| ULTIMA V: WARRIORS OF DESTINY |
 
You know what, I agree a lot with Frank Zappa and Dee Snider about legislating morality. SUre they are musicians who were fallable human beings like anyone else, some with some pretty bad fobiles, but it seems with religious fanatics they forget, at least in Christianity that there was a saying "Let he without sin cast the first stone." - so you're going to lambast people with random rhetoric out of context from Corinithians or Revelations or whatever but never remember some of the most core things like the Golden Rule - treat others as you'd like to be treated? I have a feeling the fifth game, and second installment to the Avatar triology, was a response to this crap.
In Ultima V, Lord British has been lost on an expedition in a dungeon, and his "friend" Lord Blackthorne has taken over Brittania in his absense - who has been corrupted by an evil force....three Shadowlords promoting anti-virtues such as Falsehood and Cowardice - which has driven him mad, and driven Blackthorne to act like the 700 Club, PMRC, and the Washington Wives on steroids. Basically, he starts legislating morality across Brittania with some surprisingly terrifying results, and a really complex plot. Basically, the Avatar iss summoned over, this time to do some actual "Hero-ing". So every other town he and his companions Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre encounter, "an air of _________ hits thee", and then you spend your time getting pickpocketed, attacked, or run from like you're Satan incarnate, or fighting one of three Goths in a Metaphysical Tree Trunk Jail in a battle you'll never win. Basically, your core quest is to banish the shadowlords (goths), save Lord British, aand kick Blackthorne off his high horse so he can become the Ultima version of Necrosaro in the next game. Ultima V was when Richard believed his storytelling was getting good, honestly I think it was 4, though there is more of a story to 5. Ultima V has recently been revived again with the Lazarus project that turns it into a modern RPG (blech!). Me, I'll keep my 286 and Adlib upgraded copy of U5!Chicken Pox - My Experiences 
Ultima V was a game that I picked up from a pal of mine named William (the same guy I borrowed Dragon Warrior IV from). His family was predominantly Mac, but for some inexplicable reason their dad had a shelf FULL of MS-DOS big-box RPG games, including Ultima V and Ultima VI. Since I had gotten a Tandy 1000 SX very recently, I decided to start borrowing this, Ultima VI: The False Prophet, and Legacy of the Ancients. I also started "borrowing" and copying old, old, old DOS games from my Auto Shop teacher because he had an original IBM PC 5150 (taht nobody else in the class knew how to use), and a bunch of games for it - actually that's where I found out about Burger Blaster.
Those were my nights at age 13-14 in 9th grade, pop some Loverboy, Journey, or Night Ranger on the stereo, plug in my Kramer, and noodle along with while I play Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny - so I can fill the gaps waiting for the bloody floppy drive.....
(Turn Me Loose - Loverboy - starts...Doug Johnson keyboard intro commences)
Ah yes, nights at the Creepingnet household circa 1997! Just me, a Tandy 1000, a Kramer Focus 3000, and Loverboy on Vinyl by the light of a 16-color RGB monitor! I was Retro80's when most RetroWavers were still donning bowl cuts and listening to Matchbox 20 and the Goo Goo Dolls! I was rollin with Gangs in the Street while you were on Marcy Playground!...okay...enough of that...let's get on with the game. Anyway, it was the fall of 1997, and I caught Chicken Pox about a week or two before the big Marching Band contest. I had the fortune, but misfortune if you get where I'm going with this, of being in the #1 Marching band in the Southeastern United States - The Opelika High School Spirit of the South. We would march the Macy's parades and stuff like that. Anyway, I caught Chicken Pox with teh first symptoms coming after a Football game we played at on a Friday night....and I got them BAAAAAAAAAD! Honestly, I probably f***ed up putting Noxema on them thinking I just got mondo zits from sweating my ass off while playing my ass off. So of source, a full week I spent in bed, with the Tandy by my side, playing Ultima V to pass the time, bebcause I still had yet to get the 640K Memory Upgrade for the Tandy 1000 SX from Radio Shack (somehow they were still placating to their old 8088 products in the late 1990's). Now the reason I'm bringing all this up is because this gave me AMPLE time to explore Ultima V. So one particular evening I remember getting far enough into the game to where I was in some kind of secret, rather demonic looking tower, and got stuck in some room with a swing-blade where my companions were mercilessly murdered one by one as I got stuck back in that room. I also remember spending hours trying to get that bloody Magic Carpet out of Lord British's chambers at the top of Castle Brittania. I still, to this day, have not managed to pull off what is hinted at in the hint book, which is flying over the edge of the castle and leaveing on the magic carpet. Maybe that was just the author taking creative liberties, and not reall a hint (there was this HUGE purple hint book for Ultima that had walkthroughs done in the style of a Fantasy Novel, rather cool, wish I still had it). VIDEOS
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny Comparisons - EGA vs. NES Versions |
