So Ultima 4 Was Featured on “The Goldbergs” A Couple Weeks Ago
I don’t personally follow The Goldbergs, which I gather is a 1980s-themed sitcom that is broadcast on ABC and its affiliates.
But, as both Andrew Darovich and Chris “Binky” Launius pointed out on the Ultima Dragons Facebook group, Ultima 4 was evidently featured rather prominently on a recent episode of the show. Specifically, it was featured on the episode Shall We Play a Game?, which aired on October 22nd of this year.
Binky, happily, was able to grab a couple of screenshots of Ultima 4’s appearance in the episode. Sadly, however, the showrunners made a rather critical mistake concerning the functionality of the game, which Andrew Darovich vented about:
Adam (the kid) was playing Ultima IV on his Apple II, and said it didn’t have a save function.
I cringed and yelled at the TV.
Kind of a blatantly obvious mistake, I suppose. To modern players, the game probably feels hardcore enough to warrant the incusion of character permadeath, but…that isn’t how it works.
Ultima IV with permadeath would have possibly been the most hard-core game ever made. Pretty awesome to see it on network television though. Wouldn’t have imagined that in my wildest dreams. Perhaps I shall torrent it and put the clip on YouTube for us all to enjoy as we ponder gray areas of media distribution.
Well, maybe he was used to U3, had just started the game and hadn’t gotten far enough to need to save yet? I cringe at the thought of having to play U4 through in one sitting…
Was there Mockingboard music?
Adam F. Goldberg here, creator of The Goldbergs. Give a brother some credit. I know my 80s Apple games and try damn hard to keep it real on my show. I loved me the Ultima back in the day and am very aware of pausing etc. This line was said for the game Sneakers for the Apple II+. But the problem with more or less ALL games is NO ONE knows who owns them. I went through game after game, but nothing would clear. Having similar issues with NES which is nuts — can’t get RBI Baseball or Track and Field cause there is no chain of title! Ultima was the only one that cleared… but I still had that pause line so I was just stuck with the footage… sucks. Just sucks.
The irony is that if you just went ahead and used a game without permission, sure enough some pen and paper “company” would jump out with a lawsuit. Keep up the good work. The 80’s will never die, nor will Ultima. 🙂
Thanks for the explanation (and for popping by this humble corner of the ‘Net). A sausage-making metaphor would seem to be fitting here; we get to see the final product and enjoy it, but the actual process of putting it on our screens is rather messy at times.
Eh, in the end, it’s nice to see Ultima get put out in the public eye again; the series inspired so much of what we now take for granted in modern RPGs, but is simultaneously very easily forgotten for how long ago some of its entries were published.
Your nerd cred has been well established in the past and your show is pretty impressive in its authenticity most of the time despite the occasional continuity slip-up. Using actual home video footage from your real family really cements the authenticity of the show.
Frankly, I’m just happy that new audiences are being exposed to a classic Ultima game.