Nerdly Pleasures: The Obscure Ultima, Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash

Back in Ye Olden Days, I knew nothing of blogs and was content to post materials on forums and newsgroups and the like. I contributed a few writings to GameFAQs back before the days when it was purchased by GameSpot. The only actual FAQ for a video game I ever contributed that described how to beat a game was for the VIC-20 game Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash. When GameFAQs took over, I removed all my content from that site. Now, having finally been able to play the game on original hardware, I think it is time to revive the old FAQ. Moreover, no longer limited to plain, monochrome text, I can do more now that I have my own blog and the ability to add images, color text and link video. Let's take a trip into a rarely visited part of the Ultima Universe.

Ultima - Escape from Mt. Drash for the Commodore VIC-20 Computer

FAQ by Great Hierophant, v1.6

"Ultima - Escape from Mt. Drash" game program is copyrighted by Sierra On-Line

"Ultima" is trademarked by Electronic Arts

A. The Story

The object of this Ultima is to escape the fortress of the Garrintrots, located on the top of Mount Drash. The evil Garrintrots have given you a chance to earn your freedom by descending the 15 maze-like levels of the mountain, each level having an exit leading into greater danger. You have to navigate and descend 15 levels of these mountain mazes, dodging or fighting monsters.

B. How to Load and Start the Game

Connect a memory expansion of at least 8KB to the Commodore VIC-20

computer.
Connect a Commodore C2N 1530 Datasette to the VIC-20.
Connect the VIC-20 to a composite monitor or a TV.
Ensure the VIC-20 power supply is connected to an outlet and turn the VIC-20 on.
Wait for the VIC-20's BASIC to load and proceed to the next step when BASIC displays the READY prompt.
Insert the Ultima - Escape from Mt. Drash cassette into the cassette player.
If the tape is not fully rewound then do so now. If the tape is fully rewound then hold down the key and press the key, or type LOAD at the BASIC prompt.
The screen will say "PRESS PLAY ON TAPE", so press the play button on the cassette player.
The screen will say OK, find the game on the tape, and load the game into memory. This should take about three minutes. Be patient.
At the title screen, press any key and the game will load the first level at the introductory screen. The game begins when the game's screen has been fully displayed on the monitor.
To restart the game, turn the VIC-20 computer off then on again, rewind the tape, and repeat steps 7-10. Alternatively you may lose all your lives.

C. The Controls

Only the keyboard functions as a controller in this game.

Movement Keys:

Move Forward
Left Turn Counter-Clockwise
Right Turn Clockwise
Turn Around

Spell Keys:

Cast Blast Spell
Cast Teleport Spell
~~Cast Sleep Spell~~

Combat Keys:

Left Move Back
Right Move Forward
Ready Sword
Thrust Sword
Counterthrust Sword

D. The Difficulty Progression

Levels 1-4 - Easiest levels, nothing special
Level 5 - Starting on this level, you must grab a gem before you can use the exit.
Level 7 - Starting on this level, the maze no longer appears on the map screen.
Level 9 - Starting on this level, the monsters are no longer visible on the map screen.
Level 11 - Starting on this level, the your character is no longer visible on the map screen.
Level 13 - Starting on this level, you must grab both gems on the level to advance, also, the view screen will no longer tell you your cardinal direction (North, South, East, West.) (The manual says that the directional indicator disappears on level 11, but the manual is in error.)

Also, as the level numbers increase, the monsters move faster in combat.

E. How to Play

The game's screen is displayed in four subparts: the view screen, the map screen, the action screen, and the status bar. The view screen, on the upper left portion of the screen, shows you your orientation in the dungeon in first person 3-D. It also informs you of your cardinal direction, the time

remaining, and when you are entering a new level. The map screen, on the upper right portion of the screen shows the location of you, the monsters, the exits, the gems, and the layout of the level as you explore it. The levels are semi-randomized. You only have three lives and cannot gain any more. The action screen, below the view and map screens shows your current rank and when you encounter a monster the fight between you and the monster. The status bar, below the action bar, tells you the level number, the name of an enemy, and when it dies or the number of times you have died.

When you begin a level, you begin in the southeast corner of the map and must progress to the dimension door (exit) in the northwest corner. The dimension door is marked by a flashing brick on the map display. When your character gets to the dimension door he will descend to the next level. You move forward with the key, turn with the keys, according to the map. Your

position on the map is marked with a blue o (lowercase.) You can avoid many enemies but will inevitably have to fight some. They are marked with red Xs. Fortunately, they cannot pass through walls but will chase you. They can group together, so one X mark can hide multiple enemies, which you will fight sequentially.

Each level is a 9x9 matrix, and you have 100 seconds to clear it or you lose a life. When you have to collect the gems, there will be two, located at the northeast and southwest corners. They are designated by yellow diamonds. One good thing is that the monsters cannot pass through the gems, until collected, or the exit. You have three lives and cannot earn anymore, and each life is designated by a black o lowercase character in the center of the screen.

You can cast spells three times per level, any combination of the three. The Teleport Spell will teleport your character to a random location on the map. The Blast Spell will demolish one section of the wall, but will not always work and will never work on the outer edges of the maze. The Sleep Spell will put the monsters to sleep for three turns. The Sleep and Teleport Spells always work, but if the Blast Spell does not work it will count as one of your used spells.

Every action you take consumes a turn, and the monsters move towards your position each turn. Turning, moving forward, or casting a spell each takes a turn. Dodging monsters requires being economical with your movements. Monsters do not move until you do, so you can wait and plan if you keep a eye on your time. If the timer runs down to zero, you lose the screen and see the

game over text, no matter how many lives you have.

You win the game by going through the dimension door on level 15, escaping the wicked Garrintrots and Mt. Drash.

F. How to Fight

This is the difficult part of the game because hit detection is wacky and the command response is slow. In order to kill a monster, you have to counterthrust your sword with in the right spot for each monster. I call this spot the monster's kill point, and I describe them in the next section and

with an accompanying gif. You only have to do this once per monster encounter, but hitting that spot is more difficult that it first appears. If you counterthrust your sword out in front of it too early, it will move back. If you counterthrust too late then it will move inside your sword reach and you are probably dead. If it touches your stick figure body, you lose a life. If this happens then quickly assume the ready position with and quickly thrust with and hope this pushes the monster back.

Until you get the range down, when you first begin a battle counterthrust your sword out with . (See my ASCII art for a depiction of each combat move.) This will protect you from an automatic death and give you more distance to work with than the thrust movement because the monster will not move forward and kill itself voluntarily. When the monster comes close to your sword, it will walk back and forward one step in front of your sword point. Wait for it to walk back and then use the key to pull yourself back somewhat into a thrust position. This will protect you from instant death if you fail and will trick the monster into moving itself into range of a successful counterthrust. When the monster moves forward again, counterthrust your sword with . You want to get the monster as shown in the monster kill points gif, described in the next section. Keep trying until you kill it. In the early levels, use the break and teleport spells to seek the monsters out for practice.

A tip on the early levels. To kill Gremlins, Floating Orbs, and Dancing Demons easily, wait until their fourth move towards you, then press to counterthrust your sword. (Counting their movements out loud is a good way to practice.) They will almost infallibly impale themselves on your sword. They move slowly enough that you should master this quickly. The screen refreshes

when they move. It does not work so well against Phantoms and Purple Slimes because their movements are hard to track and they live in levels where the monsters move faster in combat. It also becomes difficult to use on the later levels because the monsters move so fast, but it still works when you have trained yourself to track their movements. Also, combat may not start the player off in the same position relative to the monster every time, so this technique is no substitute for learning the monsters' kill points.

Eventually, you will get good enough to time and kill the monster on your first counterthrust. Once you get to the higher levels, the monsters will move so fast that you really should kill them on the first counterthrust. If you don't, then use the safe tactic I decribed above, except try to thrust and

counterthrust as quickly as possible. This works reasonably well even when the monsters move their fastest.

The reason that hit detection is so poor is due way the combat is implemented in this game. Basically, your character's sword has to hit the monster's weak spot in the right location at the right time. The combat is turn based. The monster usually moves towards you every turn. You have to counterthrust out your sword just before the turn when the monster's weak spot is in range. The

game only processes updates about once per second, so if you miss an opportunity you had best hope your sword pushes the monster back and allows you another chance to make another counterthrust correctly. Each monster has two frames of movement, so you have to learn where to strike on either frame. Also it is important to remember that this game only uses PETSCII symbols for its graphics, so everything is confined to 8x8 cell boundaries. Combat is the only challenging aspect to this game.

G. Monster Kill Points

As I have described above, you must counterthrust your sword at exactly the right point for each of the two frames for each monster. Unfortunately, I cannot describe the kill points of each with as much precision as I would like.

So, I went to the game, captured a screenshot of me hitting each monster's kill point, and cut and pasted the combat screen to a png file. Each monster has two frames of movement, so the higher shot shows the kill point for their first frame, and the lower shot the kill point for their second frame. Their frames are also referenced as ASCII art in the Character and Monster Graphics section below. I would advise increasing the size to get better use out of it so you can time your attacks to duplicate the positions described in the image :

H. Levels and Monsters

Level 1 - Gremlins first appear, 2 enemies per level
Level 3 - Floating Orbs first appear, 3 enemies per level
Level 5 - Dancing Demons first appear, 4 enemies per level
Level 7 - Phantoms first appear, 5 enemies per level
Level 9 - Purple Slimes first appear, 6 enemies per level
Level 11 - 7 enemies per level
Level 13 - 8 enemies per level

Level 15 is different from all the other levels. This level's map is not random; it goes like this:

End ---------

---------

--------- Start Here

There are 9 monsters on this level, and you will fight all of them. No spells will work on this level, and at best you can only lose 2 fights.

I. Rankings

Earning new ranks seems to be a combination of killing monsters and advancing in the levels. Regardless of the monsters killed, the game will not reward the player with a new title until he reaches the next set of levels. Oddly, when you die for the third time the game says "You lose, cadet" (I think someone was a fan of Gorf) regardless of your rank at the time of your death.

Quimby - Levels 1-3, 0-6 monsters killed
Corporal - Levels 4-6, 7-17 monsters killed (Level 5)
Cadet - Level 7-9, 18-33 monsters killed (Level 7)
Captain - Level 10-12, 34-53 monsters killed (Level 10)
Colonel - Level 13-15, 54-79 monsters killed
Questor - Win the Game!

J. Music

There are seven pieces of music and two sound effects in this game. Each of the first four levels has its own theme, the next four levels use the themes of the first four levels in sequence. This is better illustrated below:

Levels 1,5,9,13 - Theme I (Edvard Grieg - "Puck")

Levels 2,6,10,14 - Theme II (Camille Saint-Saëns - "Danse Macabre")

Levels 3,7,11,15 - Theme III (unknown)

Levels 4,8,12 - Theme IV (unknown)

Combat with monsters garners it own theme (Robert Schumann - "Knecht Ruprecht"). Casting the sleep spell uses another theme for the duration of the spell. The winning and game over theme (Johann Sebastian Bach - "March in D Major") are the same. Casting the blast spell gives a sound effect (and WinVice doesn't get it quite right). Walking has another sound effect.

K. What Does this Game Have to Do With the Ultima Series?

At first glance, very little. The game is a by-product of Richard Garriott's relationship with Sierra On-Line. Back in 1980, Richard Garriott programmed Ultima for the Apple II in Applesoft Basic. He distributed it through California Pacific Computer, with a rudimentary manual and a plastic ziplock bag. By the time Richard Garriott had finished his next project, Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress for the Apple II, he had become more ambitious. California Pacific Computer had gone out of business, and Garriott wanted a more professional distribution for Ultima II, his first commercial attempt at an full assembly language program. Professional distribution to him meant

including a cloth map and a box for each copy of the game. Only Sierra On-Line agreed to do this, so he licensed the game to them to distribute Ultima II for the Apple II and other computer platforms. He also gave Sierra a license to port Ultima I to the Atari 8-bit Computers, and Sierra ported Ultima II to a variety of platforms, including the IBM PC, the Atari 8-bit Computers, the Commodore 64, the Apple Macintosh, the Atari ST.

Anyways, at this time, Garriott's friend and collaborator Keith Zabalaoui approached Sierra Online and asked if they would like to sell a game he had written for the Commodore VIC-20 computer in BASIC. He agreed to do so, wrote a maze game with a simple fighting capability. (The game does contain some machine code in binary.) Sierra thought it would sell better if they stuck Ultima onto the title of the game, supposedly unbeknownst to Garriott who claimed he learned of the game's existence years later. Actually he later admitted he lent the Ultima name for the game, presumably to help out his friend. Sierra released it in 1983, and presumably it did better than it would have otherwise, but considering its rarity as the most sought after Ultima item, it was not a best seller. The cassette and title screen credit Garriot as owning the Ultima Trademark, while Sierra On-Line claimed ownership of the copyright to the game itself.

Here are the Ultima references I found :

The title containing Ultima and Mt. Drash (Mt. Drash comes from the Mines of Mt. Drash, a dungeon from Ultima);
Three of the monsters, gremlins in Ultima and Ultima II, floating orb/wandering eyes in Ultima, phantom/ghost in Ultima II. Purple Slimes come from D&D and the Dancing Demon was the name of a very famous program for the TRS-80.
The unseen villians the Garrintrots (obviously a play on Richard Garriott's name.)

Without these Ultima references this game would probably have been forgotten by everybody.

With the references few people outside of collectors and Ultima fans have any interest in the game.

Sierra On-Line and Garriott's relationship deteriorated because of disputes over royalties of Ultima II and its ports. Garriott broke his association with Sierra Online to start his new company, Origin. Origin's first product was Ultima III - Exodus, signifying that Richard Garriott had taken his people and his series away from of Sierra On-Line. Origin eventually repurchased the rights to Ultima II from Sierra by 1989. Origin would retain its independence for a decade before Electronic Arts bought it.

L. Miscellany

Because its obscurity and poor sales, Ultima - Escape from Mt. Drash is a very difficult game to find and play today on a VIC-20 with its original cassette. A modified dump of the cassette exists as well as an unofficial 2002 disk conversion, it can be played on an emulator like WinVICE's VIC-20. WinVICE will certainly load it a lot faster than an original system. The cassette dump does not start the music until you make your first move, whereas the original cassette should start music as soon as you see the "Make Ready for Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash" screen. The disk conversion does, but it has an additional load after the title screen whereas the original loads everything, as it must, before the title screen appears. I made a video demonstration of the game using real hardware using the cassette dump : https://youtu.be/P0eJrC7g-Pc

Scans of the games contents and manual can be found here : https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=drash

M. Monster and Character Graphics

A long time ago I recreated in ASCII graphics each frame of the monster and players' graphics. They should be pixel perfect, and I used numbers to designate the color of each individual pixel. I did this to give my readers a sense of what the game looks like before I posted screenshots of each monster. Here I used a black background so I could actually color the text instead of merely giving the text color.

Color Code

= Black

1 = Green

2 = Magenta

3 = Blue

4 = Red

5 = Yellow

6 = White

A Gremlin Frame 1

2 2 2 2

22 222

222 22222

2222 222

22222 2 2 2

222222 2

2222222

22222222

2222222222

222222222222

22222222222222

2222222222222222

222222222222222222

22222222222222222222

2222222222222222222222

3333 111111113333

13333 111111113333 1

113333 111111113333 11

1113333 111111113333 111

11113333333311111111333333331111

1111133333333111111113333333311111

111111333333331111111133333333111111

11111113333333311111111333333331111111

111111111111 111111111111111 11111111111

11111111111 111111111111111 1111111111

1111111111 111111111111111 111111111

1111111111 1111111111111 111111111

1111111111 111111111

111111111111111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111

11111111111111111111111111

11111111 11111111

111111111 111111111

1111111111 1111111111

11111111111 11111111111

111111111111 111111111111

1111111111111 1111111111111

11111111111111 11111111111111

111111111111111 111111111111111

A Gremlin Frame 2

2222

222222

22222222

2222222222

222222222222

22222222222222

22222222 2

2222222222 2 2 2

222222222222 222

22222222222222 22222

2222222222222222 222

222222222222222222 2 2 2

22222222222222222222 2

2222222222222222222222

333333331111111133333333

13333333311111111333333331

1133333333111111113333333311

111333333331111111133333333111

1111 333311111111 33331111

11111 333311111111 333311111

111111 333311111111 3333111111

1111111 333311111111 33331111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111

11111111111111111111111111111111111111

111111111111111111111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111

111111111111 111111111111

111111111111111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111

11111111111111111111111111

11111111 11111111

1111111 1111111

111111 111111

11111 11111

1111 1111

111 111

11 11

1 1

A Floating Orb Frame 1

4 4

4 4 4 4 4 4

444 444

44444 44444

444 444

4 4 4 4 4 4

4 4

1 1

4444 1 1 4444

444444 1 1 444444

4444 1 1 4444

1 1

1 11111111 1

1 1111111111 1

1 111111111111 1

1 11111111111111 1

1 1111111111111111 1

1 111111111111111111 1

1 11111111111111111111 1

1 1111111111111111111111 1

1111111111111111111111

111111111 111111111

11111111 11111111

111111111 111111111

1111111111111111111111

11111111111111111111111111

1 1111111 1111111 1

1 111111 111111 1

1 11111 11111 1

1 1111 1111 1

1 111 111 1

1 11 11 1

1 1 1 1

4444 4444

444444 444444

4444 4444

A Floating Orb Frame 2

4 4 4

444

44444

444

4 4 4

1 1

1 11111111 1

4444 1 1111111111 1 4444

444444 1 111111111111 1 444444

444444 1 11111111111111 1 444444

444444 1 1111111111111111 1 444444

444444 1 111111111111111111 1 444444

4444 1 11111111111111111111 1 4444

1 1111111111111111111111 1

11111111111111111111111

1111111 11111111

11111111111111111111111

11111111111111111111111111

4444 1 1111111111111111111111 1 4444

444444 1 11111111111111111111 1 444444

444444 1 111111111111111111 1 444444

444444 1 1111 1111 1 444444

444444 1 111 111 1 444444

4444 1 11 11 1 4444

1 1 1 1

A Dancing Devil Frame 1

55555555

5555555555

555555555555

55555555555555

5555555555555555

555555555555555555

55555555555555555555

5555555555555555555555

555555555555555555555555

55555555 55555555 55555555

5555555555555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555555555555555555555555555555

555555555555555555555555555555555555

5555555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555 55555555555

5555555555 5555555555

555555555 555555555

5 55555555 5

5 5

A Dancing Devil Frame 2

55555555

5555555555

555555555555

55555555555555

5555555555555555

555555555555555555

55555555555555555555

5555555555555555555555

555555555555555555555555

55555555 55555555 55555555

5555555555555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555555555555555555555555555555

555555555555555555555555555555555555

5555555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555555555555555555555555

55555555555 55555555555

5555555555555555555555555555

55555555555555555555555555

5 55555555 5

5 5

A Phantom Frame 1

3333 3333

3 3 3 3

3333 3333

A Phantom Frame 2

3333333333333333

333 3333 333

333 33 333

3333 33 3333

33333 33 33333

333333 33 333333

33333333 3333 33333333

333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333

3333333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333333

3333333333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333333333

33333333 333333333333333

3333333 333333333333333

333333 333333333333333

33333 333333333333333

3333 333333333333333

333 333333333333333

33 333333333333333

3 333333333333333

3333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333

3333333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333333

3333333333333333333333333333333333333

33333333333333333333333333333333333333

333333333333333333333333333333333333333

A Purple Slime Frame 1

2222222222222 22222

2 2 2 2

22222 22222 2

2 2

22222 22222 22222

2 2 2 2

22222 22222 222 22222

2 2 2

A Purple Slime Frame 2

2222222222222

2 2

2 2222 2

2 2 2 2

2 2 2 2222222222222

2 2 2 2

2 2222 2

2 2

22222 22222 2

2 2 2 2

22222 2 2 22222

2 2 2 2

22222 22222 22222 22222

2 2 2 2

The Player in the Ready Position

66666 6

6 6 6

66666 6

666666666666666666 6

6 66666666666666 6 6

6 666666666666 6 6

6 6666666666 6 6

6 66666666 6 66666666

6 666666 6 6

6 6666 6 6

6 66 6 6

66666666 66

6 6

66666666 66666666

The Player using the Thrust Movement

6 6

66666

6 666666666666666666 6

6 6 66666666666666 6 6

6 6 666666666666 6 6

6 6 6666666666 6 6

6 6 66666666 6 666666666666666666666666

6 6 666666 6 6

6 6 6666 6 6

66 66 666666666 6

6 6

66666666 66666666

The Player using the Counterthrust Movement

66666

6 6

6 6 6

66666 666666666666666666666666

666666666666666666666666666666666

6 66666666666666

6 666666666666

6 6666666666

6 66666666

6 666666

6 6666

666666666 66

6 6

666666666 66666666

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

The Obscure Ultima, Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash

1 comment: