Ultizurk 1 & 2 Released By Dr. Dungeon
Thanks to the efforts of Infinitron Dragon and others, we learned last week about the existence of a series of Ultima-inspired games (almost Ultima clones, really) entitled Ultizurk. Since then, contact was established with the series’ author, Dr. Dungeon, who has released the first two games in the series on his website (along with a series of text adventure games for the TRS80, entitled Zurk).
I’ve added both as downloads to the series’ project entry; grab them from what source you will.
Dr. Dungeon has also published blog posts with some basic instructions on how to get Ultizurk 1 and Ultizurk 2 up and running on modern computers. Basically, use DOSBox (or Boxer, if you’re running OS X).
And yes, he has released the full versions of both games (although the games will flash up a registration form upon exiting; the good Doctor advises ignoring these).
I hadn’t heard of these games, but this is fantastic as it unearths games which were directly inspired by Ultima with the explicit cooperation of the developer. I find it both sad and frightening how many games, and almost all the source code, have been lost over the golden years of gaming. Any effort like this to bring them up from the grave is a blessing on the industry and on we players who treasure them.