Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams



Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams is the eighth game in the series (not the main series itself, bit the whole Ultima-saga), and the second of the two parts of the "Worlds of Ultima" saga. It was published and released in 1991 by Origin for the IBM-PC.

Again, the Ultima VI-engine is used for the game, with only little enhancements and again with cutscenes. However, the story is quite interesting, and also creates the question what the connection to the Mars of Ultima II is, where also life was found on the planet.

Today, the game is only very little known.

Included with the game
With the release of the game came these things:


 * The Book "Time Travel".
 * The Book "Mysteries of the Red Planet".
 * A paper map of Mars.

Differences between the ports
Martian Dreams was only released for the IBM-PC, therefore there aren't any other ports of the game available.

The Story
The Avatar is visited by a strange red-haired woman that gives a book to him and his friend Dr. Spector. The book will eventually be written by Spector himself, and explains how to use the Orb of the Moons to travel through time. Following instructions, the duo ends up in the Victorian Era, where Percival Lowell has set up a Space Cannon that will launch some volunteers to Mars.

Through an act of sabotage, the cannon is fired during the World Exhibit with several dozen famous people and leaders of the time on board. A second cannon is prepared to find and recover the people in the first, who are now stranded on Mars. It turns out that Mars had an extensive civilization based on plants. Mars has cities and canals, although the civilization is in ruins. What in fact happened was that, after massive soil poisoning, the original Martians had gone into dreamspace to preserve themselves. Those people using the Dream Machine found themselves trapped in dreamspace, while the martians took over their bodies. A large part of the game is spent visiting various people's nightmares and clearing them up. Eventually, robotic bodies can be created for the Martians, since their plantamal bodies won't grow. After a showdown with the evil Raxachk, who caused the soil pollution in the first place, all Victorians can once more go home.

Trivia

 * Martian Dreams uses the same engine as Ultima VI.
 * If the player asks Spector about spam, he will say that he enjoys eating it. This is in reference to a cheat code in Ultima VI.
 * If the player goes into solo mode with Spector and attempts to make him repair the wiring at the power station, Spector will shout Avon's "I am not expendable" tirade from Blake's 7.
 * In the Avatar's own nightmares, he is visited by the Shadowlords from Ultima V.

Upgrades
There are no known upgrades for the game available.