I set up to grinding for cash again and managed to get my party better equipped and more experienced in the process managing to level up some of my characters. That said, it runs Ultima 1 perfectly and has savestates so it’s perfect for my purposes other than the controls. It appears stable but isn’t the most user friendly of interfaces for this purpose which huge onscreen buttons, none of which appear to have any keyboard shortcuts. There aren’t a whole lot to choose from – I went for Mu which emulator PalmOS 4 devices so far (a generation before my Tungsten). Having ruled out real hardware to play this game, I looked around for emulator options. Assuming that Ultima 3 turns out to be a faithful port, I expect that 1 & 2 were afterthoughts knocked out quickly using the same engine. It’s great to have these games finally show up after all these years but I don’t think I’ll be rushing to play #2 for all that. It’s arguably the worst version of Ultima 1 I’ve played, with the only competition being the Apple II original (purely due to the excruciating slow speed). Yes, it’s playable but comes across as a beta version which hasn’t had all those elements added yet and still needs the combat balancing. The only addition was the 4 person party. No 3D dungeons, no space section, no quests, no progression of technology, no chasing Mondain around as a bat. In the end, it is actually a simpler game than that Apple II original. Going into this I was expecting an enhanced version with some new elements on what is clearly vastly more powerful hardware than an Apple II. A single box of reward text is my prize before being returned to the menu in one of the most anti-climatic RPG endings I’ve ever come across.Īnd that’s Ultima 1 for Palm OS down. Mondain is literally the weakest enemy in the game. This had been automatic prior to this point.Īnd then the final battle reverts to the usual combat screen and he takes one shot and goes down. Eventually I figure out that I have to choose to attack in the menu. …then get mocked by Mondain (with typo) when I walk into him. Since I’m here I take the gem, wiping out half the party in the process… My cleric is still level 1, I think my fighter is all of level 4 so I’m not exactly over powered. I’m wondering how this is going to show up in my inventory but after fighting my way out, there it is sat around outside the castle.Ĭompared to the Ultima I know, I’m still a gem down but the time machine does actually work and transport me to the end encounter with Mondain, much to my surprise. She just gives me a time machine on the spot. When I open the door to rescue the princess, I don’t need to get her outside the castle (or fly around in space).

I walk into the jester to get his key, and all the guards attack as expected. I kind of guessed as much but took the opportunity to rescue the princess while here. Time to see Lord British’s and level up.Īfter levelling up, he drops me a hint about the time machine. This made a massive difference with grinding in the nearby dungeon.Ī lot of chest thievery later, I’d maxed out what I took to be the important stats and done a little more exploring in the dungeon, finding a third gem on floor 4 in the process. I upped the dexterity on my thief to start with. I was expecting the equivalent of the Ultima 3 shrines and this this would raise one particular stat but it allows me to pick any I like and raise them by something like 3 points for every 100 gold. After only a couple of minutes exploring last night, I found a very welcome sight in the form of a shrine on a little island. I was sceptical about how much further I’d get with this game at the end of the last post.

Ultima iii gloves