SPOILERS
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I played and beat these games back when they came out, and loved them greatly. However, there were some side-things that I've always wondered about, but never got around to asking (or forgot):

Utlima VI:

1) There's always some guy outside the entrance to Lord British's castle; I think his name was "Finnagan," or something like that. He says that the castle jester is actually Blackthorn from Ultima 5, and the real jester is locked in the dungeon. I doubted this, but there is a guy locked in the dungeons, and whenver Lord British leaves his throne, the jester sits in it. Could someone please explain this to me?

2) In Skara Brae (forget real spelling), there's a guy who was murdered (who appears in the town as a ghost) whom everyone in the town says was killed by a gargoyle. Even when you say the word to the ghost, it's said he increases the wind (or something like that), like he's angry. Yet, I know that guy who's lives alone to the east is the real killer. Is there anything I can do in the game to prove to the town who the real killer is?

3) In the dungeons, there's the one woman who has glass swords, or some other valuble items. I get the impression from talking to her that I need to kill her to get her items?

4) This is got to be impossible, but I have to ask: There's that one fighter who can join your party (I think his name is Sentry), who says that he's from another dimension. Is there a way to get him back to that dimension?

5) I forget: Can anyone in your party drink that gargoyle drink that makes them beserkers, then die?

6) What are all the moral-guidelines that you and your party have to live by to win the game (aside from stealing, obviously)? Does it include being honest with others all the time? LIke I said, I haven't played this game in years.

7) Does doing the Iolo Cheat Menu damage the game software in the gog download game, like the original version did?


Ultima VII:

1) Is there a cheat code that prevents your party members from needing food?

2) How do I get inside the locked doors on the roof of Lord British's Castle, was well as the building in Britian with all the gold bars inside (forget name)?

3) East of Britian, there's also this guy near this locked shed and what appears to be a hovering Wing Commander mini-shuttle. How do I get in the shed and is there anything I can do with the shuttle?

4) I'm pretty sure this impossible, but: Is the Gargoyle land from U6 still reachable?

5) Is that book on the Isle of the Avatar that you made readable to both the Gargoyles and Brittanians in U6 still accessable?

6) Was the Guardian originally supposed to have been Blackthorne from U5?


Thanks.

Games are made on certain budgets and time constraints, so there will always be oversights or leftovers from cut content. Since there were no patches back in the day these things never got removed or completed. Some loose ends will never be tied up, so let your imagination fill in the gaps ;) Sometimes though there are intentional references to earlies Origin games intended for long time fans, such is the case with Sentri:
http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Sentri
In the Ultima V manual it is explained that Lord British broght some friends from Earth over to Sosaria (later renamed to Britannia), so Sentri could be one of them.

Ultima 6:

1) Finnegan is a confidence artist. Notice how he always wants you to give him money to "keep up the pretense"?

2) I don't remember whether you can do anything more about this.

3) You can also pickpocket them. Pickpocketing her belt may be necessary for a certain quest (if you choose to go that route).

4) Several characters in the game are from other worlds, many of those being Earth. Like you, they originally came through a moongate. Unlike you, they stay for the long haul. They can't be sent back though.

5) I don't remember this bit.

6) The names of the virtues generally imply what you need to do. There were specific examples in Ultima 4, although not all of those are relevant to 6.

7) Did the Iolo cheat actually do this? It would presumably be the same in the GoG version, but I haven't heard of this before.


Ultima 7:

1) Not AFAIK. If you use Exult for BG, and with or without it in SI, there's a hotkey to make feeding the party easier.

2) Some of those doors have keys. The northwestern one has your gear stash and either LB gives you the key or it will be found in one of the offices. As for the royal mint - STEALING! - you'd have to obtain the keys from wherever they're kept...

3) You can't do anything with the shuttle (it has crashed and is no longer usable), but if you talk to the farmer about it, you can find out what happened and perhaps get into the shed.

4) No, it's long gone.

5) AFAIK there's no way to activate the codex lenses. It was never coded into the game.

6) No, although there was a complete turnaround on what the Guardian was supposed to be when U9 was written, so much of what seemed to be established about him in U7, U8, and UW2 gets thrown out the window. Nevertheless, he was never intended to be Blackthorn (and pre-U9, was never planned to be yet another evil alter ego).

Blackthorn's appearance as a bad guy in U9 was also an about-face. He does get mentioned once in a book in SI, and it doesn't sound much like the U9 version.

Ultima 6:

> 1) Finnegan is a confidence artist. Notice how he always wants you to give him money to "keep up the pretense"?

Any theories on why the jester sits in the king's chair?

> 3) You can also pickpocket them. Pickpocketing her belt may be necessary for a certain quest (if you choose to go that route).

Isn't pickpocketing stealing, thus bad for the Avatar to do with the game's moral code?

> 4) Several characters in the game are from other worlds, many of those being Earth. Like you, they originally came through a moongate. Unlike you, they stay for the long haul. They can't be sent back though.

Darn.

> 7) Did the Iolo cheat actually do this? It would presumably be the same in the GoG version, but I haven't heard of this before.

Yeah, it was said somewhere, back in the day, that using the menu damages the program, and that you should NEVER save the game after doing so, especially on the original floppy disks.


Ultima 7:

> 1) Not AFAIK. If you use Exult for BG, and with or without it in SI, there's a hotkey to make feeding the party easier.

What's Exult? I think I knew once, but forget.

> 2) Some of those doors have keys. The northwestern one has your gear stash and either LB gives you the key or it will be found in one of the offices. As for the royal mint - STEALING! - you'd have to obtain the keys from wherever they're kept...

And you don't know where that would be? And there's no moral-code in U7, and your party members won't leave you for stealing if you give them the items, right?

> 5) AFAIK there's no way to activate the codex lenses. It was never coded into the game.

Was just wondering if I could go back there, and maybe see the codex book itself at it's resting place from U6, at least.

> 6) No, although there was a complete turnaround on what the Guardian was supposed to be when U9 was written, so much of what seemed to be established about him in U7, U8, and UW2 gets thrown out the window. Nevertheless, he was never intended to be Blackthorn (and pre-U9, was never planned to be yet another evil alter ego).

Who was the Guardian originally supposed to have been?

> Blackthorn's appearance as a bad guy in U9 was also an about-face. He does get mentioned once in a book in SI, and it doesn't sound much like the U9 version.

How was he in U9? What did he do?

Thanks.

Ultima 6:

Chuckles is sitting on the throne because he's pretending to be Lord British - while the game didn't support "barks" the way U7 does, it's pretty safe to bet he's making mocking pronouncements. Essentially, he's doing what jesters like him are supposed to do (parody). In the other games his loyalty is very well established and the text from The Serpent Isle makes it clear that Blackthorn is elsewhere at the time.

You can pickpocket the belt in this case because she actually challenges you to do so if you're on that quest.

I haven't heard anything about the disk being damaged. You COULD mess up the game state if you edited the flags, but that would only affect your save game, not the program itself.

Ultima 7:

Exult is a third party engine that runs using the original game data files. It's a Windows-native program and has a number of enhancements.

I don't remember where all of the keys are; I'd have to go back and look at the game. Stealing and murder ARE tracked, however, and your companions will eventually get angry and leave (possibly permanently) if you keep doing it.

The codex would be in the void circa U7, so it wouldn't be visible just by visiting the place.

The Guardian was a powerful being who had a penchant for conquering/destroying/corrupting worlds. The early versions of the story had him as one of a race of such beings who otherwise did not interfere; the Guardian was something of a bad apple, but rather than stopping him directly, they were waiting to see who would eventually rise to oppose him - and in so doing, join their ranks.

The latter part may have been in and out of the drafts over time, but the general idea remained the same and the references to him in U7/U8/UW2 are in keeping with it. Ultima 9 retconned the whole thing to make the Guardian the Avatar's evil twin, created more or less in the same way as the Shadowlords. This was not well-received since it didn't really mesh with what had been established previously.

Blackthorn showed up in U9 as the Guardian's henchman, inexplicably evil and bent on destroying the world (and betraying the Guardian in the process). Again, this clashed with what had been implied by the ending of U5 and further reinforced by the book found in the Serpent Isle.

These were only some of the issues that came up in U9. It ignored or contradicted the continuity on so many points it wasn't funny.

Ultima 7:

> Exult is a third party engine that runs using the original game data files. It's a Windows-native program and has a number of enhancements.

Does gog.com have this, or should I do a websearch? Does it work with Gog.com's U7 game-download?

> I don't remember where all of the keys are; I'd have to go back and look at the game. Stealing and murder ARE tracked, however, and your companions will eventually get angry and leave (possibly permanently) if you keep doing it.

I though it was setup that there's no morality guide anymore, as of this game, and if you give the stolen items to anyone else in your group, except the Avatar, no one will leave your group or will anything else bad happen. Right? I would also never murder.

> The codex would be in the void circa U7, so it wouldn't be visible just by visiting the place.

Oh yeah. But the building where it was placed is still reachable, right? If so, what is shown there?

> The Guardian was a powerful being who had a penchant for conquering/destroying/corrupting worlds. The early versions of the story had him as one of a race of such beings who otherwise did not interfere; the Guardian was something of a bad apple, but rather than stopping him directly, they were waiting to see who would eventually rise to oppose him - and in so doing, join their ranks.

Interesting.

> The latter part may have been in and out of the drafts over time, but the general idea remained the same and the references to him in U7/U8/UW2 are in keeping with it. Ultima 9 retconned the whole thing to make the Guardian the Avatar's evil twin, created more or less in the same way as the Shadowlords. This was not well-received since it didn't really mesh with what had been established previously.

I understand.

> Blackthorn showed up in U9 as the Guardian's henchman, inexplicably evil and bent on destroying the world (and betraying the Guardian in the process). Again, this clashed with what had been implied by the ending of U5 and further reinforced by the book found in the Serpent Isle.

Interesting.

> These were only some of the issues that came up in U9. It ignored or contradicted the continuity on so many points it wasn't funny.

I think I may avoid that one, then.

Exult isn't offered by GoG and was around long before GoG was! Last I knew it was at Sourceforge, but Google should turn it up.

The majority of the virtues don't matter, but stealing and murder still trigger flags. (Obviously, they can also cause the guards to come after you.)

You can still reach the shrine, but it's in an abandoned state, and as I said earlier, you can't use the lenses to reveal the codex.

> The majority of the virtues don't matter, but stealing and murder still trigger flags. (Obviously, they can also cause the guards to come after you.)

So what are all the bad things that can happen for stealing, aside from what you mentioned (guards, and party members leaving unless someone except the Avatar stores the stolen items)?

This has nothing to do with it, but in Ultima 5 Blackthorn's jester does the the same thing when blackthorn goes to sleep.