Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!cs4w+
From: cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu (Charles William Swiger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: *** ULTIMA VI ***
Message-ID: <Ya2sBTy00Xo842VUYG@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 24 Mar 90 14:25:35 GMT
References: <11576.net.apple@pro-lep>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 42
In-Reply-To: <11576.net.apple@pro-lep>

Greg Malone writes:

Unlike all previous ULTIMA's, number 6 is the first one which was
completely designed and implemented on the IBM PC (& compatibles) first.
When Richard "Lord British" Garriott learned that he could make use of
the hugely growing IBM compatible market which has machines featuring
640K RAM, a hard drive, and 256-color graphics, he couldn't resist the
opportunity to as he put it, "...create the ultimate ULTIMA! "

-end-


Origin seems to have never heard about the Apple //gs, which has 4096
colors, 800K fast disk drives standard (hard drives are becoming fairly
common, as well), 1.25MB memory on the average, plus a minor programming
aid known simply as the Toolbox.  This compares pretty well to the IBM
PC you mentioned.  I would HATE (strong emphasis here) to see Origin
stop developing programs for the 8-bit Apples, but porting Ultima VI
over to the //gs should have no problems with limitations of the
hardware.

Just my opinion here, but I feel that >any< of your games, if re-written
specificly for the //gs, would be simply amazing.  For an example,
consider "The Bard's Tale" series from Interplay.  Their //gs versions
are out-and-out hellacious.  Take their kind of graphics & playability,
and add to that the much greater depth of Origins' games, and you just
might end up with one >damn good< game.  I was, and still am,
disappointed that Origin has never tried to take advantage of the //gs.

Along these lines, why did Origin decide to write code for almost every
kind of sound system ever made except the //gs' native sound abilities
in Ultima V?  It certainly would have been easy to do, and the Ensoniq
chip is better than all of the other alternatives that actually were
supported.  This seems to be a major oversight.


If it seems that I'm too much in favor of the //gs, stop and imagine
just how good the //gs versions of Origins' games could be.  No flames,
please: any criticisms were meant to be taken constructively.


				-- Charles William Swiger