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Ultima 9 - Ascension: Game Info, Spanky's Descent onto Real Life (Back to contents)
1) Introduction
2) The Classic
3) Aural Orgasm
4) Eye Candy
5) 10 Hours of Playing

Spanky's Descent onto Real Life

An editorial by a geek who tirelessly played through every exausting element of Origin's Ultima IX: Ascension.

Introduction

One week after I bought my first PC back in 1993, I ordered a game which looked to be the ultimate in role-playing games. I was a big AD&D nerd back then; playing all nite with my stupid friends, arguing over references in the rule books; trying to out-wit each other. We were like sun deprived, pale skinned, geeks on crack.

Back in those days, the only computer I had access to, was the good ole' NES machine. In fact, the only impression of computer RPG's I had were of the early Zeldas, Dragon Warriors and Final Fantasies that came out back in the day… of course it was plenty to satisfy my nerdly, role-playing urges.

I paid $2100.00 plus $200 for the extended warrantee at Radio Shack for a Tandy Sensation: A 486 33mhz 4meg super wonder! My idea was simply out of exploration. I'd heard the games on PC's were a lot more advanced and complicated than their console counterparts. I wanted to be treated to a rich, medieval environment, where I could immerse into its fictional tapestry, and swordfight my way through hordes of dragons, and fiends, and such…

The advertisement lay quietly in the back of the 'Computer Shopper' magazine I bought a few days before I purchased my PC. There, in a 1/4 page ad in a Computer Shopper magazine, next to "Billy's Porn CDROM Archives": Ultima Underworld I & II for only $49.99. Wow! "Two: incredibly detailed better-than-NES-computerized-immersive-D&D-like games in one." Things changed, 5 days after I ordered it.

I took a week off of work the last week of November for Thanksgiving: to use up some built up vacation time. I had ordered the Ultima IX: Ascension CD from ea.com a week before: out of Interest generated from all the hype on the Internet over the game. The game was scheduled to be released on the 23rd, and unexpectedly, I received it that afternoon. The 14 days following that Tuesday afternoon have changed my perception of what makes a game, a game everyone wants to play.

 
 
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