Ultima 3: Gameplay Graphics Comparison
Thanks to a little help from Dungy at the Codex of Ultima Wisdom, Ultima Aiera is pleased to present a (mostly) comprehensive comparison of gameplay graphics from the known ports of Ultima 3.
[singlepic id=1473 w=500 h=375 float=center]
The Apple II Original
[singlepic id=1474 w=500 h=313 float=center]
The Commodore 64 Port
[singlepic id=1475 w=512 h=364 float=center]
The Atari 8-bit Port
[singlepic id=1476 w=500 h=313 float=center]
The PC DOS Port
[singlepic id=1477 w=500 h=313 float=center]
The Amiga and Atari ST Port
[singlepic id=1478 w=500 h=312 float=center]
The PC8801 Port
[singlepic id=1479 w=500 h=375 float=center]
The NES Port
[singlepic id=1480 w=500 h=375 float=center]
The FM Towns POrt
[singlepic id=1481 w=500 h=297 float=center]
The Lairware Mac Port
As you can see, there is quite a range in terms of quality and interface design between different ports of the game; the Lairware port for Mac is probably the best-looking of the bunch.
For complete details about the different versions of the game — and the differences between — be sure to check out the Codex article on the subject.
Whoever took the PC-8801 screenshot needs to switch their PC-88 from V2 to V1 mode (or vice-versa). I could never get it to run perfectly, but the colors should look like http://imgur.com/PzFQw.png.
After that port came out, Pony Canyon bought the rights to the series in Japan and made their own PC-88 ports of the first four Ultima games. They look like http://imgur.com/mFIj1.png. (They also did most of the FM-Towns ports, you can probably tell.)