showing 11 games

namepublisher(developer)year arrow_downwarddescription
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar  Origin (Origin Systems)1985Comes on two 5.25' disks. In 1997 the full version of this game was 'made available for free download' at selected sites by Origin. However, it remains proprietary and not defined as "freeware" or "public domain" (these downloads can disappear or the priced raised at any time at Electronic Art's option). Several homebrew upgrades exist for this game that add features such as VGA graphics and Midi sound. The xu4 project allows this game to run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS 8, Mac OS X, and other operating systems. xu4 Also allows extensive modding of the graphics, enemies, items, and certain game logic.

The Ultima series continued to innovate with the release of each game in the series. With the 4th game released for Apple ][ and then ported to IBM-PC, the genre was taken to bran new places. There is no evil big bad enemy to defeat, and the point of the game is not to take advantage of people to get stuff to go defeat the enemy. Rather, the point of the game is for the main character to become a champion of virtue. The goals are literally honesty, humility, honor, spirituality, valor, justice, compassion, sacrifice, courage, truth, and love. Actions, inactions, even words can have less than apparent unhelpful or helpful consequences. Yes, there are still monsters to fight and treasures to find, but this makes up less than 1/8th of the game and the care and purpose in handling these things is more important than the end result.
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Swords of Glass Keypunch Software1986 labelimageminimize
Knight Games Mastertronic (English Software)1988Fight an human or computer opponent in Sword Fight 1, Sword Fight 2, Quarterstaff, Pikestaff, Ball and chain, or Axeman (Axe) as knights in one-on-one combat in the well known fighting game style. Take turns in Archery (Bow) or Crossbow shooting at targets using a cursor. Each player can choose is keyboard or joystick control independently. 'Difficulty' consists of choosing 4, 6, or 8 minute rounds. Players have hit points that can be exhausted for a score bonus to the winner. Hits score points. Score is not cumulative between game nor recorded.
The fighting is in the context of jousting matches. However the famous horse and lance matches are not present making it more of the general hastilude type games.
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Budokan: The Martial Spirit Electronic Arts1989 labelimageminimize
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  Ultra Games;Image Works (Unlimited Software)1990[spoiler=cheat (required for the sewer gap);close cheat]A+S+D+F+G+H[/spoiler][spoiler=other cheat (also does gap);close cheat]Q+W+E+R+T+Y+U+P[/spoiler] labelimageminimize
The Dark Heart of Uukrul Brøderbund (Digital Studios)1990
[49]***This game has some interactive fiction, adventure and not yet defined elements. Players can visually search the room or listen find secrets, to get descriptions of the room, find riddles that hint at solutions to puzzles, and/or find clues to events in the nearby area. These are returned as text as the game has no sound whatsoever.

Advancement must be confirmed by player actions. Crosses are not just symbols in this game, they are apparently melee weapons. Equipment can require a minimum level of experience and/or a minimum character attribute. Clerics must pray to cast spells (all one action). The petitioned god can grant the cast, not answer, or punish the character. These random responses seem to be based on the character's previous actions but the mechanism is unclear.

The game is automatically saved much the same way as typical rogue-likes but a bit less often. Simply walking from one place to the next does not prompt a save, but reading a clue or resolving an encounter does. There is also a game "backup" save system. When a player is in a "sanctuary" they may manually create a second save.

Experience is shared but most of it distributed unequally based on a character's participation. The mechanism is unclear. Killing blows and attacks delivering significant damage have the most reward. Other actions are rewarded as well no mater what the result. Every character still gets something even if they did not interact with the battle at all. For example, if the first move of a battle is the player's fighter killing a single foe with a single blow, all other party members will get at least 1 XP or more for a stronger enemey.***If a character sacrifices their life to save their fellows, they lose piety. Dying is heresy, how [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oran_of_Iona]Oran[/url]ic¡***
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Windwalker Origin Systems (Micro Magic)1990 labelimageminimize
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions Konami1991 labelminimizeminimize
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin-Op!  Image Works (Probe Software)1992[b]THE RETURN OF THE AWESOME FOURSOME![/b]

Now two dudes or dudettes can join forces and double team Shredder™ and his turtle terminators in a bid to save April™ and Splinter™. Choose which lean, green turtle you control and haut shell around this fully scrolling version of the coin-op game and save April™ from a burning building. Meanwhile Splinter™ gets kidnapped and you must trash dodgy dudes Bebop™ and Rocksteady™ to set him free.
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The Summoning SSI;Softgold Computerspiele (Event Horizon Software)1992Yes, the character has limited capacity _and_ the game world has limited supplies _and_ there is no back tracking. Forcing players to choose very carefully which items they want to carry to the next level and exactly when to use said items or not. Failure to have the right items can put the game in an unwinnable state. Magic regen is extremely slow. There is a cheat patch for this game that does nothing except speed up Magic regen. Many consider this game to be near unbeatable (even with the regen cheat) yet magic regen is the only cheat anybody has bothered to create.***
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Baldur's Gate: Edition spéciale  Interplay Productions1998 labelminimizeminimize
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