Times of Lore

aka: Ultra Realm
Moby ID: 762
Atari ST Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Kingdom of Albereth was under attack of barbarian forces. King Valwyn drove the barbarians away, but was wounded in battles. Searching for a place where he could rest and restore his strength, he left the city - but never returned. Now, a new hero must rise and defend his homeland.

Times of Lore is an action game with light role-playing elements, which follows the adventures of a young warrior (strong barbarian, armored knight, or quick valkyrie) to assist a weakened kingdom from various threats, and to recover special Artifacts that once made the kingdom strong.

Gameplay consists of moving the protagonist in real-time (day and night) through various terrains, like forests, towns, and dungeons. The player character gathers basic items, like health and magic potions, and increasingly powerful weapons as he completes tasks and advances the plot. Conversations are handled through key phrases. Battles involve a few types of creatures (skeletons, orcs, rogues) of which there can be various flavors.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Commodore 64 version)

26 People (25 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 71% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 46 ratings with 5 reviews)

An okay game, but kind of annoying mechanics.

The Good
Overall layout. If you're a fan of the Ultima series (like I am), you'll find this game to be right up there. Intro music is very well done (I wish it would have continued into the game).

The Bad
Control was done with either keyboard (one step per click) or the mouse (which takes a while to get used to). I tend to prefer keyboard control to the mouse, but in this game, I ended up using a bizarre mix of the two. Also, some of the forest path mazes got to be needlessly long and drawn out.

The Bottom Line
Not an "A-list" game, but still fun.

DOS · by Mirrorshades2k (274) · 2000

An Ultima-inspired RPG that performs adequately.

The Good
I liked this game mostly for bizarre technical reasons. It's programmed very well, for one thing; the tile-based game world moves quickly, and the graphical fades/transitions are visually appealing (if a bit slow on a 4.77MHz machine).

The music by the always-talented C64 legend Martin Galway was of approximately the same quality on all sound devices supported, from the Adlib to the 3-voice Tandy chip, which was a neat trick to pull off for the lesser-quality sound devices. And support for the Adlib in 1988 was rare; Times of Lore is one of the first twenty games to support the Adlib.

The Bad
The music sections are mostly at the beginning of the game in the intro, and while very good, are too short (they repeat too quickly).

Times of Lore was also a bit too difficult for my tastes; many times I had to restart at the beginning of a section, only to get smitten once again.

The Bottom Line
Times of Lore is a great game to play if you enjoy Chris Roberts' work and are looking for an Ultima-style game from Origin that isn't Ultima itself.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 2000

One of the most inspiring atmospheres of Lord British's catle !

The Good
This game had it all! Good plot, Good graphics, Nice and easy interface, cool sounds, and even cool weapons (especially the knife and the magic axe). Although it is somewhat mixed Ultima, and everything in the game is a series of quests in the form "PLEASE SELECT THE RIGHT ANSWER", the game features some nice storytelling. The game has a lot (and I mean A LOT) of action. Many battles to be fought. And many quests to preform.

The Bad
Loose AI, too long journeys from town to town, and no magic skills!

The Bottom Line
A top down slash nhack from 88

DOS · by Henry Aloni (46) · 2003

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Game Art Beyond

In 2018, Times of Lore was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. Times of Lore was honoured with a high resolution title picture (based on the Amiga title screen artwork) in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI, along with a new C64 SID interpretation of the iconic C64 original title score.

References to the game

Although not in Times of Lore itself, the game is mentioned in Ultima V by a 'Christopher' in one of the Brittannys surrounding Lord British's castle. 'Christopher' says it will be quite a masterpiece and hopes you purchase it when he sends it off to the printing presses.

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Related Sites +

  • AtariMania (Origin Systems, USA, Atari ST)
    For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.
  • CPC-Power (in French)
    For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; game packaging; manual digitalizations; goodies; advertisement; magazine reviews; downloadable releases; additional material.
  • CPCRrulez (in French)
    For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; advertisement; game packaging; downloadable releases; additional material.
  • DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS
    Compatibility information page about the original game and its DOSBox versions.
  • Hall of Light
    For Amiga: game database entry; digitalised manuals; game packaging; screenshots; additional material.
  • Lemon 64
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  • Spectrum Computing
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  • The Tipshop
    For ZX Spectrum: a central archive for all Spectrum and SAM games hints, tips, cheats, maps, hacks and pokes.
  • Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Encyclopaedic entry for the combined platforms of the game.
  • World of Spectrum
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  • ZX-Art - online archive of pixel art and 8-bit music
    For ZX Spectrum: music, credits, pixel art. Artist's graphics artwork.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 762
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by George Shannon.

Commodore 64 added by Quapil. NES added by JRK. ZX Spectrum added by Kabushi. Amstrad CPC added by Martin Smith. Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Alaka, Malte Mundt, ZeTomes.

Game added January 20, 2000. Last modified March 28, 2024.