Oh Nostalgia, You Nutty-Nut!

Okay, this is probably cheating that I'm doing this, but my first real post isn't directly post-apocalytic related.

 I know, right?  

But a piece of news popped in today that I have to mention. And those of you who knew me from "The Online Gamers Anthology" will totally follow why I'm doing this.  You see, I am -- as are many of our P.A. community -- a complete freak for gaming nostalgia.  And today, my friends, EA finally snapped out of their funk they've been in for the last 15 years and said this on Joystiq.com:

"EA and Bioware have announced the launch of a new website (and Twitter account) dedicated to the 'heritage' of the Ultima series. UltimaForever.com is billed as 'a celebration of all things Ultima' and will be expanding over time to look back at the 31 year old series. To celebrate the launch, EA is offering a free download of Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar.

Also, in addition to Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 now being available on GoG.com, EA advises players to 'stay tuned for more information about additional re-mastered Ultima titles in the future.' In the meantime, you can grab your free download of Ultima 4 from right here on Joystiq. Note that you'll need to download and set up DOSBox in order to run it, unless you're somehow reading this from 1985. "


  Ultima IV was, in my opinion, on the top 5 list of greatest RPG's ever, and would be the definitive game that would later launch the game development careers of most of the big-devs of today.  For them to release this for free is great news.  It's an absolute gem.  And the mention that there will be more remastered Ultima titles (c'mon Ultima 7!!)  makes my whole year.  You have to understand... EA hasn't done much with these titles for YEARS.  So, if there is a silver lining to the economy-slump these last few years, maybe it was that someone at EA finally realized how silly it was that they all but nearly-buried one of the greatest game series of all time.
  Or maybe it was an accident, and one of the execs happened to slip an on old dusty box of "The Bards Tale" and figured the Ultima box behind it was taking up too much shelf space in the vault.  But I digress.

Now will someone please re-release "Wasteland"?!