So it turns out that Origin historian Pix is evidently just a wee bit of a masochist. That, or there is some other explanation for why a person might choose, absent a threat upon his life, to play the Super Nintendo port of Ultima 7 of which I am unware.

Be that as it may, this is a thing that Pix has done…or begun to do, at least. And it would appear that within minutes of his beginning playing the game, he was able to deduce just how much had been cut from Ultima 7 during the port:

I’m greeted by Iolo with some rather stilted dialog but at least the character portraits are shown here which helps to add some personality. The keyword system is used for conversations but in a serious breach of Ultima tradition I can’t ask about name and job and people just go and introduce themselves without being asked. The dialog has been seriously cut down and is often less than subtle. It’s not exactly unapparent that the Fellowship may be up to no good within the first 5 minutes.

True to form for a Nintendo game, the serious crime turns out to be somewhat less serious than Ultima 7 veterans may expect being a kidnapping rather than a murder. Presumably that means I’ll get to rescue Christopher and Inamo this time around. I’ll have to do all of this on my own as there is no party support and Iolo deserts me immediately after welcoming me back.

He goes on to explain the gameplay and interface in some detail, so for those of you who are curious about such things, do give those sections a read.

Pix was, in this first sitting, able to make his way as far as Britain, although he notes that the layouts of cities differ significantly from their layouts in Ultima 7. His overall first impression of the game is not wholly positive, although it can’t be called entirely negative either:

I’ve played about 2 hours to get this far. I’m not long into this but it is without a doubt the most simplified and dumbed down console port I have seen. When compared to the original game, it’s pretty insulting in all honesty and appears to have been aimed at primary school kids. The idea of this being someone’s introduction to Ultima 7 doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s almost like NES Ultima V all over again.

What it does have going for it over NES Ultima V is a nice quick control system and half decent graphics thanks to the SNES hardware. It’s also got a smattering of the original soundtrack which although cut down like everything else is at least more varied than the aforementioned U5. Maybe it’s just because I expected the worst but I’m actually quite enjoying this as a simple hack and slash affair.

Of course, there’s still more of the game to be played; the worst may yet be to come!