Ultima Collection



The Ultima Collection was released on February 17th, 1998. It contained all the basic (numbered) Ultimas released up to this point, but was missing Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, Ultima Underworld, and Ultima Underworld II. The content of the box was rather bare; Beside the CD itself, it only held an install guide and the "Ultima Atlas."

The Atlas consists of black-and-white photocopies of the maps of the games. However, the pictures are small and grainy, making it very difficult to make out anything smaller than a whole island.

As for the contents of the CD:


 * All the games from I to VIII. Included is also Akalabeth, which was ported to the PC specifically for this compilation.
 * Sadly, Ultima II is still the broken version from the last compilation (can be fixed with a | patch).
 * All the books and color maps are included as help-files. Some of the maps are strangely divided, making it difficult to put them back together. Also, some of the illustrations in the documentation is rather pixilated.
 * Interviews with Richard Garriott, where he describes some backgrounds of the games.
 * A sneak preview to the version of Ultima IX that got axed (see Development History of Ultima IX), including a trailer.
 * A slowdown program named "MoSlo".
 * Several trailers and a Wing Commander Prophecy demo.

Note that the Japanese edition came out with a vastly different game box (pictured), and included an actual manual. Also, it had a special edition with the covers of all the games as game cards.

The Ultima Collection was the last official release of any of these games by Electronic Arts or Origin, which has made this highly sought after by enthusiasts and collectors.

Trivia

 * With the Dragon Edition of Ultima IX also came an Ultima Collection CD.