<story><title>The Road to Ultima V</title><url>http://www.filfre.net/2016/02/the-road-to-v/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>StanislavPetrov</author><text>As an older person and an avid player of Ultima I - V this article is really interesting.  Its fascinating to, some 30 years later, get a peek behind the curtain.  My personal opinion is that Ultima IV was the pinnacle of computer gaming.  Ultima III was supremely entertaining and Ultima V was more polished and still a very enjoyable game, but Ultima IV was absolutely groundbreaking in injecting ethos into an RPG.  For any of the younger HN readers who don&amp;#x27;t mind archaic graphics, I highly recommend checking out Ultima IV.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PostOnce</author><text>This game is legally free at &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gog.com&amp;#x2F;game&amp;#x2F;ultima_4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gog.com&amp;#x2F;game&amp;#x2F;ultima_4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;it comes in a preconfigured dosbox&lt;p&gt;Ultima is to this day the single most impactful RPG ever made in terms of its influence on future games, it seems nothing new has been done since, almost.&lt;p&gt;Ultima 6&amp;#x27;s keyword-based dialogue is in my opinion superior to today&amp;#x27;s dialogue trees, some of the keywords would be highlighted in the conversation, but some you would have to come up with on your own from your adventures.&lt;p&gt;Ultima 7 has a much more detailed world than even the modern Elder Scrolls games, its breathtaking how full that world is; Elder Scrolls is still playing catch up almost 30 years later, insane!&lt;p&gt;Ultima Underworld was also tremendously groundbreaking, it&amp;#x27;s real, texture-mapped 3D (in 1992!) and does all the things you&amp;#x27;d expect from a modern RPG, which is why I am excited that &amp;quot;the band is back together&amp;quot;, so to speak, making Underworld Ascendant (no Ultima branding, Underworld was originally not an Ultima game, but was rebranded and reworked for marketing reasons)&lt;p&gt;I could ramble for hours about these old games. But I&amp;#x27;ll stop here, go and play, people. :)</text></comment>
<story><title>The Road to Ultima V</title><url>http://www.filfre.net/2016/02/the-road-to-v/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>StanislavPetrov</author><text>As an older person and an avid player of Ultima I - V this article is really interesting.  Its fascinating to, some 30 years later, get a peek behind the curtain.  My personal opinion is that Ultima IV was the pinnacle of computer gaming.  Ultima III was supremely entertaining and Ultima V was more polished and still a very enjoyable game, but Ultima IV was absolutely groundbreaking in injecting ethos into an RPG.  For any of the younger HN readers who don&amp;#x27;t mind archaic graphics, I highly recommend checking out Ultima IV.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>phodo</author><text>I couldn&amp;#x27;t agree more! If I recall, by the time I encountered Ultima IV, I had gone through dozens and dozens of games on Atari, Apple, and other platforms. I had even tried Wizardry (but although a D&amp;amp;D fan, it did not immerse me as much as the Ultimas). With the exception of the Infocom games, mostly Zork, Enchanter, Spellbreaker, nothing came even close to Ultima IV around that era, in terms of immersion and fun. I remember writing down in a notebook, every single town, and every conversation in each of those towns, for later reference, probably my first discovery of the power of analytical thinking as a kid. Ultima V was also great, but I think mostly due to the fact that it was a sequel to U4 and carried on much of the same sense of imagination, excitement and wonder. I played Akalabeth first (from a zip-lock bag), U4, U3, U2, U5 then rest of series.</text></comment>