Ultima 9 Released on GOG.com!
News from GOG.com this morning is that the final chapter in the Ultima series has been released for sale! That’s right, Dragons and Dragonettes: Ultima 9: Ascension is available for just $5.99.
Ultima 9: Ascension, the memorable final installment of world’s first cRPG saga, that entertained generations of gamers, is now available on GOG.com for only $5.99.
You fought wizards, monsters, and demonic computers in the Age of Darkness. You sought truth, love, and courage to become the champion of the eight virtues in the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Armageddon sent you on a journey through the Black Gate, onto the Serpent Isle, and into exile to the dark, twisted otherworld of Pagan. Now you are summoned to defend Britannia for the final time and free it from the corrupting influence of the fiendish Guardian. You will answer this call, as you did so many times before, for you are the Avatar, and this is the time of your ascension.
I’m not sure which patch version GOG are selling; I’ll attempt to find that out for sure this evening. And I guess I’ll have to drum up some Ultima 9-related goodness too and post (or re-post) it!
Oh, and as a bonus: GOG are also offering a promotional deal: 50% off if you buy the entire series, or 30% off if you buy individual Ultima games or individual Ultima packages.
Well, I sure hope the GOG Support site doesn’t crash, due to all the bugs and crashing engine. Good luck with that GOG. I am honestly shocked they would put this up for sale.
I’m a bit surprised too. Not that they’d release it — that was always coming. But I can’t get a clear answer on what patch version the game is at in the GOG release, and they evidently didn’t ask around for bonus content. Which is odd.
I’m going to be doing a blitz of U9-related stuff tonight, and I’ll be sure to highlight the (easy) config changes that can be made to clean up many of the bugs.
What is interesting, the GOG version is using nGlide (a Glide wrapper) so they are using the Glide version (not D3D). Also one of the GOG staff mentions that using the Glide version caps the FPS to 30, and that stops a lot of scripts from breaking. Hmmmmmmmmm
I question the claim that it prevents script breakage.
Most of the crash/performance issues with the game can be solved without a Glide wrapper, without limiting the resolution, and without locking the framerate. Only a series of edits to the configuration INI file are needed, and I’ll post an update about those later today if possible.
Patched fully, the game runs just fine under D3D, even at HD resolution. Properly configured, it will run with almost no crashing or other performance issues. And the upcoming patch from the Forgotten World team will correct a number of remaining bugs, including the infamous “floating rune” bug.
I do wish GOG had waited to release this; we could have given them a vastly better package.
Even when testing the Forgotten World BETA patch I still had tons of crashing problems (just NOT crashing issues I could duplicate repeatedly). It still has a ton of problems random crash wise.
Was that with or without the associated config changes?
Because Sergorn had those, and he reported a sharp reduction in crashes as I recall.
Check the index of the journal. I believe the version number is listed there.
And they have terrible timing. If they had done this next week or even yesterday. I could get a patch out there real quick. As it stands, it will probably be real late tomorrow before I can do anything with forgotten world or Ultima IX.
That’s okay…get it to me when you can, and I’ll see if I can lean on GOG to swap out their hobbled version with a more awesomer version.
Not all that excited about this release – however I did notice that all of the existing Ultima titles have been updated with new bonus content. For example, Utlima VIII: Pagan now comes with “The Lost Vale Design Documents”!
It’s nice that they let you have the 50% deal even if you already own some of the games.
WtF Dragon: It was still random crash city even using the associated config changes that Iceblade e-mailed me.
That said, certain areas were more prone to random crashing as opposed to others (I’ve never once had a crash in Britannia for instance).
Well, I suppose I shouldn’t claim that crashes are eliminated entirely, then.
Though I understand that there is a sharp reduction.
I haven’t had a chance to test the beta patch myself, though I will as part of my experimentation with the GOG release. I want to break it away from needing nglide, among other things.