The Collectible ULTIMA

	ULTIMA VII: The Black Gate and Serpent Isle

	`"Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment! Know that the time has finally come for the one true Lord of Britannia to take his place at the head of his people! Under my guidance, Britannia will flourish, and all the people will rejoice! And pay homage to their new... Guardian!"` -- the Guardian

	Thus begins the first game of the third Ultima trilogy, Ultima VII: The Black Gate. In this game a malevolent being, known as the Guardian (or more jokingly, Big Red), is trying to take over the Avatar's beloved Britannia by establishing a new religious movement, known as the Fellowship. The Avatar must stop a serial killer, uncover the Fellowship's true purposes, and stop the evil Guardian from entering Britannia. First released for PC in 1992, Black Gate was quickly followed up with the first Ultima add-in product, Forge of Virtue. This was followed by a "Part Two" sequel, Serpent Isle, which spawned its own add-in, Silver Seed. For many fans, Black Gate remains the top favorite of the entire series, due to its engaging characters, superior graphics, and memorable music. In fact, Origin even made the soundtrack commercially available for a while. Serpent Isle has faced criticism for linearity and bugs, but remains one of the most detailed and engrossing role-playing plots ever brought to the PC platform.

Ultima VII:
The Black Gate

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1992.
Platform: PC.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-78311. 3.5" (6), 5.25".
Included: Cloth map of Britannia; Fellowship book; Fellowship medallion; Ultima Underworld demo 5.25" demo disk.
Original List Price: $79.97

The original of this game can still be obtained via Usenet, though of course it is also available in several collections listed below. All of the Ultima VII products were released for the PC only, except for the Nintendo adaptation of Black Gate.

Ultima VII:
Forge of Virtue

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1992.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-79411. 3.5" (1), 5.25" (1).
Included: Guide to the Isle of Fire pamphlet.
Original List Price: $24.95

This can be a difficult item to find. If you buy one of the "complete" Ultima VII products listed below, you'll get Forge of Virtue included, so you'll at least be able to play it.

Ultima VII, part 2:
Serpent Isle

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1993.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-80011. 3.5" (7), 5.25".
Included: Cloth map of Serpent Isle; Beyond the Serpent Pillars book.
Original List Price: $79.97

This game is still commonly available on Usenet. The project director for Serpent Isle, Bill Armintrout, has spoken about this game from time to time. The most interesting anecdote had to do with the source code for the game, or rather, the lack of it - apparently, Origin failed to archive the source for Serpent Isle and its add-in, Silver Seed, and it was lost. Thus Origin would probably never be able to rewrite this game to work on modern computers. Once Windows 9X starts to disappear in a few years, the ability to boot PCs to DOS will too - and since Serpent Isle can only be played directly through DOS, this game will be lost to us forever. Or at least until someone writes a working DOS/PC emulator. Incidentally, Origin originally did an extended, highly detailed intro sequence for this game which they dropped from the final product. Many of the Serpent Isle ads that appeared in periodicals before the game's release were actually from this missing intro. If anyone knows where to find a copy of that intro, I'd love to have one.

Ultima VII, part 2:
The Silver Seed

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1993.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-81111. EA 6911. 3.5" (1).
Included: Silver Seed Play Guide pamphlet.
Original List Price: $29.95

Silver Seed can be exceedingly hard to find. I suspect there were far fewer of this add-in produced than for Forge of Virtue.

Ultima VII:
Complete Edition

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1993.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-81711. EA 10043. 3.5" (15 in all).
Included: All manuals from Black Gate and Serpent Isle; Ultima Underworld demo disk; both cloth maps.

This product was sold in the Serpent Isle box, but had a sticker indicating it was the "complete" edition, "with all 4 episodes". It has everything included with all four parts of Ultima VII, with the possible exception of the Fellowship trinket.

The Complete Ultima VII CD

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1992-1994.
Characteristics: UPC 17814-81715. CD (1).
Included: Book of the Fellowship book; Beyond the Serpent Pillars book; Black Gate glossy paper map; Serpent Isle glossy paper map.
Original List Price: $79.95

This was the first mainstream CD product Origin released in the US. It includes paper (not cloth) maps for both games, but no trinket.

The Complete Ultima VII
EA CD Classics

Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., © 1992-1994.
Characteristics: UPC 14633-05471. CD (1).
Included: Reference card. Documentation is on the CD in Acrobat format.
Original List Price: $14.95

Later on in the same year, Electronic Arts began republishing games from several of its child companies as "CD Classics". These came in smaller black boxes (the same size as Forge of Virtue), and included almost no physical documentation.

The Complete Ultima VII
EA CD Classics Gold

Characteristics: UPC 14633-05739. CD (1).
Included: Reference card. Documentation is on the CD in Acrobat format.
Original List Price: $14.95

In 1996, the Electronic Arts marketing machine struck again, re-releasing many of the same games, along with a few new ones, in gold-edged boxes. They include perfunctory help for running the games under Windows 95, but since none of the Ultima VII series has any hope of running under Windows 95 anyway, this CD is of almost no additional value. Nevertheless, it exists.

Electronic Arts
Top Ten Pak

Publisher: Electronic Arts.
Characteristics: UPC 14633-05326. CD (1).
Included: 10 games on one CD, including Black Gate.
Original List Price: $14.95

This product was one CD with ten games on it. One of those games was Ultima VII: The Black Gate. All documentation is on the CD in Acrobat format.

Ultima: The Black Gate
for Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Characteristics: Cartridge.

The last of Origin's Nintendo conversions, this game plays very differently from the PC version. There is no party, but there are lots of menus. Just think... Ultima VII without a mouse. Ick. Anyway, if you must have a copy of this game, try one of the online retailers such as FuncoLand. The bargain bins at your local software store also might still hold a copy of this game, being as recent as it is.



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