tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post5128569760091192753..comments2024-01-28T09:56:18.191-08:00Comments on Blogging Ultima: Ultima IX, Days 3 & 4CageBloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12053920092747626561noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-14709093106624415022009-08-13T19:53:09.007-07:002009-08-13T19:53:09.007-07:00I don't know why it's not possible to just...<i>I don't know why it's not possible to just go buy some gigantic wavetable, store it on your hard drive, and then let your PC generate extremely high quality waveform files directly from the MIDI.</i><br /><br />You can do just that. Check out Timidity. Sound isn't always as crisp as my SBLive synth, but with the ability to load soundfonts it's far better than most no-name hardware synths even today.<br /><br />http://timidity.sourceforge.net/mcmagihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09415871348097595278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-90124781742059001402009-08-13T19:45:54.616-07:002009-08-13T19:45:54.616-07:00Julia, the guardian of the glyph of sacrifice, is ...<i>Julia, the guardian of the glyph of sacrifice, is in love with me.</i><br /><br />I'm actually replaying U9 right now for nastolgia, and somehow I completely missed this bit. Maybe I didn't follow that path in the conversation tree? I dunno.<br /><br />Anyway, this makes a LOT of sense based on an interview of RG from the Avatar Adventures book (also copied pretty much verbatim in the U9 strat guide). In there, he talks about who his real-life inspiration was for each of the companions. Julia was apparently his girlfriend when he was in New Hampshire.mcmagihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09415871348097595278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-65861141291362159112008-09-12T16:29:00.000-07:002008-09-12T16:29:00.000-07:00Some years ago, Garriott was interviewed for a Jap...Some years ago, Garriott was interviewed for a Japanese magazine, and basically said that "hythloth" is a made-up word. It came up because they didn't know how to translate it into Japanese, and so apparently left it as it was, making all Japanese players wonder what it meant. The answer: nothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-21208628711436637762008-04-04T16:29:00.000-07:002008-04-04T16:29:00.000-07:00One way I found of dealing with crashes that happe...One way I found of dealing with crashes that happen repeatedly in a certain area is to lower the graphics settings. Sometimes the only way I could get out of an area without the game crashing was to turn everything down.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-69283395684409631372008-02-07T15:23:00.000-08:002008-02-07T15:23:00.000-08:00Oh yeah, crashes - I had plenty of them. I got lot...Oh yeah, crashes - I had plenty of them. I got lots when going on that boat in Moonglow, and after a few reloads my savegame got corrupted. That's when I quit playing U9...MagerValphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694566891929063566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-388127416864207682008-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:002008-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:00I really liked the U9 music with one major (and un...I really liked the U9 music with one major (and unfortunate) exception: <BR/><BR/>The combat theme!<BR/><BR/>God damn that tune was unbearable. I say unfortunate because it's probably the song you hear the most in the game.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-14348419110242383822008-02-07T12:20:00.000-08:002008-02-07T12:20:00.000-08:00actually, the end of the game was interesting to m...actually, the end of the game was interesting to me. So as an end to Ultima it works, or so I think.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Also, the fiction done for Ultima X tries to explain some of the errors in Ultima IX.<BR/><BR/><BR/>About the crashes... it's weird... I had crashes sometimes, but not that frequently, not even in Moonglow. I don't know why you are having so many problems with the game. <BR/><BR/>I have tried it in 4 different computers over the years, and besides the floating runes, I have not experienced anything like what you describe. And I play using Direct3D, not glide. So I don't get it...Natreghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05637939418119253499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-57901557851635025312008-02-07T06:29:00.000-08:002008-02-07T06:29:00.000-08:00I personally think the C64 Ultimas have by far the...I personally think the C64 Ultimas have by far the best music. The Mockingboard sounds lifeless by comparison, and MIDI is only as good as the sound font - which more often than not is very bland.MagerValphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694566891929063566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-64945048975983031102008-02-07T05:34:00.000-08:002008-02-07T05:34:00.000-08:00No offense, but the blog was a more enjoyable plac...No offense, but the blog was a more enjoyable place to visit before all the Ultima IX hate -- now it just feels like every other cynical Internet-based discussion. If it truly pains you that much to play it, why continue?<BR/><BR/>Maybe the change in tone is an unavoidable consequence of the general decline in the series post-U7, but I played through U9 recently and managed to squeeze some enjoyment out of it.<BR/><BR/>Sure there were plenty of bugs: I had to delete my save more than once, flinging me back to my home on Earth until I could get back to my journal and load a prior save; I left a bloody trail of orcs in my wake in order to procure enough axes to build a stairway to floating runes; Shamino just flat out refused to talk to me; etc.<BR/><BR/>But there were some flashes of the old Ultima in there, such as the Gringolet quest.<BR/><BR/>I dunno... to each his own I guess. Sure it was a major disappointment as a conclusion to the Ultima saga, but once you get past that it can still be a fun game to play (and still quite pretty considering its age).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-11155815981602675032008-02-06T23:33:00.000-08:002008-02-06T23:33:00.000-08:00The MIDI thingy is actually vere doable.Just get X...The MIDI thingy is actually vere doable.<BR/>Just get XMPlay (www.un4seen.com), download the additional MIDI plugin (http://un4seen.com/download.php?xmp-midi), get a good SF2 font (some are discussed here (http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?topic=7620.0) and you're good to go. <BR/><BR/>You can listen to the tunes in the player, or just wavewrite/mp3 them, whatever's to your liking.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541174503724500787.post-88114293466652300132008-02-06T21:21:00.000-08:002008-02-06T21:21:00.000-08:00Boy, where did you dig up that incredibly awful de...Boy, where did you dig up that incredibly awful definition of Hythloth?<BR/><BR/>Sorry to hear you hit the crashes... so did I, in the same areas. Moonglow was especially bad, but the Covetous mines weren't much fun either.<BR/><BR/>Yes, the music's one of the few good things about Ultima IX. Interestingly, some of the tunes that are supposed to play, don't when they're supposed to. You can get an extractor application to pull the music files out of Ultima's sound file. Not sure where it is, but you can find it online if you dig around. (Or maybe someone less lazy than I can post the URL here...)Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.com