Ultima VIII

There have been two games in the Worlds of Ultima spinoff series, Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. Martian Dreams has, on the whole, proved the more popular of the two, maybe because of its unconventional setting.

Technically, it used the Ultima VI engine and therefore shared the strange view Origin preferred at the time (they had introduced it with Times of Lore), the real-time combat system, the inventory management, and the (except for underground areas) single huge map. Content-wise, it combines quite a few influences:

• Jules Verne;
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure;
• Ray Bradbury's Mars Chronicles;
• Fritz Lang's Metropolis;
• 50s pulp science fiction.

One of the attractions of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, such is the basic premise of the game, is a manned flight to Mars via a huge cannon (just as in Jules Verne's Voyage to the Moon). But due to sabotage, the shot is fired a day early, when the leading men of the epoch are on board. Two years later a rescue expedition is launched, consisting of the journalist Nellie Bly, Sigmund Freud, Nikola Tesla, a few fictional characers, and you, the Avatar.

Sound and Music

Just like the contemporary Bad Blood, Ultima VI and the games based on its engine play all the sounds over the PC speaker. For the music, there are various choices, including the Multiwave Innovation (Innovation Sound Standard), a little known and little supported sound card featuring two SID chips. Most likely you will have to do with the AdLib music, which I found more annoying than soothing, as one reviewer described it. Roland MT-32 is supported, but a generic wavetable device won't work under this setting. Under Windows, you can emulate it with a card of the AWE32 family:

Yes Ultima VI can have wavetable sounds if played in a Windows 95 DOS Box (Not native DOS). This requires a recent set of Win95 AWE Drivers and the AWE Control Panel - check your driver / setup disks or Creative's FTP / WWW site. Have a copy of the MT32 Soundbank (synthmt.sbk) handy also, as you'll need it.

What you need to do is:

1. Fire up the AWE Control Panel and turn on MPU401 emulation. (Found under 'Device')
2. Select the MT32 Soundbank as necessary (Synth tab)
3. Select MT32 / LAPC-1 in the Ultima VI install / sound setup
4. Fire up U6 in a DOS box and enjoy!

This is a quote from Michael Fleming's Ultima and the AWE FAQ. I have not tried it out myself.

Links

• Martian Dreams screenshots
• u6like: Ultimate maps to Ultima VI, Martian Dreams and The Savage Empire.
• Andrew's website – Ultima maps.

Reviews

• Martian Dreams is a good game, Hawk concludes:

  I found it better and more interesting than Savage Empire. It is definitly one of the most unique Ultimas of the series with an interesting plot and interesting characters. Again, this Ultima is not set on Britannia like on Savage Empire and Ultima II but on Mars for the entire game. You even have to reach into the far reaches of your dreams to find a way off the planet.

• Martian Dreams is a highly original and atmospheric game, Home of the Underdogs specifies:

  Simplified character statistics and few encounters with hostile creature makes this more of an adventure game than an RPG: the emphasis is clearly on exploration and interaction with other characters than on fighting. With a cast of characters that is both colorful and memorable, fun puzzles based on both scientific data and folklore about Mars, and a great interface, Martian Dreams is highly recommended to both Ultima fans and everyone else.

• Martian Dreams has graphics that give the game a truly realistic feel, Fawfulhasfury emphasizes:

  As far as the graphics, they are superb and they look as good as all Ultima graphics do. The cutscenes are well done, played, and they tell the story very well. The characters are well designed, accurate, and historical. The sound and music in the game sounds orchestrated and adds a nice feel to the game. This is definitely a must-try game for fans of the Ultima series and fans of excellent RPGs.