And we got into some kind of combat. In Yew. And Iolo, being the wuss that he was, started running away dropping everything he possibly could. And I lost said critical item. And could not find the damn thing underneath all the trees.

It took me years and years before I returned to play U7 all the way (finally) again on the CD that Origin issued just prior to U9 that contained everything from Akalabeth to Pagan (in part this was penance for pirating U2, U3 and U4 in my Commodore 64 days).

U7 and Serpent Isle both were and are great games. Stories were always the strength of the Ultima series (at least from U4 on, although U3 really was my first love and I’ve replayed it on emulators several times). Somehow no modern RPG has ever quite measured up to the wonderful stories in each of the Ultima games. And they are the reason that I’m willing to put up with the clunky interfaces now and then.

I’ve never been a really religious person, even when my parents were dragging me to church when I was a teenager in the ’80s. But the Ultima series really helped give me a moral compass that’s stood me in good stead all my life. That’s also something that’s missing from most modern games. There’s a philosophy to becoming the Avatar.

So that’s why I return to the Ultima games of my adolescence despite the problems listed above. They had a big impact on me. They had wonderful stories to tell. And I love them, lost artifacts and all.

I do kind of wish LB would try his hand at a single-player RPG again (I’m pretty much permanently soured on MMOGs), but I also understand if he’s moved on to bigger and better things.