Game 531: The Great Ultizurkian Underland (1993)

 

At this point, he might as well have gone with Wingdings.

         

The Great Ultizurkian Underland

United States

Independently developed and published

Also released as Great Ultizurkian Under-World

Several versions released for DOS, c. 1993-1995

Date Started: 1 November 2024

            

We come to the next RPG from the prolific Robert "Dr. Dungeon" Deutsch (1958-2021), whose work we've already seen in Ultizurk I: The Grandmaster's Quest (1992) and Ultizurk II: The Shadow Master (1992), which both came after nine 1980s text adventures titled Zurk. All of these games have featured a persistent hero who rises to be Grandmaster of his guild, then gets yanked about from one adventure to the next.

 

(I should mention that the date of this one is a bit unclear. Modification dates on the files are as late as April 1995. This is version 5.5 of the game, so it's possible an earlier one was released in 1993, but I haven't found any direct evidence of that so far. The only magazine advertisements I've found are from 1995, and even there, the game is listed as Great Ultizurkian Under-World. I'll try to untangle this for the final entry.)

    

The text adventure series was of course an homage to the Zork games, but the Ultizurk series draws heavily from Ultima. The backstory to this one sounds like it was written by an AI after it was fed the plots and dialogue of Ultimas IV-VI and Ultima Underworld. Arriving home from his last quest, the Grandmaster finds a mysterious tome in his quarters. The book has an image of a volcano on the cover and is titled A History of the Great Ultizurkian Underland. It describes a civilization living in a dormant island volcano split into three (interior) sections: the top, ruled by Lord Thomas Baldwin; the bottom, ruled by Lord Henry; and the "great, lush jungle" in the middle, ruled by Queen Melissa the Siren. One of the residents of the empire is Leomund, the Great Archmage, known across many worlds.

This of course recalls the moment in Ultima IV in which you receive the History of Britannia.

           

Tucked into the book is Leomund's diary, in which he recounts that some mysterious trouble has been infecting the residents. They've been "forming strange guilds" and regarding their fellow citizens with suspicion. Researching at the Lycaeum, Leomund comes to fear that a mystic rainbow pool, which allows passage across dimensions, might reside somewhere in the volcano. He worries that the "Lords of Cosmir" will arrive through the pool and conquer the world. Late in his diary, we learn that the Ultizurkian Underland is in the same world as the land of King Eldor, who the Grandmaster served in Ultizurk I. Leomund wonders if the same hero might return to aid the people of the Underland. The Grandmaster closes the book, goes to sleep, and wakes up in the volcanic empire.

      

Leomund articulates his suspicions.

      

Previous games have explained that your knowledge and skills reset whenever you take portals between worlds, so the "Grandmaster" is busted back down to Level 1, with no equipment. I've got 15 magic points but no spells. I start exploring. 

       

The character arrives. Looking at this now, I'm not sure I opened that chest. I'm not sure I saw that chest.

       

The game's tiled, iconographic interface does not appear to have changed much since Ultizurk II. The exploration window is slightly larger, but Deutsch still doesn't know what to do with most of the right-hand side of the screen. "Mana" has been added to the list of attributes shown on the screen (Ultizurk II had no magic). The iconographic elements are okay, though they tend towards a little bit "too complicated," and there are times I miss NPCs because they look like blobs among other blobs. The portraits are still howlingly bad, and sound is no more than occasional beeps.

     

I am in the Land of the Triangle-Nose People.

      

There are a few things I like. The L)ook command will give you a well-written textual description of anything you use it on. M)ap gives you a full map of the level, regardless of how much you've explored, although it's a bit small. 

       

Every piece of furniture has a description.

      

Back on the negative side, moving at era-accurate speeds is excruciatingly slow. Cranking up the cycles on the emulator causes the NPCs to move so fast I can't talk with them. Fortunately, the game lets you slow down NPCs with a special command, but it takes me a while to figure it out. Finally, the game inexplicably has a day/night cycle, despite the fact that we're underground and everything is lit with torches. When "night" falls, everything gets dark, including the text on the screen. It's absurd.

      

At night, I can't see any of my values or the message text.

       

The worst interface element, by far, is that NPCs can easily block corridors, and as far as I can tell, there's no way to get around them. There's no command to hustle them along or climb over them. You can't move diagonally past them at intersections. They won't move between doors, so if one ends up (how?) in a part of the corridor with doors at each end, there is literally no way to get by except to reset the NPCs' positions by leaving the dungeon level and returning.

       

Yes, I tried the obvious.

       

It becomes apparent that I've arrived on Level 1 of the volcano, which is supposedly at the top of the cone. Level 8 is at ground level, and apparently you can walk outside from there. (Which means the "Underland" isn't really "under" anything so much as "inside" it.) Narrow cave corridors open into large caverns that contain stone structures with furnishings and NPCs. NPC interaction draws from the Ultima IV-VI tradition in that you feed NPCs keywords and often get more keywords in response. NAME and JOB work on everyone. 

    

• Lord Baldwin, who I find last, admits to summoning me here after King Eldor told him about me. He will provide me with food, healing, and the ability to level up. He mourns the loss of his first knight, Prince John, who led an expedition down the volcano and didn't return. Later, he was found on Level 5, wearing glowing armor and leading a group of evil spirit demons. The armor seems to make him invincible. I'm not calling out all the Ultima connections, but this guy is clearly based on Rodrick, the Chaos Knight, in Ultima Underworld.

       

The game's equivalent of Lord British.

      

• Roy runs the armory and will buy and sell weapons and armor.

• Carl, the royal recordskeeper. He maintains the official history of the Underland. He tells me that Lord Baldwin is in the southwest corner of the level; Roy the armorer can get me outfitted with equipment; and Milda the Mystic knows of herbs and lore.

• Silva is Carl's wife. She helps him as a scribe and researcher. She's proud of the Underland's Lycaeum, which is even more impressive than the one on the world's surface.

• A wandering guy named Tim says he works to fend off evil, but he's not a "fanatic" like George, Bill, Keith, and Jim. They "wear painted faces and masks," which Tim thinks is silly. If I meet Marvin, I should use his nickname: HARVEY.

• Milda is a scholar of the mystic arts specializing in herbs and arcane lore (unlike Leomund, who specializes in written spells). In the Underland, I'm likely to find nightshade mushrooms, spirit jelly, and a strange silken herb. Nightshade is typically found at night in damp areas, which are typically above water areas. Spirit jelly, which restores mana, is found in the dark near water. To find "gosomar silk," I'll need to learn arcane arts. Somewhere between Level 1 and Level 8 is a level that was destroyed by spirit demons. The heroes that died fighting the demons still roam the level and may assist me.

       

Milda's clues turn out to be important for later quests.

      

• Larry alerts me to the possibility of a dungeon level below the ground floor. He says the trouble in the Underland comes from a rainbow pool; I can read about it in the Lycaeum. His guild--the Guild of the United Dungeon People Against Unknown Horrors--has buried 10 multi-colored potions throughout the dungeon. I should talk to Wayne on Level 2 about this, using the keyword ELVEN.

• Randy fixes the dungeon walls. If I want to know about "dark things," I should go to the level with wells and ask Hugh about WATER.

• Jake of the Guild of Artifact Hunters suggests I talk to Tom on Level 2 and say ZAZA to him.

• A whole bunch of NPCs have nothing to say except their names and that they "attempt to live in peace and harmony with everyone." All of them, at the conclusion of the conversation, give me a keyword to use with a different NPC. Debby: Say STAR to Kathy on Level 2. Corrie: Say GREN to Pam on Level 2. Carleen: Say WELD to Kathleen on Level 6. Cara: Say NEEDLE to Hilda on Level 2. Diane: Say ZOK to Anne on Level 2.

      

There are several rooms with treasure chests, which I loot for food, gold, and a few inventory items. Maybe that will come back to bite me. I don't remember either of the previous games having karma meters. Among the items, I find a sextant, a pocketwatch, an awl pike that becomes my primary weapon, leather armor, a leather helmet, and a wooden shield. You have to be careful picking up too many things, as you can only drop things in empty chests.

       

Only the inventory uses the right-hand side of the screen. My inventory is already full.

       

Two chests in Lord Baldwin's house are magically locked.

     

There are no battles on Level 1; you can't even use the A)ttack action. I B)link to Level 2, arriving near the ladders that go both up and down. The level is also mostly friendly NPCs, including Lily, who tends the enormous greenhouse, and Elsi, who runs the pub.

    

But it also becomes clear that most wandering NPCs simply serve as stages in long keyword chains, presumably ending in some key piece of intelligence. So my notes now have annotations like:

• Corrie (L1): GREN to Pam (L2)
• Tim (L1): HARVEY to Marvin (L2): PACK to Belle (L?)
• Diane (L1): ZOK to Anne (L2): BOG to Lonibelle (L6)
• Larry (L1): ELVEN to Wayne (L2): ELDOR to Cassie (L6)
• Jake (L1): ZAZA to Tom (L2): GRIM to Cindy (L6)
• Debby (L1): STAR to Kathy (L2): MOON to Lorisselle (L6) 
• Cara (L1): NEEDLE to Hilda (L2): THREAD to Krysty (L6)

       

From one codeword to another. Leomund complained about this in his journal.

    

• Randy (L1): WATER to Hugh (L2): FIRE to Trilla (L6) 
• Carleen (L1): WELD to Kathleen (L6): IRON to Loretta (L7)
• Titus (L1): CYCLOPS to Hector (L2): SKELETONS to Sally (L6?)

        

A couple of NPCs, Johann and Zack, have nothing to offer, so I suspect I missed keywords I was supposed to feed to them from Level 1. A lot of NPCs wander, quite quickly, and it's easy to miss them. I never find Pam, but I figure I can return later.

    

The level has an enormous potion lab with a wizard who's rude to me and won't even tell me his name. He suggests I ask Baldwin about RESPECT around mages. Baldwin later tells me that some mages have eccentric ideas, and if I want to speak to them, I should sit in their guest chair until acknowledged.

       

I'm going to adopt this policy for my students.

        

I follow his instructions. It takes a long time for the wizard to acknowledge me, but he eventually does. This turns out to be Leomund. He tells me that this realm has twelve magic words I can come to master. These words are created with the proper artifacts, so if I bring him the artifacts, he can transform them into the associated words. Each artifact will be found at the end of a quest. I ask him about each in turn:

   

• Quest 1: A nightshade mushroom, which I already have from one of the chests I opened. He gives me the spell WU ZU.

• Quest 2: A bunch of light blue berries.

• Quest 3: A bunch of yellow berries. I have these, too, and I get the spell ZIL FLAS.

• Quest 4: Strands of gosomar silk. 

• Quest 5: An elven sword. I can buy one from Roy on Level 1 for 150 gold.

• Quest 6: A blob of spirit jelly.

• Quest 7: A pocketwatch. I turn mine over and get RIM FA.

• Quest 8: A great helm.

• Quest 9: A gold nugget. I already have half a dozen. He gives me POR VAS.

• Quest 10: A "good sextant." Again, I have it. I give it to him reluctantly for ZIL LUM.

• Quest 11: The skull of a fallen hero.

• Quest 12: Reach the "seventh level of attainment." He warns me this will require me to "complete nearly the entire campaign here."

    

Ultima fans will note the similarities with the syllable system introduced in Ultima V. WU ZU is a 100% healing spell. ZIL FLAS makes the word "poof!" appear, but I can't tell anything else that it does. The same thing happens with RIM FA and POR VAS. (I try them all next to the magically locked chests and next to enemies, but they don't seem to do anything.) ZIL LUM gives me a set of coordinates, I think? They change depending on what level I'm on and change in between castings on the same level. Perhaps they're the positions of NPCs?

          

The results of ZIL LUM. I'm not sure how to interpret this.

     

None of the people on Levels 1 or 2 told me about any NPCs on Level 3, so I'm excited that I'll find some monsters there. I do, and I also soon find that around monsters, I want to ratchet those CPU cycles back down again, as if you don't input an attack command every second or so, the enemy gets a free attack. Combat is otherwise a simple matter of hitting A)ttack and a direction. You and the enemy simply trade blows until one of you is dead, although enemies also tend to just wander away from combat before it's over. They also don't seem terribly interested in you when you're in their areas. You have to deliberately walk up to them to initiate a battle. 

     

Fighting a skeleton.

       

Death sees you resurrected in front of Lord Baldwin with, as far as I can tell, no penalty to inventory or experience. I never quite trust that.

   

Rather than exhaustively explore each level at this point, I just use B)link to get a quick sense of them and to copy an enlarged version of each automap into my notes.

    

• Level 1 is the arrival level, with Lord Baldwin's mansion.

• Level 2 is a civilized level, with three large caverns, multiple NPCs, and the greenhouse.

    

The automap of Level 2. For the record, I can't tell the difference between "Paths" and "Grass" or among "Lava," "Exits/Entrances," "People/Monsters," and "You."

       

• Level 3 is a single, open cavern full of hostile snakes, bats, and skeletons.

• Level 4 is a maze of smaller caverns and passages with a large lake in the northwest corner. There are hostile ghosts and demons with devastating attacks.

      

The blown-up map of Level 4.

     

• Level 5 has four medium-sized caverns connected by thin passages. As per previous intelligence, hostile spirit demons roam the halls.

• Level 6 has a single open cavern with a lake in the middle. Rivers with bridges run to the edges of the level from the central lake. There are trees and bushes growing here in abundance, and friendly NPCs rather than monsters. A deep green background gives the sense of a forest.

• Level 7 is also lush and verdant, the lighter color giving a sense of plains or farmland.

• Level 8 looks graphically like Level 7, but the map shows it to be more structured, with a complex of buildings in the center surrounded by a "moat" with several bridges. Something in the northwest corner looks like it could be an exit to the outside.

     

A)ttack only works on Levels 3-5, so I guess there are probably no enemies on the other levels. I'm not sure if there are any NPCs on Levels 3-5. 

      

The game adopts Ultima's ordinal classification system for wounds even though it also shows you the exact values.

    

I want to make character Level 2 before I quit, so I spend some time grinding on Level 3, with the idea that I'll return periodically to Lord Baldwin for healing and to check whether I'm ready for advancement. The problem with this plan is that the program is bugged so that Lord Baldwin doesn't actually heal you when you ask for healing. His healing also doesn't restore mana, and neither does waiting or moving around. So when I was out of spell points and low on hit points, I had to quit the process. I guess next time, I'll finish exploring the friendly levels and get some more resources.

   

Time so far: 3 hours