Computer Ports of Ultima V

Ultima V was the last game of the series to be originally developed on the Apple II. Like Ultima IV, the growing technology of computers created several ports that technically looked and sounded quite different, despite having the same game content. Note that this does not cover the NES-Port of Ultima V, which is a separate article because of serious changes done to the game content-wise.

The Apple II Original
The original game, on which all the other ports were designed on. However, despite being the original, it is the worst of all the versions of Ultima V.

While the game does have a full musical score, its quality wasn't that good, unless a special MIDI-board was added to the Apple II. With this MIDI-board, which only few had, the music would sound fantastic. The graphics however, are simply horrible. The graphical limitations of the Apple II become depressingly clear when looking at the mostly monochrome graphics in the game. What color there is, looks rather awkward with for example purple paved roads. The introduction is barely watchable and the improved dungeon graphics are useless, since they are all displayed in only one color.

One last problem is the number of floppy disks. The game is stored on four 5.25" floppy disks, which have two sides, meaning that the data is spread on eight different floppy sides!

An example of the music with a special MIDI board 

The C64/128 Port
The port for the C64/C128 was created by Dr. Cat.

First off, compared to the Apple II, the graphics are clearly improved. They are now much more colorful and the color also is at the right spots (such as red paved roads). For a resolution of 160x200, they managed to get out the maximum. The low resolution however means, that indoor peer maps are never completely on the screen. Also, while the dungeon graphics are even better than the Apple II ones, they are still only one color. Also, this color is mostly off, since the cave dungeons are all blue, while brown would have been more fitting. The introduction remains in bad graphics.

While the port features a full musical score, the C64 simply does not have enough available RAM to play it. To access the music, the game must be played on a C128 computer running in C128 mode.

There also were technical problems with the fastloader. Thanks to sloppy programming, it only works on a NTSC C64, not a PAL one, which greatly annoyed players in Europe. On a C128, the fastloader always works.

One last thing of interest: the C64 port was released on 4 double-sided 5.25" floppy disks. Thankfully Origin had been wise enough to partition them into logical chunks to keep disk-swapping at a minimum. The sides are:
 * Game (loading, menu and saved games)


 * Dungeon (everything in the dungeons)


 * Britannia (the overworld)


 * Underworld (as the name says)


 * Towne (cities and villages)


 * Dwelling (huts. Also contains the intro and endgame)


 * Castle (big castles like Castle Britannia)


 * Keep (small fortresses like Bordermarch)

The Intro in the C128-mode with music



The 16-Bit Ports
The ports for the 16-bit machines done for the Amiga, Atari ST and the IBM-PC are far more advanced than the previous two. The interesting thing is, that they obviously were created from the same source, since graphically they all look exactly the same. This is no bad thing, since the graphics look very good for 1988. 16 color graphics in a 320x200 resolution. One curious thing is, that the Amiga and Atari always have an "Ultima V" logo on the screen. The reasons for this are unknown.

However, the differences are still there, only more subtle.

The Amiga and Atari ST ports have mouse support, something that the PC port doesn't have. This however is no wonder, considering that a mouse still was only optional for a PC in 1988.

Unfortunately, the Amiga version is rather buggy, especially with the way the keyboard is read. Too often, keypresses will either not be read at all, or will "stutter" and (for example) a single keystroke will be interpreted as three. These bugs have never been patched, and render Ultima V very frustrating to play on the Amiga.

The biggest difference is how music is handled. The Atari ST port has full music. However, the pieces are played in places that do not correspond with the C128 or Apple II version. For example, "Villager Tarantella" is played in all eight Cities of Virtue in the C128/Apple II versions, but the Atari ST version instead plays "Greyson's Tale" in all but New Magincia.

On the Amiga, only one song (unique to this version of the game) is playing the entire time, despite the Amiga clearly being able to shoulder all of the music. It is unknown why this decision was made.

The IBM-PC port originally had no music at all! This does not come as a surprise, since Adlib soundcards only came on the market a little after Ultima V ' s release. However, the Ultima V Upgrade Patch fixes this problem and re-inserts all the music.

One last interesting point is the handling of floppy disks.

The IBM-PC port consists of four 5.25" floppies, but since it is supposed to be installed on the hard disk anyway, it doesn't matter. The Atari port has three 3.5" floppies and the Amiga two 3.5". This makes disk swapping on these two systems tolerable. However, the Amiga version cannot be installed to a hard drive and the computer must be booted from the floppies in order to play the game.



The Japanese Ports
The Sharp x68000 version of Ultima V contains completely redrawn tile graphics that take advantage of the Sharp X68000's superior graphic abilities. This version also includes the complete music track available in other versions. Unfortunately this version is only available in Japanese.

The FM-Towns version of Ultima V plays identical to other versions of Ultima V, but takes advantage of the CD-ROM capabilities of the FM-Towns machine to include high-colour graphics in the introduction. Unfortunately, the tile graphics are actually inferior to those seen in the PC version. A CD-quality music track accompanies the FM-Towns version of Ultima V.