Ultima Collection

The Ultima Collection is a compilation of games that contains all the main Ultima games released up to the point of its release

Gameplay
The compilation does include Ultima I to Ultima VIII. The collection however does not include Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, Ultima Underworld, and Ultima Underworld II. It was released on February 17th, 1998.

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. The games were finally re-published at GoodOldGames for online distribution. The Ultima Collection  was later included in the Ultima Complete Japanese compilation, and in the Dragon Edition of Ultima IX.

A companion guide, Prima's Official Guide to Ultima Collection, was published at the same time that this compilation.

Included in the Compilation
The following things got included with the compilation: (only the full boxed version)


 * All the games on one CD-ROM (more details to the CD below)
 * An install guide
 * The Ultima Atlas, which consists of black-and-white photocopies of the maps of the games.

CD Contents
The CD included in the release contains the following materials:


 * All the main games from Ultima I to Ultima VIII, including Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle, and the expansion packs for Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part Two.
 * The version of Ultima II included is the same one from the Ultima I-VI Series compilation, which is broken (though it can be fixed with a | patch).
 * Akalabeth, which was ported to the PC specifically for this compilation.
 * All the books are included in several formats: plain text, Microsoft Word 97 DOC files, and Microsoft WinHelp help-files. Many of the illustrations in the documentation are rather pixilated.
 * All the color maps are included as Microsoft WinHelp help-files. Some of the maps are strangely divided, making it difficult to put them back together. The maps also have rather poor quality.
 * Interviews with Richard Garriott, where he describes some backgrounds of the games. He also talks about Ultima IX, although his statements were already no longer reflecting reality at the time the compilation was published.
 * A sneak preview to the version of Ultima IX that got axed (see Development History of Ultima IX), including a trailer.
 * Trailers for several games: Ultima Online, Wing Commander Prophecy, Sid Meier's Gettysburg and F-15.
 * Two demos, for the games Wing Commander Prophecy and Sid Meier's Gettysburg.
 * A slowdown program named "MoSlo".

Other Versions
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. It included Japanese ports of Ultima I to Ultima VIII, with the exception of Ultima VII which was never translated to Japanese. The whole collection was later re-published in Ultima Complete.

There also exists a Taiwanese edition. It sports a much bigger box which looks like a book, and also has a special trinket in form of a Crystal Paperweight. Other than that however, the contents of the box are the same. The version sold in Korea essentially was the same as the US-version, just in a different box and with translated documentation while the software stayed the same.

In addition, the initial North American "big box" production-run eventually ended, and the collection subsequently shipped to retailers in a much smaller, reduced packaging (bearing the exact same cover artwork as the original large-box edition from February, 1998). As such, the "big box" version is very sought-after by collectors.

Trivia

 * The original cover art of Ultima II is used in this compilation, something that Sierra's unwillingness to relinquish it foiled in previous compilations. Though nothing was said officially about the matter, it's logical that by 1998, Origin finally regained the rights to the cover as well, or they wouldn't have used it.