Demonstration - Ultima : Escape from Mt. Drash Commodore VIC-20 Real Hardware 60fps

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Nerdly Pleasures (Great Hierophant)

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Published on January 4, 2019 3:38:59 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0eJrC7g-Pc

Game:

Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash (1983)

Duration: 9:41

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Here I recorded footage of what is probably the most obscure entries featuring the Ultima name, Ultima : Escape from Mt. Drash. This is a VIC-20 game from 1983 made without the participation but with the approval of Richard "Lord British" Garriott. The game only came on cassette tape and requires an 8K or greater RAM expansion to play. Very few copies were sold and fewer have survived.

I do not believe there are any other videos of this game being run on real hardware as opposed to the VICE emulator. I am recording the VIC-20 via a composite video/audio cable. The data is being loaded via a real 1530 C2N Datasette, but it is being fed from an audio file on my phone via a CD to Cassette adapter. The cassette image being used is not pristine, it was modified to behave slightly differently when the game starts to discourage counterfeiting.

Unfortunately I do not have a composite video splitter, so my gameplay had to be done through the laggy OBS window. Usually I can get quite a bit further than I did here, but I think I showed off enough of the game.

The object of the game is to escape the prison/dungeon on Mt. Drash.
The game has 15 levels and there are three more varieties of monster, gems to pick up before you can exit the level and eventually the map stops showing the monsters, will no longer be drawn and the directional indicator will disappear. The music tracks cycle every four levels.

To kill a monster, you must Counterthrust at the right point as they move across the bottom of the screen. The Thrust move can help keep monsters away from you but it cannot defeat them as you might expect. I am not sure what value the Ready move has. The monsters move faster as you clear levels.

Each level you are allowed to cast three spells. Break removes a section of the dungeon walls, but is not always successful. Sleep puts the monsters to sleep for three turns. Teleport sends you to a random area of the level. I cast the break spell in this video and the sound effect is a little different compared to WinVice's VIC-20 emulator's.

Watch in 720p or 1080p for the proper 60fps. Go to 2:53 to bypass the tape loading.

Level 2 uses Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre"
The Combat theme is Robert Schumann's "Knecht Ruprecht"
The Ending tune is from Johann Sebastian Bach's "March in D Major" (I believe it should also play when the title loads).

Still trying to identify the classical pieces used for Levels 1, 3 & 4.

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