Retro Gaming Yen

January 13, 2009 11:48 AM

I feel like I missed out by never playing any of the non-online Ultima games. How do I play them now? I have a PS2, a PowerBook G4, and a ThinkPad. Will I be able to play them somehow? Is an emulator the only way?
posted by mkb to technology (11 comments total)

An emulator is the only way you'll be able to play many of them, unless you want to purchase someone's old Commodore 64 or Apple 8-bit system.

This list details which games are available for which platforms.
posted by DWRoelands at 12:01 PM on January 13

Ah, the nostalgia...

All the non-online Ultima games were released for DOS, so ThinkPad + VM image running DOS should do you as far as a platform is concerned. I don't know if you consider that an "emulator"? You've probably found xu4, which you can use just to get a copy of the original U4 for DOS code; the other games might require some ebay or coughtorrent work. According to wikipedia 1-3 may still have trouble under emulation/virtualization (presumably something like coding directly to certain video hardware), but 4+ is really where it's at gameplay-wise anyways.
posted by kanuck at 12:02 PM on January 13

A dos emulator should work fine. Microsoft Virtual PC is free (as in beer) and should run dos guests. I think they did a lot of testing with games for VPC2004 so I assume VPC 2007 is at least as good.

And, per kanuk, you will not miss much by not playing untima 1-3. For an 8 year old in 1980 they were pretty awesome, but even retro nostalgia will make them seem good these days.
posted by GuyZero at 12:07 PM on January 13

Alternatively, buying a C-64 on ebay is pretty cheap these days.
posted by GuyZero at 12:07 PM on January 13

DOSBox is another option if you can find the PC versions.
posted by ALongDecember at 12:10 PM on January 13

Pick Ultima 7!

Or, sorry, Ultima VII, Part I: The Black Gate. Ahem.
posted by roombythelake at 12:12 PM on January 13

I'm not positive this will work, but there is a series of torrents online called "Classic Games Formatted for Mac," volumes 1 - whatever. try searching through them. They're all classic pc games that have a version of DosBox (modified for OS X) built into them so that all you need is the single dmg of the game to play it. There are a lot of great old games in there, if you want it, though the old Ultimas might not be.
posted by shmegegge at 12:25 PM on January 13

And to be more helpful, this program called Exult might be part of what you want, at least if you can get hold of the original DOS files from somewhere.
posted by roombythelake at 12:32 PM on January 13

Emulators are pretty easy these days. DOSBox used to be the best option, but it could be a bit arcane (although it had plenty of friendly front-ends).

These days there's VirtualPC, as mentioned, and VirtualBox. You can get a copy of FreeDOS and install it from an ISO image under the emulator. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
posted by rodgerd at 1:10 PM on January 13

You can at least play Ultima III: Exodus on the Mac- it's recently been ported to OS X. And it's just as excellent as it was in 1983.
posted by 40 Watt at 1:43 PM on January 13

Seconding Exult for doing this, you just need a copy of the original game files.

Personally, I agree with roombythelake that the Ultima VII series were the best, although I prefer Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle over Black Gate, but that's just me!
posted by ranglin at 6:07 PM on January 13