Today is the 30th anniversary of Ultima 2. It’s a game that tends to be regarded as the worst in the series but it gets a hard time if you ask me and needs to be seen within the context of what else was available in 1982. Ultima 2 was where Garriott first learned to program in assembly and gaining the skills needed at the same time as making the game was never going to be ideal. There were impovements over Ultima 1 with better dungeon graphics, characters you could talk to (albeit briefly), scrolling town maps and many different time zones and planets to explore. It did veer away from what is considered canon these days with the Earth/time travel elements but Ultima 2 introduced cloth maps, boxed Ultima games & moongates which were all staples from here on out.

If nothing else, the speed improvement from being in assembly was significant and if everyone had to play the original BASIC Apple II Ultima at the speed it ran on that system, I expect it would be Ultima I that dropped to the bottom of the favourite Ultimas list. I doubt I could ever have made it through that particular game without speeding up the emulator.

In honour of the anniversary, here is a scan of the Japanese Ultima 2 gamebook. This was published on November 1 1986 by JICC and conveniently has a passage in English on the back cover so to quote:-

These days, this world goes mad! I was in New York city, or at least I believed so. Now I’m in a strange land trapped within time. And many weird things and monsters attack me!

Realizing Minucks, apprentice of Evil Lord Mondine, devised these things, I set forth to destroy Minucks, through the time and the space. But, what a terrible end! How could I imagine it, and Minucks is mad with joy!

Spelling differences aside, that sounds roughly like Ultima 2 to me but as ever I haven’t got the Japanese skills to say much more. A scan is in the downloads for people who have.

For the rest of us, there is loads of artwork scattered throughout the book which I’ve put into a gallery below:-

I’m finishing off the week with the first in the series of Ultima comics. There were four of these manga’s published in Japan by JICC, this one is titled “The Terror Of Exodus” and came out in 1988:-

As the title suggests, it’s based around Ultima 3 although you may start to wonder when it jumps to outer space after the early colour section. Also, the ending would be more in keeping with Final Fantasy with planets/moons crashing together and giant monster battles so epic they won’t fit on one page. It certainly looks like fun and the artwork isn’t bad on the whole. Like all this weeks books, I only wish I could read it.

It wasn’t the easiest to scan but it’s now in the downloads for anyone to take a look. On the offchance anyone wanted to use this to do a scanlation, please don’t feel the need to ask first.

The Japanese Ultima 3 well hasn’t quite run dry yet, but that’s the end of the week and I’ll stop here for now. I definitely need a break from scanning and am long overdue another playthrough on here, so next up (and assuming it will run), I’ll be having a go at Space Rogue for the FM Towns.

Japanese Ultima 3 week continues apace with another Ultima 3 gamebook, Britannia Kingdom Crisis. This one was published in 1987 by Keibunsha:-

Once again my lack of Japanese prevents me saying too much about this but it was number 31 in the Adventure Hero Books series and based on the world of Ultima 3. As with all of these, I’m reduced to looking at the pictures which I’d hope aren’t this books strong point. While the artwork is less cartoony than Cabal Of Zola The Mage, the quality is nowhere near the same standard. Good or bad, there is easily enough of it to warrant a gallery:-

As ever, the full book is now scanned in and available to download. I’ve one more item left to finish the week off and have been saving the best for last.

As an addendum, I’ll like to wish a belated happy birthday to both Ultima Aiera/The Ultima Codex and the Wing Commander CIC and give a big thank you to all involved for flying the flag all these years.

Japanese Ultima 3 week continues with the first in a series of 3 gamebooks published in 1988 by Futabasha. I’ll take the word of The Ultima Collector’s Guide that this is based around the storyline of Ultima 3 but I have no idea how closely it follows the plot. Confusingly for us Westerners, it is printed in reverse with the cover and page 1 being at what I would usually consider the rear of the book:-

For those too young to remember, gamebooks were something of an 80’s craze and typically worked by giving the reader a choice to make at the end of each passage. Each choice would give the number of another passage which they would turn to and so on. Some form of stats and dice rolling was usually involved as well but most people I knew ignored this and assumed they won every roll. I read dozens of these things as a kid with my favourites being Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery and Grail Quest.

Unfortunately I can’t read this one, as much as I would like to, given the language barrier. It does have plenty of full-page black and white drawings scattered throughout at least which I created a gallery of below:-

I’ve scanned in the full book which is available in the downloads.