Ultima 4
Produced by: Origin Systems
Download Ultima 4 from GOG.com.
Download Ultima 4 from Contrapuntal Dragon.
The Codex of Ultima Wisdom describes Ultima 4 thusly:
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is the fourth game in the series and the first installment of the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy. It was published and released in 1985 by Origin for the Apple II, C64, IBM-PC and Atari 8-bit. Ports for the Amiga and Atari ST with some enhanced graphics followed 1988, for the NES and Sega Master System ports were released in 1990.
The game became much more complex and deep with this installment, compared to Ultima III. The people of Britannia can talk interactively. The puzzles are more complex, and more information has to be gathered to solve the game. Cities, castles and dungeons are much more detailed, as is the wilderness. The number of items to be found has risen, and the total party size is expanded to eight.
The most significant improvement for the game’s creator is the plot, where the player has to follow a path of Virtue to win. The killing and thievery of the three earlier games is now strongly discouraged. Instead, the player must prove to be a “good guy.” The whole system of virtues in this game changes the RPG experience.
For a time, this was the only Ultima game that was available for free (though it has since been joined by the two Ultima 6 spinoffs: Savage Empire and Martian Dreams), and one of the few RPGs in which there is no villain to defeat. Richard Garriott himself sees it as the best entry in the Ultima series, ranking it just above Ultima VII.
I’m one of the authorized sites, if you want to link to me. I still have the email from Boomer (Mike McCoy) at Origin authorizing the Ultima Dragons to post the CGW CD version of Ultima IV for a free download. It’s amusing that fighting KickAss game’s piracy still helps us 13.5 years later.
My website is http://home.roadrunner.com/~hidalgo/ .
Hey, wow…thanks for dropping by, Fortran!
I actually looked for your site the other week and failed to find it; I think that Contrapuntal’s link is broken. Glad to know that the Hidalgo still exists in some form. 🙂
Yeah, my ISP decided to change the format of the home page URLs a few years ago.
I’m just glad someone is keeping up with all the various versions and remakes. I would hate to see our favorite part of the computer gaming world disappear!
Well, glad your site is still up and running in some form!
And thanks for the props. This site is pretty much a labour of love sort of deal, although I have to admit it’s actually darn fun; the Ultima community, even a dozen years after the last official Ultima game (single player, at least) was released, are a fine bunch.