📰 Title: | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (with ScummVM engine) | 🕹️ / 🛠️ Type: | Game |
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🗃️ Genre: | Adventure & Action | 👁️ Visual: | 2D Scrolling |
🏷️ Category: | Adventure & Action ➤ Role-playing game ➤ RPG ➤ Ultima | 🏝️ Perspective: | Top-down |
🔖 Tags: | RPG; Adventure; Exploration; Ultima; ScummVM engine; Fantasy; Tile version; Skill-Based | ⏱️ Pacing: | Turn-Based |
🐣️ Approx. start: | 1985-11-01 | 👫️ Played: | Single |
🐓️ Latest: | 2022-02-09 | 🚦 Status: | 05. Tested & Working (status) |
📍️ Version: | Latest: 1.0 beta 5 / Dev: 470c888 | ❤️ Like it: | 9. ⏳️ |
🏛️ License type: | 🕊️🎁 Libre with Free assets | 🎀️ Quality: | 2. 🏅️⭐⭐⭐⭐ (it works) |
🏛️ License: | Code: GPL-2 / Artwork: Free | ✨️ (temporary): | |
🐛️ Created: | 2011-05-14 | 🐜️ Updated: | 2024-06-17 |
📦️ Package name: | ..... 📦️ Arch: | ||
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📄️ Source: | ..... 📦️ RPM: | ||
⚙️ Generic binary: | ..... 📦️ Deb: | ||
🌍️ Browser version: | ..... 📦️ AppImage: | ||
📱️ PDA support: | ..... 📦️ Flatpak: | ||
✨️ Not use: | ..... 📦️ Snap: |
📰 What's new?: | 👔️ Already shown: | ||
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💡 Lights on: | 💭️ New version published (to be updated): | ||
🎨️ Significant improvement: | 🦺️ Work in progress: | ||
🎖️ This work: | 🚧️ Some work remains to be done: | ||
👫️ Contrib.: | goupildb & Louis | 👻️ Temporary: | |
🎰️ ID: | 13538 |
📜️[en]: | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is the 4th installment in the series, and is a free, multi-platform turn-based RPG released in 1985, 1st in the Age of Enlightenment trilogy, with more interactions and morality. After the defeat of the triad of Evil, the old world Sosaria deeply modified was renamed Britannia. Its benevolent monarch, Lord British, proclaimed the Quest of the Avatar, to consecrate the future spiritual leader. The player's goal will be to become the Avatar. This game runs natively (and easily) with the ScummVM engine (which integrates the XU4 engine). | 📜️[fr]: | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar est le 4ème opus de la série, et un RPG au tour par tour gratuit et multi-plateforme sorti en 1985, 1er de la trilogie de l'âge de lumière, avec davantage d'interactions et de moralité. Après la défaite de la triade du Mal, l'ancien monde Sosaria profondément modifié fût rebaptisé Britannia. Son monarque bienveillant Lord British, proclama la Quête de l'Avatar, devant consacrer le futur chef spirituel. L'objectif du joueur sera de devenir l'Avatar. Ce jeu tourne nativement (et facilement) avec le moteur ScummVM (qui intègre le moteur XU4). |
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🏝️ Trailer: (201805),
🦝️ From Users: (202108), (202103),
💎 Features: iPad version (201104),
🎲️ Gameplay (original version): (201611), (201510), (201901),
🎮️ Showcase: 16 versions of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (201907),
🏡️ Website & videos
[Homepage 1 2] [Dev site 1 2] [Features/About] [Screenshots] [Videos ft(201104) t(201805) gd(202xxx) gu(o)(202108) r(202103) r(201907) lp(202xxx) g(o)(201611) g(o)(201510) g(o)(201901) g(o)(201903) g(o)(201409) g(o)(201804) g[fr](202xxx) g(o)[de](201404) g[ru](202xxx) g[pl](202xxx) g[cz](202xxx) g[sp](202xxx) g[pt](202xxx) g[it](202xxx) g[tr](202xxx)] [WIKI] [FAQ] [RSS] [Changelog 1 2 3]
💰 Commercial
• [GOG (Windows, for contents extraction)] - Free
🍩️ Resources
• Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (DOS Game, to use with ScummVM engine, download the floppy disk version): [Abandonware France [fr] (Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar)]
• The Ultima IV Graphics Upgrade: [the Moongates Ultima IV Annex]
• Mockingboard Rendered Ultima Music: g(202xxx♺) [Mockingboard Rendered Ultima Music]
🛠️ Technical informations
[Open Hub] [PCGamingWiki] [MobyGames] [ScummVM (Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar)] [ScummVM (Announcement: XU4 became a subengine of ScummVM)] [Dino's Ultima Page] [Ultima Dragons (fan site)] [Ultima The Reconstruction (fan site)]
🦣️ Social
(Ultima) Devs (Origin Systems (Richard Garriott & Robert Garriott) [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
(Ultima) Devs (Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (Lord British) [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202004) 2(200903)]
(Ultima) Devs (Robert Garriott [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(200707) 2(201410)]
(XU4) Devs (XU4 Team 1 2 3 [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2 3] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
(ScummVM) Devs (ScummVM Team 1 2 [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2 3] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
The Project: [Blog] [Forums] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [reddit] [Discord]
🐝️ Related
[Wikipedia (Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar) [fr] [en] [de]]
📦️ Misc. repositories
[Repology] [pkgs.org] [Generic binary] [Arch Linux / AUR] [openSUSE] [Debian/Ubuntu] [Flatpak] [AppImage(author's repo)] [Snap] [PortableLinuxGames]
🕵️ Reviews
[HowLongToBeat] [metacritic] [OpenCritic] [iGDB] [Waybackmachine (GameSpy)]
🕊️ Source of this Entry: [Site (date)]
🦣️ Social Networking Update (on mastodon)
🕹️ Title: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
🦊️ What's: a free award-winning 2.5D RPG with a libre, modern & compatible engine
🏡️ https://www.abandonware-france.org/ltf_abandon/ltf_jeu.php?id=55
🐣️ https://github.com/scummvm
🔖 #LinuxGaming #ShareYourGames #Scummvm #Adventure #RPG #Ultima #TileVersion
📦️ #LibreGameEngine #FreeAssets #Bin
📖 Our entry: https://www.lebottindesjeuxlinux.tuxfamily.org/en/online/lights-on/
🥁️ Update:
⚗️
📌️ Changes:
🦣️ From: 🛜️
🏝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/AL7L2KET7Mg
🦝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/yfuBGZ4al5g
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/5VHnFhLcouk
📜️ "A free award-winning turn-based 2.5D RPG with a libre, modern & compatible engine, allowing to finish the game" 📜️ .
ScummVM wiki:
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was the fourth game in the Ultima series of role-playing games. The land of Sosaria is in a period of peace, and Lord British feels that the people lack purpose after the defeat of the evil sorcerers. He seeks a person that can be an example of virtue for others to follow.
Support for Ultima IV is based on the xu4 project, which has been merged into ScummVM.
XU4:
XU4 is a remake of the computer game Ultima IV. The goal is to make it easy and convenient to play this classic on modern operating systems. XU4 is primarily inspired by the much more ambitious project Exult. XU4 is a multi-platform application thanks to SDL; it's available for Windows, MacOS X, Linux and more.
This project is currently under development and beta releases are available. The game is fully playable from beginning to end. The very latest source code can always be accessed from SVN.
A secondary goal of this project is to clearly document the formats of the data files from the original Ultima IV. This work in progress is available here (see site).
Please see the README file for information on compiling, installing and running xu4.
The original Ultima IV is freeware. Download it here! (see site).
Important News:
As of April 2020 xu4 became a subengine of ScummVM.
After years of stagnation this means that xu4 is not dead after all but will thrive in ScummVM.
Right now code needs to be sortened out and xu4 is not yet in an official ScummVM release.
Keep an eye on ScummVM news and its code on GitHub.
GOG:
Experience fantasy role-playing’s most distinctive and award-winning series in this special three-game collection. Ultima: The Second Trilogy follows the spellbinding tale of the Avatar in this richly detailed and challenging story. The setting is medieval Britannia, but the stories are timeless and involve universal issues that explore the essence of virtue. First, there is the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment in Ultima IV, where your personal ethics are tested in a treacherous struggle to demonstrate the eight virtues of Avatarhood. Then in Ultima V, you rely on your new-found strengths and skills to oppose a tyrannical leader who warps the virtues you uphold through his twisted legislation of morality. Finally, in the epic concluding chapter of Ultima VI, you, the Avatar, must resolve the cultural conflict between a race of hostile creatures and your own. It all adds up to a relentless test of character in a world where things are not always as they appear, and evil is not easily defined.
• Visit thousands of colorful places and characters, search towns, castles, and villages. Converse with merchants and mages, all as you walk, ride, and sail across Britannia
• Explore magic, combat, and deception – weave hundreds of magical spells, watch axes and arrows fly in combat, discover clues, and solve mysteries
• Witness the transformation from Stranger to Avatar through self-improvement, then join him on his quests to save Britannia and become the savior of all.
🌍️ Wikipedia :
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima role-playing video games. It is the first in the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy, shifting the series from the hack and slash, dungeon crawl gameplay of its "Age of Darkness" predecessors towards an ethically-nuanced, story-driven approach. Ultima IV has a much larger game world than its predecessors, with an overworld map sixteen times the size of Ultima III and puzzle-filled dungeon rooms to explore. Ultima IV further advances the franchise with dialog improvements, new means of travel and exploration, and world interactivity.
In 1996 Computer Gaming World named Ultima IV as #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC. Designer Richard Garriott considers this game to be among his favorites from the Ultima series.
Ultima IV was followed by the release of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny in 1988.
Plot
Ultima IV is among the few role-playing games, and perhaps the first, in which the game's story does not center on asking a player to overcome a tangible ultimate evil.
After the defeat of each of the members of the Triad of Evil in the previous three Ultima games, the world of Sosaria underwent some radical changes in geography: Three quarters of the world disappeared, continents rose and sank, and new cities were built to replace the ones that were lost. Eventually the world, now unified under Lord British's rule, was renamed Britannia. Lord British felt the people lacked purpose after their great struggles against the Triad were over, and he was concerned with their spiritual well-being in this unfamiliar new age of relative peace, so he proclaimed the Quest of the Avatar: He needed someone to step forth and become the shining example for others to follow.
Unlike most other RPGs the game is not set in an "age of darkness"; prosperous Britannia resembles Renaissance Italy, or King Arthur's Camelot. The object of the game is to focus on the main character's development in virtuous life—possible because the land is at peace—and become a spiritual leader and an example to the people of the world of Britannia. The game follows the protagonist's struggle to understand and exercise the Eight Virtues. After proving his or her understanding in each of the Virtues, locating several artifacts and finally descending into the dungeon called the Stygian Abyss to gain access to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, the protagonist becomes an Avatar.
Conversely, actions in the game could remove a character's gained Virtues, distancing them from the construction of Truth, Love, Courage and the greater axiom of Infinity—all required to complete the game. Though Avatarhood is not exclusive to one chosen person, the hero remains the only known Avatar throughout the later games, and as time passes he is increasingly regarded as a myth.
Gameplay
Instead of simply choosing stats to assign points to as in the first three Ultima games, players are asked various ethical dilemmas by a gypsy fortune-teller using remotely tarot-like cards of the eight virtues. These situations do not have one correct resolution; rather, players must rank the Eight Virtues and whichever stands as their highest priority determines the type of character they will play. For example, choosing Compassion creates a Bard, Honor a Paladin, Sacrifice a Tinker, and so on. This is also the first Ultima where playing as a human is necessary, eliminating other races such as the elves, dwarves, and "bobbits" found in previous games (however, even in the first three Ultimas where they could be chosen as player characters, there were never any non-player characters (NPC) of those non-human races).
Although each profession embodies a particular Virtue, to become an Avatar the player must achieve enlightenment in all eight virtues. Virtue affects how NPCs interact with the player; enlightenment in the Virtues is achieved through the player's actions as well as through meditation at shrines. Shrines to each of the Virtues are scattered about Britannia, each requiring the player to possess the corresponding Virtue's rune before allowing entry. Through meditation and correctly repeating the Virtue's mantra three times at the shrine, the player gains insight and ultimately enlightenment in the Virtue. The seer Hawkwind in Lord British's castle provides the player with feedback on their progress in the Virtues, offering advice for actions that will improve their standing in each of the Eight Virtues, informing them when they are ready to visit a shrine for elevation, or chastising the character if they "hath strayed far from the path of the Avatar". A player may be encouraged to give alms to the poor to improve their Sacrifice, or never flee from battle to improve their Honor. Players are equally able to lower their virtue by their in-game actions, such as selecting a bragging response in a dialog with certain characters (lowers Humility). While most actions have a minor effect on a Virtue's progress, certain actions can have an immediate and devastating effect on a player's progress on multiple Virtues.
Technically, the game was very similar to Ultima III: Exodus, although much larger. It is the first Ultima to feature a real conversation system; whereas NPCs in earlier games would only give one canned answer when talked to, now players could interact with them by specifying a subject of conversation, the subject determined either by a standard set of questions (name, job, health) or by information gleaned from the previous answers, or from other characters. Many sub-quests were arranged around this. Users playing the game a second time could save considerable time by knowing the answers to key questions which frequently required travel to another city to talk with another NPC. In at least one case, a player is asked "Who sent you?", which may require yet another round trip between cities.
Another addition were dungeon rooms, uniquely designed combat areas in the dungeons which supplemented the standard combat against randomly appearing enemies.
Ultima IV is an open world game; most quests can be completed in any order. There are no fetch quests. Although it is a turn-based game, the clock runs while the game was running. If a player does not act for a while, NPCs and monsters may move and time passes. Time is an important aspect to the game, as certain actions can only be performed at certain times.
The world of Britannia was first introduced here in full, and the world map in the series did not greatly change in later games. The player may travel about Britannia by foot, on horseback, across the sea in a ship or by air in a "lighter than air device". Speed and ease of travel is affected by the mode of travel as well as terrain and wind.
Virtues
The Eight Virtues of the Avatar, their relationship to the Three Principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, and how gameplay has been designed around them are as follows:
• Honesty: Truth
When purchasing goods from blind merchants, the player is required to enter the amount of gold they wish to pay. Although the player has the option of paying less than the merchant has asked for, this will mark the player as dishonest. Stealing gold from chests in towns, villages and castles will also penalize the player. This Virtue is embodied by Mariah the Mage.
• Compassion: Love
By using the Give conversation subject, a player can give beggars alms and in doing so demonstrate Compassion. This Virtue is embodied by Iolo the Bard.
• Valor: Courage
Valor is displayed by the player defeating enemies in combat and not fleeing in a cowardly fashion. This means that when retreat is necessary, the player should be the last party member to leave the field of battle. This Virtue is embodied by Geoffrey the Fighter.
• Justice: Truth and Love
Not all of the hostile creatures in Britannia are evil and the player must avoid unprovoked attacks on those that are not. If attacked, he should resort to driving them away rather than killing them. Out of the eight virtues, this one requires the most finesse to embody and is a particularly good example of balancing ethical dilemmas. The player's party must stand their ground for Valor, yet drive their foes away without killing them. This Virtue is embodied by Jaana the Druid.
• Sacrifice: Love and Courage
If the player goes to a place of healing while in good health, the player can make a blood donation and sacrifice some health in doing so. Scorpia reported that players who wrote her for hints had the most trouble with self-sacrifice, believing that giving gold to others was sufficient, as opposed to donating blood. Helping others retreat from battle and losing Valor points is another way of increasing Sacrifice. This Virtue is embodied by Julia the Tinker. In the NES port, she was replaced with a male character named Julius.
• Honor: Truth and Courage
By finding sacred items and exploring dungeons the player demonstrates Honor. This Virtue is embodied by Dupre the Paladin.
• Spirituality: Truth, Love, and Courage
Meditating at shrines, consulting the seer, and achieving enlightenment in the other Virtues enhances the player's Spirituality. This Virtue is embodied by Shamino the Ranger.
• Humility: None, though it is considered the root of all Virtue.
The player demonstrates Humility during conversations. A boastful response to a question results in a penalty, while a humble response results in a bonus. This Virtue is embodied by Katrina the Shepherd.
Development
Richard Garriott has stated that he did not receive customer feedback for his first three games because neither California Pacific Computer nor Sierra On-Line forwarded him mail. After his own company released Ultima III, Garriott—who attended an interdenominational Christian Sunday School as a teenager—realized (partly from letters of enraged parents) that in the earlier games immoral actions like stealing and murder of peaceful citizens had been necessary or at least very useful actions in order to win the game, and that such features might be objectionable. Garriott stated he wanted to become a good storyteller and make certain the story had content, and that 90% of the games out there, including his first three Ultima games, were what he called "go kill the evil bad guy" stories. He said that "Ultima IV was the first one that had ethical overtones in it, and it also was just a better told story." Shay Addams, Garriott's official biographer, wrote, "He decided that if people were going to look for hidden meaning in his work when they didn't even exist, he would introduce ideas and symbols with meaning and significance he deemed worthwhile, to give them something they could really think about." To encourage a sense of responsibility for their character's actions, players were intended to feel they were playing themselves transported into a fantasy realm, not a separate person. Garriott removed gameplay elements he believed would prevent players from identifying personally with their character, such as playing as a non-human.
In retrospect, 1UP.com described Ultima IV as "a direct barb at the self-appointed moral crusaders who sought to demonize RPGs" and complained that "the irony in seeing an 'evil' RPG better present the Christian admonition to back faith with works in quiet modesty than the Bible-waving watchdog decrying the medium seems to have been lost". The game's moral dilemmas were designed to give players the opportunity to reap temporary rewards for amoral behavior, only to realize later that they have been penalized. Garriott hoped they would approach later dilemmas with more thoughtfulness. Near the end of the game, he took advantage of this to encourage players to overthink the puzzles and question the morality of their choices. At one point, players are seemingly required to murder children, who are revealed to be monsters in disguise. Though one playtester threatened to quit over this dilemma, Garriott refused to remove it from the game, reasoning that it had served its purpose in provoking an emotional response.
The concept of virtues was inspired by a TV show about the Avatars of Hindu mythology, which described the avatars as having to master 16 different virtues. The eight virtues used in the game were derived from combinations of truth, love, and courage, a set of motivators Garriott found worked best, and also found in one of his favorite films, The Wizard of Oz. The game took two years to develop, twice that of both Ultima II and Ultima III. Garriott described the playtesting as "slightly rushed" to make the Christmas season; he was the only one to finish playing through the game by the time it went out for publishing.
Like contemporary Origin games, Ultima IV was developed for the Apple II series then ported to other computers, partially because Garriott himself was an Apple II user/coder, partially because developing the games on there first made ports easier. Garriott said in 1984 that the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit's sprites and hardware sound chips made porting from them to Apple "far more difficult, perhaps even impossible ... the Apple version will never get done". Like previous games, Ultima IV does not permit saving in dungeons because of technical limitations that Garriott described as "non-trivial".
The ankh used from here onward as the symbol of the Avatar's virtuous path, was chosen after Garriott saw it in the film Logan's Run.
Un RPG au tour par tour et un moteur compatible, Ultima IV par le studio Origin Systems (Richard Garriott & Robert Garriott), XU4 la XU4 Team.
En C++ et SDL. Il utilise le moteur ScummVM. Le moteur ScummVM intègre à présent le moteur XU4 (qui n'est plus nécessaire).
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar est le 4ème opus de la série, et un RPG au tour par tour gratuit et multi-plateforme sorti en 1985, 1er de la trilogie de l'âge de lumière, avec davantage d'interactions et de moralité. Après la défaite de la triade du Mal, l'ancien monde Sosaria profondément modifié fût rebaptisé Britannia. Son monarque bienveillant Lord British, proclama la Quête de l'Avatar, devant consacrer le futur chef spirituel. L'objectif du joueur sera de devenir l'Avatar. Ce jeu tourne nativement (et facilement) avec le moteur ScummVM (qui intègre le moteur XU4).
ScummVM wiki (traduction du Bottin) :
Ultima IV : Quest of the Avatar est le quatrième jeu de la série de jeux de rôle Ultima. Le pays de Sosaria est en période de paix, et Lord British pense que le peuple n'a plus de but après la défaite des sorciers maléfiques. Il cherche une personne qui puisse être un exemple de vertu à suivre pour les autres.
Le support d'Ultima IV est basé sur le projet xu4, qui a été fusionné avec ScummVM.
XU4:
XU4 est un remake du jeu informatique Ultima IV. L'objectif est de rendre ce classique facile et pratique à jouer sur les systèmes d'exploitation modernes. XU4 est principalement inspiré du projet beaucoup plus ambitieux Exult. XU4 est une application multi-plateforme grâce à SDL ; elle est disponible pour Windows, MacOS X, Linux et plus encore.
Ce projet est actuellement en cours de développement et des versions bêta sont disponibles. Le jeu est entièrement jouable du début à la fin. Le code source le plus récent est toujours accessible depuis le SVN.
Un objectif secondaire de ce projet est de documenter clairement les formats des fichiers de données du jeu original Ultima IV. Ce travail en cours est disponible ici (voir le site)
Veuillez consulter le fichier README pour obtenir des informations sur la compilation, l'installation et l'exécution de xu4.
La version originale d'Ultima IV est un logiciel gratuit. Téléchargez-le ici ! (voir le site)
Nouvelles importantes :
En avril 2020, xu4 est devenu un sous-moteur de ScummVM.
Après des années de stagnation, cela signifie que xu4 n'est pas mort après tout mais qu'il va prospérer dans ScummVM.
Pour l'instant, le code doit être mis au point et xu4 n'est pas encore dans une version officielle de ScummVM.
Gardez un œil sur les nouvelles de ScummVM et son code sur GitHub.
🌍️ Wikipedia :
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, est un jeu de rôle sur ordinateur publié par Origin Systems en 1985. Le jeu est le quatrième de la série de jeux de rôle Ultima créée par Richard Garriott.
Présentation
Ultima IV est le premier épisode de ce qui sera connu plus tard comme la trilogie de l’« Âge de lumière » et le premier de la série à s’écarter du modèle de base des jeux de rôle sur ordinateur (tuer un grand méchant) pour tendre vers une approche plus morale de l’histoire.
Selon ses propres propos, Richard Garriott commença l’écriture du jeu quand il prit conscience (aidé en cela par des lettres incendiaires de parents de joueurs) que des actions immorales — comme le vol ou le meurtre d’innocents citoyens — étaient nécessaires (ou pour le moins très utiles) pour terminer les précédents épisodes et il développa le scénario d’Ultima IV pour y remédier.
Techniquement, le jeu est très similaire à Ultima III, en plus grand. Pour la première fois dans la série, il était possible de discuter avec les personnages du jeu en spécifiant un sujet de conversation, déterminé par un ensemble de questions de base (nom, travail, santé) ou par des informations glanées auparavant. Plusieurs sous-quêtes du jeu se déclenchent ainsi.
Certaines pièces des inévitables souterrains présentaient des zones de combat spécialement écrites, en plus des combats habituels contre des ennemis aléatoirement générés. De plus, à partir de ce jeu, un scénario plus global commença à se développer afin de lier entre eux tous les Ultima ultérieurs. La carte du monde créée pour ce jeu fut utilisée quasiment sans aucun changement pour le reste de la série.
Richard Garriott considère qu'Ultima IV est sa plus grande réussite. Il a par ailleurs désormais autorisé le téléchargement libre de la version PC.
Scénario
L’histoire d’Ultima IV est largement inhabituelle pour un jeu de rôle de ce type car elle ne tourne pas autour d’une incarnation du Mal qu’il faut vaincre à tout prix. Au contraire, le but du jeu est de devenir un « prophète » (nommé l’Avatar) d’une nouvelle « religion » (une « philosophie » de vie, plus précisément) pour le monde naissant de Britannia (fondé sur les ruines de Sosaria), en comprenant et exerçant les huit vertus de l’Avatar et en trouvant le « Codex de la sagesse ultime ».
Installation d'un jeu au format ScummVM :
• (✔ ScummVM v. 2.5.1) Ce jeu est compatible avec le moteur ScummVM.
▸ Préparation des données :
• Décompressez le jeu (la version disquette est la plus simple à installer et elle est complète, n'oubliez pas que le jeu date de 1985 :) dans le répertoire souhaité.
▸ Installation et paramétrage de ScummVM :
• Installez ScummVM (en dépôts)
• Lancez ScummVM
• Précisez-lui où se trouvent les données du jeu via un glisser-déposer du répertoire du jeu sur l'interface de ScummVM
• Pour améliorer l'aspect d'anciens jeux, dans l'onglet "Graphismes", vous pouvez sélectionner :
⚬ Mode graphique : SDL Surface
⚬ Mode de rendu : VGA
⚬ Mode d'étirement : Adapter à la fenêtre
⚬ Scaleur : "AdvMAME", et "3x".
🚀️ LANCEMENT DU JEU:
• Si vous lancez ce jeu depuis l'interface de ScummVM : double-cliquez sur le raccourci du jeu (ou sélectionnez le jeu sous l'interface et cliquez sur le bouton "Démarrer").
🕵️ Test (✔ ScummVM v. 2.5.1) par goupildb (config. : Manjaro 64-bit) :
Le : 20 février 2022
⏱️ Durée du test : 15 minutes.
🎯️ Objectif : Initialisation de l'entrée, tests et premières impressions.
Le jeu est de grande qualité avec cinématique d'introduction, bande son de qualité, graphismes et gameplay d'époque, mais très soignés.
C'est une référence dans le domaine du jeu d'aventure, conçu par les frères Garriot, dont Richard aka Lord British.
Il dispose d'un vrai scénario avec une cinématique pour le mettre en scène. De plus cette version avec ScummVM et le filtre "AdvMAME" est vraiment très jolie, par rapport à toutes ses déclinaisons, car porté sur de nombreuses plateformes depuis les années 80.
Le gameplay m'a semblé difficile, et j'ai fini par mourir (s'en suit la copie d'écran ci-dessus :). Mais aussi parce que je n'ai malheureusement pas le temps de rentrer dans le jeu et ses menus. J'ai foncé tête baissé pour explorer vite fait ses décors et suis tombé dans différents traquenards tendus par des adversaires variés et redoutables (combattants, squelettes et serpents). Comme tout bon RPG, il ne faut pas tenter d'affronter bêtement tout ce qui se présente : c'est pas du FPS :)).
• 🧭️ Conclusion :
🕵️ Impression globale : 👍️
Là encore, un superbe cadeau avec de nombreuses heures de jeux pour les connaisseurs. Les adeptes du FPS ou du jeu d'arcade passeront leur chemin, et donc à côté de cette pépite qui ne demande qu'à être découverte avec du temps devant soi (et pas comme moi en coup de vent ;).
👏️ ❤️ Un grand bravo et merci à ses auteurs !
💡️ Commentaires généraux:
Bien qu'il soit intégré au projet ScummVM, le développement du projet XU4 se poursuit (pourquoi pas).