Kaleb's Tales of Ultima

Index - Introduction - Ultima V Maps - Links/Files

Kaleb's Ultima Story-- You know, my first Ultima, and my Dragon history.

A Tale of Woe-- How I lost a copy of Ultima V, and then got it back.

Ultima Manga-- How I found an Ultima japanese comic book. (w/pics)

The Great Beast of Arelle-- A battle for my soul.

Kaleb's Ultima Story

(and long answer to why I call myself Kaleb Dragon)

Once upon a time... I had a best friend. He always had a better computer and better games than I did. I remember one night I was on the phone with him for a couple of hours listening to him play some game. He would tell me what was going on, and as much as possible, I was playing the game with him. He said he was in a castle, and that he was finding secret doors and hidden treasure, and talking to a jester. I found out later that the game was Ultima V.

Since he was still trying to win Ultima V, I borrowed another game from him; it was called Space Rogue (ever hear of it?). It was kinda like U5, with respect to graphics and interface--and well, it's also made by Origin. The idea was you got this derelict space craft and you had to go around the galaxy making a living, either by trading goods, hunting pirates, or fighting off these bad aliens who were invading (sounds A LOT like Privateer, if you know it). On a lonely base in the middle of nowhere, was an NPC named Kale. He was kinda like a father figure, always helping you out and giving you tips. He was a really cool guy. :-)

The summer following (this is like 88-90 period) my best friend and I went to Ocean City, Maryland. They had a Photon arena there (a laser tag like game in case you don't know it). We payed our $$$ and waited to enter the game. While we waited a chap came by and asked us what our psuedo-names were; you see, they had a big monitor in the lobby that showed how the players were doing, and listed them by name. People had dumb stuff like Iceman, Superdude, ya know. I thought for a minute and decided on Kale. I liked it (I did well in the game) and decided to use it for various gaming names.

Not long afterward, I borrowed Ultima V from my friend when he got stuck in one of the Dungeons. It was the first Ultima I played, and I was totally absorbed (1989). I beat it (1990) . Then I helped another friend beat it (1991).

I continued to use the name 'Kale' up until about 1995. A friend of mine and I were getting set to play PGA golf on Sega Genesis. He asked me what name I wanted and I told him Kale. Well, he kinda screwed up putting it in and it came out Kaleb. I decided I liked it even more.

In the spring of 1997 I joined the UDIC and chose Kaleb Dragon as my name. I pronounce it Kay-leb.

That's it. I guess that's not so long a story, it just probably feels that way to me cause I have to go back almost 10 years in my mind.

A more recent Ultima tale of woe...

I gave my original copy of U5 to a co-worker (1996) who told me that Bard's Tale was the best RPG series ever (HA!). By the end of the first night he had it, he had changed his mind. Then he moved to California and I never saw my *original* copy of Ultima V again.

I searched around, but alas I could not afford an auctioned copy. Then finally I ran into Fortran Dragon's Hidalgo Trading Company site. He resold Ultima stuff at reasonable prices.. I purchased another original PC version of U5 from him a while back.. The only thing that wasn't included was the Cloth Map (ooooh). Fortunately, I hadn't given that up, and I still had my original, original one. And a month before that, I picked up one of the Holy U1-6 CDs that are so rare, for only $30 at a commerical website. YES!

This is a MIDI from Ultima V

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