I just completed the game and I have to say it was an amazing experience. Fantasy meaning fantasy rather than the traditional orcs and knights fantasy rpgs. I was shocked that part of the game involved going into space and killing Tie fighters. Also the use of time travel and the process of getting the time machine access with becoming a space ace followed by rescuing a princess.

The final boss was a bit of a let down, as the gem did nearly all the damage I took in that fight. That said it was a pretty damn close fight as when I picked up the gem taking 400 damage with only 420 hp at the time.

Overall a great game and I really enjoyed it. Ultima 1 was worth the $3 alone. On wards to Ultima 2!

Out of interest the insane mix of lord of the rings, star wars and doctor who continue through the rest of the games in the series or does it become a more traditional RPG?

The sci-fi stuff is in II, but III gets rid of it, making it a more traditional fantasy setting, with IV altering it to its state for most of the series. The later games also retcon the sci-fi stuff in the first two games.

And if you're not already, I highly suggest using Pix's Ultima Patcher to apply patches to the earlier games, like graphic and music upgrades.

Thanks for the info. I really should try the patcher as the sounds in the space stage were quite annoying (mainly as that section took me 4 attempts or 5 if you include forgetting the space suit first time lol).

Shame about the dropping of the sci fi stuff, but hopefully I will enjoy the second game.

I should note that there is no music patch for I and II, as none of the versions of those had music. There are music patches for III, IV, and V, because some port had music but the DOS version did not.

While there is still space travel in II, and you can even travel to other planets, it plays a lesser role than in I. There are no TIE Fighter battles and you really only have to explore one planet in the galaxy (other than Earth, of course); the others are just there to kill some time (and enemies) in, if you so desire.

Although sci-fi stuff was retconned to a degree in III and beyond, some of the better stuff would make its way back into the series in other guises. For instance, beginning in V, the Magic Carpet essentially fills the role of the air cars and prop planes in the first two games, and there will be other ways of visiting worlds besides Britannia as well. (Oh, and there'd be a pretty big spoiler in telling, but let's just say that not every element of high technology was deleted in III... you'll encounter a pretty significant example before all is said and done. And that's all I'm gonna say.) ;^)

There's a nonfunctional Kilrathi fighter in Ultima VII. Maybe you were aiding the Wing Commander Confederation in Ultima 1.

I think perhaps the best sci-fi related thing in Ultima 1 is the fact that the manual talks about it fairly subtlety in the section about the "starwalkers."

And I forgot about the Wing Commander thing in U7. I'm gonna have to remember to check that out again in my current playthrough,

I forgot to mention that The Timelord returns several times in Ultima games. They make him more fantasy based though when in the first game I assume he's based on the Timelords from the sci-fi series "Doctor Who."

Throughout the later series, most of the science fiction stuff has been taken out, while there are several places in which it seems likely Ultima and Wing Commander are in the same universe. I don't want to give you any spoilers, but let's just say there are a few places in which there is definite crossover, mostly in the Ultima VII epic. (Black Gate has a Kilrathi fighter, and there is a very subtle connection in Ultima Underworld II (The middle of the Ultima VII Epic)). An interesting piece of trivia: There was going to be a large connection to WC in Serpent's Isle, but it was cut out for time.

As far as the space travel within Ultima goes, however, II has some non-combat space travel, but I is the only one with Tie Fighters. If only Origin had continued to create worlds, there may have eventually been some kind of major crossover between WC and Ultima, and perhaps with a connection to Crusader. Here's my personal hypothesis: Britannia is on a world in which technology has mostly been replaced with spiritual energy (or magic) but there are other worlds within that universe that have high technology levels (again, there are subtle suggestions of this if you look for them.) Too bad Origin was taken down before they were able to answer all these questions.

I also just finished the first tonight and I think the Space Ace part was the most fun. The ending sounded cooler in theory than in practice, I'm just glad I had a ranged weapon for Mondain.