Scythifuge Dragon says:

By the Gods, Ultima lives.

I never did complete a true version of Ultima III. I did complete the NES version with the strange graphics & strange music (I muted the sound & Metallica’s Master of Puppets album became the game’s soundtrack.)

I remember loading up the C64 version of the game to hear the music in the background whilst doing chores about the house.

It took years of Ebaying to acquire a decent complete version of the game & even longer for the hint book. I had the game sans box prior (after regretfully bartering my Wizardry collection plus other C64 titles…damn being a naive teenager addicted to Ultima; now I seek to replace my old Wizardry collection), but the previous owner inked up the cloth map. Two cans of aqua net hairspray later, I was able to remove 85% of the ink & thus sought a mint map. These were the days before internet usage became common.

This game is historically important because without it, we wouldn’t have Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Zelda, or any other tile based game that came out after 1983. We owe the existence of tile-based RPGs to Richard Garriott & Ken Arnold, period.

I -WILL- play this version & -WILL- do something graphically with Ultima III whether it is with the PC version or something completely different & new through Exult (praise be the multi-map support!)

I will probably look into tinkering with the VGA sprites, but I am glad that there is now a PC version with VGA capability & with the classic music!

Ultima III is special because it was -THE- game that got Origin going & is a true RPG & thus is worthy of study. You can clearly see how Garriott matured during the Ultima I & II era. You can certainly feel the remnants when you play Ultima IV.