As a big fan of the PC version, you were spot on about the SNES version being like an advertisement. Actually looks cool, did more justice for it then spoony did.
@@FallicIdol Yupp, with how he sadly succumbed to mental illness and acting like a narcissist later on, the just very genuine feelings he showed in his Ultima retrospective in hindsight should maybe have been a warning sign. It definitely made his videos genuine and impressive, but the realisation it was not just his Spoony persona but he himself that got that worked up over the ending was probably giving a glimpse into the depths yet to come. A real tragedy, in my opinion. It *did* make it possible for him to convey how stupid the ending to the series was in an unparalleled way, but turns out being *that* invested into a video game series was actually one of the symptoms of underneath it all not being mentally healthy at all.
It's not really a port. It's like if you remade The Godfather Part II as a 25 minute Three Camera sitcom, and that sitcom was just OK. If you're only familiar with console games you might not realize just how complex PC RPGs were during this peak time (before they died in the FPS/RTS era). In 1992, Ultima VII was the absolute most complex PC DOS game ever made. A game whose technical needs basically busted PCs at the time. It was the toughest game to get working at the time even with the fastest machines because of (DOS STUFF). In order to play the game without using a custom DOS boot disk and had to find a smaller mouse driver. I don't think you have an idea of what this game did. This was a game that kept track of the placement of every single PC in the game and allowed you to kill all of them but exactly one. With a cheat, you could also put all of them and every piece of terrain in your backpack. There was no way to make this work on the SNES, but instead of doing something like remaking the plot in the Ultima VI engine or a standard console engine, they made an action RPG. You lose the party, you lose the items, you lose most of the NPCs, you lose the level of freedom. Great Console RPGs were designed with the limitations of Consoles, and this game seems to have been made just to fit an Ultima VII flavored game on a console.
Oh boy, yes, i was quite young and while I did understand some basics of what was happening in DOS just from also gaming a lot, i remember my older brother and my father tinkering with and talking a lot about how complicated Ultima 7 was to run. It was one of the few games which I couldn't just easily install myself if I wanted to play it and it didn't run on the old PC I later inherited from siblings anyway. Still was one of my favourites, actually just flat out my favourite game for a long stretch of my life. (Now, you might wonder why my family essentially let a young child play an RPG with brutal dismembered ritualistically killed corpses and where you could shag prostitutes and the answer unfortunately is that insufficient guidance and boundaries with media was the least of the problems they had in the raising children department, so I think if this had any ill effects on me, they would be unnoticeable next to the bigger shit. Lesson being: Inappropriate media can be complicated and detrimental to a child's development, sure, but it will always be a small blip on the radar compared to the actual people and institutions in their life, so channel moral outrage, panic and bewilderment into the right channels. Given this is a gaming video I am probably preaching to the choir, but I did have debates over this before, where a friend wanted to tell me my messed up self came from being exposed to the wrong media too early, while sidestepping my otherwise messed up family and upbringing. Now realising that experience is also probably why i pre-emptively wrote out this unrelated, unnecessary rant, but I'll just keep it, sry for that one)
I know I was one of those folks that spent day in and day out trying to get the damn thing to start properly. Always having to get in touch with technical support. Great game just was a pain in the ass getting to run properly. I don’t miss those days. It’s kind of bitter sweet being that it was the golden age of pc gaming.
I grew up playing the PC version on DOS. Love the game! I always thought it was funny that this huge open world with dynamic weather and dynamic npc schedules was only 21 megabytes to install.
Still sort of view it is the prototype for Gothic and Elder Scrolls. Ultima Underworld arguably was too but the world design in 7 is why I think so. Timeless game, video makes me want to replay it for the hundredth time.
@@ronaldood4678 iirc, elder scrolls Arena was made specifically due to the Bethesda playing Ultima Underworld and saying "we can make something as good as this. Why aren't we making something as good as this!?"
@@dugonman8360 Bethesda took the action aspect from UU but Howard and others have said that the world-interactivity and depth in the Elder Scrolls is a direct nod to Ultima 6 and 7.
@@dugonman8360 that’s a romantic view of history. In reality they were making a gladiatorial combat game with some questing. Eventually questing became more interesting and the story was reworked. There was definite inspiration but it arrived more from happenstance rather than a drive to do something as good or better. If they’ve recently said it as you’ve said I greatly doubt that account.
A little off topic, but I just got reminded - child me in my DOS gaming days could not cope and understand how Frontier: Elite 2 could pack an entire galaxy onto a few floppy disks. I did not fully understand procedurally generated content yet, so I was in awe every time I thought about how I could just jump to any one of those star systems and there would be some (in hindsight boring, uneventful) content there. Also, the dynamic NPC schedules were the best. Some of my fondest memories I have of U7 as a child were actually entering cheat mode and creating little scenarios, like making Lord British into a server and having him serve drinks in the tavern while making the main character dance around or shit like that. Really, the power behind the cheat mode made for a meta "game within game" experience, my sister would sometimes basically use it to more or less play The Sims many years before there was anyting like it within the U7 engine. It is hard to overstate how advanced the game and engine underlying it was for the time.
If you end up wanting to try this out on PC, just as a recommendation in case you might miss it and just buy U7 from GOG or something and run it in DOSBox - there is a very good open source engine/"emulator" running U7 (and Ultima VII 2: Serpent Isle as well) called Exult. Originally, it was almost a necessity, because getting it to run in DOSBox was hell, but I think that has become easier now. But it also adds a lot of quality of life features and just stuff in general, but it does also technically not replicate the experience 100% still, with some small inconsistencies to the original. So, if you end up with an urge to do an in-depth video on Ultima VII on PC, I think knowing that Exult is much more comfortable, removes jank, but also even now has some (minor) details not being emulated correctly, could come in handy.
I used to love this then I got a PC and got to experience the actual game and it blew my mind The religion and Eliza and Abraham being a proxy for Electronic Arts is just peak foreshadowing for how much worse they'd become
One day, man, one day you will fall down the rabbit hole of playing PC RPGs. Soon. Soon. _Join us._ Addendum 8:34 *ROAST CHICKEN IN THE WALL CONFIRMED*
Ultima 7 is not an anti-relgion game, just as Ultima V was not. The Virtues of the Avatar exist alongside the Fellowship in U7, so there is the good religion of the previous 3 ultimas and the new evil religion introduced in Black Gate. Maybe this doesn't come across in the unfortunate SNES port.
Agreed, when I was introduced at 12 I took it was developed by an atheist, but looking back I just take it as a warning against religious elites being snakes who put on facades of virtue in public, which is actually something Jesus taught anyway.
@@bluedistortions The game was developed by Atheists, but the game isn't anti-religous. Atheists also made Ultima IV, the most religious secular game of all time. And of course, it is not merely the Fellowship elites that act evil in U7. Many Felloship members are openly disdainful of non-members, etc. I think the game is ultimately a critique of "Self-Help" religions like Scientology.
The game I rented and was so incredibly confused I exploded. Couldn't figure out a damn thing. Yes the instructions were printed on the paper cover insert from the rental store.
I think it's also free on GOG. Good tip to get the freebies they have on that site, it's mostly a bunch of classic PC games like a bunch of Ultimas, Eder Scrolls, Jill of the Jungle, and even first Postal now. Really great for someone who doesn't want to bother with legacy PC disc installs.
Always get the physical copies of you favourite games just for this reason. The full game and settings are not there with consoles Building a windows 95/98 pc today is cheap. Ask your neighbour they probably have a old pc in there basement or garage. Nothing like playing old games on your own vintage pc ❤🎉
Re: Kidnapping not murder Don't you know references to death were verboten in Nintendo land? 🙂 (At least then.) The list of what you couldn't do or say seemed endless, and growing. (Nope, can't say "altar", use "dais" instead.) So, basically, it was a ground up rewrite, with a lot of trimming, to get what we could into a 1 MB cartridge. (2 MB for the Japanese version, but that extra MB was almost entirely just the Kanji character library.) Viewing it as a stand-alone, Ultima inspired game is your best bet for enjoying it, IMHO.
Ha ha ha, this is the next video to play after a recent boogie plagerism video just finished and my oh ny what a palate cleanser. Your vids get me in the perfect jrpg mood
Having played it as a child (although mostly a non-voiced version due to technical limitations of our PC), it was hovering right on the border of goofy and scary with the commentary on your actions, was enjoyably disturbing and funny, would recommend.
Oh, in regards to him being worshipped by the fellowship? No it's much deeper than that, the leaders of most large, well developed religions do swear allegiance to other, demonic gods behind the scenes in secret meetings. Its a tactic introduced by Solomon in the Bible, and the Masons revere him for this to this day, along with his alleged building ability. It was these same, rich, powerful religious figures that conspired to kill Jesus and his small band of followers, seen as an outsider who actually cared about virtue.. Kind of like in Ultima.
This game was frustrating because it had so much potential. The base game engine actually isn't that bad. Given extra space on the cart and more time in the oven, this could have potentially bested the DOS version. For some reason it's a given among most that the SNES couldn't handle the port but I disagree. I can't think of anything in the base game that the SNES couldn't handle and at the time of release, carts were available with enough space to carry all of the assets. At the end of the day, cheaping out ruined this game. Absolutely ripe for a romhack, though!
The horrendous camera angle of the middle Ultima games is so off-putting for me. I don't know how anyone can handle playing it because looking at it gives me this weird sense of vertigo and unease.
As a big fan of the PC version, you were spot on about the SNES version being like an advertisement. Actually looks cool, did more justice for it then spoony did.
Spoony has a special relationship with Ultima and hated all consoles
@@FallicIdol Yupp, with how he sadly succumbed to mental illness and acting like a narcissist later on, the just very genuine feelings he showed in his Ultima retrospective in hindsight should maybe have been a warning sign. It definitely made his videos genuine and impressive, but the realisation it was not just his Spoony persona but he himself that got that worked up over the ending was probably giving a glimpse into the depths yet to come.
A real tragedy, in my opinion. It *did* make it possible for him to convey how stupid the ending to the series was in an unparalleled way, but turns out being *that* invested into a video game series was actually one of the symptoms of underneath it all not being mentally healthy at all.
@@FallicIdol Then how is he called Spoony?
It's not really a port. It's like if you remade The Godfather Part II as a 25 minute Three Camera sitcom, and that sitcom was just OK.
If you're only familiar with console games you might not realize just how complex PC RPGs were during this peak time (before they died in the FPS/RTS era). In 1992, Ultima VII was the absolute most complex PC DOS game ever made. A game whose technical needs basically busted PCs at the time. It was the toughest game to get working at the time even with the fastest machines because of (DOS STUFF). In order to play the game without using a custom DOS boot disk and had to find a smaller mouse driver.
I don't think you have an idea of what this game did. This was a game that kept track of the placement of every single PC in the game and allowed you to kill all of them but exactly one. With a cheat, you could also put all of them and every piece of terrain in your backpack.
There was no way to make this work on the SNES, but instead of doing something like remaking the plot in the Ultima VI engine or a standard console engine, they made an action RPG. You lose the party, you lose the items, you lose most of the NPCs, you lose the level of freedom.
Great Console RPGs were designed with the limitations of Consoles, and this game seems to have been made just to fit an Ultima VII flavored game on a console.
Oh boy, yes, i was quite young and while I did understand some basics of what was happening in DOS just from also gaming a lot, i remember my older brother and my father tinkering with and talking a lot about how complicated Ultima 7 was to run. It was one of the few games which I couldn't just easily install myself if I wanted to play it and it didn't run on the old PC I later inherited from siblings anyway. Still was one of my favourites, actually just flat out my favourite game for a long stretch of my life.
(Now, you might wonder why my family essentially let a young child play an RPG with brutal dismembered ritualistically killed corpses and where you could shag prostitutes and the answer unfortunately is that insufficient guidance and boundaries with media was the least of the problems they had in the raising children department, so I think if this had any ill effects on me, they would be unnoticeable next to the bigger shit. Lesson being: Inappropriate media can be complicated and detrimental to a child's development, sure, but it will always be a small blip on the radar compared to the actual people and institutions in their life, so channel moral outrage, panic and bewilderment into the right channels. Given this is a gaming video I am probably preaching to the choir, but I did have debates over this before, where a friend wanted to tell me my messed up self came from being exposed to the wrong media too early, while sidestepping my otherwise messed up family and upbringing. Now realising that experience is also probably why i pre-emptively wrote out this unrelated, unnecessary rant, but I'll just keep it, sry for that one)
I know I was one of those folks that spent day in and day out trying to get the damn thing to start properly. Always having to get in touch with technical support. Great game just was a pain in the ass getting to run properly. I don’t miss those days. It’s kind of bitter sweet being that it was the golden age of pc gaming.
I grew up playing the PC version on DOS. Love the game! I always thought it was funny that this huge open world with dynamic weather and dynamic npc schedules was only 21 megabytes to install.
Still sort of view it is the prototype for Gothic and Elder Scrolls. Ultima Underworld arguably was too but the world design in 7 is why I think so. Timeless game, video makes me want to replay it for the hundredth time.
@@ronaldood4678 iirc, elder scrolls Arena was made specifically due to the Bethesda playing Ultima Underworld and saying "we can make something as good as this. Why aren't we making something as good as this!?"
@@dugonman8360 Bethesda took the action aspect from UU but Howard and others have said that the world-interactivity and depth in the Elder Scrolls is a direct nod to Ultima 6 and 7.
@@dugonman8360 that’s a romantic view of history. In reality they were making a gladiatorial combat game with some questing. Eventually questing became more interesting and the story was reworked. There was definite inspiration but it arrived more from happenstance rather than a drive to do something as good or better. If they’ve recently said it as you’ve said I greatly doubt that account.
A little off topic, but I just got reminded - child me in my DOS gaming days could not cope and understand how Frontier: Elite 2 could pack an entire galaxy onto a few floppy disks. I did not fully understand procedurally generated content yet, so I was in awe every time I thought about how I could just jump to any one of those star systems and there would be some (in hindsight boring, uneventful) content there.
Also, the dynamic NPC schedules were the best. Some of my fondest memories I have of U7 as a child were actually entering cheat mode and creating little scenarios, like making Lord British into a server and having him serve drinks in the tavern while making the main character dance around or shit like that. Really, the power behind the cheat mode made for a meta "game within game" experience, my sister would sometimes basically use it to more or less play The Sims many years before there was anyting like it within the U7 engine. It is hard to overstate how advanced the game and engine underlying it was for the time.
PC gaming summons you, avatar.
If you end up wanting to try this out on PC, just as a recommendation in case you might miss it and just buy U7 from GOG or something and run it in DOSBox - there is a very good open source engine/"emulator" running U7 (and Ultima VII 2: Serpent Isle as well) called Exult. Originally, it was almost a necessity, because getting it to run in DOSBox was hell, but I think that has become easier now. But it also adds a lot of quality of life features and just stuff in general, but it does also technically not replicate the experience 100% still, with some small inconsistencies to the original. So, if you end up with an urge to do an in-depth video on Ultima VII on PC, I think knowing that Exult is much more comfortable, removes jank, but also even now has some (minor) details not being emulated correctly, could come in handy.
Is it weird that I still remember the load code to open the dev box in Serpent Isle?
It was /(Path) S Manimal
I would comment but deep down I know I need a haircut, and therefore cannot be trusted.
You need a haircut WHERE? XD
I used to love this then I got a PC and got to experience the actual game and it blew my mind
The religion and Eliza and Abraham being a proxy for Electronic Arts is just peak foreshadowing for how much worse they'd become
Aggressively okay video
(it was good actually)
Bom mesmo, lindo.
One day, man, one day you will fall down the rabbit hole of playing PC RPGs.
Soon. Soon. _Join us._
Addendum 8:34 *ROAST CHICKEN IN THE WALL CONFIRMED*
Ultima 7 is not an anti-relgion game, just as Ultima V was not. The Virtues of the Avatar exist alongside the Fellowship in U7, so there is the good religion of the previous 3 ultimas and the new evil religion introduced in Black Gate. Maybe this doesn't come across in the unfortunate SNES port.
Agreed, when I was introduced at 12 I took it was developed by an atheist, but looking back I just take it as a warning against religious elites being snakes who put on facades of virtue in public, which is actually something Jesus taught anyway.
@@bluedistortions The game was developed by Atheists, but the game isn't anti-religous. Atheists also made Ultima IV, the most religious secular game of all time. And of course, it is not merely the Fellowship elites that act evil in U7. Many Felloship members are openly disdainful of non-members, etc. I think the game is ultimately a critique of "Self-Help" religions like Scientology.
The Guardian sounds like pure kino
The game I rented and was so incredibly confused I exploded. Couldn't figure out a damn thing.
Yes the instructions were printed on the paper cover insert from the rental store.
Savage Empire is on PC in English.
I think it's also free on GOG. Good tip to get the freebies they have on that site, it's mostly a bunch of classic PC games like a bunch of Ultimas, Eder Scrolls, Jill of the Jungle, and even first Postal now. Really great for someone who doesn't want to bother with legacy PC disc installs.
Always get the physical copies of you favourite games just for this reason. The full game and settings are not there with consoles Building a windows 95/98 pc today is cheap. Ask your neighbour they probably have a old pc in there basement or garage. Nothing like playing old games on your own vintage pc ❤🎉
0:10 wow my eyes can't help but see this in 3D like one of those magic images at the mall in the 90s
Re: Kidnapping not murder
Don't you know references to death were verboten in Nintendo land? 🙂 (At least then.) The list of what you couldn't do or say seemed endless, and growing. (Nope, can't say "altar", use "dais" instead.) So, basically, it was a ground up rewrite, with a lot of trimming, to get what we could into a 1 MB cartridge. (2 MB for the Japanese version, but that extra MB was almost entirely just the Kanji character library.) Viewing it as a stand-alone, Ultima inspired game is your best bet for enjoying it, IMHO.
what game ost did you use here? 0:57
The super Nintendo version of Eye of the Beholder
Love your retro reviews the best, thanks for the nostalgia bro.
Ha ha ha, this is the next video to play after a recent boogie plagerism video just finished and my oh ny what a palate cleanser. Your vids get me in the perfect jrpg mood
WRL here. Just really like what you do. Yeah, it is this guy.
Spoony reference in 2022!
Could never in that game for the petty reason the odd perspective gives me headaches
That red face would scare the HELL out of me if I played this as a child lol
Give Sinistar at the arcade a try.
The guardian scares the HELL out of me now
Having played it as a child (although mostly a non-voiced version due to technical limitations of our PC), it was hovering right on the border of goofy and scary with the commentary on your actions, was enjoyably disturbing and funny, would recommend.
It would just be disturbing for me lol I'd be like "holy shit!!!"
Wish someone would map the caves and dungeons to this. Mappy doesn't have the SNES port to this.
Nice.
It's so cool
What game was GOATS at the top of tier list?
Dragon quest 5
The Ultima series was my generation's Elder Scrolls.
The Guardian is the YHVH of this game..
Huh? YHVH is the creator. Not the invader. Or is this a reference to something other than the Bible?
Oh, in regards to him being worshipped by the fellowship? No it's much deeper than that, the leaders of most large, well developed religions do swear allegiance to other, demonic gods behind the scenes in secret meetings. Its a tactic introduced by Solomon in the Bible, and the Masons revere him for this to this day, along with his alleged building ability.
It was these same, rich, powerful religious figures that conspired to kill Jesus and his small band of followers, seen as an outsider who actually cared about virtue.. Kind of like in Ultima.
@@bluedistortions Wasn't referring to anything lore wise just the huge face..
This game was frustrating because it had so much potential. The base game engine actually isn't that bad. Given extra space on the cart and more time in the oven, this could have potentially bested the DOS version.
For some reason it's a given among most that the SNES couldn't handle the port but I disagree. I can't think of anything in the base game that the SNES couldn't handle and at the time of release, carts were available with enough space to carry all of the assets.
At the end of the day, cheaping out ruined this game. Absolutely ripe for a romhack, though!
Honestly, the SNES version is pure Baboon AIDS compared to the PC version. It totally ruins it.
Ultima 7 sucks on snes but is good on pc
First!
It is extremely ironic how a game from a series that was all about spirituality and virtues be against religion.
The horrendous camera angle of the middle Ultima games is so off-putting for me. I don't know how anyone can handle playing it because looking at it gives me this weird sense of vertigo and unease.
theres 0 reason to not play the PC version of Ultima 7