Old School Unreal World, Circa 1995

So I happened upon an archive of an old games compilation CD called Giga Games 3 today. I bought this CD when my grandparents gave me their old 386.

ftp://ftp.chatnfiles.com/Giga-Games/Giga-Games-3-1995-10/

I browse over to the DOS/RPG section and what do I see? A demo of Unreal World version 2.071, all the way back from 1995. That is the first version I played of UrW, when I was 10 years old! Man, that brought back some memories.

Have a look and compare it to the latest version. It made me marvel at all the changes Sami has made to the game over the years.

This version had no tile graphics, only an ASCII interface like older roguelikes. You could start the game as a Viking if you wanted to. This was well before Sami decided to do away with the lockpicking skill and coin currency. If I recall correctly, users who bought the game at this point would receive a physical archive of older UrW versions, as well as some bits of nature (ground, pine needles, leaves?) from Finland.

Sami, I hope you continue to take pride in your work and know that people appreciate all of the work you've put in to make UrW such an immersive game. I've been checking back frequently for updates on the new version, which I can hardly wait for.

Hohoho, gonna see if I can get this running.

Thanks alot for sharing, giving me a chance to see the roots of this game.
Sure will be interesting.

Actually, it runs pretty well in XP.

I got knocked out in one hit by a rat, and died.

Nice find! I too died from a lucky blow delivered by the killer rat.

However, it was only a few versions back the game still suffered from the very same phenomenon. Nowadays wounds are a lot more reasonable.

It would be kinda cool if there was still an option for ASCII graphics.

just wanted to put out there that x64 users can't run this natively (Vista-64 doesn't support 16-bit apps.)

DOSBox, N.

Just wanted to point it out... suppose I should've gone into the remedy as well.
My Fault, your bad.

I want some bits of nature from Finland. Send me a grouse. I'll take care of it.

Oh, next time I happen to catch a live grouse I'll send it to you, Brian

The last time I stumbled upon a grouse protecting its nest, it tried to "take care" of me!

They are fierce little buggers.

Perhaps that explains how they used to one-hit-kill in older versions of URW.