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PART ONE: ''THE BLACK GATE''
engine.]]In ''Ultima VII: The Black Gate'' ( 1992 ), two centuries have passed since the Gargoyle threat was solved and the Avatar is suddenly whisked into Britannia by a red Moongate . As the game starts, The Guardian , an evil creature, taunts the Avatar, telling him that Britannia "has entered into a new age of enlightenment", and that he will eventually rule Britannia. The Avatar arrives to Britannia via a red moongate, and as he arrives to Trinsic, he's asked to solve a ritualistic murder that occurred the night before. He also learns that " The Fellowship ", a new religious philosophy led by a man called Batlin , has been formed. The Fellowship is most likely inspired by Scientology and similar personal improvement groups and faiths; the game can be said to satirize psycho babble. This game introduced a major change; turn-based gameplay was abandoned for real-time gameplay, and the whole screen was now devoted to the map, with anything else being overlaid whenever the need arises. This way, larger, much more detailed, and no longer visibly tile-based graphics were possible. Also, the game was the first in the series that was entirely Mouse -driven; in theory it could be played without ever touching the keyboard. The gameworld is known for its interactivity: almost everything can be taken, moved or interacted in some ways. You can bake bread, forge weapons, take milk from cows, play musical instruments. You can even scare your companions by wearing masks (but only if they don't see you wearing it!). This game is also highly non-linear: even if the main quest is rather linear (only one ending and you're "forced" through it without branches) almost every quest can be solved in two or more ways and you can roam through the world as long as you want: from the city of Britain to the gamblier-house of Buccaneer's Den. You can even lose your virginity and take a test from a unicorn.... In ''Ultima VII'', the system allowed the player to choose general tactics for party members. The AI was not perfect, but it saved the player the need to micromanage up to eight different characters in battle. .]]Parts of the ''Ultima VII'' storyline are inspired by game creator Origin Systems ' conflicts with competitor (and later, their new owner) Electronic Arts . The main antagonist of the story, The Guardian , is presented as a 'destroyer of worlds'. Origin Systems' corporate slogan was 'We Create Worlds' and it can be implied that The Guardian represented Electronic Arts ' attempts at destroying the competition. The three evil 'Generators' created by The Guardian in the game took the physical shapes of the contemporary Electronic Arts Logo: a cube, a sphere, and a tetrahedron. Elizabeth and Abraham, two apparently benevolent characters who later turn out to be murderers, have the initials "E" and "A". ''The Black Gate'' was released in English, German, French and Spanish. List of notable characters Some of the notable non-player characters include
Rating The game pre-dates the ESRB , and as such, was not rated by them. The game credits do include the warning "Voluntarily rated MP-13 (For Mature Players)", but this is not necessarily intended to be a serious rating, as it is more likely a parody of MPAA Film Ratings . The game credits have been made to look as movie-like as possible, with all of the standard disclaimers and elements found in movie end credits. (The credits, notoriously, also included the mention that a Soundtrack CD is available from Origin, while it actually wasn't until many years later; ''Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle'' credits actually said "Soundtrack CD NOT available from Origin, so don't ask!") ''Forge of Virtue'' expansion ''Forge of Virtue'' was an Expansion Pack that adds a quest to ''Ultima VII'' in which the Avatar must pass a series of tests to revalidate himself in the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, and destroy the last remnants of Exodus. The player is rewarded with a powerful weapon, The Black Sword . The Avatar also gains maximum strength, intelligence, and dexterity in the course of the tests, and Lord British grants the player double strength on top of that. In later releases of ''Ultima VII'' this add-on was always included. PART TWO: ''SERPENT ISLE''
''Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle'' was released in played a central role. It is speculated that the differences between Britannia and Serpent Isle were meant to parallel the differences between the United Kingdom and the United States . The residents of Serpent Isle who are familiar with their history harbor an intense hatred for Lord British and the Virtues, believing them to be oppressive. In addition, the ancient remnants of the Ophidian culture (largely ignored by the population) seem to echo the plight of Native Americans in the United States. This is the first game in the series to take place outside Britannia as it has been known since ''Ultima IV''. It is also more linear than the earlier parts — unlike the earlier games where the order in which sub-quests were completed was of little concern; the new approach makes it possible to give the game a more carefully plotted storyline, while at the same time somewhat limiting the players choice. Since most of the game's code was recycled from ''The Black Gate'', it was decided not to call it ''Ultima VIII''; Richard Garriott had stated in interviews around 1988 that no two ''Ultimas'' shared the same Source Code , unlike the then-competing '' The Bard's Tale '' series, and he probably felt bound by this statement. The original plot of the game was significantly different from the released game, mostly attributed to the fact that Electronic Arts put schedule pressures on Origin and some parts had to be cut to meet the deadline. Most of the changes occur on the latter half of the game after Batlin is found again. Some major plot holes were also left due to this. The deadline also meant many bugs were left in and there even was wholly unimplemented features. To the disappointment of many fans, the game marks the beginning of larger influence of Electronic Arts on the series. ''The Silver Seed'' expansion ''The Silver Seed'' expansion adds the Silver Seed story arc to the game, in which the party visits a subterranean keep in the ancient civilization of Serpent Isle (probably at some time in the past, but this is not known for sure). Powerful magic items, including a keyring, a ring of unlimited reagents, and a strength increasing belt can be found in this area and in nearby dungeons. In later releases of the game, the expansion pack was always included. TECHNICAL ISSUES Both parts of ''Ultima VII'' used a non-standard DOS memory management extension, called Voodoo Memory Manager. This was not a typical "DOS extender"; while DOS extenders typically provide Protected Mode features, Voodoo merely provided flat memory model for real mode. This setup was quite quirky; a very non-standard DOS extended memory setup was needed to play the game. Later, when DOS started to fall into disuse, Voodoo started to become somewhat of a stress test for DOS compatibility. Notably, Windows 95 and later have severe problems cooperating with the games. Modern Windows releases are completely incompatible with the game. Some fans of the game have worked on improving the situation. Currently, there are several ways of playing the game:
SUPER NINTENDO VERSION FCI / Pony Canyon published the SNES version of ''Ultima VII'', simply titled ''Ultima: The Black Gate'', which was created by a small team inside Origin Systems. This version was largely different from original since the PC version of the game was a then-huge twenty megabytes, yet this translation could use only one megabyte of memory for all of the game data and program. The maps and many usable items and plotlines had to be redesigned from scratch, and the game program had to be rewritten entirely in assembly language. The game was largely real-time action, more similar to ''The Legend of Zelda'' series. The party was missing too. Also, the story was largely changed due to Nintendo of America's censorship policies at the time: for example, instead of gory murders, the Avatar right away starts to investigate ''kidnappings''. This version was generally not considered as good as the PC version. FAN PROJECTS AND REMAKES '' Exult '' is at the forefront of fan projects today, in that it enables ''Ultima VII'' to be played on modern machines and across different operating systems. Exult's array of tools have enabled fans to take the game somewhat apart and modify it. This enabled graphics work better in ''Black Gate''. Another side project is to fix some of the bugs and design flaws found in ''Serpent Isle'', which were originally left in due to the rushed release. There have been a few projects to make Ultima VII fan remakes in other game engines, but so far these projects have not been particularly fruitful. EXTERNAL LINKS
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