Ultima V: Not Bumping

Slimes divide when you hit (but don't kill) them, so fighting them with bare hands ensures they'll multiply prolifically, giving you plenty of experience when you finally kill them. The downside is that it's boring as hell.

Tonight, I killed: 17 slimes, 4 sea serpents, 3 orcs, 4 trolls, 3 more sea serpents, 8 sharks, 15 bats, 2 rats, 6 skeletons and a mage, 3 more trolls, 12 more slimes, 2 gazers, and a lone spider.

Then, later, I killed: 2 gazers, 3 insect swarms, 9 sea serpents in three different battles, 4 slimes, 3 pythons, a ghost, 4 skeletons, a spider, another ghost, 3 more spiders, a bat, 2 more slimes, and a reaper.

After that, I killed: 3 slimes, a python, 2 spiders, 4 gremlins, 6 bats, 4 reapers, 4 insect swarms, 18 bats, 2 skeletons, a mage, 4 headless, 2 wisps, 6 ghosts, 4 daemons, a troll, 3 trolls, 4 trolls, 2 trolls, a troll, 4 trolls, 2 trolls, a troll, 3 trolls, 3 trolls, 4 trolls, 2 trolls, and a troll.

Okay, I realize this will get old fast. Suffice to say, I spent about 4 hours killing foe after foe in an attempt to raise my characters one more level before taking on the final dungeon. I'm not sure if it's bad game balance to require so much grinding, or if I just finished the main part of the game much quicker than the creators intended.

Donn's clue about being able to attack creatures behind walls with polearms was much appreciated.

I couldn't make up my mind whether to do my grinding on the surface, in the Underworld, or in dungeons, so I vacillated among them. I did find one square level in Wrong that seemed to spawn a new foe--often reapers--every time I turned a corner. I stayed there for a good long while. Later, on the surface, I sold my accumulated loot and bought 99 of every reagent (again), mixed 99 "great heal" spells, 99 regular heal spells, 99 "kill" spells, and a bunch of other spells. I bought 9,999 food, 99 each of keys, gems, and torches, and I still had more gold than I knew what to do with.

When I was done, Lord British at last raised my Avatar to Level 7 and all my other characters to Level 6. Getting Level 8 would take exactly double my current experience, and I couldn't see doing that. Thus, I prepared to return to the final dungeon and win the game.

I don't even want to tell you this next part.

Grinding was boring, see, so I had been watching Scrubs on Netflix Instant Play in one window while I played in another. Well, I'm having this recurring problem where my computer crashes if I'm watching a video in a window and messing around in an application in another. "Crashes" doesn't go far enough. The screen goes blank and the computer starts shrieking at me until I hold down the power button long enough to force it to shut off.

When I restarted and tried to go back into Ultima V, I got this:

My save game is corrupted. And, no, I haven't been making any backups.

I'm devastated. I can't not win this game, but the idea of starting over with a new character is too much to think about right now. Suggestions welcome.

[Later edit: It turns out my standard backup also backs up my "games" folder. This is good news, but I last ran it on September 1. I am currently re-doing all the stuff I did after the "Finishing up on the Surface" posting. After that, instead of grinding, I will hex-edit my characters to the experience levels they had when my game got corrupted. Thanks for all your suggestions. While the method I'm following takes a lot more time than a pre-saved game, I just don't feel right completing the game without my "real" party.]