Ultima Underworld - ADG Episode 255

[@Christopher-N]

(16:37) HINT: (for new players) If you block the rat's movement path, you can essentially usher it out the door. Once the rat is outside, close the door and take the rat's food. The rat didn't see you steal its food, and won't attack.

[@alfonszitterbacke318]

I like the idea about a dungeon so grim-dark, that stealing food from a rat while being dressed in really badly worn leather rags becomes a good idea.

[@malokegames]

I love this game. It was way ahead of its time, not just by being 3D in 1992, but also had a lot of survival elements like that not even Skyrim have today, like sleeping (and being awakened by a creature), eating, food gets rotten, you can put corn into fire to make pop-corn and so on... the jumping was really annoying in some parts, but only recently I discovered a trick! If you press Shift+J you execute a forward jump from your current position. It really comes in handy for those small platforms sections!!

[@soylentgreenb]

This video kind of misses just how revolutionary this game was. You have to think back to 1992 when 3D games were flat shaded. When first person RPGs moved only in the 4 cardinal directions with a kind of grid-based pseudo-3D cobbled toghether from 2D-graphics tiles drawn in perspective, and you were always lugging around a party. When you usually expected to make your own map on graph paper and take your own notes on paper. When RPGs had no ambiguity; an NPC was either an enemy or a text-and-quest-dispenser. There are very few of those magical moments where you play a game and go "oooh, I get it now, this is what gaming can be", this was one of them. Looking back from today's perspective, the game just doesn't look as anything that special, because other game developers hurried to learn from what Underworld did correct and implement it in their games. Not just Looking glass themselves in system shock, thief etc., but many companies hurried to pick bits and pieces from Ultima underworld, such as Daggerfall and arena which extended the immersive sim idea to open worlds, Meridian 59 that extended MUDs to immersive first person RPGs and in turn inspired EQ and WoW, various experiments that didn't quite work (e.g. silmaril's robinson's requiem), Half-life etc. This game was the first immersive sim RPG of any kind and arguably the first immersive game of any kind where you played you, and it felt like you were exploring the game world. The leap between a good RPG existing at the time, say ultima VII, Pool of radiance or Bard's tale 3 to Ultima underworld felt as monumental as the leap between today's VR and the holodeck from Star trek. Ultima underworld is an oddity; you cannot really trace its ancestry and see what inspired it; it just seems to come out of nowhere; sits there tauntingly in 1992, like finding rabbit skeletons from the pre-cambrian. Go on a DOSBOX-bender on RPGs released before this game. Hell get WINUAE and play the (frequently better) amiga versions. The closest thing you'll find to this is something like Elite which did a similar thing for space sims that this game did for RPGs.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, UU1 was just absurdly ahead of its time in almost every aspect of its design. Even the automap was revolutionary, particularly in how it allowed for annotation. It's easily one of the best games ever made, particularly within context of when it was made, and I genuinely think it's a shame that it tends to be forgotten these days. (Overshadowed by the games it inspired!)

[@jasonblalock4429]

It's not something that often comes up, but among its many great features, I really think UU has the greatest GUI of any game of its era. It's beautiful and functional, absolutely covered in useful features, but in such a way that it's almost totally intuitive. Plus, those adorable little dragons were such a nice touch. (I especially love how, if you're near death, one or both will be cowering and covering their eyes.)

[@kryskarr23]

Your videos are awesome. I really like how you’re cataloging all these old dos games.

[@rosodudersd260]

Great video! I learned something new from it -- I had no idea that the gargoyle at the top of the UI clues you in on enemy health. I actually found the game became far more intuitive for me when I stopped trying to use keyboard movement controls and instead stuck with the mouse only to move around. The only keys I use are 1, 2, and 3 to look up, down, and reset my view. You don't even need the keyboard to jump -- while left clicking to move, just tap right click to jump (by the way, I wonder if the problem is ghosting from too many inputs on your keyboard at once? My GOG copy allows me to jump whether I'm moving with the keyboard or the mouse)! You can actually perform nearly every action in the game without selecting any of the icons in the left panel as well, which makes it a lot less tedious when mouse moving. The manual calls this the "icon-less default interface". Tap right click on objects to look, drag right click on objects in the world to get/use/talk (in that priority), left click objects in inventory to use, and left click on the weapon in your hand to equip/unequip it. This can really streamline your experience whether you're moving with the keyboard or mouse. While I wouldn't call it perfect, the game actually controls pretty smoothly once you become accustomed to it. The game is quite the marvel in both technology and design, and it's almost unbelievable that it came out before Wolfenstein 3D. I would argue it has some glaring flaws -- the fact that you can simply resurrect from the Silver Sapling without consequence makes most of the combat/healing/resting systems rather pointless, but I suppose they wanted to offer the player a lot of freedom in how they played the game. The random skill rolling is definitely frustrating, though it's mitigated as you learn more specific skill mantras later on. This is really a greater truth about the game as a whole -- nearly any obstacle can be overcome by exploring your environment and learning new information, and the game is always full of surprises. The level of simulation on offer is amazing for the time and still holds up today. I was grinning from ear to ear when I managed to evade a goblin by extinguishing my torch so he'd lose sight of me and then snuck up behind him to shove him a bridge into the river below. It was a moment of pure emergent gameplay. I love that the game rewards you tinkering around and applying real-world logic to the game systems. Your torch goes out when you go in water, leeches suck poison out of your wound, you can cook food by combining ingredients in a bowl, NPCs get mad at you for stealing, the list goes on. Sure it's not very well balanced and the progression can get downright esoteric at times, but the game world is engrossing and its inhabitants charming, and despite its age the game can really draw you in and really immerse you. I'd definitely recommend playing more of it.

[@larsekstromer5950]

Great video! And one of my favourite games. One thing which is seldom mentioned about the controls; mostly everything can be done with the mouse. Moving, running, turning with left mouse button, right clicking and dragging to pick up objects, right clicking and dragging on a person starts a dialogue, same to open a door etc. Right clicking while running jumps instead of using J. After a while this works really well instead of using WASD and keyboard commands or chosing what to do from the left hand buttons. One useful key combination is Shift-J though, which is used as a long jump shortcut which makes a perfect jump when jumping over a chasm etc.

[@justjoeblow420]

One thing about the sound support is Underworld also supports the extra sound effects in the LAPC-I as part of it's MT-32 support.

[@jrc9648]

If you have the GOG version. There is a really good detailed article about how to configure MT-32 via the Munt MT-32 emulator as well for other sound settings in DOSbox. I assume the configuration for MT-32 should be universal while using DOSbox and Munt.

[@Christopher-N]

_Ultima Underworld_ is one of my favourite games on our 486. We had it on a Creative Labs pack-in disc. The game's introduction was never quite in sync - like watching a Bruce Lee film. Awesome game... and thank you to whomever programmed the Silver Sapling.

[@2HeadedHero]

17:30 There's a ton of mantras and lots of them are secret or hidden in notes and books, or provided in NPC conversations.

[@ianeborn6823]

This was a very interesting video, and well-done, I think! Thank you for it! ^_^ Ultima Underworld is one of those milestone games that has a salient part of the medium's history, and is in and of itself a really interesting work, I think. ^_^ Regarding the randomness of levelling, I seem to recall that save-scumming works quite well, as long as you have the patience to get the stats that you want. On a personal note, I love the magic-system in this game: it's intriguing and complex, and feels like one is coming up with spells when one experiments with them. However, I do have one major problem with it: there are a number of "dead spells"--combinations that make sense within the spell-grammar, but that don't do anything. For me, this somewhat exposes the underlying fact that I'm just dealing with a background list of spells, destroying the feeling of exploring a magic-system, and with it my inclination to keep experimenting with new spells. One piece of trivia: If I recall (and have it) correctly, the texture-mapping used here was one of the inspirations of the implementation of texture-mapping in Doom (and more proximally, one of the immediate predecessors to Doom, Catacomb 3-D). Next week's video sounds very interesting too; I'm eager to see it! ^_^

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Yet another DOS game that was way ahead of its time. Great episode, Kris!

[@jamescurrie01]

I love this, great video. Really cool history that this is where elder scrolls arena developers starting working on that codebase.

[@JarlFrank]

I wouldn't call it "linear" just because it lacks any kind of procedural content - in fact, it's not linear at all, allowing you to freely explore the Abyss at your own pace, decide which factions to ally with or fight against, etc. Yeah, the levels and NPC interactions are all hand-made, but that's what makes it so good. This kind of design will always be superior to procedural generation ;)

[@soylentgreenb]

It's linear like e.g. Deus ex is linear; not linear like Call of duty is linear. You do proceed from level to level in a linear fasion but you are not constrained to any particular path within each level as most obstacles have multiple ways around them (beat the door down and take durability damage, steal the key, do quests for the key, kill them all and take the key, that sort of thing)

[@JarlFrank]

@@soylentgreenb Actually it's less linear than, say, Deus Ex or Thief, because you can return to the previous levels at any time, and I think there are even shortcuts to go two levels down instead of just one, but it's been a while since I played it so I'm not entirely sure.

[@marcsm2008]

I love this game. I also hate it. :p This game has some of the biggest and most complex levels I've ever seen in a dungeon crawler. It's frustrating and quite punishing after a while... And yet, it's one of the most important games ever made for me. Great video, BTW. You are one of my favorite KZbinrs around because whenever you do a video, it feels like you are enjoying doing it a lot, like you don't mind putting all your heart and soul into this. ^^

[@schtive81]

Ultima Underworld is truly an amazing game. The game is surprisingly deep as well, plus the creatures in the underworld have their own distinctive personality traits and different groups attack each other sometimes. One of the greatest RPG's of 1992.

[@UltimateCarl]

It still blows me away every time I remember that this game predates Doom. Carmack may have gotten faster gameplay and better performance, but it's crazy that this game runs as well as it does and contains proper room-over-room 3D, moving geometry, some approximation of dynamic lighting, and rudimentary object/creature physics. Plus dynamic music!

[@Pixelmusement]

+UltimateCarl Um... there's no room-over-room here. In fact, the engine is surprisingly limited. Each map is built out of squares which can have a floor and ceiling with variable ramping. Things like bridges and doors are done with 3D objects pasted into the world... pretty much exactly how System Shock works! You're right about all the other features though! (Though dynamic music was already a thing both Lucasarts and Origin loved adding to their games.)

[@UltimateCarl]

@@Pixelmusement Ah, my bad on that one, thanks. I guess I was just misremembering the bridges! And yeah, I know dynamic music wasn't new but it was still pretty uncommon at the time. I didn't mean to imply that UU's devs invented all that stuff, it's just crazy to think that it's all in one engine over a year before Doom would start the FPS craze when even many of the so-called "Doom clones" to come after wouldn't have a lot of this stuff!

[@Pixelmusement]

+UltimateCarl Although it's interesting to see how many games did have those things following and were NOT Doom clones. In fact, looking outside of the sphere of influence of Doom is where you find all of those neat features. ;)

[@Gameprojordan]

Doom had alot less going on in it though, and the gameplay was just shooting. For a game with such complex CRPG mechanics and world that changes depending on what you do it plays really smooth

[@lustechsource5197]

OMG! Watching this episode makes me want to play this game again! I never did get to finish it.

[@elimalinsky7069]

I absolutely loved this game back when it was released and I consider it to be one of the best games of all time, certainly one of my personal favorites. I always find myself going back to this game and its sequel (as well as the original System Shock). Frankly, it's a timeless classic and was heck of a technological showcase when it came out. BTW, the game ran at about 20fps I think, on a 386 back then, so it was really slow and unresponsive, but it was kind of expected given what this game sought to achieve in terms of technology.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I've barely touched Underworld, and I'd always been wanting to give it more of a run - and after this, I think that's certainly got my interest piqued that bit more, just for some of the depth layers I hadn't noticed before (the attack power in particular). Great episode as always!

[@urbaniuscee3657]

There are specific mantras for every single skill in the game. The mantras that advance a random skill in a skill group are not recommended.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Ultima Underworld was my introduction to the Ultima series of games and to 3d first-person "shooters" - as it came out two months before Wolfenstein 3D! With a better 3D engine than Wolfy. (Walls don't have to meet at 90 degree angles, the floor and ceiling can be sloped, and they are textured).

[@RoninCatholic]

255? Uh oh, your next video is going to roll the number back over to 0 and cause a glitch in the matrix.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Nathan Is a Mouse I'm using a 16-bit integer; don't worry. ;)

[@spartonberry]

@@Pixelmusement There were a lot of DOS games, but I don't think you'll quite reach Episode 65,536 will you? ;)

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Nah, it'll be episode -1.

[@EdmondDantes224]

Why not a 32-bit integer, Kris?

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Jispy Moe Dantes just go for the full IEEE 80-bit float.

[@Banzeken]

Don't forget that it's also possible to jump by clicking both the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously. It makes jumping and moving much easier.

[@Christopher-N]

(18:54) HINT: You can bounce objects off walls. I was trying to flip a switch that was out of my reach: I lobbed a sling stone, hit the switch which unlocked the nearby door, but then my spent stone fell down into the chasm and struck an otherwise harmless bat causing it to attack. Use caution, as objects can also get permanently glitched out of your reach.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Christopher Noel Also, from what I'm told, objects which fall into water or lava disappear forever. :P

[@Christopher-N]

@@Pixelmusement: When I first beat the game decades ago, I cringed when I realized I had to throw all the talismans into the lava. Aside from the sword Caliburn, the Runesword is my favourite [hidden] weapon.

[@Kijinn]

Whether you'll prefer Ultima Underworld or Elder Scrolls Arena will probably depend on the type of gamer you are. E.g. I'm an exploration gamer at the core...but...I can only appreciate a game world when it feels alive *and* dynamic. Both of these elements can only convince me when I don't immediately perceive the algorithm behind them. That's where UU outclasses any Elder Scrolls game, even to this day. All of the Elder Scrolls NPCs/creatures have very simple AIs. You'll always know what they're going to do and why, regardless of the character race/class you play. If they attack, they will only attack you, regardless of who else is around (There are some exceptions). There are no surprises unless the devs decided to script them in. For that reason I have a strong love-hate relationship with Bethesda's (self-made) games. Their game worlds were always fascinating to move through, for the first couple of hours...until I had become aware of all algorithms. From that point forward I hated them for feeling so utterly stale and repetitive. It was impossible for me to get any reaction out of the game that I couldn't predict. I finished Morrowind and Oblivion only because there were very few other open world games at the time. Fully hated the games, by the end. In UU, NPCs/creatures have a slightly more complex AI, giving a bigger variety of reactions and, most importantly, also reacting to other AIs (not scripted, but dynamically). In return, I enjoy interacting with the world a lot more, because there's always a feeling of experimentation and dynamic consequences. Basically, it's these differences that separate Elder Scrolls games from fitting into the "immersive sim" genre.

[@fisk0]

A heads up, GOG announced that the Ultima Underworld and Syndicate games will be delisted from the site in June 28th for some reason :(

[@JimLeonard]

Great coverage of a game that I'll never have time to play. Nice work. One correction on your description of the mouse programming: You mention "they use mickeys instead of the hardware cursor". That's not a thing -- PC's implementation of mice don't have a hardware cursor. I think you meant to say "they interpret the raw mickey counters instead of using INT 33,3 (Get Mouse Position and Button Status)". I haven't disassembled the game to check if that's true, but if it is true, it's either because they needed the mickeys for finer control, or because they were programming defensively against old or broken mouse drivers that didn't properly support VGA. (INT 33,3 returns an X and Y coordinate, but only if the driver supports the video mode in use.)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jim Leonard Well yeah, I'm just used to saying "hardware cursor" to reflect the cursor position being tracked by whatever drivers or TSR is handling the mouse, as this is often how it was referred to with the Allegro game programming libraries which I used for years. I know the game's not checking this cursor though because if you put DOSBox into a window and disable the cursor lock you end up with a disconnect between the cursor position in the game and the real mouse cursor on your desktop, whereas they will stay synced with almost any other game when you try this.

[@JimLeonard]

@@Pixelmusement But that's not a problem with the game, that's a problem with playing it though dosbox.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jim Leonard At the minimum, yes, though someone on the VOGONS forums who's been working on DOSBox reported that the game is dividing the mickeys by 2 and is using that calculation to drive the cursor position via integers, which explains the behaviour I was experiencing though they're still not entirely certain whether the game or DOSBox is at fault for this.

[@vonheer7418]

Great review/first impressions. You make me want to try this out. Definitely will if I get back into streaming. I bet the Stygian Abyss will get kinda lonely without some viewers. ;P

[@TheFuzzieBoy]

One thing that is problematic with running this game at higher frame rates is the movement and especially swimming. At higher cycle counts you'll often move somewhat diagonally - especially when moving backwards - and swimming is just entirely impossible, if I remember correctly. Whatever calculation that controls the effects of the currents seemed to trigger far too often, leading to you just being absolutely swept away. If you run into these issues at all, cranking the cycle count down to something more period accurate seems to clear them up!

[@pixelflow]

Ultima Undertheplatformyoufellfrom: Octopus Wrestling

[@executivebexley252]

A full 3d textured world in 1992, it looks really good, stands up well

[@Gameprojordan]

Looks alot nicer than TES 1 Arena. That game is really blurry and muddy compared to this game. I like how the sprites look hand drawn instead of say a 3d or real life model transformed into pixelated 2d one. Makes everything alot sharper looking

[@alfonszitterbacke318]

Start the Hex-editor. Edit my characters strength to 255. Smash every normal door with my bare fist, no weapons, talk or lockpicking skills needed, untill you reach certain indestructible doors in the deep levels of the abyss. This was my first attempt at this masterpiece before i realized the greatness of it. Best PC RPG game of the early 90s imho.

[@SevenCompleted]

Learning the lizard man language in underworld was so awesome it was a really fun puzzle

[@laser8550]

Thought it was going to be Might and Magic, which itself has its own quirky advancement system That and Ultima Underworld are both great games in their own right

[@Daerdor]

Truly one of my favorite games ever!

[@gustavosantos106]

I played this game a lot. In one late run I wanted to play as a medieval Jackie Chan. All points to Dexterity, Acrobatics, Speed, and Unarmed. Surprisingly, that worked out pretty well! At first was tedious but possible, and at some point your hands become some kind of demon blenders that chew through everything like a Kenshiro.

[@Pixelmusement]

The fate of every Monk class in video games: Underpowered to the point of useless or overpowered to the point of taking over the world before the final boss can. ;D

[@JeremyLCrabtree]

While I originally played this with FM music (PAS16), I now have an MT-32 and can say that this benefits tremendously from having one. If you have an MT-32 or MUNT, definitely use it for this game.

[@joe--cool]

The game also supports LAPC-1 sound effects.

[@tristerfalm]

What's funny is most all the "negatives" are actually easily correctable. The lighting is dark on purpose, but there are different light sources, the one he was showing (candle) is the worst and gives the least light. There are lanterns that give waaay more light (and spells). The mantras have specific ones for specific skills, you just have to discover them in game. The random ones are the beginner mantras and are terrible (do not recommend). Also movement is much, much easier with the mouse than keyboard since you can control your rotation and speed far easier based on mouse position on the screen, which helps tremendously with jumping and bouncing off walls, etc.

[@MGMan37]

Some newer DOSBOX builds (such as DOSBOX-Staging) allow you to reduce the mouse polling rate which fixes the jumpy cursor. Setting it to 60 makes the cursor buttery smooth even in the main menu or in conversations.

[@phillippi2]

I actually just ran into a bus, playing this game. When I tried to open any door on floor 6, the door doesn't move. I'm told that if the framerate is too high, the change in a door's rotation will always round down to zero. Apparently, they had this issue when debugging the game, too. They fixed it by disabling collision with the door. However, if the framerate is too high, it may not do this.

[@POLE7645]

Like with Syndicate, both Ultima Underworld games are back on GOG and are free until September 3.

[@boscopit]

Alright. back to some interesting games. Good video

[@Horzuhammer]

I'd warmly recommend giving Ultima VII a chance as well sometime. Although completely different, in several ways it's just as impressive a game for its time as Ultima Underworld. Not graphically of course, but in many ways it feels pretty damn modern for a game released in 1992. (Also, no strategic combat. :D It handles combat pretty much akin to something like Baldur's Gate.)

[@Christopher-N]

My brother used to play Ultima VII, which was on the same Creative Labs CD as Ultima Underworld. It didn't really spark my interest at the time, but shares similarities to Diablo. Thus, I concur with your recommendation.

[@Horzuhammer]

@@Christopher-N Actually U7 didn't really spark my interest at first either; but then one lazy day something just clicked, and I just played it like eight hours in a row, completely mesmerized.. I'd say Ultima VIII is closer to Diablo, at least mechanics-wise; since you swing your weapon with a mouse-click, and you play alone - no party. In U7 your party fights automatically. ..Too bad U8 was released badly unfinished. It could've been a great game.

[@joe--cool]

Yeah, it was about the time where EA started to really suck.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

I love this game, it's pretty much the only Ultima game I like. Getting to run in dosbox can be tricky though.

[@Pixelmusement]

+TheMoogleMaster Not that tricky at all once you know what to do. Wait until you get to the end of the video... ;)

[@smal7812]

Thanks a lot!! Especially appreciate tips for new players e.g. gargoyle's eyes , light gem or mouse settings. You inspired me to pick up the game from GOG and play it :-). Qq: Did you try the Unity version? Having just had a blast w/ Daggerfall Unity, I accidentally learned a version for Ultima exists too...

[@Pixelmusement]

I usually don't get a chance to play ports of these games due to a lack of time, but if there's substantial differences/upgrades over playing the originals then I will definitely consider them for ADG Mod videos in the future! :B

[@Viehzerrer]

I actually thought it's going to be Legend of Valour, since that one also influenced Arena and is even more similar to it, due to the freedom it has (although it's confined to a single city). I never played Ultima Underworld much, oddly enough, despite being interested in it and trying multiple times. Not sure why. It's not even a case of getting stuck, since I never played far enough for that to happen. But it's just as well, since I seem to be pretty ignorant about some basic stuff (as in, until I saw this video I didn't even know about the mantras and what they do), so I should probably read the manual before I try again. Ultima Underworld is also kind of an odd title in the overall series, since it doesn't even really have anything to do with Ultima. The Ultima stuff is basically just shoehorned in to cash in on its popularity. That's not the case with the second game, however, which features Ultima elements prominently and is practically a part of the main series' last story arc.

[@AbbyRemix]

13:30 "The gem at the right side of the screen..." Nah, bro; left side. EDIT: Ah. I see you covered that in the description. Was a bit confusing though. I was looking at that small red blob in your inventory like wtf.

[@teppest111]

there is a sword mantra , there one for each skill , including mana pool and casting

[@Pixelmusement]

+Teppest 111 OK, if there's more specific mantras later in the game then that would absolutely help with focusing one's progression! :)

[@teppest111]

@@Pixelmusement yeah there is and they're usable in early lvls if you know them the second game has direct trainers instead of the mantra mechanic.

[@BBHood217]

On the other hand, magic can easily substitute for most skills provided you know the spells, have the right runes, and are experienced enough to cast them. After all, why learn how to swim if you can just walk on the water?

[@Pixelmusement]

+BBHood217 Because the "Water Walking" spell in Daggerfall just causes you to swim faster. ;D

[@zintosion]

18:39 Adapt. Overcome. Improvise.

[@volocat]

Seems to jump OK on my Pentium 133.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Volocat Could very well be an emulation issue then; DOSBox is not 100% perfect and it probably never will be just because of the nature of emulating such a thing.

[@EdmondDantes224]

"you play as the Avatar, a being summoned to various lands in times of emergency" Ummm.... not quite. Really, he's only ever summoned to Britannia (any time he goes somewhere else, its due to third-party intervention). Him being the recurring protagonist is something of a plot tumor actually--Ultima IV is all about becoming the Avatar, which is described there as just someone who proved that living a life of pure virtue is indeed possible, so why he's constantly brought back to deal with Britannia's problems is beyond me. I know you don't like Spoony but his Ultima Retrospective is the best way to get a rundown on this series, and his summarizing of Ultima Underworld's plot is the best thing ever. "It starts with you being contacted by the ghost of a horrible voice actor..."

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jispy Moe Dantes Yeah, I was kinda generalizing based on what little I know of the series. When I was researching this game in particular I found out that the Avatar appeared in multiple games and was always the player character so I kinda just assumed. :B

[@EdmondDantes224]

Isn't it nice to have a fan who is a monumental nerd with an eerie memory for plot details in games and cartoons? On another note, I never beat Underworld either, but in my case it was because I got to a puzzle I just didn't care to solve (it involved translating goblin language, with the help of a man who had to use gestures because he had no tongue. Like, I would've been fine with this if it had been teaching me a real language instead of made-up goobledegook...) Though I forget what exactly I was doing there, I could probably have just started hacking away or found an alternate means to what I need in the area.

[@PumpkinStrikesBack]

This one in your livestreams would be awesome

[@urbaniuscee3657]

Also: jumping: you can just jump by pressing the right mouse button while moving with the left mouse button. That makes the jumping portion SO MUCH EASIER. Another remark about the ingenuitity of the game: It hat sort of a gesture control. Instead of using the symbols to interact with the world (speak, use, pickup, etc.) you can just use the right mouse button and flick the mouse in any direction to pick up stuff, open doors or push buttons. Weirdly enough even tho is is so much more elegant i never see anyone use that in let's plays or reviews. Dunno why.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Urbanius Cee The manual does a poor job of explaining it, if it even does. I remember reading about "advanced" controls in the manual, but don't recall if I actually read what those controls were. The manual is good at explaining a lot of things, but the controls is not one of them. :P

[@Smecty]

Actually, the manual does a fairly decent job of describing what it calls "Default Mode" in "Advanced Playing Tips," beginning on p. 16. As Urbanius Cee points out, it's not often remarked upon, but I've found it to be the optimal way to play. Unfortunately, this "Default Mode" does not work with either of the two hacks I'm aware of for UU1: John Glassmyer's DOS hack and Hank Morgan's Unity engine version, both available on GitHub. And both of those hacks employ "mouse look" which is so much more intuitive ...

[@Pixelmusement]

+David Richtmyer ...I wouldn't call that a fairly decent job. It's overcomplicated and difficult to remember and when you get it wrong you can end up doing things you don't intend to do, plus you can't just quickly look up the proper actions, you have to read those entire paragraphs. Nowhere in this manual does it just LIST the controls for a simple refresher; you have to hunt for all of them. :P

[@Smecty]

@@Pixelmusement Then you might like the Hank Morgan implementation of UU1 with Unity, available on GitHub. Not only do you get the buttery-smooth play of unity, but he's implemented the best mouse-look I've seen with UU1 hacks. Unlike John Glassmyer's similar hack for Dos (and DosBox, of course), you don't have to toggle between regular mode and mouse-look mode to interact with the environment. And Hank has very thoughtfully provided in-game context-sensitive overlays that will tell you what a right or left click will do when hovering over an object ... no need to toggle back and forth! Have your cake and eat it too :P

[@urbaniuscee3657]

@@Pixelmusement Right! The manual won't explain that. But those controlls are revolutionary. You should really revisit the game just to try those controls. You never need any action button on the left other than fighting, because rightclicking and dragging will always do the correct thing for the context.

[@munnchi]

Thought Arena was already in production when this released

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

Huh so that's where dark souls got its character building system

[@ZylonBane]

13:35 "The gem at the RIGHT side of the screen" Umm...

[@Pixelmusement]

+ZylonBane Pointed out in the video description. I do often catch myself, just not always in-time to point it out in the video! :B

[@hemangchauhan2864]

I wish it had the thing where mouse look could be modded into it like System Shock 1.

[@Darxide23]

I wish there were a mod for this game to give it modern controls. Mouse-look being paramount. I love the Underworld games, but I absolutely cannot play them today because of the archaic controls.

[@TheJamieRamone]

Yeah, the keyboard jumping "bug" makes sense 2 me. Didn't u say 's' walks forward and 'j' jumps? That's the problem: Most keyboards 2day don't have diodes and simultaneous key presses on the same row makes one of the events getting 8. If u can remap the jump key, I have a funny feeling it'll suddenly work just fine.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jamie Ramone That's not the issue because it WILL work sometimes. If the keyboard itself was the problem, it would NEVER work. :P

[@TheJamieRamone]

@@Pixelmusement Don't b so sure. I'm writing a side-scrolling space shmup and ran into this issue already. It rears it's ugly head inconsistently. This is understandable as which of the keys in a row gets read in a row in any given frame is 1 / N, where N is the number of simultaneously pressed key. That's y it does work sometimes. In any case, give the remap a try. At most u lose a minute of ur life :)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jamie Ramone Don't you be so sure. What you're describing sounds more like your keyboard handler is itself missing keys and that it's not the keyboard. Fun fact about coding a keyboard handler: Since there's no actual "buffer", it's not possible to reliably catch every key without an interrupt routine being triggered on every change of the keyboard state. If you're coding your keyboard handler as a loop and not as an interrupt, well... you're gonna run into this sort of issue. :B

[@TheJamieRamone]

@@Pixelmusement Nah, I'm polling thru SDL on each frame. Unless u code for DOS (or r writing ur own kernel) u DON'T EVER write an ISR. Also the events triggered by an "el cheapo" keyboard will be 1 per row, not 1 per key. It can't be the code coz I get all key presses, 100% of the time, if they are on separate rows (and as far apart as possible). It was hit or miss if the fire key was e.g. the space bar or right Ctrl key. If it was a code problem the key position shouldn't matter.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jamie Ramone ...maybe you just have a crap keyboard then. I can tell you right now from my own testing, every key on my keyboard can be pressed simultaneously with any other key provided only two keys are being held down. Besides, despite EVERYTHING we've discussed so far, this problem occurs in Ultima Underworld with the W and J keys too, which absolutely aren't on the same rows. ;)

[@FranklyTheSeeker1982]

may I request a game to review? I'd like to see "The Summoning" from 1992 by Event Horizon Software

[@Pixelmusement]

+The Seeker1982 You may, but I'd ask that you eMail requests to me so I can track them properly; KZbin comments are a terrible way to track anything. My eMail is found on my website and at the end of videos. :B

[@emscape2]

doom was not correctly rendering the geometry, it just was a better approximation

[@Jrdotan]

Lol you just found 3 mantras? Theres a LOT of them. Not just one for each skill, but also some that raises certain combinations of skills/mana/health,etc

[@Pixelmusement]

+Darlan Dos Santos Oliveira Junior Yeah... Because I only have a week to do an episode it's pretty much impossible to give a full overview of any kind of RPG due to the sheer quantity of hours needed to get the full experience. But at the very least, I can measure the early game and comment on whether it's well designed and fun enough to keep going for the rest of it! ;)

[@MechagirlSachiko]

I have a very important question that always needs answering when you talk about these kinds of games. Can you kill Lord British?

[@Viehzerrer]

He doesn't even appear in this game.

[@MechagirlSachiko]

@@Viehzerrer That's a pity.

[@selwynbeck2356]

wish they updated the graphic of this game: it was AWESOME

[@swiru44]

Might and Magic series.

[@1luarluar1]

nice analysis...the only thing I didn't like is the mod that add the brightness...it kills the atmosphere.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Raul Gubert Fair enough, but for sake of watching this video on KZbin, it would've been nearly impossible to see anything without it. :P

[@1luarluar1]

@@Pixelmusement hi, thank you for your reply, well, I'm not sure about that..in all the other videos I watched, it was perfectly fine...I actually think that that foggy, misty darkness is probably one of the most subtle quality that enhance the feeling of mistery...anyway, I enjoyed your analysis, very clear and you got all the important point...I'm still baffled how the new Underworld ascendant used a new 3d engine...completely out of touch...it seems like a plastic mess without any appeal....they should have kept the original engine with maybe some tweaks...cheers and thank you for uploading!

[@officernarc]

Just popping in to say hello

[@_JPlays_]

One thing to mention, is that there is a fan made Unity remake of this game. www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=6045.0 So there is that option as well.

[@Pixelmusement]

+hockland Yup! Almost ended up using it... :o

[@mikewolf78]

Episode 11111111

[@Pixelmusement]

+mikewolf78 ...we're gonna need a bigger address bus... :B

[@samiam4200]

The jumping issue probably has something to do with older systems using serial ports for keyboards. There's probably a buffer or limiter

[@Pixelmusement]

+samiam4200 I don't think there's a limiter or interface issue because if you jump while not pressing ANY other keys, you're fine, which is why it works with the mouse, though I did notice the 1 2 and 3 keys had a similar issue if you were moving with the keyboard while attempting to change your vertical viewing angle. Based on what I know about DOS keyboard I/O and programming for it, my best guess is that the movement keys are being checked differently than the jumping and looking keys but that the movement keys are still generating inputs for the method used by the jumping and looking keys, thus interfering with their detection. That's just an educated guess though.

[@somemong989]

Spoony says the plot is stupid.

[@TeddyBelcher4kultrawide]

looks like runescape

[@RoninCatholic]

Doesn't look like any version of Runescape I've ever seen.

[@gotterscar]

Later on you do learn of mantras, for most of the skills.