The Atari ST version of Richard Garriott‘s classic Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was ported by Bob Hardy (the same guy who converted Ultima III to the ST and Amiga) and first published by Origin Systems in 1987. It is an excellent conversion of a brilliant game and is arguably the best RPG on the ST (barring the mighty Dungeon Master).
Tag Archives: Ken Arnold
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, PC
The MS-DOS version of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was ported by James Van Artsdalen and first published on the PC by Origin Systems in 1987. It uses 16-colour EGA graphics, which is at least a step up from the previous three (un-patched) Ultimas, which used four-colour CGA graphics. It’s also currently – at the time of writing – available individually FOR FREE on GOG.com, or as a part of a paid-for package with episodes five and six. And it’s well worth playing, even today – some 35 years after the game’s original release. Which demonstrates just how good it is.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Atari 8-Bit
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar on the Atari 8-bit was ported by David Lubar (who created the excellent Pastfinder) and first published by Origin Systems in 1986. It is an excellent conversion of a brilliant game and is arguably the best Role-Playing Game on Atari‘s 8-bit home computer.
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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Commodore 64
The fourth game in the Ultima series first came out on the Commodore 64 in 1985 and the game was converted by Chuck Bueche, who also did a great job of porting the third Ultima to the C64. So it plays similarly to its predecessor. Ultima IV was also re-made by The Genesis Project in 2015, with superb new graphics, a trainer, bugfixes, a savegame editor, fast-loading d81 and CRT (cartridge) versions, and various other enhancements. If you’re playing the C64 version for the first time then that’s the version I’d recommend – unless you deliberately want to play the original version. I’m showing the 2015 remake here first, then at the end of the set I’ve shown screenshots of the original 1985 version, for comparison. It’s easy to tell them apart.
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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Apple II
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is the fourth game in the Ultima series and was designed by Richard Garriott and first published by Origin Systems in 1985. It is the first game in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy, which moves towards a more ethically-led, story-driven approach. Rather than requiring the player to overcome a tangible evil the story instead focuses on the player’s moral self-improvement.
Ultima III: Exodus, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of Ultima III: Exodus was first published by Origin Systems in 1983 and came on three floppy disks. There is a fan-made ‘Gold’ version of the game available, that has compressed these down to a single floppy disk file, which saves a lot of disk-swapping, and that’s the version that’s probably worth finding, if you want to play this game on the C64.
Rogue, Atari 8-bit
I was hoping that the Atari 8-bit version of Rogue might be better than the other 8-bit versions (or at least a balance between the awful C64 version and the half-decent Amstrad version), but I was hoping for too much – especially as it’s another Mastertronic “special” (ie. a good example of a publisher not giving a sh*t about what they released).
Rogue, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Rogue is arguably the best of the 8-bit conversions from Mastertronic, although it’s not without its problems. It was developed by Icon Design and first published in 1988.
Rogue, ZX Spectrum
Rogue on the ZX Spectrum was developed by Icon Design and published by Mastertronic Added Diminsion in 1988. And it’s a pretty poor conversion of the classic dungeon-crawler.
Rogue, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 conversion of Rogue was developed by Icon Design and published by Mastertronic in 1988, and it is a bugged, incomplete, and un-finishable version of the game that demonstrates the utter contempt for which Mastertronic held for both the game, and for gamers who paid money for it.
The King of Grabs 