Ultima VI: The False Prophet



Ultima VI: The False Prophet is the sixth game in the series, and the last part of the "Age of Enlightenment"-trilogy. It was published and released in 1990 by Origin for the IBM-PC and Amiga. Ports for the Atari ST and C64 followed in 1991. Ports for the FM-Towns in 1992 and SNES in 1993 were next.

The first time a Ultima was developed on a 16-bit computer (namely the IBM-PC) and not the Apple II is clearly noticable in an extreme rise of complexity and graphics. Gone are the tile graphics and different scales look with 3D-dungeons of all previous Ultimas up to then. Everything is now shown from a isometric perspective with amazing attention to detail in a seamless world, making Britannia look much more realistic. Every character now has a portrait when the Avatar talks with him/her/it, the inventory is now graphical, the game mouse driven and having full music...and, and, and.... And the characters and story have become more mature and complex than they already were in Ultima V. All in all is the change to 16-bit the change into the right direction, making the game very realistic.

The game got very good reviews, and sold quite well for Origin, making it a big success. Ultima showed its muscles in the early 16-bit era.

Included with the game
The release of Ultima VI included these things with the game:
 * The Book "Compendium".
 * A cloth map of Britannia.
 * A Orb of the Moons (same as in the intro).

Differences between the ports
This is the first Ultima developed on the PC, and at the same time, the original port is also the best one of the game. The 16-bit ports for the Atari ST and the Amiga were basically the same, but had far fewer colors, worse music, and the number of floppy disks was a good way to drive some people into insanity.

The only 8-bit port is for the C64, and a small wonder. How it was possible to squeeze such a huge game, without changes in the game engine, onto three double-sided disks will be Origin's secret forever. However, the price was high with a very complicated way to control the game, much reduced graphical quality, almost no music (apart from the beginning and endgame) and several cuts (less spells, and fewer objects like no powder kegs).

The port for the SNES looks graphically much like the PC-port, but has a much more complicated control scheme, no character portraits and has a simplified talk system combined with some censorship. On the other hand, it's display is fullscreen.

Interesting enough, there does exist a port for the FM-Towns (a Japanese computer) with full speech (coming from the people who inspired the characters), but otherwise it is the same as the PC port.

The Story
After the rescue of Lord British and the mostly-complete collapse of the Underworld, Britannia seems to have found peace again. But it doesn't last for long. From what remains of the Underworld, strange creatures called Gargoyles arise, starting a war against the humans of Britannia. The war now lasts for some years, and the Gargoyles have captured the shrines, stole the Moonstones.

In this situation, the Avatar is lured to Britannia by a red Moongate and nearly sacrificed by the Gargoyles. Freed in the last minute, he/she starts to fight back, and frees the shrines and Moonstones from the Gargoyles, effectively chasing them off Britannia. But a strange book from the sacrifice scene and a mysterious Translation Silver Tablet reveal a horrible secret. The Gargoyles aren't really evil, they are desperate. They think the Avatar is the False Prophet, coming to kill them all, while their home vanished and collapsed more with each day. Coming to the Gargoyle Lands to set straight what has went wrong, the Avatar realizes that the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom is both the biggest point of bitterness between the two races, and the only voice of reason they would listen to. So the Avatar sends to Codex back into the Void, where no one can claim it, and with two special Lenses, both Kings can see it, to read its wisdom and learn the truth. And so, peace is restored to the troubled land.

Trivia

 * First Ultima not using the classical tile graphics or different scales. Also the first developed on the PC (no Apple II) and not having 3D-dungeons.
 * First PC Ultima to have full music and mouse support.
 * Character portraits are introduced into the series.
 * The world model in the game makes NO sense AT ALL. Not only has Britannia mutated into a flat world, but the whole Underworld isn't a real Underworld anymore. Combine this with the vanishing of the "Underworld", this all makes you wonder, what the hell went through the programmers' heads.

Upgrades
Ultima VI is the first Ultima that doesn't need any kind of upgrades for sound or graphics. However, there are several projects in progress to allow it to run on modern systems, or to remake it with other game engines.

The Ultima 6 Project
This is a project to recreate Ultima VI with the Dungeon Siege game engine. See The Ultima 6 Project for more information.

Nuvie
This is an open-source project designed to use the original data files for Ultima VI and make it playable on a number of different operating systems. See Nuvie: The Ultima 6 Engine for more information.