PSX-Port of Ultima Underworld

Ultima Underworld is the sole Ultima ported to the Sony Playstation (PSX), released in 1997.

This marks the last time a console port of an Ultima was produced, and was only released in Japan, with no English translation available. The reason why Origin made this decision is unknown. The port was released five years after the PC version of Ultima Underworld, and numerous changes were made to update the engine to standards of the time. Most of the items and dungeon designs remained the same, but NPC and monster models were overhauled significantly. Lacking the benefit of mouse and keyboard input, the port suffered from difficult gamepad controls.

It is unknown if story differences exist between the ports.

Differences

 * All of the creatures and NPCs were converted to low count polygon models. All terrain textures and items still used the original graphics, albeit blurred.
 * The game is fullscreen, with indicators like health, mana and torch visible. The inventory and the spellcasting area are in separate menu screens.
 * The intro and endgame were converted to full motion video, with increased dialogue.
 * Numerous character portraits were changed to give them a more anime-like look.
 * All of the music was remixed. Most of it has a slight resemblance to the original music.
 * The PSX-port has many digital sound effects, while the original had no digital sound effects (apart from the voice acting).
 * The inventory bug present in the original PC release of Ultima Underworld has returned to the PSX port. While this was fixed in later PC releases of the game, it can cause loss of plot-critical items in the PSX port making saved games unbeatable.