This reminds me of when Ultima Underworld first came out in 1992, and it came with a map of the first level printed on a piece of fabric, and it looked hand-drawn. I was 13, and I have never played a complicated adventure game like that before, so it was extremely extremely helpful in figuring out how the game worked and how to visualize the levels of the game moving forward. Plus, as the character had a map just like that one, it really helped with the immersion.
Considering that, 34 years later, it is still resonating this strongly in my memory, I’m definitely in favor of maps being included in fantasy stories.
I miss the days of high production values for every part of the game. Obviously the majority of games from my youth (after dinosaurs and the invention of color, but not much) were mediocre or even flat out shovelware, but the greats are still shining achievements.
This reminds me of when Ultima Underworld first came out in 1992, and it came with a map of the first level printed on a piece of fabric, and it looked hand-drawn. I was 13, and I have never played a complicated adventure game like that before, so it was extremely extremely helpful in figuring out how the game worked and how to visualize the levels of the game moving forward. Plus, as the character had a map just like that one, it really helped with the immersion.
Considering that, 34 years later, it is still resonating this strongly in my memory, I’m definitely in favor of maps being included in fantasy stories.
By then, they’d already been including such maps for close to a decade!
I don’t recall if Ultima III had one, but IV certainly did. Not to mention those glorious manuals.
I discovered that when I ended up buying Ultima VII next lol
Sadly, ultima underworld ii did not come with a fabric map, but one printed on paper 😔
I miss the days of high production values for every part of the game. Obviously the majority of games from my youth (after dinosaurs and the invention of color, but not much) were mediocre or even flat out shovelware, but the greats are still shining achievements.
Please tell me you still have that map! Sounds awesome.