Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PlayStation)

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To do: Rip images of the unused NPC portraits. For example, there are ones for a mountain man and a dark ghoul.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss for the PlayStation is a port of the original DOS version. There are major changes to the graphics, such as a traditional Japanese art style, re-done cutscenes, reworked graphics from the DOS version and a revamped interface.

Interestingly, there are some unused elements from the DOS version that were carried over to this version.

Unused Graphics#

The unused graphics from the DOS version still exist in this version. Not only that, but they have received the same visual improvements as the graphics that are actually used.

Item Icons#

To do: Determine if these objects also still exist in the common objects table, special objects table, and have descriptions in the descriptions string block, as they did in the DOS version.

The three unused items from the DOS version are still here as well: a stone, some vines, and a figurine. They are found in the sprite sheet for this version:

Note: The graphic above is accurately representative of the graphics ripped from the game. The errors and "holes" in the graphic are not artifacts of the process, they are visible as such in the original game.

Spell Shelf Icons#

These are the spell shelf icons from the DOS version, but they are not used due to this version having its own set.

Character Portraits#

To do: Experiment in-game with the spells mentioned to see if any or all of these portraits are indeed viewable in game, post the results here.

Some, but not all of the unused portraits from the DOS version were removed. Specifically, the ones for the unnamed characters were removed, but not the ones for unnamed characters.

Portrait	Character	Notes
	Generic green goblin with sword	In the DOS version, Drog, the green goblin sentry had this generic portrait, which was replaced with a unique portrait in the PS1 version. The original portrait was used for any generic sword-wielding green goblins, and the only one in the game is the green goblin treasury guard. In the DOS version, that character doesn't speak because his npc_whoami attribute is set to an unslotted conversation number. It's not clear if that was done in error or intentionally, but the behavior is the same in the PS1 version, so this portrait goes unused.
	Generic mountainman with white beard	Strangely, mountainmen with red-bearded sprites have white-bearded generic portraits and vice versa. In the PS1 version, the red-bearded models got gold-bearded portraits, and the white-bearded models got this white-bearded portrait. Originally, the only characters that used this portrait in the DOS version were Ironwit, Kallistan, and Smonden, which were replaced with their own unique portraits in the PS1 version, though with the incorrect red beards, replicating their looks in the DOS version. So, this portrait, the only correct assignment in the game of a generic portrait and model with matching beard colors, goes unused.
	Generic ghoul	This would have been used by Kneenibble but he got his own portrait. There are no generic ghouls in the game. It may be possible to bring one about with a Summon Monster spell but that is not known for sure.
	Generic dark ghoul	In the DOS version, there are no peaceful dark ghouls to talk to, but one could bring one about by use of the Summon Monster spell, Ally spell, or Confusion spell. It is not known if that is also possible in the PS1 version.

Version Differences#

Character Portraits#

There are 88 unique NPCs in the game, some are unique named characters and others are unnamed generics. The DOS version has 28 unique portraits for named characters (2 not seen in game) and the rest of the named characters must share 30 generic portraits (3 not seen in game) with the unnamed characters. The PS1 version has 78 named character portraits (all seen in game), and 14 generics (4 not seen in game). The generic portraits lost are:

• Imp
• Savage gray goblin
• Both female fighters
• All three male fighters
• Light-skin mage in yellow robe
• Male mage in blue robe
• Female mage in blue robe
• Mage in red robe
• Dark-skin mage in yellow rboe
• Feral troll
• Great troll
• Mage in red robes with a staff
• Tyball (named in this version as opposed to being a generic character in the DOS version)

References#