Tag Archives: goblins

Ultima IX: Ascension, PC

Ultima IX: Ascension is the ninth and final instalment of the core Ultima series and was developed by Origin Systems and published for Windows-based PCs by Electronic Arts in 1999. It was the first Ultima game to use polygonal rendering in a full 3D environment.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, GameCube

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.

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Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, PlayStation

The PlayStation version of the classic Blue Sky Productions (later Looking Glass Studios) first-person RPG is unfortunately only available in Japanese, so is not easy to play for English-speaking gamers. No one has yet translated the game into English even though fans have been crossing their fingers since the game was first released way back in 1997 (24 years ago).

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The Immortal, Megadrive/Genesis

The Immortal is a legendary RPG from Electronic Arts that was originally released for the Apple IIGS, then later ported to other systems, including this 1991 Megadrive conversion which is arguably the best version of The Immortal out there.

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The Hobbit, ZX Spectrum

Written by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler, The Hobbit is a legendary text adventure, with graphics, that was published by Melbourne House in 1982.

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Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession, PC

Released in 1994, Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession was developed by DreamForge Intertainment for Strategic Simulations Inc. and was distributed by US Gold in the UK.

I remember it well because I reviewed it for PC Player magazine back in the day.

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Final Fantasy VI Advance, Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy VI Advance was released in Japan in 2006, and 2007 in English language territories. It’s a remake of the Super Nintendo original, developed by a Japanese company called Tose.

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Final Fantasy VI, Super Nintendo

Final Fantasy VI (six) is where the series started to move away from its ‘cute’ roots and into darker story-telling territory, foreshadowing the distant Final Fantasy VII. It was initially released on the Super Nintendo in 1994.

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Final Fantasy V Advance, Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy V Advance is the third Tose-developed remake for the Game Boy Advance and was first released in 2006.

Again: it uses the same refined interface and beautifully-drawn and coloured graphics of the previous two Tose remakes and somehow manages to make the Super Nintendo original look a little drab in the process.

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Final Fantasy V, Super Nintendo

Final Fantasy V (five) was released in Japan for the Super Nintendo in 1992 although it did not get an official English language translation until it was later re-released on the Sony PlayStation in 1999.

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