Hi Master Malstrom,
Not sure if you saw this or not, but some enterprising folks out there have given U6’s UI a HUGE upgrade:
Looks great to me! (Also I reiterate my request for an archive of your work :) )
Very nice. What’s so important is that this doesn’t just cover Ultima 6. It covers Savage Empire and Martian Dreams as well (or soon enough once the U6 one is done).
It’s funny that when I originally played U6, I thought it was amazing and had no problems with it. Today, I feel very frustrated by the interface and just want to stop. Ultima 7 I never had problem with the interface. Looking back, the changes Origin made with Ultima 7 were genius. I remember when U7 coming out and people complaining how ‘casual’ the game was with everything being done with the mouse. “Where’s the keyboard, Malstrom? Where’s the keyboard use? I can do everything in the Ultima with a mouse. That’s just wrong, Malstrom, that’s just wrong. What is this? For dumb people who like clicking on the mouse for Solitaire? This ain’t no Ultima.” I remember what really got people were the conversations. In Ultima 7, you just clicked the word out of an option you could choose. In Ultima 6, while it is highlighted in red (which people complained about at the time how the red text was dumbing down the game), you had to type out the word. I didn’t realize how much PC gaming has changed to the extent that no one types anything anymore… not even for communication (people use voice chat for that). I fear the day when the keyboard gets removed from PC gaming.
Here is the title screen for the glorious reader.
Malstrom's Articles News 