Forum:Reconciling inconsistencies among platforms

I've seen a great wealth of trivial errors in the Codex, but I wonder if they are really errors, or if the apparent error is actually just a discrepancy among the various Ultima platforms. So as far as anyone can tell, (anyone who isn't fully educated on all platforms of a particular Ultima) anything that seems factually wrong might not be. What's the policy on reconciling these things? I think there should at least some recognition of the discrepancies. For one thing, "Hylothe" for some reason is the name of the dungeon under Castle Britannia in the Apple version, but you won't see that name anywhere in the Codex... until now. Now what would be ideal, but probably not realizable, would be if every time there was a change made the editor was able to cite which platform it came from. AngusM 22:31, September 13, 2009 (UTC)

First off, it would be a great idea to simply list off what you think are errors, so that we can see what you mean. Also, the tihng with Hythloth... oh please. It was misspelled in the Apple version of Ultima IV but written correct in all others and in the future games.

Also it should be pretty clear that by now, the only version that is really important is the IBM-PC one. From Ultima I to V, they were finished a little later than the Apple originals, enabling Origin to fix the various errors like that misspelling of Hythloth. Ports on consoles were altered in siginificant ways and can't any longer contribute to canon. From Ultima VI onward the IBM-PC is the original source anyway.

Think your part. --Tribun 11:33, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

Ok, well 2 that come to mind are in one of the easter egg articles. One that I corrected was an enrichment of the quote from U8 on Arnold's tombstone in the cemetery--specifically, the one that said "HASTA LAVISTA BABY". It also omitted the bad Spanish. But how do I know how many versions of U8 were released? and I mean Dos versions. Another is from U4 where Short Round says he works for "Indy". Notable Ultima spells it "Indi". Maybe both are right.

How do we know that "Hylothe" was a misspelling? The word is indigenous to Ultima. The Apple version pre-dated all others, didn't it? And misspelling or not, it's there and will always be there. It's also not so clear to me that the IBM-PC is all-important. Earlier Ultimas were mostly developed for the Apple. In fact, from what I've read, Garriott had to be dragged away kicking and screaming from developing U6 for the Apple. And I don't think it's so easy to disqualify the cardinality of an earlier version.

Think my what??? AngusM 15:00, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

For things like "HASTA LAVISTA BABY" and Short Round I'd say change them to what you know to be correct. If you think it might be a version difference make note of what version you are getting your correction from. Then if it is a version problem the next person to come along with knowledge of the other version will also have the information from your change and be able to put in the multi-version information.

Yeah, it'll cause a bit of bouncing back and forth. But I don't want us avoiding making fixes for fear of not knowing about every version since we certainly can't be omnipotent. -- Fenyx4 03:04, September 19, 2009 (UTC)