Although the first Ultima game was an Apple II original, the Commodore 64 version of this early RPG is arguably the best-known. Re-made and released in 1986, the C64 version of Ultima [one] features colourful graphics and absorbing gameplay that is pretty much identical to the Apple II remake.
Continue reading Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, Commodore 64
This first game in Richard Garriott‘s Ultima series was initially released for the Apple II in 1981 by California Pacific Computer and was originally called just “Ultima“. It was later re-named as “Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness” when it was re-made and re-released by Origin Systems in 1986. This 1986 re-code features improved graphics and gameplay, with a number of significant changes made to bring the game up-to-date with market conditions in the mid 1980s, and that is the version I’m featuring here. If you want to see the original 1981 version (and an explanation of how to play the game), click here.
Continue reading Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, Apple II
Released in 1983 by Sierra On-Line, Ultima on the Atari 8-bit is more archaic and frustrating than the original Apple II version. And it looks pretty awful too, with a real lack of colour – especially in towns where the game is in monochrome unless you play on a machine (and monitor) that supports “artifacting“. In artifacting mode the dungeon and town graphics look similar to Apple II graphics, but they don’t really take advantage of the Atari‘s superior graphics capabilities.
The original 1981 Apple II version of Richard Garriott‘s Ultima was the first version of Ultima ever released. It was published by California Pacific Computer and is a stripped-down version of the more widespread re-release version put out by Origin Systems in 1986 (which can be seen here).
Darkest Dungeon is a Roguelike Role-Playing Game in which you control a party of four heroes who must fight monsters through a series of procedurally-generated dungeons. It was developed by Red Hook Studios and was first released in 2016. It is currently (at the time of writing) available for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, iPad, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS Vita and XBox One.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is a turn-based level-grinder, developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts in 2004, loosely-based on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. It is NOT based on J.R.R. Tolkien‘s famous novel, because the rights for the book were held by Vivendi Universal Games at the time, although Electronic Arts did hold the rights to make video game adaptations of the New Line Cinema films. Which is a little confusing, but the plot in this game is a non-canonical story that runs parallel to the narrative of the films. Anything from the novels not specifically mentioned or depicted in the films could not be represented in this game.
Continue reading The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, GameCube
Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean was developed exclusively for the Sega Saturn by Sunsoft and first released in 1996 in Japan. A brilliant English language translation, by Working Designs, was released in North America in 1997 (actually the first Albert Odyssey title ever to be translated into English).
Albert Odyssey is a quintessential Japanese turn-based RPG, full of weapons, armour, spells, magic and combat, actually laugh-out-loud, funny humour, and imaginative boss battles and encounters.
Continue reading Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean, Sega Saturn
The Legend of Oasis is the Saturn-exclusive sequel (and prequel) to Beyond Oasis on the Megadrive/Genesis. It’s also known as “The Story of Thor 2” in some territories. The game was developed by Ancient and published by Sega in 1996.
The sequel to Shining Soul – Shining Soul II – was once again developed by Nextech and Grasshopper Manufacture and was first released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. It’s another real time RPG, only this time it’s more detailed and challenging than the previous game.
Shining Soul is an isometric RPG with real time combat, developed by Nextech and Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Sega in Japan and Europe and Atlus in North America. It was first released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002.
The King of Grabs 