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; that is, Ultima I to Ultima VIII. The collection 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.

A special version of the Ultima Collection  called Ultima Complete was also released in Japan, which included Ultima IX and Ultima Online.

Included with the game
Together with the game in a CD came the following things:


 * 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 contained 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. Some 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.
 * 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.
 * 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".

Japanese Version
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.

Trivia

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