Martian Dreams

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Martian Dreams

Developer(s)	Origin Systems
Publisher(s)	Origin Systems
Release date(s)	1991
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	PC
Input	Keyboard or mouse

Martian Dreams is a computer RPG set in the Ultima series, published in 1991. It is considered a "Worlds of Ultima" game since it is not set in Britannia. It is also not given a number, although it uses the same engine as Ultima VI (and The Savage Empire).

Several aspects of the game (in particular, the Martian architecture) are very similar to the book The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After the events in the Savage Empire, the Avatar is visited by a strange red-haired woman that gives a book to him and his friend Dr. Spector. The book will eventually be written by Spector himself, and explains how to use the Orb of the Moons to travel through time. Following instructions, the duo ends up in the Victorian Era, where Percival Lowell has set up a Space Cannon that will launch some volunteers to Mars.

Through an act of sabotage, the cannon is fired during the World Exhibit with several dozen famous people and leaders of the time on board. A second cannon is prepared to find and recover the people in the first, who are now stranded on Mars.

It turns out that Mars had an extensive civilization based on plants. Most monsters you meet are so-called plantamals, such as the jumping bean and the planther. Mars has cities and canals, although the civilization is in ruins, so your first tasks are restoring the world power station, and melting enough of the polar caps (with a solar lens) to fill the canals.

The game has an extensive cast of Victorian era people, including Marie Curie, Buffalo Bill and Rasputin, Sigmund Freud and Nikola Tesla.

Some of the people appear to have gone insane after using a device called the Dream Machine. What in fact happened was that, after massive soil poisoning, the original Martians had gone into dreamspace to preserve themselves. Those people using the Dream Machine found themselves trapped in dreamspace, while the martians took over their bodies. A large part of the game is spent visiting various people's nightmares and clearing them up.

Eventually, robotic bodies can be created for the Martians, since their plantamal bodies won't grow. After a showdown with the evil Raxachk, who caused the soil pollution in the first place, all Victorians can once more go home.

[edit] Cameos

Yellin, Sherman and DuPrey should look suspiciously familiar
In the Avatar's own nightmares, he is visited by the Shadowlords from Ultima V

[edit] Trivia

If the player asks Spector about spam, he will say that he enjoys eating it. This is in reference to a cheat code in Ultima 6.
If the player goes into solo mode with Spector and attempts to make him repair the wiring at the power station, Spector will shout Avon's "I am not expendable" tirade from Blake's 7.