Ultima – The Ultimate Collector’s Guide was written by Stephen Emond and as you might expect is a guide to all the Ultima games, books and paraphernalia every Ultima fan like myself feels a deep-seated need to own. It weighs in at a hefty 826 pages and an even heftier 1973 items. I always knew there was a lot of Ultima out there but this is going some.

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It’s organised by game with each release and variation getting a photo and content list. If you wanted to know what the contents of the Italian budget edition of Ultima 6 were, this is the place to look. Each of the variations of manual and media are covered separately with brief descriptions of the differences. Aside from the games, there are magazine adverts, books, soundtracks, and so on. All the games and spin offs are included, with the exception of Ultima Online which warrants its own book. UO is still covered in brief right at the end but without all the detail.

There are check lists for anyone who wants to keep track of what they need to look for. Some of the items included seem a little unfair such as unreleased games and one-off items like the Lost Vale box. Good luck to anyone trying to get hold of anything along those lines. The most interesting items for me are in the miscellaneous category. All the slight variations on games are all very well but there is no way in the world I?d attempt to collect them all. However, who could resist an Ultima 4 writing kit, or an Ultima phone card to pick out 2 from the multitude.

Do be sure to pop on over to Pix’s snazzy new website and read the whole review. And if you haven’t already, [amazonify]1467934607::text::::pick up a copy of the Guide[/amazonify]; it really is an absolutely incredible piece of work, and a testament to just how much Ultima stuff there is in (and around!) the world. (Seriously…it’s way beyond overwhelming.)