Ultima: Runes of Virtue in Nintendo Power Circa 1991
Nintendo Power was published in-house by Nintendo of America during the late 80s and 90s, and covered some of the most popular releases for the NES, SNES, and Gameboy. They frequently published detailed hint guides to the most anticipated releases of the day, including the Ultima series. What was especially wonderful about these publications were they often included bright full-page colour graphics and custom illustrations.
In April 1991, Volume 23, Nintendo Power produced a 4-page article featuring Ultima: Runes of Virtue, which had been released that December. The article gave the game a rating of 3/5, and compared Runes of Virtue favorably to the Legend of Zelda for the NES.
Here for your viewing pleasure is the complete 4-page Nintendo Power hint guide.
The first Ultima game I played was Runes of Virtue II for the SNES. I didn’t like it that much, but I knew there was something attractive to the game of which I was not yet aware. Perhaps I was already a fan of Ultima long before playing an Ultima game.