Ulysses

Ulysses

Release type: Freeware
Release date: 1999
Levels: 2
Author: Brandon Enterprises
Related games: Cireneg's Rings

One of the effects of releasing an easy-to-use toolset for the benefit of a young audience is that at some point the audience is going to try to leverage the tools for credit. So it was with Matt Bell and All Quiet; so it was with Mike Perrucci's Party of Four. So it is that Rob Brandon quickly stripped the resources from Cireneg's Rings to turn in for a class assignment on Ulysses -- presumably the Latinized version of Odysseus, and not the James Joyce novel.

Ulysses is quite a short game. You disembark a ship in search of treasure and glory, and soon come upon an apparently abandoned village. The moment you attempt to pick up a bag of treasure, the game transitions and you are set upon by many angry people on chariots. Quick, back to the ship -- before the angry people... bump into you! Because that's kind of annoying.

An interesting development here is that Ulysses is one of only a few Game-Maker games (along such luminaries as Die Blarney! to make use of a Robotron-style four-way attack system.

Story

In this part of Ulysses' quest he is attacked by a lot of guys at once.

Help him retreat back to his ship.

Instructions

Setting out for adventure in Ulysses

Arrow keys:

Walk those ways

T, G, F, H:

Stab Up, Down, Left, Right

V, B:

Use your bow and arrow

Credits

Designed by

Robert Brandon

Engine and Tools by

Recreational Software Designs

Edited by

EJR Tairne

Background

John Brandon:

Game my brother made for a class project on Ulysses, shamelessly copied tons of graphics from Cireneg's Rings. I believe it is extremely short (could be completed in under a minute) and showcases a part of Ulysses quest where he is attacked by a lot of guys at once and has to retreat back to his ship.

Availability

Prior to this archive's online presence, this game is not known to be publicly available.

Archive history

On January 21st 2010, Rob Brandon pseudonymously responded to a Reddit thread with a passing comment about Game-Maker. When pressed about his history with the software, he replied that all of his games were stored on a couple of defunct computers, either inaccessible or destroyed.

Over 31 months later on August 23th 2012, John Brandon commented on a YouTube clip that he had found an archive of his and his brother's old games. The next day he composed a long e-mail describing the contents of a jumbled collection of gameware files, adding up to an ostensible sixteen games. All of the games were in pieces, many of them incomplete.

Over the next five months, through regular consultation, the games were all reassembled as well as the materials would permit. The games were reconstructed or otherwise recovered on the following dates:

• October 28th: Seal Boarders.
• October 31st: Seal Boarders 2.
• November 5th: Zarlor 2.
• November 7th: Skate Board.
• November 10th: Fox World.
• December 9th: Foxy Dimensions.
• December 16th: Fox Party.
• December 17th: Ulysses, Penguin War, and Raven.
• December 19th: Skatenig, Slot Car, and Anime.
• December 21st: Droid, Void Raiders, and Terra.

Links

• Play Ulysses online

Downloads

• Ulysses (117.7 kB)