Ultima III: Exodus



Ultima III: Exodus, is the third game in the series and the last installment of the "Age of Darkness" trilogy. It was published and released in 1983 by Origin Systems (their first game actually) for the Apple II, C64, Atari 8bit and IBM-PC. Later ports for the Macintosh, Atari ST and Amiga with enhanced graphics followed.

Compared to Ultima II, the complexity and seriousness of the game is clearly much more developed. The story of the game is much more straight-forward, and to solve the game, the player has to use some intelligence too, since for the first time puzzles play a big role. The world of Sosaria has become more complex, with the player now guiding a party of four. The graphics, especially in the dungeons, are now more detailed. For the first time, there is now background music as well. All in all, a huge jump from the previous installment.

Exodus was a hit game in 1983 and sold very well, thus giving Origin a very good start and the needed money to create the next installment of the series. Many game creators of that time took Ultima III as a reference when creating their own RPGs.

Included with the game
The release of Ultima III included these things with the game:
 * The Book The Book of Play.
 * The Book The Ancient Liturgy of Truth.
 * The Book The Book of Amber Runes
 * A cloth map of Sosaria.

Differences between the ports
The various ports of Ultima III are quite different. While the ports for the Apple II and C64 both look the same and have the full music, the PC-port only has CGA-graphics and no music at all. The later released ports for the Amiga and Atari ST have better graphics, full music and even a user-friendly mouse interface. A special Macintosh port was developed later, with much improved graphics. Also see Computer Ports of Ultima III.

The NES port is quite different in almost all respects. The graphics are more anime-like; party characters have portraits of their own depending on the class, for example. The music is completely different, and some of the game mechanics are different. For example, the party members are shown following the lead of the first character in the party. The game also uses menu system. Apart of moon phases, there is no status display on map view, only pop-ups when they're needed. Read more here: NES-Port of Ultima III.

The Story
After the end of Mondain and Minax, the people of Sosaria think that the worst is over... but the worst is yet to come. Exodus, their offspring and creation -- neither completely demon nor machine -- wants vengeance for the destruction of its creators. Beginning a campaign of terror, he raises an island from the sea and then threatens to rip Sosaria apart with his powers and armies of evil.

The player returns as the Stranger for a third time to save the world from this new evil. This time however, the hero has three companions to survive against the Exodus' hordes. Together, they travel through the land, recovering information, before finding the Four Cards on the lost island of Ambrosia. With the help of the Time Lord, the group is able to learn what to do in order to defeat Exodus. After recovering the Exotic Weapons and Exotic Armour, they are ready to confront him. On the Isle of Fire, they first bypass the Great Earth Serpent and then fight their way through the minions of Exodus, until finally arriving at the core -- the part of Exodus that is a computer. Inserting the cards, the machine explodes and Exodus is no more...

Music
This was the first Ultima to include a musical score. The C-64 version included 10 distinct tracks. The Apple version also had music, but the IBM-PC had none, although, fan upgrades are now available.

Due to the limited availability of music technology, and game budgets of the time, the music for Ultima III may sound rather "phoned in" compared to later games. Indeed, the series followed a trend of having more deliberate and plentiful music with each game. Kenneth W. Arnold was the sole composer of the music, and was to remain at that post for the next three games.

Trivia

 * The very first product of Origin
 * The cloth map of Sosaria was actually drawn by Richard Garriott's mother.
 * Origin became a target for several groups suspecting satanic contents in computer games, because of the demon Exodus on the cover of the game box.
 * For the first time, a party is used in an Ultima game.
 * This is the first Ultima game to take "line of sight" into account; that is to say, you can only see on the screen what your party would be able to see. Map squares outside the party's line of sight, such as beyond mountains or through thick forests, are blacked out and revealed only as they move.
 * The Moongates make their first proper appearance in the Ultima series.
 * This is the first time the player can't simply kill the big villain. Exodus' nature makes this impossible. Without solving various puzzles, the player can't win the game. This is a turning point in the Ultima games–a big step from the hack-n-slash of the earlier.
 * The NES port of the game can be completed without gathering the cards and by a party of characters less than 8 levels (possibly less) This is achieved by using the moongate that strands you on the island of Exodus blocked by water on one end and mountains on the other  [note: this can be quite tedious but it does work] you must now pass your turn over and over to get teleported again and again by the moongate until a pirate ship is spawned within the few water tiles on the interior area of the island; take the ship over and then save the game -- from then on by sheer brute force you may enter your new ship and then the castle and hack at its inhabitants until the final chamber is conquered  you then get the end credits.
 * Like its predecessors -- but unlike later Ultima games set in Britannia -- Ultima III allowed the player to choose from several different races, including Dwarves, Elves, Bobbits, and Fuzzies. It was the last main Ultima game to do so.

Upgrades
It is almost universally agreed that the original Ultima III graphics on a IBM-PC are painful to look at; It is also missing the music of the other ports. An Upgrade Patch exists which not only converts the CGA-graphics to 16-color EGA graphics, but also inserts the music, builds in a frame limiter, fixes a number of bugs and inserts new commands into the game. That way, the game is still playable, and much more enjoyable, today.

While there was an official Macintosh port of Ultima III made by Origin in 1986, a 3rd-party firm named Lairware created a vastly modernized shareware port in the early '90s. They've continued updating it, recently adding OS X compatibility.