The Dragon Gallery
Dino thhe Dark Dragon

Parcival, 2003-11-08

Personalia

My real name is Daniel D'Agostino. I'm 16 years old and live in Malta - for those that don't know, it's an island south of Italy. I'm quite involved with computers (gaming, programming, web design, scripting... the list goes on) which is why I'm so involved with Ultima anyway.
When I have school (i.e. these days) I don't have much time for myself. I get home from school at 4pm, and after that, it's mostly just homework and a little relaxing after a hard day of work.
This year, I joined Young Enterprise - an organisation where we, as students, have to set up our own company and market a product. This is taking up even more of my time because we have frequent meetings.
In my free time, I usually do some programming or play some computer game, or else just go out and meet some old (and current) friends.
I'm a post-secondary (called "Sixth Form" over here - it's the 2 years between school and university) full-time student studying Maths and Physics in the hopes of getting a BSc in IT once I get in university.
Hobbies? Well, apart from all the computer stuff (gaming, coding etc), I enjoy table games (table tennis, air hockey, snooker, etc), sport (football and volleyball mostly) and, sometimes, collecting information (especially where computer games are concerned).

Ultima

I've seen no better RPG than the Ultimas so far. When I first played the Ultimas, I didn't really take much notice of the virtues and ethics and all that, but after I finished most of the series, I noticed that this was what made a difference between Ultima and other RPGs.
Apart from that, Ultima always offered an interactive world where you could explore an entire world and do all sorts of things. The continuity between the series was also evident when you first see the basic towns in Ultima 4 and see what becomes of them in later Ultimas.
Ultima has a rich history and is extremely fun and interesting. This makes it stand out when compared to AD&D and other RPGs which are either linear or totally hack & slash.

Once upon a time

Until a couple of years ago, I didn't have a computer. My brother had one, so I used to play the same games as he did. Ultima was among those many games I played on his computer.
I don't know exactly which Ultima I first played, though I think it was Ultima 4. Ultima 4 was definately the first one I finished, though it was some time after I had played a little bit of all the first 6 Ultimas.

Your Ultima

It's difficult to decide on a favourite when almost all the games are excellent, each in their own way. To name a few...
Ultima 7 was probably the best because of its high level of interactivity, excellent plot, non-linear world, numerous subquests and high level of realism.- I did love Ultima 6 - it was when graphics started becoming good and you could actually interact with the world more than ever before. I really enjoyed touring the new world - now more realistic than ever because towns are part of the gameworld - even because I could fetch the old companions and go after the old runes. It made me feel at home.
Savage Empire was awesome too. It gives you an opportunity to be really
resourceful and build some really good things out of what nature provides.
I can't really conclude which is my favourite. It's definately between Ultimas 6 and 7, but they were both great in their own ways.
I don't really play the Ultimas much lately. When I do, it's usually Ultima 7 - I can easily play it thanks to Exult. Otherwise, I usually play the other Ultimas when I'm collecting information about them (as I did for my Ultima 8 Guide, for example).

Ultima Character

It's difficult to decide on a favourite Ultima character. Another great thing about the Ultima series was that characters were really made well. Smith, for example, was a fantastic character because he upheld a tradition that mocked the forgetting of a clue in Ultima 4. Chuckles is made to muddle you up with riddles and all sorts of stupid jokes. Lord British and the companions are based on real characters and events. I think my favourite is Smith.

Memories

The best happening in one of the games is probably Lord British's death in Ultima 7 with the plaque. It was a great feeling to touch the plaque and find out that I accidentally had committed regicide! It was an even greater feeling when I read his will... and what made this event even cooler was the real story behind it - when an iron bar fell on Richard Garriott's head (see story on my site).

Ultima Internet Community

I joined UDIC on 11th June 2002. It was just to be like everyone else and bear the "Dragon" suffix to my nickname.
On UDIC, I am "Dino the Dark Dragon". The "Dark" bit was just added because there already was a Dino Dragon on the roster. Despite being "Dino the Dark Dragon", I am still just known as Dino.

Contributions

Well, to name a few...
- Helped recover the lost vale fanfiction and hosted it in its original form
- Provide daily Ultima news on my site
- Made my own Ultima 8 Guide
- Provide hundreds of links to Ultima resources specific to each Ultima

The Dragons Lair

Yep. Dino's Ultima Page: my site.

Ultima related projects

Yes. I work for Ultima 8 - Exile.

Beyond Ultima

I like all kinds of games - strategy, RPG, action, adventure, first person shooting - almost anything. I don't care if the graphics are stickmen or awesome 3D graphics, as long as it's a good game - Ultima 4's philosophy beats most modern games, and it had just tile-based stickmen graphics.
The games I enjoy most are RPGs and strategy games, however. As far as RPGs go, I enjoy practically anything - I like SSI games or Ultima most but I don't mind playing hack & slash games either if there's nothing better than that. As for strategy games, I really love Blizzard's games. Warcraft 2 is my favourite strategy game of all times, but Starcraft and Warcraft 3 come pretty close respectively.
I usually prefer old games over modern ones. I don't really know why, but it could be because the game industry was a little less money-oriented in the past. Whatever the reason, I usually find old games better than modern ones. I preferred Ultima 4 over Ultima 9; Warcraft 2 over Warcraft 3; Darksun or Menzoberranzan over Neverwinter Nights.
The latest game I've played is Menzoberranzan - it's an old, linear RPG using the Ravenloft engine, dating about 10 years back. It was pretty fun nonetheless, and I finished it in a couple of days.

Pass it on
By all means, Hacki Dragon. It's needless to say that he owns the Ultima nitpicking community and that he has one heck of a good site.
Sometime after him, however, you could also try Shadow of Light Dragon - she's pretty important too in the Ultima scene. She works on at least 3 remakes and runs the Dragon Press.

[We'll pass on the suggestion - Parcival]

Daniel D'Agostino