it, glad you enjoyed. It really is a mighty good game.

It's the third time I finish it, actually.
Fortunately it was along time since I played it last and I remembered very little of the details, so it was almost as fun exploring the Abyss this time as it was the first time.

I hope you enjoyed the sound!

Well, it didn't detract from the enjoyment, like the Soundblaster effects did. But even with Roland emulation, the sound is still rather weak compared to contemporary Amiga games, or Doom which was released a year later.
Doom had fantastic sound, while I think the sound is the weakest part of Ultima Underworld.

 

[Sceptic]

Fortunately it was along time since I played it last and I remembered very little of the details, so it was almost as fun exploring the Abyss this time as it was the first time.

Lucky you

Doom had fantastic sound, while I think the sound is the weakest part of Ultima Underworld.

Actually Doom was released almost 2 years later, and these 2 years were the biggest jump in computer game sound since 1988: the move to the Sound Canvas for music, and the use of digitized sound. So comparing the sound of both games is REALLY unfair.

 

[octavius]

Doom had fantastic sound, while I think the sound is the weakest part of Ultima Underworld.

Actually Doom was released almost 2 years later, and these 2 years were the biggest jump in computer game sound since 1988: the move to the Sound Canvas for music, and the use of digitized sound. So comparing the sound of both games is REALLY unfair.

OK. I don't much about the history of sound in games.
But I remember digitized sound, or "sampling", was something that came around 1985 in the music industry. And I had the same sound card when playing Doom for the first time, as when I played UU for the first time.
And UU does have nice and clear speech, so why not sound effects of the same quality?

Normally I don't care much about sound, and actually turn it off on most older turn based CRPGs or strategy games, but for a 1st person real time game the sound is important for the immersion.

Anyway, even with the Soundblaster sound Ultima Underworld is still on my top 10 list of favourite games.
A near perfect game. I wonder how it would have turned out if had been released a few years later, with sound of Doom quality, being able to swim and explore under water, and being accessible (hardware wise) to more people?

 

[Jaesun]

And UU does have nice and clear speech, so why not sound effects of the same quality?

As hilarious as it sounds, back in the day, the NUMBER 1 cost concern was how much floppies a game would be on. The more floppies == more expensive. Which is why you see so much compression prevalent in older games. Additional digital sound effects would have added more space. And like for example, the cut down Serpent Isle Intro. They had to cut parts of it JUST for mere floppy space consideration.

The cost of floppies were also a factor in the demise of Origin, even before they signed a deal with SATAN.

 

[Infinitron]

A near perfect game. I wonder how it would have turned out if had been released a few years later, with sound of Doom quality, being able to swim and explore under water, and being accessible (hardware wise) to more people?

Shockingly enough, the logical evolution of Ultima Underworld, if you take it out of the dungeons, is...something like The Elder Scrolls.

Although of course LGS would have done a better job.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

MMXI I would brofist you a hundred times if I could (and octavius for creating this thread). Not only do the sound effect in the game work properly now, but also the music sounds absolutely gorgious with roland emulation.

I've been wondering though, is there any possibility to lower the music volume in comparison with the ingame sounds? As it is now, I barely hear the soundeffects because the music volume is too high (this has nothing to do with the roland emulation though, it was this way before).

 

[Gord]

I've been wondering though, is there any possibility to lower the music volume in comparison with the ingame sounds? As it is now, I barely hear the soundeffects because the music volume is too high (this has nothing to do with the roland emulation though, it was this way before).

There's this topic over at GOG on how to (manually) setup sound in the GOG version to fix various issues with sound, including midi used for effects and volume issues.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Thanks bro, I'll have a look at this.

 

[MMXI]

I've been wondering though, is there any possibility to lower the music volume in comparison with the ingame sounds? As it is now, I barely hear the soundeffects because the music volume is too high (this has nothing to do with the roland emulation though, it was this way before).

Yeah, I've noticed this too. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to do this. Sound effects seem to be played in the same way as the music, so unless the game itself lets you toggle different volumes (and it doesn't as far as I know) then there's not really any way to pull this off.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Yeah, google search also hasn't brought up anything useful, it seems this problem can't be solved. Too bad, but on the other hand it's not such a big deal, doesn't spoil the enjyoment of the game like the piano sound effects did.

 

[octavius]

Personally I find the music distracting in single character first person view games, so I turned it off in Ultima Underworld. If the music played only in dialogue mode I'd keep it, though.

 

[Sceptic]

Not only do the sound effect in the game work properly now, but also the music sounds absolutely gorgious with roland emulation.

It does, doesn't it. I was floored the first time I ran this game with Roland music.

I've been wondering though, is there any possibility to lower the music volume in comparison with the ingame sounds? As it is now, I barely hear the soundeffects because the music volume is too high (this has nothing to do with the roland emulation though, it was this way before).

Yeah it's not an emulation problem. The reason is that, since both sounds and music are created by the module, their respective volumes are all controlled by the same controls (whether it's the MIDI volume in DOSBox, or even the volume control on the Roland module itself if you were using a real one). I think the only way to really separate them would be to have an actualy Roland MT-32 (not the CM-32L), find which part is used for sounds and control the volume of that part individually, but I don't even know if it's possible, and you'd then be missing out on the CM-32L-specific sound effects. So even if you could do it, it's not worth it.

Incidentally, you'd probably be having the same problem with SB mode (again whether real or emulation) since both sound and music would then be made by the OPL chip and subject to the same restriction and lack of individual control.

Personally I find the music distracting in single character first person view games, so I turned it off in Ultima Underworld. If the music played only in dialogue mode I'd keep it, though.

I can't think of any game that I really like but where I dislike the music (closest is maybe AP), but I find UW's music to be really awesome so there's no way I'd ever want to turn it off.

 

[yellowcake]

Personally I find the music distracting in single character first person view games, so I turned it off in Ultima Underworld. If the music played only in dialogue mode I'd keep it, though.

Dude youre missing a treat. Music in UW (especially in hardware midi) is awesome.

 

[RK47]

The map music is still great after all this years. I still remember how the tune goes in my head.

 

[Infinitron]

Sorry for necroposting, but does Ultima Underworld require some before-hand experience with Ultima series or universe?

I haven't played Ultima games other than 4th, 8th and Online...

Ultima 4 should be enough.

 

[SCO]

No, except knowing what the runes mean (they're words) helps.

 

[Taxnomore]

No experience is needed. Ultima Underworld was developped as a separate universe before they slapped the Ultima license on it back when it was a seller. It actually is weirdly incosistent with the other games. There are a couple of things there that remind of Ultima (main character is the Avatar), but that is about it.

Ultima Underworld 2, however, is deeply anchored as an Ultima VII sequel.

The irony is that Ultima IX was supposed to include UW1 in the canon, with the encounter of a very special enemy as a Guardian's pawn.

 

[Infinitron]

No experience is needed. Ultima Underworld was developped as a separate universe before they slapped the Ultima license on it back when it was a seller. It actually is weirdly incosistent with the other games. There are a couple of things there that remind of Ultima (main character is the Avatar), but that is about it.

That's not entirely true. Sir Cabirus built a colony dedicated to the Virtues and there are all kinds of Eight Virtues-related things in the game.

 

[Taxnomore]

Yes. It appears in a few dialog, it is mentioned, there are ankhs around and object dedicated to eight virtues, but that's the whole stretch of it. It is not a virtue story, it ignores the whole Ultima lore and has been subsequently ignored. They brought back lizardmen and dwarves out of nowhere, for richard's sake.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I started playing Ultima with Ultima Underworld, and afterwards thought how lucky I was that I did so. As mentioned, it only covers the philosophy, symbolism and idealogy of Ultima and the Virtues, and the ret-cons (like the return of dwarves, lizards and goblins) was explained in a... satisfactory manner in the manual.

The only thing I did NOT like about the story and plot (besides the Baron being a total numbskull who doesn't recognize the six-time savior of Britannia in person) was that the survivors of the colony after the game ends were all sent to Dungeon Destard. In Ultima VII that place has more Draco Nobilis than you can shake a stick at.

 

[RK47]

It's an alternate universe to me.
I never really put much thought in UW series having a lot of 'tie-in' with the plot. Especially the first one.
Although there is several nod to it like Guardian's invasion of Britain taking place in UW2 while the rest of the cast is trapped in the LB's castle.

 

[octavius]

Not a single dedicated thread to this game on this monocled forum?
Well, now we have.
There is a Let's play that looks promising from just reading the first page, though.

I decided to skip Ultima 7 on my play list since I just couldn't take the UI and too much of the game engine revolving around irrelevant item interaction, so after reading Ophidian Dragon's rather short blog about it, and Elzair's abandoned Let's Play, I know much more about the story leading up the UU2 than when I first played it 15+ years ago.
I remember it didn't grab me quite as much as UU1 and I never completed it. I think it was partly due to not being up to date on the Ultima story, since I hadn't played U5 to U7, and partly because some of the worlds were a boring, like the weird alien world with too many "rubber balls" respawning, and the arena world with too many armoured human fighters to fight.
But I remember really liking the Lost City, an idea which Looking Glass also used in the Thief games.

The poor sound (if you were stuck with a Soundblaster) was the only thing I disliked about UU1. It has been improved in UU2 and even with Soundblaster sound hitting a wall with a sword now actually sounds like hitting a wall with a sword.

I wonder how close I was to finishing it the first time? Time to find out...

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hm, this thread is kind of relevant to my interests. I've recently thought about checking out UW2, but gone ahead with Arx Fatalis instead. Still, might play it anyway afterwards.

Can anyone tell me how it compares to UW1 in the big picture? Or even Arx? For reference, I thought UW1 was pretty neat-o, but had a hard ragequit somewhere on a level chockful of fire elementals (when I was checking some articles later on I found out I forgot to grab or forge or whatever some firewalking boots earlier, but the elemental mobs themselves were so motherfucking annoying I doubt walking on lava would have changed my experience much) and never came back.

 

[Excidium]

Can anyone tell me how it compares to UW1 in the big picture? Or even Arx? For reference, I thought UW1 was pretty neat-o, but had a hard ragequit somewhere on a level chockful of fire elementals (when I was checking some articles later on I found out I forgot to grab or forge or whatever some firewalking boots earlier, but the elemental mobs themselves were so motherfucking annoying I doubt walking on lava would have changed my experience much) and never came back.

Boots are for fags. Just cast protection from fire.

 

[GarfunkeL]

UW2 is bigger and better in pretty much every aspect.