Games PC ULTIMA II User Manual

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Games PC ULTIMA II User Manual

Ultima II™

By Lord British

Documentation by

Mary Taylor Rollo

Disclaimer

This document is a word-for-word digital copy of the printed Ultima II manual that came with the original Ultima 2. It is intended to accompany the Ultima 1-6 CD compilation. Origin apparently decided that this document was not necessary for redistribution when putting the CD together. However, there's a wealth of information about the world of Ultima 2 within the pages of this document. I find the exclusion of this document from the Ultima 1-6 CD to be an oversight. The game can't be played or enjoyed to its fullest extent without the information provided here. Thus, the existence of this document.

I tried to keep the documentation as close to the original as possible. However, I did take the liberty to correct a few minor grammatical and spelling errors. Millions of thanks go out to both Brian Reynolds (hurin@silcom.com) and Scott Leonard (e-mail: TrigonMan3@aol.com, web address: http://members.aol.com/trigonman3/ultima.html) who provided me with photocopies of their Ultima II documents. Without their help (and Origin’s), this document wouldn’t exist. Each one was slightly different, due to different platforms (Apple, Atari, Macintosh, etc.) so I combined the best of each to make this document. I also took the liberty to change the layout of some topics for easier reading. I recommend a viewing percentage of 110% with Font-Smoothing from the Plus! Pack.

I scanned in the few graphics that existed in all of the copies, but did not color them. I would like to color them, but I am all colored-out. These documents have taken more of my time that I care to admit and am more interested in getting them released than coloring the graphics. If someone wishes to color the graphics in this document, e-mail me and I’ll get you the original black and white scan. This document is provided "as is". No warranty is expressed or implied.

The electronic version of this document is not endorsed or supported by Origin (OSI). I am not an employee of Origin, and am not affiliated with them in any way. I just really like Ultima, and wanted to fill in the glaring gap of information Origin supplied to the owners of the Ultima 1-6 CD. Please do not charge any money for this document in any shape, manner or form. I charge no money for this, and neither should you. This whole package is freeware. Please do not make changes to this archive and then re-distribute it. You may not chunk this file into something smaller, and always be sure that the contents of this archive is unmodified.

If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or problems, direct them to micro@psyber.com. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Ultima and Lord British are registered trademarks of Richard Garriott. Avatar, Quest of the Avatar, Spell Book of the Eight Circles are trademarks of Origin Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

ULTIMA II WELCOME

Welcome to the universe of Ultima II. In your package, besides the handbook you’re reading, you’ll find a warranty return card, two disks and three program sides, a player reference card, and a cloth time map of the world according to Lord British.

THE WARRANTY CARD

Sierra On-Line, Inc. wants your continued business. If you fill out the enclosed product registration card and return it to us (we have already paid the postage), you are covered by our warranty. If your disk should fail within 90 days, return it to your dealer or directly to us, and we will replace it free. After 90 days, enclose $5 and return the software directly to us. Sorry, without the registration card you are not covered by the warranty.

THE HANDBOOK

In this booklet, you will find the instructions for getting along in the Ultima universe and the story of how it all came about. Now, absolutely no one expects you to want to read the story, or even all the instructions, before you take a good look at what you’ve got which means turning on your computer and taking a look at the disks. So, be kind enough to read this page and the next; and you’ll be up and playing Ultima II in no time. The story contains the background and hints you’ll eventually want to know, but you can worry about them later.

THE TIME MAP

The cloth map that is provided is to be used to guide you through the corridors of time on Earth.

THE DISKS

In Ultima II, you’ll find friends and monsters, royal courts and musty dungeons, action and adventure. You’ll be instructed to create your own player who will run around the Ultima universe for you. Now lets look at the disks.

DISK 1 SIDE 1: THE ULTIMA II PROGRAM MASTER. This is the disk that you must use to start the game.

DISK 1 SIDE 2: THE ULTIMA II PLAYER MASTER. The Player Master contains the prototype seed from which adventurers are grown. Because a seed can only be nurtured once, NEVER USE THIS DISK TO PLAY THE GAME! The Player Master is to be copied, once for every adventurer you would like to create. Be sure not to remove the “write protect”tab on the upper right side of the disk.

DISK 2 SIDE1: THE GALACTIC DISK. This disk contains in detail all of outer space and the nine planets of the Solar system.

IBM ADVENTURES

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NOTE: This section originally referred to Apple and Atari setup information. Instead, this section will briefly describe the IBM version of Ultima II that came with the Ultima 1-6 CD and patches necessary to play it properly.

Don’t bother running Ultima II from the CD. Instead, make a directory on your hard drive (U2 is a good name) and copy the contents of the U2 directory on the CD-ROM to your hard drive. Then (from DOS because it’s easier) go to the Ultima II directory and type: attrib -r *.* This will remove the Read-Only attribute from every file.

You can now run UltimaII.Exe, but it will crash with a “Divide by Zero”error. You have two options. Run MoSlo.Com (moslo /5 ultimaii.exe) and slow your computer down to the speed of an XT computer.

Or install the U2Fix.Zip which accompanies this archive. It will let you play Ultima 2 without resorting to MoSlo. Read the documentation that comes with it and follow the instructions. Of particular importance is to press and hold the SHIFT key while starting the game with U2.Com. OR, if you’re adventurous enough, you can patch the game yourself with an Hex editor and the u2spdfx.txt file that comes with U2Fix.Zip.

However, now that you can play Ultima II, you’ll quickly discover that Origin made a big mistake when putting the CD together. Every planet you go to will look like Earth because Origin used the same names for the planets as they did for Earth. The game was divided into 3 disks, and each disks’filenames were identical. Origin simply copied the floppies to the CD— overwriting the other planet’s definitions. To fix this, decompress and install the Ultima II -- The Fixed Version Patch by Mike Marcelais, The Moonstone Dragon that came with this text file. (U2Patch.Zip)

Now you can play Ultima II the way it was supposed to be! Good luck, adventurer!

GETTING STARTED

To enter the world of Ultima II at this time, please refer to your Player Guide.

CREATE A CHARACTER

Making a friend is what you are doing when you choose “C”(for create a character) from the main menu. The Player(s) you create is your alter ego who will negotiate the Ultima II universe at your side. Together you will find friends and monsters, royal courts and misty dungeons, action and adventure.

The skeleton of a character sketch will appear on the screen; you have ninety points to distribute among various physical attributes that give soul to your character. Once you’ve distributed the points, you get to choose your character’s physical attributes, sex, race, and its profession. Finally, you can give it a name.

How you distribute attribute points obviously affects your character; not so obviously, however, your choice of sex, class, and profession also has strong effects. Here’s how it all works.

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THE ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH

determines the damage you can inflict on a foe in a fight. Naturally, each

 

foe’s attributes will also influence the relative success of your attack.

AGILITY

influences your skill at wielding a weapon; some weapons require a

 

considerable amount of agility in order to use them at all. The higher your

 

points the more agile you are. Of course, you would never think of using it

 

this way, good agility also increases your chances of success at stealing.

STAMINA

reflects your ability to defend against attack. Armour adds to your stamina.

 

Attacks from extremely strong monsters make it all irrelevant.

CHARISMA

governs your success in bargaining with merchants. Prices are generally lower

 

when you are fun to have around.

WISDOM

is required to cast spells successfully.

INTELLIGENCE

is what you need to tell a balron from an angel, until it hits you. Actually

 

intelligence increases your skills in bargaining and in casting spells. The

 

more you have, the better your bargains and spells.

You must allocate at least ten points to each category. Clever players can increase their attributes up to 99 points apiece during game play. Figuring out how to obtain the extra points is part of earning them; they’re costly.

Some extra points come easily. Each race has a strong point that is reflected in attribute points for your character; and assuming that your character must have some predilection for its profession, that choice too alters one of its attributes. When you choose a race, profession and sex for your character you add to his/her character attributes.

Here’s are the races:

 

 

Human

+5

Intelligence

Elven

+5

Agility

Dwarven

+5

Strength

Hobbit

+5

Wisdom

Now the professions:

 

 

Fighter

+10

Strength

Cleric

+10

Wisdom

Wizard

+10

Intelligence

Thief

+10

Agility

Finally, (and you may ponder whether this is not a rather strange sequence), you must give your character a sexual identity. If you choose to make it a male, your character will gain strength

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points because males are usually stronger. If you choose to make it a female, your character will gain charisma points.

Male

+5

Strength

Female

+10

Charisma

All you character needs now is a name, and the only stipulation here is that the name be no longer than Rumpelstiltskin. If you try to make it longer, you might upset the program.

Look! You have a new friend. He/she will become your faithful comrade in arms. He/she will do your bidding, fight your fights and find your treasures. Ultima II awaits you both of you.

MOVEMENT COMMANDS FOR IBM ADVENTURERS

On the surface of a planet, the right and left arrows control movement east and west; the up arrow moves north and the down arrow moves south. In dungeons and towers, left and right arrows control left and right turns; the up arrow moves forward and the down arrow retreats. In space, movement is determined by xeno, yako, and zabo coordinates; refer to the Ultima II Galactic map for the coordinates for your chosen destination.

 

KEY LETTER COMMANDS

A)ttack

Lets you fight someone or something. Must be followed by a direction unless your

 

in a tower or dungeon. Ex: [A] [RETURN].

B)oard

Lets you get on your horse, climb into a plane, strap into a rocket, board a ship.

 

(See “Xit”to change your mind.)

C)ast

Casts the spell you have ready. (See “Magic.”) You can only cast spells in

 

dungeons and towers.

D)escend

Lets you go down a level (by rope) in a dungeon or tower.

E)nter

Enter a town, castle, dungeon or other landmark or read a sign. You must be

 

standing on the entrance before entering.

F)ire

Shoots a ship’s guns once you’ve boarded.

G)et

Pick up treasures, weapons, and armour. You must be standing on the item you

 

wish to get.

H)yperspace

Catapults spaceship through space to the coordinates you specified.

I)gnite

Lights a torch.

J)ump

Lets you jump up and down which is a good way to release frustration especially

 

when things are not going well. Often used in tandem with “Yell.”(See “Yell.”)

K)limb

Lets you go up a level (by rope) in a dungeon or tower.

L)aunch

Toggles takeoff and landing in a plane or rocket. Landings must be on /Land

 

grass. Press any key to touch down rocket.

M)agic

Readies a magic spell you know for casting. (See “Cast.”)

N)egate

Stops time for all things farther than one square away from you, giving you a

 

chance to get out of a tight situation. “Negate”will only work for characters who

 

possess a particular magic item.

O)ffer

Offers money (gold) as payment or bribe. If the non-player character that you’re

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offering to has nothing to give in return, it will accept your offer as a generous gift.

P)ass

Allows one game turn to pass without doing anything. However, others will not

 

pass their turns. Pressing the spacebar accomplishes the same thing.

Q)uit

Saves the game; allows you to continue, or turn off your computer. When you turn

 

it on again, you’ll pick up where you left off. “Quit”works only in the countryside

 

on Earth and you must not be aboard anything.

R)eady

Equips you with your choice of any weapons your own.

S)teal

Attempts to take items from stores without paying for them. May or may not work

 

for weapons, armour, food, transport. Be sure to plan an escape route ahead;

 

townspeople don’t take kindly to theft.

T)ransact

Lets you talk with the people of Ultima’s universe. You must follow the command

 

by giving the direction toward which your communication is to take place. Because

 

the intricacies of winning— and

even playing tips— are available only from

 

characters in the game, you should “Transact”as much as possible; don’t skip

 

anyone. You may even meet someone you know…

U)nlock

Open doors— if you have the keys.

“Unlock”must be followed by the direction of

 

the door you wish to unlock. Incidentally, in the universe according to Lord British,

 

locks gobble keys, so use them wisely.

V)iew

Gives you, if you have a certain magical item, a bird’s eye view of a town or village,

 

or a satellite’s view of a planet. One viewing per unit of magic. “View”doesn’t

 

work in dungeons or towers. W)ear

Outfits you in your choice of the armours that

 

you own.

 

X)it

Exit. It won’t help a bit in the middle of a hairy dungeon, but it will get you out

 

from or off of anything you can board. (See “Board.”)

Y)ell

Stops everything while you type in anything you feel like yelling— then gets on with

 

the game. In other words, you can let out your frustrations, but it won’t affect the

 

game in the least. Often used in tandem with “Jump.”(See “Jump.”)

Z)tatus

Stops everything to display a text screen of your character’s attributes and

 

possessions. This is also the only command that affects a complete and open-ended

 

pause in the game.

 

Space Bar

Pass.

 

MAGIC SPELLS

Only clerics and wizards can use magic. Nine spells fall into three categories.

 

SPELLS BOTH CLERICS AND WIZARDS CAN USE:

Light

Creates magical illumination, and eliminates the need for a torch.

Ladder down

Teleports you straight down one level in a tower or dungeon.

Ladder up

Teleports you straight up one level in a tower or dungeon.

 

SPELLS ONLY CLERICS CAN USE:

Passwall

Destroys the wall in front of you.

Surface

Teleports you immediately to the surface of the planet that you are on from within a

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