The Complete Ultima VII
The Complete Ultima VII is a compilation that unites Ultima VII, Forge of Virtue, Ultima VII Part Two and The Silver Seed on a single CD-ROM published in 1993 and 1994 (depending on the edition).
Gameplay[edit]
The very first edition from 1993 was sold in Serpent Isle boxes marked with a sticker, and contained The Book of Fellowship, A Guide to the Isle of Fire, Beyond the Serpent Pillars, The Silver Seed Play Guide and both cloth maps. This release still carried everything on the original floppy disks – 15 in total – therefore it was possible to play the games without installing the expansions as well. The release from 1994 in the final box replaced the cloth maps with paper ones and the games now were on one CD and could only be installed with the respective expansions included. At least the Book of Fellowship is a reprint in the 1994 release, easily noticeable by the different font on the cover and the fact that many of the illustrations are either not correctly framed or are zoomed-in.
The European release had a limited special edition with the higher quality Ultima VII cloth map from the United States, but otherwise it was identical to the 1994 US edition, with all of the books being in their European version.
Even later, the compilation was released as a bare CD-only version in a small box, or even just a jewel case in Europe. The documentation and maps were stored as PDF files on CD. The PDFs are notorious for their bad quality, with many illustrations completely pixelated and unrecognizable and the maps stored at low resolution in black-and-white. The European edition actually contains the PDFs in English, German and French.
The compilation also was part of a bundle released by Electronic Arts in 1995 called “10 for $10 Pak”. The CD-contents were the same as in all other editions.
Included in the Compilation[edit]
The following things got included with the compilation: (only the full boxed version)
- Both games with expansions on one CD-ROM
- The Book of Fellowship manual
- A Guide to the Isle of Fire manual
- Beyond the Serpent Pillars manual
- The Silver Seed Play Guide manual
- Ultima VII paper map and Ultima VII Part Two paper map
Trivia[edit]
- Both games are bundled with their respective expansions on the CD, thus are already patched to their final version.
- Due to the fact that it generally is this version that is available to players nowadays, the original title screens (without the expansion titles) are virtually unknown by now. Also unknown is the fact, that the earthquake that heralds the rise of the Isle of Fire would happen after loading a save after installing Forge of Virtue. Nowadays most associate it with the opening scene, the earliest instance where it can and will happen.
- The 1993 edition also includes an Ultima Underworld demo disk.
Gallery[edit]
The sticker on the Serpent Isle box
Back cover
Cover of the budget edition
Cover of the European jewel case edition
Cover of the 10 for $10 Pak (Includes The Complete Ultima VII)
European edition with U.S. cloth map
