What Games Would Count As Ultima "Clones"?
Sergorn Dragon likes giving me more work to do, it seems. Because really, a site such as this should put at least a bit of attention on games that are, either in whole or in part, clones of — or heavily inspired by — entries in the Ultima series. And while I certainly like the idea of occasionally making mention of all sorts of games like that…I am rather maxed-out as far as my ability to track and follow games is already.
Now, since you’re probably all wondering what the heck I’m on about, allow me to explain. This all stems from a question that Sergorn Dragon posed on Twitter yesterday. First, he asked:
So Internet, tell me: what games whether old or new, classics or unknown, full fledged, indie or shareware would count as #Ultima clones ?
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
And then he answered his own question, tossing out several possible suggestions. Along the way, his thinking morphed from looking at games which were straight-up Ultima clones, and turned into an analysis of games that had taken inspiration from the series:
The Magic Candle series is an one of of the most obvious one of course, you can’t get more classic Ultima than that!
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Origin’s own Times of Lore and Knights of Legends albeit with their differences also had an obvious #Ultima vibe as well
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
What about Space 1999? It played more like MegaTraveller in a way, but it also reminds one of Martian Dreams
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
More recently Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome, is a pretty neat Ultima VII clone in ancient Rome
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Obviously we can count some more recent endeavour as Gothic, Risen and Skyrim as Ultima-ish though I’m more interested in old school vibes
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
And of course Dragon Quest very much *was* an Ultima III clone in many ways, but let’s keep it to WRPG mostly…
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Hmmm D&D Warrior of the Eternal Sun on Genesis/Megadrive had kin of a Ultima vibe in that it mixed overhead 2D gameplay with 3D dungeons!
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Gaming journalist and freelance writer Rowan Kaiser jumped in next:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Magic Candle. Exile. Are we counting Ultima Underworld? Cause then you could make the case for The Elder Scrolls.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
Sergorn replied:
@ultimaaiera @RowanKaiser If we count Underworld thought, we obviously *have* to mention Arx Fatalis !
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
To which the good Mr. Kaiser commented:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Yeah, there were others, too. Ravenloft/Menzoberranzan were UU with D&D trappings.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Well…all of those, including UU, come from Dungeon Master, but UU added the 360 movement.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
To which Sergorn rejoined:
@RowanKaiser @ultimaaiera True but the movement, solo adventure and combat gave UW a unique feel different from Ravenloft and such
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Finally, our good friend Dominus (of Exult fame) chimed in:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera the early Spiderweb games series Exiles. Actually all their games 😉
— Dominus of Exult (@Dominus_Exult) January 30, 2012
For my own contribution to the discussion, I told Sergorn I’d look up various iOS games (eliciting a “GAH!” from him in response) that might count as Ultima-inspired. Now, short of buying Akalabeth for iOS, there’s not really an exact match for Ultima to be found in the iOS app ecosystem. At least, I have failed to notice any such thing.
Still…I’ve come up with a few titles that are worthy of mention:
Featuring an extensive party system!
Text and graphics!
Kind of a JRPG feel, but also kind of an early Ultima feel.
Underworlds and Underworlds Ultimate Edtion
This one has a bit of an Ultima 8 feel, although a comparison to Diablo might be more apt.
Actually, Underworlds is worth a special mention due to the fact that former Ultima artist Denis Loubet is a co-owner of (and the art director for) Pixel Mine Games, which produces Underworlds.
Ravensword: The Fallen King and Aralon: Sword and Shadow
Aralon boasts a massive open world, and both games play a bit like Ultima 9.
Comparisons have also been made between this game and The Bards Tale...
On the Android side, there are of course a couple different Exult ports in the works. In a search of the Android Market, I did turn up a few other titles that might be worth looking at:
It kinda has a very early Ultima look about it.
This one is kind of a boundary case...
More of an Ultima Underworld vibe here.
Tile-based, but the trees are much more detailed than in a tiled Ultima.
Amusingly, the developer also makes a sex games app. This title could work for either app.
I also tripped across this Ultima Online “soundboard” app during my search, which claims to feature all the classic songs from UO. It’s free, and was listed as compatible with my Nook Tablet, so I’ll try it out and let you all know whether it’s worth a look.
Finally, and here again I have to apologize to someone, I’d like to mention Dark Disciples 2, by the oddly-named Dodgysoft. But, as a certain Mr. Steffen Hagen told me some months ago, when first he brought the game to my attention:
Dark Disciples II…is a tile-based RPG with some pretty extensive dialogues, [which] certainly has been inspired by Ultima. It looks quite a bit nicer than Ultima V, though…and it has an easy-to-use editor to boot. Just as NWN 2 wins because of all the premade objects, DD2 has a wide range of complex events predefined. So for those who’d like to create something on a smaller scale than Lazarus this would be definitely worth a visit…uh, and apart from that, it’s also a nice game in its own right.
Screenshot!
I think this is a dungeon...
So, yes…Dark Disciples 2. Mr. Hagen, my apologies for my tardiness in getting mention of that one onto the site. I have created a project entry for the game and its prequel, since the editing toolkit may in fact be of some interest to Ultima fans contemplating doing a project with an “old school” look and feel.
Anyhow: There’s a pretty exhaustive list of games, Dragons and Dragonettes, which either are or at least seem to be clones of and/or inspired by one Ultima game or another. If there are any others you can think of which you feel merit mention, please do sound off in the comments with your thoughts.
Bonus question: Which, if any, of these Ultima-inspired/Ultima-clone games do you think Aiera should either include amongst its listed projects and/or track news for?
excellent listing so far. How about Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy (early NES versions)? Then wasn’t there a shareware series called Exile? Wasteland? And of course the NES classic, “The Legend of Zelda.”
Death Lord was definitely inspired by the early Ultimas. EUO is probably the best early-Ultima-inspired MMO.
Remember that Ultima started on the Apple II. The 1984 game “Questron” and its’ sequel were not only straight-up Ultima clones, they even boasted that their structure and style were actually licensed from Richard Garriott. See the screenshot on Wikipedia or pick up the DSK image at any of the popular Apple II software repositories.
Ah, forgot to mention DungeonMoto on iOS is an interesting cross between Pacman and Ultima (they said it couldn’t be done).
I’m actually surprise at the lack of ultima-esqe games on the iOS, and that the fan base hasn’t siezed the opportunity to create and easily publish some. There are new FF inspired JRPG’s released every week. I find that JRPG’S are too….cute? The Anime, the big heads, big eyes, the combat style just doesn’t work for me. More WRPGs with combat styles like U5 would be fantastic. As a matter of fact I’m considering creating one just out of my own frustration.
Oh, I saw DungeonMoto the other day, but I ultimately forgot to mention it in this article. It is totally a fusion of early Ultima graphics and Pac Man.
I just remembered something cool about Questron. It actually was slightly more advanced than Ultima in one respect – the interface. Characters could be moved with a joystick and rather than typing “A”, “X”, “F”, etc, there was a menu of available actions.
Questron 1, 2
Legacy of the Ancients
The Legend of Blacksilver
Deathlord
Wrath of Denethenor
Ormus Saga 1, 2, 3
Darkon
Demon’s Winter
Magic Stone
Minima (same developer as RPG Quest – Minimæ from the article)
Phantasie 1, 2, 3
Rings of Medusa
The Two Vikings
“Remember that Ultima started on the Apple II. The 1984 game “Questron” and its’ sequel were not only straight-up Ultima clones, they even boasted that their structure and style were actually licensed from Richard Garriott. See the screenshot on Wikipedia or pick up the DSK image at any of the popular Apple II software repositories.”
There was a comment in another thread here mentioning this. Something about a lawsuit or licensing, about the idea of copyrighting an idea.
I remember playing this series of freeware Ultima clone games back in the late 90’s. They even had a name that was suspiciously similar to Ultima – Altima, or something like that.
Of course, Acedia rpg, the crappiest looking android app is first on the list. That’s definitely an indie game… very very indie. I think of all the games on the list, this one should probably be listed under inspired works. Judging by the graphics, there’s no doubt it’s Ultima inspired.
BTW, Aralon: Sword and Shadow is also for Android. There are a lot of pretty android rpgs like Zenonia 1-3 and Dungeon Defenders… here’s 40 more ;P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T-UfICTN1M
GURKS! Out of all the mobile rpgs on this list GURKS is definitely not a boundary case ;P. Arguably the most like Ultima on the list. Simple stats, simple loots, even the combat is a throwback to ultima 4. All tile based, I mean, it’s even called GURKS the 8-bit rpg. How much more could you ask for! 🙂
I just wanna say thanks for the article because I would’ve never found gemRB without being in the mood to look for Android rpgs. GemRB is an opensource engine to play infinity engine games for Android. It currently supports Baldur’s Gate 1-2, Icewind Dale, and Planetscape Torment. I’m totally going to be playing Planetscape Torment when I should be working now. BTW you can jailbreak your iPhone to play this… if you want.
If you compare game libraries on the each marketplace, iOS probably has a slight advantage. If you compare games that will run on each device without rooting the phone or jailbreaking it, Android wins hands down. Android has emulators for master system, nes, snes, genesis, saturn, psx, n64, dos, and win95. Those are the ones I know about, it probably has some apple and commodore emulators as well. I was surprised it had win95 tbh.
You assume I haven’t?
Thanks for the suggestion of gemRB, by the way; I just hit the Android Market to queue it up for installation on my Nook Tab when I get home.
Heh, WtF if I’d wanted to be an ass in term of giving you more work, I’d suggest all these Ultima-like games should eventually be put in the “Ultima like games” category on Aiera :O (don’t hit me!)
Thanks for the names gusy! I had never heard of Questron and geez… this looks as Ultima ish as it gets, I could almost swear they lifted art from Ultima 1 :O
There was an Ultima 1 like minigame in System Shock 2. That was so awesome.
There was ? Geez… Another reason I need to play System Shock 2
Here’s a boring video of someone playing Questron, including the screen credit for Richard Garriotts’ permission. You really can’t get any closer than this, especially with RG’s blessing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAQSTlKKqRY&feature=related
Unfortunately, no dungeon views. I remember the dungeons worked exactly like Ultima (of course) but looked a little different – I couldn’t find any pics.
You had to find the game cartridge to play it, I think.
That’s really funny how they licensed the gameplay from Garriott. Rather polite actually, but I mean I can’t think of any other Ultima clone (or clones of whatever games) who bothered to get permission 😛
Haha, somebody made an opensource clone of the minigame from SS2:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/owz/
“Planetscape”? Tsk, tsk.
By the way, Sergorn, if you ever do play SS2, tell me – I can recommend some essential mods.
I need to play SS1 first 🙁
You can get that here:
http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=211.0
Yes, it’s the full game, available for download. No, I have no idea why they can do this (the site is in no way shady or illegal).
Well I do have System Shock already (though I didn’t know about this err… remake ?), it’s more of a “Geez I really need to get to it at one point” kind of issue.
The question after seeing this is : why isn’t there a Underworld Portable in the same vein ? 😛
It’s not a remake – just a heavily modified version of the game.
Apparently, System Shock was available for free for a while on the now-defunct website “lgclassics.net”, with the consent of the game’s original developers.
I guess the insurance company that owns the rights to the game doesn’t care.
Zerg (Amiga)
Aklabeth (Amiga)
Midnight Hours (Amiga)
Quest I: The Wrath of Mægenmund (BBS Micro)
http://www.geekrant.org/2005/10/12/bbc-micro-ultima-clone/
Gates of Delirium (Coco 2 & 3)
Xyphus (apple II) circa ’84
4 characters on a topdown map — it seemed like a less polished Ultima III.
Viridian Games’ Inaria was inspired by top down tile based RPGs ala U4 (Viridian himself worked at Origin, but not on U4).
“Siege of Avalon” was close to the “feel” and the perspective.
This thread brings back some great memories. My favorite Ultima games were easily Ultima VI and VII. Thanks for all the info on similar titles to get my retro gaming on. 😉
No problem. For the latest and greatest Ultima news, why not check out our new site: The Ultima Codex?
A really good Ultima clone and game is
“Die Dunkle Dimension” (german) Commodore C64.
http://www.die-dunkle-dimension.de/i-dd64al.htm
Thanks…we’ll add that to our new “Inspired Works” page here: inspired.ultimacodex.com