Rusel DeMaria

Caroline Spector

Here, for the first time, is the real story behind the man from Earth who became the Avatar of Britannia! There are The Avatar Adventures - Ultima IV, Ultima V, and Ultima VI - told in his own words! Follow the story of the Avatar in Britannia in his three most exciting adventures. Discover all the secrets of the Ultima game universe, including special tricks and tips, maps, and other information about the games never before revealed. Plus as an added bonus, you'll find special tricks and solutions for the first part of the latest and most ambitious of the Avatar's adventures - Ultima VII: The Black Gate - and a complete journey through the first two levels of Origin's spectacular first-person game - Ultima Underworld. Since The Avatar Adventures are taken from the Avatar's own journals, they are not only the best source of information about the Ultima games, but they are fun to read too!

With Introduction & Game Tips to Ulitma VII: The Black Gate and Ultima Underworld

Ultima: The Avatar Adventures

though i would have a very hard time recommending this book to general readers i can't bring myself to give it an outright negative rating. it's a novelization-as-walkthrough of the classic role-playing video games Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1984), Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988), and Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990). It also includes short previews of Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992) and Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992). at the end of each section is a selection of maps, tables, and hints which, if you are not actually playing the game, can be safely skipped. the book ends with an informative, if rather long-winded, interview with series creator richard garriott on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the series, and its future with the then-upcoming Ultima VII and Ultima VIII.

the novelizations themselves often make for rather dry reading, as their nature as walkthroughs mean that any visit to a town must include include a laundry list of rumours along the lines of "Robert the baker told us a legend about a glass sword hidden somewhere in Trinsic. Jenny told us to talk to the mage Fordo in New Magincia about the Shrine of Compassion. Vincenzo told us that a child named Bormbo knew where the Rune of Spirituality is" and so on. dungeon crawling segments, when they are not skipped over entirely, give exhaustive directions on which turns to take and which ladders to climb to get where you need to go. the first two sections, in particular, mostly seem t involve just trekking around gathering runes and mantras so that they can meditate at the relevant shrine - unfortunately, the Avatar's knowledge of these things does not carry over between games, so all of that needs to be done in both IV and V.

the avatar - the player character - is decently drawn. no name is given, but the name "max" can be seen in screenshots from V and "caroline" in screenshots from VI, though generally the assumption seems to be that the avatar is a heterosexual man. he's presented as an everyman, good-natured but unsure of himself at times and overconfident at others. other than the avatar, most of the characters a pretty one note, with only jaana the druid really getting much development before unfortunately being downgraded to a cameo in VI.

the plots are interesting enough in theory. in IV, the avatar arrives in britannia from earth and is sent on a quest to attain avatarhood by mastering the eight virtues, to become a living symbol of goodness for all britannians to look up to. in V, the avatar returns to find the king missing and the interim regent a tyrant, enforcing twisted versions of the virtues with an iron fist. in VI, the avatar finds britannia under attack from gargoyles, only to find that the gargoyles are not the monsters they seem and may have a good reason for disliking britannia. fine tales on their own, and perhaps in a straight novelization, but the above-mentioned walkthrough elements and other video game zaniness like flying through a dungeon on a magic carpet, rummaging through people's things in search of keys and scrolls, and endless fetch quests, drag them down. VI was probably the most interesting, and also, not coincidentally, the shortest. the preview of VII - regarding the rise of seemingly benign religious movement called the Fellowship and a double homicide investigation - also seems to be shaping up to get interesting.

all in all i guess if you are actually playing these games, this book would probably be quite handy. if not, i can only recommend it to obscure fantasy freaks. i have played, i would say a maximum of one hour of ultima, collectively, in my life, but i always had a soft spot for them after watching spoony's retrospective series way back in the day, so i am glad i finally got to check this out and got to visit britannia without actually trying to play olde computere games. but i have had enough britannia for a good long while now.

Tuck

though i would have a very hard time recommending this book to general readers i can't bring myself to give it an outright negative rating. it's a novelization-as-walkthrough of the classic role-playing video games Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1984), Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988), and Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990). It also includes short previews of Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992) and Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992). at the end of each section is a selection of maps, tables, and hints which, if you are not actually playing the game, can be safely skipped. the book ends with an informative, if rather long-winded, interview with series creator richard garriott on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the series, and its future with the then-upcoming Ultima VII and Ultima VIII.

the novelizations themselves often make for rather dry reading, as their nature as walkthroughs mean that any visit to a town must include include a laundry list of rumours along the lines of "Robert the baker told us a legend about a glass sword hidden somewhere in Trinsic. Jenny told us to talk to the mage Fordo in New Magincia about the Shrine of Compassion. Vincenzo told us that a child named Bormbo knew where the Rune of Spirituality is" and so on. dungeon crawling segments, when they are not skipped over entirely, give exhaustive directions on which turns to take and which ladders to climb to get where you need to go. the first two sections, in particular, mostly seem t involve just trekking around gathering runes and mantras so that they can meditate at the relevant shrine - unfortunately, the Avatar's knowledge of these things does not carry over between games, so all of that needs to be done in both IV and V.

the avatar - the player character - is decently drawn. no name is given, but the name "max" can be seen in screenshots from V and "caroline" in screenshots from VI, though generally the assumption seems to be that the avatar is a heterosexual man. he's presented as an everyman, good-natured but unsure of himself at times and overconfident at others. other than the avatar, most of the characters a pretty one note, with only jaana the druid really getting much development before unfortunately being downgraded to a cameo in VI.

the plots are interesting enough in theory. in IV, the avatar arrives in britannia from earth and is sent on a quest to attain avatarhood by mastering the eight virtues, to become a living symbol of goodness for all britannians to look up to. in V, the avatar returns to find the king missing and the interim regent a tyrant, enforcing twisted versions of the virtues with an iron fist. in VI, the avatar finds britannia under attack from gargoyles, only to find that the gargoyles are not the monsters they seem and may have a good reason for disliking britannia. fine tales on their own, and perhaps in a straight novelization, but the above-mentioned walkthrough elements and other video game zaniness like flying through a dungeon on a magic carpet, rummaging through people's things in search of keys and scrolls, and endless fetch quests, drag them down. VI was probably the most interesting, and also, not coincidentally, the shortest. the preview of VII - regarding the rise of seemingly benign religious movement called the Fellowship and a double homicide investigation - also seems to be shaping up to get interesting.

all in all i guess if you are actually playing these games, this book would probably be quite handy. if not, i can only recommend it to obscure fantasy freaks. i have played, i would say a maximum of one hour of ultima, collectively, in my life, but i always had a soft spot for them after watching spoony's retrospective series way back in the day, so i am glad i finally got to check this out and got to visit britannia without actually trying to play olde computere games. but i have had enough britannia for a good long while now.

Ultima: The Avatar Adventures With Introduction & Game Tips to Ulitma VII: The Black Gate and Ultima Underworld

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