Computer Ports of Ultima III

Ultima III is the first game in the series to contain music, meaning that now another factor for differences in the various ports has appeared. Indeed, the ports of the game are almost as diverse as the ones of Ultima II, with the first time that a proper 16-bit port (for the Amiga and Atari ST) exists.

Note that this does not cover the remake on the Macintosh form 1995.

The Apple II Original
The original game on which all the ports are based on.

For a game released in 1983, the graphics do look nice for the time, although they look a lot like the two previous games. There are some issues with the color. The limited palette is very noticeable in that many things are in monochrome and some colors are off, like purple brick floor and strangely colored mountains.

This is also the first game with music. The Apple sound chip tries its best, but for players nowadays, the music doesn't sound nice (but it was great in 1983!). The game also has several glitches, which at worst can make further advance impossible.

The game was sold on a single, double-sided 5.25" floppy disk. 

The C64-Port
Of the ports made in 1983, the C64-port -made by Chuckles- is without doubt the best, as the game makes full use of the 160x200 graphics display with 16 colors. The game actually made use of the C64's 320x200 "monochrome" mode, that allowed the foreground and background color to be independently defined for each 8x8 pixel block (one character of text). The game is really colorful, even compared to the Apple II original, although the graphics otherwise look very similar. Even better, the colors are more logical (with the brick floor being red instead of purple and brown mountains).

The first Ultima with music made full use of the SID sound chip of the C64. The port does have the full score. The music does sound nicer than on the Apple, since the C64 sound chip is superior.

The game was released on a single, double sided 5.25" floppy disk, meaning no unneeded disk swapping. Note that the game has no fastloader, since these programs only came into being in late 1984, meaning that the loading times are rather long.



The Atari 8-bit Port
The port for the Atari 8-bit -made by "Banjo" Bob Hardy- is essentially the same game as the original on the Apple II. Really, it is exactly the same, with exception of the graphics display. As seen on the screenshot, the colors of the Atari 800 were rather horrible and look a lot like the CGA mode of the PC-port. However, unlike the PC-port, this one does have full music.

It was sold on a 5.25" floppy disk. 

The IBM-PC Port
The IBM-PC port -made by James Van Artsdalen- was at the time of the original release the worst port of the game.

The problem lies in the fact, that the PC of 1983 was a machine for the workplace, not for games. The graphics again are only displayed in CGA, which looks horrible. As an interesting fact, the CGA mode was supposed to be used with a composite color monitor to create better colors... they couldn't have foreseen that the emerging EGA standard made composite monitors vanish, making sure that the port stayed ugly.

The game also has none of the music. This is, because gaming sound cards only appeared in 1988 with the Adlib card. Only some effects from the PC speaker are heard. And even they can vanish, since the game has no frame limiter (a common shortfall of early PC games).

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

Note that with the Ultima III Upgrade Patch, the game gets lifted to 16-color EGA graphics and all the music is re-insert in superior quality (among with a frame limiter). 

The Amiga and Atari ST Ports
These two ports were created by "Banjo" Bob Hardy in 1986 and are essentially identical twins. They are both the most technically advanced on the ports made by Origin.

It is very noticeable that three years had passed since the original game, as the graphics are much better and more colorful, as expected of a 16-bit port. The ports also have mouse support, making the game much easier to control and play. Both ports have the fully musical score of the original, which of course also sounds much better, since both computers have superior sound chips.

Both of the ports, Amiga and Atari ST, were retailed each on a single 3.5" floppy disk, eliminating any kind of disk swapping. 

The MSX-Port
This port is rather surprising. Released after the NES-Port of Ultima III, it looks and sounds exactly like it, with all the limitations that come to it. Therefore, all that applies to the NES port also applies to this one.