Ultima III: Exodus

Ultima III: Exodus is a fantasy computer role-playing game designed by Richard Garriott and released in 1983, the third numbered entry in the Ultima series and the final installment of its “Age of Darkness” trilogy.²²¹³ It was the first Ultima published by Garriott’s own company, Origin Systems, which he formed after leaving Sierra On-Line, and is often cited by enthusiasts as the first modern CRPG.⁷ The game was originally developed for the Apple II and later ported to numerous other platforms.²²¹⁵

The story concludes the arc begun in the first two games: it is discovered that the earlier villains Mondain and Minax spawned a child, a mysterious entity known only as Exodus, whose lair lies on a volcanic island and who has begun an assault on the land of Sosaria.¹³¹⁹ The player is summoned by Lord British to put an end to the terror.¹³ Garriott took “Exodus” simply as a cool-sounding word for his latest evil wizard, drawing no connection to its meaning as an English noun or to the Bible, and in the game itself and most early advertising the subtitle appears more prominently than the Ultima name.¹⁹ The manual writer Roe R. Adams III attempted to tie the word to the theme through a derelict merchant ship, recovered with its crew vanished and the word “EXODUS” written in blood on the deck.¹⁹

Gameplay

The central innovation of Ultima III was the party: rather than controlling a single avatar as in the earlier games, the player creates and directs a group of up to four adventurers.¹³¹⁹ During character creation the player chooses a race from Human, Elf, Dwarf, Fuzzy, and Bobbit, and a class from eleven options — Fighter, Paladin, Wizard, Cleric, Thief, Ranger, Barbarian, Lark, Illusionist, Druid, and Alchemist — each specializing in a certain style of play.¹³¹⁵ Fighters can use any weapons and armor but have no spellcasting ability, while classes such as the Alchemist have access to only a limited list of weapons and spells.¹³ Up to twenty characters can be created per save file, though only four may be used in the field at once.¹⁵ This is the only Ultima to begin with a full four-person party; later games reused the code Garriott developed here but started the player with a single avatar who recruited companions during play.¹⁹

Combat received its own separate tactical screen that pops up when a fight begins, replacing the earlier system of flailing in place on the map.¹⁹⁷ On this grid each character moves individually, can use missile weapons, and can cast a variety of offensive and defensive spells.¹⁹ The game also introduced a line-of-sight algorithm that prevents the player from seeing through walls, adding realism at the cost of hiding clue-giving townspeople in obscure corners that must be scoured square by square.¹⁹²² Random encounters are balanced to the party’s potency, which critics noted could make the game a slog.¹⁹

Dungeons, previously randomly generated, now consist of unique pre-designed maps that do not change across sessions.¹³⁷ For the first time in the series dungeon-delving carries a larger purpose: several dungeons contain special items required to complete the game.¹³ The player also spends time talking to townspeople to gather clues and information, weaving a more complicated chain of tasks than in the earlier games.⁷¹⁹ Healing was overhauled so that Lord British raises each character’s maximum hit points by 100 every time the player visits him after gaining a level, up to a cap of level 25 and 2,500 hit points.¹⁹ The ultimate goal is to defeat Exodus by finding four magic cards and using them within the game’s final fortress.¹⁶

Development and release

Garriott began the Ultima series after selling his earlier game Akalabeth through California Pacific Computer Co., which sold some 30,000 copies and earned him five dollars each, making him wealthy quickly.¹⁵ Ultima III was published in 1983 by Origin Systems for the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and IBM PC, with later ports for the Macintosh, Atari ST, and Amiga carrying enhanced graphics.²² It was the first game in the series to feature music, on hardware that supported it; the Apple II and C64 ports shared the same look and full music, while the PC port used CGA graphics and had no music at all.²² The score was composed by Kenneth W. Arnold.¹⁶ The game appeared in reviews and coverage in Computer Gaming World through the mid-1980s, including its December 1983 issue.¹⁰

The Ultima series is neatly divided story-wise into three trilogies of numbered games, with Ultima I released in 1981 and Ultima IX in 1999.¹⁵ Work on the sequel, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar?, began almost immediately after Ultima III shipped.¹³

Console ports and legacy

A Famicom remake was released in Japan in October 1987, published by Pony Canyon and developed by Newtopia Planning; the North American NES version, published by FCI, followed in February 1989 with the numerals removed from the title.¹⁵¹⁸ FCI promoted the Japanese port heavily, publishing a manga, an album of the game’s music rearranged with vocals from voice actress Noriko Hidaka, and coverage in Famitsu magazine.¹⁸ Though a moderate success, the console version was overshadowed in Japan by competitors such as Dragon Quest, whose players found Ultima complicated and unfriendly by comparison.¹⁸ The NES port introduced changes such as the inability to flee from battle and a stat-leveling system tied to gold in the hidden world of Ambrosia rather than experience points.¹⁸

Ultima III is frequently described as one of the most influential games ever made, on both American and Japanese CRPG development.⁷ Its party-based structure combined with overhead exploration set a template that later series drew upon, an influence that is clear in console games such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.⁷ It grew directly out of two traditions the earlier Ultima games had established — the overhead, tile-based world exploration pioneered in Ultima I — and the party-based tactics of Sir-Tech’s Wizardry, and was the first game to combine the two.¹³⁷ Commentators trace the lineages of later series such as Final Fantasy and Baldur’s Gate back to the freedom, tactical depth, and narrative ambition refined here.¹⁶ The game remains available through digital re-releases, sold on GOG in a bundle with Ultima I and II.¹³¹⁹