NES-Port of Ultima III

The NES-Port of Ultima III is the first Ultima port to a console, in this case Ultima III to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The port was released in 1989, six years after the original version,.

Although FCI is credited for the port, all the work was actually done by Origin. The reason were problems with Nintendo's developer licensing restrictions scheme, which forced Origin to nominally have a third party sell the game.

At the time of the NES port's release, six years had elapsed since the release of the original. As such, the graphics were overhauled considerably. The new design for Ultima III was similar to that of many Japanese designed role-playing games, giving the characters an appearance stylistically similar to Japanese anime.

The sound and music to the game has been replaced as well, carrying over none of the tracks of the original. The NES opening theme is actually a digitized instrumental version of an image song, "Hitomi no Naifu" ("Knife of the Eye"), released in conjunction with the game. An album known as the Exodus "Ultima Mix" CD, has been produced with remixes of the soundtrack.

Given the need to adapt to an NES controller, the interface has been changed such as that most of the game's mechanical controls and player character statistics are accessible via pop-up windows, rather than through a keyboard parser. The window displaying the shifting moon-phases, however, remains unchanged. Movement is also portrayed differently in the port, with all party members represented as following a leader, instead of having the party displayed as a single sprite.

Trivia

 * The MSX port of Ultima III is identical to the NES version.


 * Several Japanese Ultima Manga were created which were based on the NES ports of the series. As such, their storylines and characters diverge extensively from the Western game series.


 * The singer for "Hitomi no Naifu," Noriko Hidaka, also appears as a character in the game, giving the player the Compass Heart item; the character's theme music also has its own image-song counterpart, "Haato no Jishaku" ("Magnet of the Heart"). Hidaka's character was renamed to Sherry in the English version.


 * The gender of the classes is fixed, meaning that a member of a certain class always has the same gender. (Ex: Mages are all male. Clerics are all female.)


 * Many related groups of monsters have differing artwork each individual subtype, whereas the PC versions used a single graphic to cover a broad category of creatures (Ex: daemons-gargoyles-manes).


 * The game added a short introduction sequence with the party appearing before Lord British. In this in-game event, Lord British is portrayed with a cross on his scepter, rather than an Ankh (see screenshot at the right).


 * There is an additional shop type not present in the computer versions, a "casino" where the player can win or lose gold by playing rock-paper-scissors.


 * Some of the races have been renamed in the Japanese (but not the English) version. Humans and Bobbits (under the name kobitozoku, or "Little People") remain the same, but Dwarves are now "Beasts" (kemonozoku) and Fuzzies become mazoku, a term referring to demonic or magical beings that could be translated as "Demons" or "Mystics."  The elven race's usual fantasy direct transliteration (erufu) is replaced with yousei, a word that can also mean "sprite" or "fairy," perhaps in reference to the race's more diminuitive stature compared to the popular Tolkien image.


 * The NES port has a bug that can short-circuit the plot. The Four Cards aren't actually needed; it is enough to make it to Exodus himself. This can be done the quick way just by misusing the Moongate to the Isle of Fire until a pirate ship spawns in the small pond behind the snake (impossible in the computer versions), enabling access to the castle. Once Exodus has been reached, the game will behave as if the player already has all four cards, even if they really don't.


 * There is a new endgame sequence where, after Exodus has been destroyed, the player must escape the rapidly-collapsing castle.


 * A one-episode anime was produced in Japan but never published.