Subj : Identify that game
To   : Angus McLeod
From : Chickenhead
Date : Thu Jul 14 2005 05:43 pm

  Re: Identify that game
  By: Angus McLeod to All on Thu Jul 14 2005 04:29 pm


 > Years ago, I played a game whose name I've forgotten.  I believe it was
 > one of the "Ultima" or "Ultima Underground" or similar games.  it might
 > have had another sub-title like "The locked gate" or "The holy quest" or
 > something.  It ran under DOS.
 > 
 > It was a first-person-shooter, except there wasn't much shooting, unless
 > you consider crossbows and slings.  It starts with your avatar being
 > thrown through a gate into a "dungeon" of some sort, where you are
 > expected to acquire a number of (eight?) artifacts.  The bottle of
 > whistling, and the helm of wossit and the breastplate of something else,
 > and so forth.
 > 
 > You picked up objects along the way, tools, weapons, treasures, and such,
 > including (if you were a magic-user) rune-stones which you kept in a
 > purple sack.  You also learned spells, which were combimations of runes.
 > If you knew the spell and had the rune stones, you placed them on a little
 > shelf in your control-panel area, and clicked something to fire the spell.
 > There were two bottles on your control-panel, one red, and one blue.  One
 > indicated your hits-to-kill and the other indicated your manna.  You had
 > to have enough manna to cast the spell.
 > 
 > There was a plant which bore a silver seed.  If you died, you were
 > reincarnated next to the plant.  If you picked the seed, the plant died,
 > but you could re-plant the seed somewhere else (like on a lower level, so
 > you wouldn't have to walk from back so far if you died).  If you got
 > killed carrying the seed (IOW no plant growing anywhere) then death was
 > permanent.
 > 
 > I can't remember much in the way of other details.
 > 
 > Can anyone identify this game for me?  Can they tell me where I might
 > acquire a copy?
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 


You're describing Ultima Underworld, a game I was quite fond of.  Quite good,
very non-linear...supposedly it pre-dated Wolf3D by about a month.

As for where to find a copy...hmm, if you can still track down the "Electronic
Arts Classics", they used to bundle both Underworld 1 and Underworld 2 on the
same disc.  Underworld 2 was even better, in my opinion.

.