Fake Ultima VII
Fake Ultima VII is the description of what is happening in the intro of Ultima VII.
Description[edit]
At the beginning of the game the player would expect Ultima VII to be a bright and cheerful game due to the very colorful title screen as well as the peaceful music and a butterfly flying in and resting on the title. Though, as it turns out, a trick is being played on the player, which becomes apparant after watching the intro fully. What the player saw at the start was a game the Avatar was playing on a computer at home, an in-universe fake Ultima VII which has nothing to do with the actual game.
The bright and cheerful fake title screen is a stark contrast to the actual title screen, which is a clear message that things would get serious now. The trick played on the player by the game is basically a mind screw, and only after thinking about it one realizes what the Avatar plays is not the game which the players plays.
Trivia[edit]
- Interestingly enough, while the very start of the intro is supposed to be what the Avatar sees on the screen at home, when seeing the actual monitor the game is depicted to be in fake EGA graphics (not the correct palette), while the start of the intro was in VGA graphics. One explanation could be the limited amount of colors available for the new scene, as it would be impossible to faithfully re-create the screen while at the same time rendering the surrounding room with only 256 colors being available for both tasks.
- The butterfly from the fake title screen reappears at the end of the credits, only that time the Guardian blows it to pieces. That also happens at the start of the SNES-port of Ultima VII, though that one does not have the fake title screen - just the colourful title on darkness.
Gallery[edit]
The same on the SNES
The gallery below shows how the fake title screen would have looked if being rendered in real EGA. Those screenshots are fan-created mockups
First EGA mockup
Second EGA mockup
