Ultima VII: The Black Gate

Game: Ultima VII: Black Gate
Platform: PC (MS-DOS)
Release Year: 1991
Stephen's Rank: 10/10


Ultima VII: The Black Gate has been the most influential single player game from my childhood, if not my entire life to date.

Title Screen

I was around 9 years of age when I first played the game. It took me almost a year after I got it (it came included on a CD called "The EA Collection" which came free with our second home computer) because of how difficult it was to run on the machines of the time.

I was playing it on a 486 running Windows 3.11. Ultima VII runs the Voodoo memory manager which conflicted with the traditional EMS (expanded memory) used by my computer. So in order to play the game I had to create a boot disk which would start my computer in MS-DOS with EMS turned off. On top of that, it required a huge amount of "convential memory". I had to tweak my memory settings for hours until I found the correct settings which would finally allow me the sweet satisfaction of booting up the game...

The Black Gate is a single player RPG based in the world of Britannia. As the name suggests it is an installment in a vast history of Ultima universe games dating back to Akalabeth in 1979. I never played any of the earlier releases - Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and Ultima VII: The Black Gate were my first points of contact with the series.

The first part of the game involves investigating a murder in the city of Trinsic. You can't leave the town until you've discovered three clues about who might have done it. It took me a long time and some searching on the internet to figure out how to get that far, but it was all worth it.

The murder scene in Trinsic, right at the beginning of the game.

I cannot describe how incredible it was when I first stepped out of Trinsic into the wider world of Britannia. Suddenly I had free will in a video game for the first time. I had some vague objectives and directions which I could follow, and there were roads leading in different directions - but ultimately from this point on you have complete freedom to explore the world of Britannia without any restrictions.

The world is enormous. Especially considering the detail placed into every nook and cranny. There are dozens, hundreds of little secret caches and scenes just waiting to be found. Keep in mind this game was released in 1991 - and was breaking new ground in terms of what technology was capable of doing. The detail went so far as to have individual objects for knives, spoons, forks and plates. There are entire cave systems with unique monsters and loot with no other purpose than to be available for you to explore.

For the first time in my life I started to remember and associated the geography of a digital world as if it was a physical one. My brother and I would refer to various landmarks which had no name other than what we made up. "Lightning Whip Cave" was one of the most memorable - a cave southwest of Trinsic which contained the fabled lightning whip (a powerful weapon).

The world of Britannia

A world to explore is amazing, but what about a purpose? Black Gate had one of the most intricate but open ended storylines I've ever come across. It broke down the linear narrative so common in video game plots. It had a balance of philosophical principles, a main story arc (which was sometimes mysterious and could be approached from different angles / paths). Additionally there were dozens of side quests in each town or city which sometimes were touched in by the main story, sometimes not - but they all gave you an incredible and memorable sense of what the people of Britannia were all about. Britannia (as it was portrayed in this game) is still sitting as vividly in my mind almost two decades after as when I first played the game.

Coming fresh into the 7th instalment of the game had some advantages. The greatest benefit from coming off the back of a long line of previous games was the immense sense of history and depth behind everything in the game. The very landscape, the people, the politics, even the items in the game were all influenced by the historical events that occurred in the previous games. In my opinion even then the previous games were too technologically behind to be playable - but their contribution was to deepen the weight of this game.

Other Positives
I can't post this without mentioning the music. Black Gate had some of the most memorable and enjoyable music out of any game I've ever played. Whether it be the mysterious and sad Stones playing as you walk past a Moongate,  the fanfare as you approach Lord British's castle, or the jolly melody blasting out of the local inn - it was magical. Hearing the music again in my adult life instantly transports me back to Britannia, and all the feelings of excitement I had when I first stepped foot outside of Trinsic.

I've played through the game 2-3 times in its entirety. The last time was in 2010 (using the fantastic tool Exult to play it on a modern OS). Without a doubt I consider this game one of the most influential forms of art that I've been fortunate enough to experience in my life

Memorable Moments

When I played I would always clean up Loch Lake. That's right, I would collect every piece of rubbish up and place it tidily inside a barrel or a crate. There were still stains on the lakeside but it was still greatly satisfying.