While We're On The Subject Of eBay And Fake Products
I was emailed a question about a week ago which I promised I’d put up as a post. I’m a little late in doing so, but here it is:
I’m in the market, as it were, for a copy of Savage Empire (the only Ultima game I don’t own). I’d prefer an actual boxed copy, but those are fairly expensive. I noticed that various places, such as Amazon and eBay, are selling CD-ROM versions of the game. These aren’t legal, are they? Any ideas on where to pick up a relatively cheap copy of the boxed game?
Now, I don’t happen to have my copy of [amazonify]1467934607::text::::Stephen Emond’s excellent tome yet[/amazonify] (damn delivery times!), but my first reaction to the idea of a CD-ROM version of Savage Empire is…skepticism. It’s not impossible that such a version exists — Salikon’s notes on the game suggest it does, whereas The Notable Ultima makes no mention of it — but I have no direct recollection of whether it does or not, and also lack for definitive resources to turn to at this exact moment.
So, I’m going to punt the question to you, Dragons and Dragonettes. The first question is: do CD-ROM editions of Savage Empire exist? And, if so, is there an easy means of verifying the legitimacy of copies available for sale (like this one)?
Oh, and: while it would be great to hear that there are eBay or Amazon sales that our friend here can trust, more or less, does anyone have a copy of Savage Empire laying about for spare that they’d be willing to sell to him?
There are CD versions of Savage Empire… but only in compilations that included multiples games. The most notable (eck is it even the only one ? I’m not sure) is a Creative CD-Rom which came with a lot of EA classics, including Savage Empire, Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII. That’s the version I had before getting a boxed one.
Regarding the EBay link you posted, I’m thinking this *might* actually just be the *discs* in sleeves – vendors like this tend to copy and paste the description for ALL games and I’ve seen legit disc based games labelled as CDs. I guess the easiest way would be the ask the vendor – if that IS an actual “Savage Empire CD” and not the discs or the creative compilation… I would suspect foul play though since as you pointed there hasn’t been any CD rom version of Savage Empire.
meh don’t bother with this ebay listing, this is actually a cd and a manual only, the seller states: ITEM IS: USED – CD IN SLEEVE w/ MANUAL (classic sale like Sergorn mentions)
Sellers like that always piss me off. They have a nice big beautiful picture of the box and manual and trinkets, a glowing description of the game, a Buy It Now price of like 40 bucks, and in tiny little letters somewhere at the bottom of the description, “This auction is for demo CD containing Ultima IV”.
I’ve never been burned, but I’ve been daamned close.
Ohh… and you found a use for the Savage Empire advertisement…
As Sergorn mentioned there are CD editions of Savage Empire, but only as compilations with other games. The most common are the Creative Labs combos that were packed with various hardware (3 of which include Savage Empire), but there is also a SelectWare Classic Collection & MegaMedia MegaPak. By far the rarest is the pirate release mini CD with both Savage Empire & Martian Dreams.
For most eBay auctions unless stated otherwise I’d assume a Savage Empire CD refers to one of the Creative Labs releases.
I found an auction for an “Electronic Arts Top 10 Pack,” which includes the following:
Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat
Space Hulk Warhammer Classics
Hong Kong Mahjong Pro
Wing Commander Academy
The Savage Empire
Seven Cities of Gold
Populous II Trials of the Olympian Gods
Ultima VII The Black Gate
Shadow Caster
Ultima Underworld Stygian Abyss
Does that sound like one of these legal/real compilations? Thanks.
There are at least two versions of the “EA Top Ten Pak” that include Ultima (Black Gate to be specific) one of the other games differs between American & British releases. As for including Savage Empire the game list you posted comes from Creative Labs CD #30147 (and a couple of others), that one however is more commonly known as the “EA Compilation”. It is specifically EA branded despite 2 other releases having the same game lineup.
Awesome. The price is good, and while it won’t look as cool on the shelf as my Martian Dreams box, it’s a copy of the game. Thanks.
I had that compilation. Unfortunately, I lost it in a random day.
I don’t remmember all the games (some of them were thrash, in my not so humble opinion), but I really had a good time playing Shadow Caster (great game), Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII. I didn’t get into Savage Empire and Wing Commander too much, so I lost the opportunity and, thus, the enthusiasm to play after I lost the CD and upgraded to my, so then, new PC.
If I ever unearth my old 486, perhaps it will still have Savage Empire installed… or maybe not, because I remmember the capacity of its HD was the impressive amount of 500 MB (I usually had to permanently archive – i.e. delete – stuff).
Out of curiousity, I asked the seller about the Savage Empire CD. He said it’s marked as Selctware Megapack so while the auction is deliberately misleading it’s not actually a fake.
One note of caution on the MegaMedia (SelectWare) MegaPak – unlike the Creative Labs compilations the games all came on separate CDs, so it’s likely just the Savage Empire CD (unless the seller says otherwise). Mind you in that particular compilation Savage Empire was certainly the highlight.
I could slap my 16 year old self sometimes… 27 now, so ~10 years ago, I’m looking through the local thrift store… I see a fully boxed and complete Savage Empire, I don’t remember what format.. it was blue disks but I don’t think it was the PC version… $4. Did I buy it? No… no I didn’t… WTF was I thinking!!
I need the karate master from the Wierd Al UHF movie yelling at me sometime… STOOOOPPIIIDDDDD!
GuJiaXian, i had that compilation included in my old soundblaster box set, so i guess that’s legit too.
I ended up buying that EA Compilation. It should be here in a few days. Thanks for your help, everyone.