Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon was once again developed by Westwood Studios (aka Westwood Associates) and first published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1992. It is the sequel to the classic Eye of the Beholder, which came out the previous year.
Continue reading Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon, Amiga
Eye of the Beholder for the Amiga was developed by Westwood Studios and first published by SSI in 1991. I believe it came out at the same time as the MS-DOS version, so is one of the original versions. And it truly is a brilliant game.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Christmas Chronicles is an enhanced version of Holiday Hare ’98 and was developed by Epic [Mega]Games and published by Project Two Interactive in 2000. It apparently only saw a limited release initially, due to the publisher going out of business, but it has since been re-released on GOG.com as part of the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection.
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Ultima VIII: Pagan is the eighth entry in the Ultima series and was developed and published by Origin Systems for PC MS-DOS in 1994. Like its predecessor (The Black Gate), Pagan goes for a darker, more mature tone than most of the previous Ultima games, and it is also more puzzle and action-oriented.
Serpent Isle is an oddity in the Ultima series in that it is a direct sequel to the previous game – Ultima VII: The Black Gate – which uses the same game engine, but with a few enhancements. It was published by Origin Systems in 1993 and only ever appeared on the PC, running under MS-DOS.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh game in the Ultima series and the first part of the “Age of Armageddon” trilogy, and was first released for PC MS-DOS by Origin Systems in 1992. The game is highly-rated among RPG fans and even series creator, Richard Garriott, describes Ultima VII as “the most masterfully-executed” of the Ultima series.
Ultima VI: The False Prophet is the sixth game in the Ultima series and the third and final game in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy. It was first released by Origin Systems in 1990 and the PC MS-DOS version was the original target platform. There is no Apple II version of this game. It is also the most complex game in the series so far.
The PC MS-DOS version of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was first published by Origin Systems in 1988 and it is arguably the best version of this classic RPG available for any system.
The MS-DOS version of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was ported by James Van Artsdalen and first published on the PC by Origin Systems in 1987. It uses 16-colour EGA graphics, which is at least a step up from the previous three (un-patched) Ultimas, which used four-colour CGA graphics. It’s also currently – at the time of writing – available individually FOR FREE on GOG.com, or as a part of a paid-for package with episodes five and six. And it’s well worth playing, even today – some 35 years after the game’s original release. Which demonstrates just how good it is.
Originally released by Sierra On-line in 1983, the PC MS-DOS version of Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress is pretty much the same as the Apple II original – except for the graphics which are four-colour CGA and look pretty awful. Thankfully there’s a fan-made patch, by The Exodus Project, that upgrades the graphics and fixes a few bugs and that’s the version I’m showing here. Note that at the end of this sequence of screenshots I’ve also shown the CGA version of the game for comparison.
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