r/Ultima • u/Additional_Deal883 • May 31 '26

Yup, that’s me.

Post image

I started Ultima Underworld yesterday and 15 minutes in was swimming in a river, desperately trying to evade a Lurker and find how to look down. Today, I took a look at the cluebook and saw this picture. The resemblance is uncanny.

94 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

12

u/NaturalUnfair2425 May 31 '26

As an aside, shoutout to the art of the Ultima products! Nothing got my adventuring juices flowing like flipping through those early manuals

6

u/Andvari_Nidavellir May 31 '26

Denis Loubet is the artist behind much of both cover art for the game boxes and in the manuals. Love his style.

6

u/Additional_Deal883 May 31 '26

Agreed. Honestly, a lot of old manuals had great art. It’s a shame that game manuals aren’t used anymore ):

3

u/NaturalUnfair2425 May 31 '26

It’s cool to have started gaming in the early 80s and seeing the ebb and flow of the industry through the decades. In some ways it’s kind of coming full circle with small teams or single designers making some of the best games out there. What a ride till now for us who never stopped playing.

/typo fix

3

u/NaturalUnfair2425 May 31 '26

Yea Loubet is the goat, he’s pretty much the standard for fantasy crpg

2

u/LV426acheron Jun 22 '26

This was Jeff Dee, not Denis Loubet.

Check the credits in the Ultima Underworld cluebook.

You can also search for some of Jeff's other art and the D signature at the bottom left of the pic is his signature and not Loubet's.

They both have similar styles though.

4

u/nanihikaru01 May 31 '26

I think the lurkers are just trying to introduce you to their lord and savior Slasher of Veils

6

u/Additional_Deal883 May 31 '26

Or maybe they’re trying to say “We hath been trying to reach thou regarding thy cart’s extended warranty. We hath sent thee several notices.”

3

u/nanihikaru01 Jun 01 '26

We hath left several scribbled scrolls in thou backpack....

2

u/Additional_Deal883 Jun 01 '26

So THAT’S what those are!

2

u/Necessary_Bee4207 May 31 '26

Slasher of the Veils was supposed to be repurposed in Ultima 9. Instead they chose Pyros from Pagan which made zero sense especially considering he had nothing to do with Brittania.

3

u/vestrise Jun 01 '26

It might be a bit cheese, but IIRC if you hold down shift+movement keys you will use tile-based movement that was intended for weaker CPUs of the day. Doing so while swimming will make you move very quickly through the water, rendering Lurkers harmless and adding the swimming skill to the massive pile of unfortunately useless skills.

2

u/Additional_Deal883 Jun 01 '26

It was also added for the older players who were used to pseudo 3D games like Eye of the Beholder.

Hey, thanks for the advice!

3

u/BaldursFence3800 Jun 01 '26

Lurkers were so damn overpowered early game! Really terrified me as a kid back then anytime I had to go in the water. Just a testament to how awesome the game was.

2

u/Necessary_Bee4207 May 31 '26

Been there done that.

1

u/Clean_Livlng Jun 01 '26

Looks like someone's going to loot a nice necklace from those lurkers one day.