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| Page Index |
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About the Ultima Documentation Project | Discussion about the documentation that I want to make available to everyone on the Internet. |  |
| More documents | Other people who have made Ultima documents available for download. | ||
| Documents | The documents currently available for download. | ||
| Questions and Answers | General questions about this project are answered here. | ||
| Music Information | You'll find the Music controls here. |
| About the Ultima Documentation |
| The Ultima Documentation project exists because of the lack of support documentation that came with the Ultima 1-6 CD. Sure, Origin provided the information on how to play the games, but not why you're playing them. Yes, the arrow keys move me around, and 'K' is used for 'Klimb', but what is my quest? What's going on in the game? I need answers! The answers can be found in the documents that weren't shipped with the Ultima 1-6 CD. The Ultima Documentation Project that I've completed is intended to fix this problem. I've made the Ultima 1-6 documents available for all. As of right now, I consider the Ultima Documentation Project complete. Currently the Ultima Documentation project is limited to Ultimas 1 through 6. I do not plan on making any other Ultima documents available, as they are not needed. As for the legality of this: I've e-mailed Origin about this project and asked for their stand on it, but have not heard from them. If they ask me to remove the documents from the Internet, I will. I am not interested in plagarizing Origin's work. I am only interested in providing all the information that should have come with the Ultima 1-6 CD in the first place. With the documents, the games are playable and fun. Without them, the games are confusing and frustrating.
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| More Documents |
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It seems I'm not the only insane person converting the Ultima Documentation to electronic format. Trigon Dragon is converting the original Ultima documents 100% word for word, with every black and white image, into Adobe PDF format. And Erinnyes Dragon has converted the Nintendo Ultima Runes of Virtue II as well! I know people are going to ask what the difference between the documents are, so I'll go over them here. I wanted to convert the Ultima 1-6 documents 100% to electronic format. After typing in a few pages I discovered spelling and grammatical errors--so I fixed them. Trigon, on the other hand has left all the original mistakes in his documents--making his files more original than mine. I wanted to put all of the graphics from the original documents into my conversion, but the black & white images didn't stand out for me; so I colorized them. However, because of the sheer number of images in the original Ultima books, time I had to colorize, and sheer file-size of my documents, I had to limit the number of images in my conversion. Trigon, on the other hand, has scanned in every image and left them as black and white pictures. My graphics are 100 DPI, his are 300 DPI. Finally, I decided to use Word as my documentation medium of choice--because it's what I have. Trigon chose Adobe's PDF file format which is a lot more platform independent. We've agreed to share some graphics and typed in text, but will continue on our own projects at our own pace. He will continue his PDF conversion, and I will continue my Word conversion. |
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| Documents Available |
| Don't have Word? Check out the Microsoft Word Viewer page!
Many thanks go out to Trigon Dragon and Brian Reynolds (aka aka Brilliant Dragon) for the Ultima 1 and Ultima 2 documents. Without their generous contributions, those documents would never exist. Please note that the Ultima 3 document has *some* colorized graphics; the rest are still in black & white. I did this so that the Ultima 3 Documents may be released. I do not plan on coloring the rest of the graphics. (Sorry, I have other projects to work on!) Ultima 2 has a few screen-shots, but all of the scans (all 3 of them) are black and white. The Ultima 1 documents have black and white scanned images.
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| Ultima 1 Documentation
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed documentation that came with Ultima 1. It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. Not all of the documents were shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 1 when putting the CD together. However, there's a wealth of information about the world of Ultima 1 within the pages of this document that help clarify the current state of affairs in Britannia, and ultimately the point of the game. There are also playing strategies, story embellishments, and hints and tips to the locations of places, items and monsters. The Word 97 version is 516K, but contains a title page, an index, and scanned graphics. You may need the True Type font Monotype Corsiva to display the document correctly. The plain ASCII version is 13K and contains all the text from the original Ultima 1 documentation. |
| Ultima 2 Documentation
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed documentation that came with Ultima 2. It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. Not all of the documents were shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 2 when putting the CD together. Again, the same problems exist as listed above. The Word 97 version is 112K, and contains a title page, some scanned graphics, and the True Type Font necessary to view the documents properly. Additionally, it contains the two patches to Ultima 2 to make it playable--the Ultima 2 Patch by Mike Marcelais, the Moonstone Dragon and the U2 Fix program that eliminates the "Division by Zero" error. (NOTE: the U2Fix.Zip file now contains Hex values to permanently patch the ultimaii.exe file.) The plain ASCII version is 54K and contains all the text from the original documentation. Along with it are images for the symbols of the time-periods and an image of the galaxy map as well as the ZIP files listed in the '97 version. |
| Ultima 3 Book of Play, Amber Runes, and Liturgy of Truth
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed Book of Play, Amber Runes, and Liturgy of Truth booklets that came with Ultima 3 with the addition of some colorized graphics! It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. Not all of the documents were shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 3 when putting the CD together. Again, the same problems exist as listed above. The Word 97 version is 522K, and contains a title page, some scanned and colorized graphics. You will need this file which contains all the True Type Fonts necessary to view the documents properly. (Filesize ~238K) The plain ASCII version is 49K and contains all the text from the printed Book of Play, Amber Runes, and Liturgy of Truth. Along with it are screen-shots and a moon-phase list. NOTE: You may want to download the TXT version of Ultima 3 just so you can read it. Origin used some fonts that are very difficult to read, but look pretty from a distance. |
| Ultima 4 History of Britannia & Spell Book
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed History of Britannia and Spell Book that came with Ultima 4 with the addition of colorized graphics! It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. The History of Britannia was not shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 4 when putting the CD together. Again, the same problems exist as listed above. The Word 97 version is 355K, and contains a title page, an index, and scanned and colorized graphics. You may need the True Type font Monotype Corsiva to display the document correctly. The plain ASCII version is 43K and contains all the text from the History of Britannia and Spell Book. Packaged with it is an image provided to describe what a Codex looks like. |
| Ultima 5 Book of Lore & Spell Book
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed Book of Lore, Spell Book, and Journey Log that came with Ultima 5 with the addition of colorized graphics! It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. The Book of Lore was not shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 5 when putting the CD together. Again, the same problems exist as listed above. The Word 97 version is 326K, and contains a title page, an index, and scanned and colorized graphics. You may need the True Type font Aachen and Monotype Corsiva to display the document correctly. The plain ASCII version is 52K and contains all the text from the Book of Lore. Packaged with it are two images provided to describe the Music notes and Runic font. |
| Ultima 6 Compendium
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Word 97 | This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed Compendium that came with Ultima 6 with the addition of colorized graphics! It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. The Compendium was not shipped with the redistribution of Ultima 6 when putting the CD together. Again, the same problems exist as listed above. The Word 97 version is 419K, but contains a title page, an index, and scanned and colorized graphics. You may need the True Type font Monotype Corsiva to display the document correctly. The plain ASCII version is 39K and contains all the text from the Compendium. Packaged with it are two images provided to describe the moon-phases and Runic font. |
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| Questions & Answers |
| Wow! These documents are great! Where can I find the Ultima 1-6 CD? | |
| Please don't ask me where you can find this CD. I don't know. I found my copy packaged with 5 other CD's--sold as part of a compilation. You can check auction web-sites, check in bargain bins at computer stores, and old-software shelves. Good luck! | |
| I don't have Word! How am I supposed to view these documents? | |
| Check out the Microsoft Word Viewer page at Microsoft. With the Word Viewer you'll be able to view the Word documents on my page. | |
| Why don't you have an HTML version of these documents? | |
| The sheer size of the document makes an HTML version out of the question. I don't have the time or initiative to entertain such an idea. Keeping my pages updated is work enough already! | |
| Why do you have the Compendium in Word 6.0 and Word 97 format? Where's the Word 95 version? | |
| You don't need one. (And I don't have Word 95 installed.) I provide three versions of the document because Word 6.0 documents don't import properly into Word 97 documents and some people just want the information without the graphics. I've been told by a friend that the Word 6.0 document imports great into Word 95. | |
| Isn't releasing the Ultima Documents like downloading all of your web site, changing it around a bit, publishing it as my own, and then in small print at the end of it, saying "Thanks to Louis Stice for help with this web site"? | |
| If it was an old copy of my site, I'd be flattered. If it were a current copy, then I'd be irate. Let's keep things in perspective. I am not "Publishing" the Ultima 6 Compendium as my own. The text and images are copyright Origin Systems, Inc. All I did was convert the information contained therein from paper to electronic format. Yes, I put a lot of work into the formatting and accuracy of the document, but this document is still Origin's intellectual property. The only thing I claim is author of the conversion, not the content. Origin re-released it on the Ultima 1-6 CD and later had to make the scarce amount of documentation they provided free to the public on their web site because they forgot about all the copy-protection in Ultima 6. The Compendium is not necessary to play Ultima 6, but you'll end up wandering around, wondering what a Lycaeum is and where it is located. Without the Compendium, the game is practically unplayable. This is true of Ultimas 1-5 as well. I know. I've tried playing them and have felt left out on what's going on. Origin released Ultima 6 in 1989/1990 making it 6-7 years old. The game is ancient when put in computer years. Origin is more interested in Ultima Online and Ultima IX as their current source of income--not Ultima 6. The electronic version of the Compendium is not the entire game, simply the documentation that was supposed to go along with the game in the first place. Without the game, my documentation is useless. How many web sites are already using Origin created images, text, and music? Dozens of them. Origin has the legal right to go to each one and ask them to remove any and all information relating to the Ultima games but they don't because they understand the power of the fans. It's the fans that are keeping Ultima alive and in the minds of computer players around the world. And thus, it's free advertising. | |
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| Music Information |
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| The song may have been modified by yours truly, in such a way so that it sounds best on the Sound Blaster 32. If you want to save this song, right click on the player above and select Save As. Or, go to the Files Area to download them all! |
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| In Ulitma 6 talk to Iolo and say, "Spam Spam Spam Humbug" to access the Cheaters Menu. |
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All original images copyright Louis Stice. All scanned images copyright Origin. All colorization of scanned images copyright Louis Stice. Use of images found on my website without prior authorization strictly prohibited. All JavaScript code copyright Louis Stice Ultima and Lord British are registered trademarks of Richard Garriott. Avatar is a trademark of Origin Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Many Thanks to Brian Reynolds (aka Brilliant Dragon) for pointing out the missing Ultima 5 Journey Log document and for providing me with a copy so I could translate it to electronic format.
If you wish, you may e-mail me at stice@earthlink.net. This page last updated on June 7, 1999 |