Computer Ports of Ultima I

Ultima I is a very interesting case, since it comes in two versions. The original game from 1980 was released only on the Apple II and later converted for the Atari 800 (same code used). Only in the later created remake of 1986 did Origin create ports of the game for various systems.

The Apple II Original
The very first incarnation of the game, the one that the first time held the name "Ultima".

For a 1980 game, the programming feats that went into this game are impressive. Even more if it is taken in consideration that Richard Garriott and Ken Arnold did all the work themselves. The game sported a for the time impressive representation of the terrain with the help of tiles. However, nothing was yet animated (that would first happen in Ultima III).

The whole game was programmed in Apple BASIC, making it virtually impossible to export it to other systems. The game is also plagued by glitches and other programming errors (something that was common at the time).

It was released on a single 5.25" floppy disk.



The Atari 8-bit Port
In 1982, Sierra Online re-released the game on the Atari 800. The game is virtually unchanged, but the lacking graphical capabilities of the system meant that there is much less color in the game. Apart from the overworld, everything is in monochrome.

Interestingly enough, all of the glitches were converted 1:1 to the Atari 800 port.

It was released on a single 5.25" floppy disk.



The Apple II Port
Compared to the original version of the game, the remake is a lot better. It was written entirely in assembly language, making porting issues trivial. A new title screen and some text screens were added, many aspects of the game revised. Something that simply wasn't in the original game were wandering monsters on the overworld, which now are included.

The graphics, while still looking a little like the original, are much better and more colorful and tiles are now animated. All of the original's glitches were removed as well.

The game was released on a single 5.25" disk.



The C64-Port
The port for the C64 is in many ways a lot like the one on the Apple II.

The two ports share much of the code, so the similarities are no coincidence. One difference is the graphics. The graphics of the C64 port make full use of the system's capabilities. Everything is much more colorful and the colors are not as distorted as they sometimes are on the Apple II. The improvement in color is especially noticeable in the towns (just look at the walls).

The game was sold on a single 5.25" floppy disk.



The IBM-PC Port
The port for the IBM-PC was finished one year after the other two.

Right from the start, the graphics of this port are clearly superior to the ones on the C64 and Apple II, despite only using 16 colors (the same amount as the other two systems). The port also got a new title screen, which looks nicer than the one on the other two ports.

The port however does have a problem: there is no frame limiter built into the game, which makes it virtually impossible to play it on a modern system, unless artificially slowed down.

The port was sold on a single 5.25" floppy disk and still in commonly available on various compilations.



The MSX-Port
This is a strange port, created 1989 and only released in Japan.

There is only little known about this version of Ultima I. And while the graphics might look superior at first, they reveal themselves to be a pixelated mess. It is unknown why the graphics, despite the hinted system capabilities, are so bad.



The Apple IIgs Port


(Text from )

In 1994, IIGS programming master Bill Heineman assembled the same team of programmers, musicians and artists who ported "Out of this World" to the IIGS, with the goal of creating an updated GS/OS-specific version of Ultima I for the IIGS. With Super Hi Res graphics and a synthLAB-based musical soundtrack, Ultima I for the IIGS was brought to market by Vitesse, and it received critical acclaim from Apple IIGS game players.

Sadly, Ultima I for the IIGS was available for sale for only a short time, as Vitesse is no longer in business. But, in order to assure that even new IIGS owners could partake in the same joys as previous generations of Apple II users, Bill Heineman and Joe Kohn have teamed up once again, and the IIGS version of Ultima I is once again available, exclusively from Shareware Solutions II.