TouchArcade reported on a game called Lowlander — a retro-styled, Ultima-inspired RPG for iOS (that is: Apple iPhones, iPods, and iPads) — late last week. How retro-style and Ultima-influenced is Lowlander? Well, here’s the developer’s own statement on that:

…I’m sorry for people that are finding it too hard at the beginning. I based the game primarily on Ultima II, as you can probably tell. If you go back and play UII, it is just as hard at the beginning. Very hard to stay alive at first. But that passes pretty quickly if you manage to stay alive past the first runout of food. The game doesn’t stay that way, I promise.

Yeah I was pretty worried about ripping off Ultima — I just am obsessed with those games. I sent it to Richard Garriott though, and he is totally cool with it. He is the man.

In fact, Richard Garriott was very supportive indeed:

Bob,
Thanks for sharing your story and the fun Lowlander.
I enjoyed my 1st brief life, getting a quest to follow the mage, searching the castle grounds and exploring to the east and north.
I am honored you would build something in the style of Ultima, and in no way find this an infringement on my past work.
Of course EA owns all things Ultima at this point, but I think you are quite comfortable distant from anything they would take issue with.
I wish you great luck with this app!
– Richard

The screenshots tell the tale still yet more:

The game is actually unavailable at present, having been pulled offline by the developer so that he might correct a few critical bugs encountered by early users. However, he has re-submitted the app to Apple for approval, so it should be available on the App Store — hopefully world-wide — in short enough order. It retails for $1.99 USD, normally, and does not seem to offer in-app purchases.

A dream come true for Ultima-loving iOS gamers? It certainly comes close to sounding like it might be, doesn’t it?

The First Age of Update: Ravenshadow Dragon points out, in the comments, that an Android version of the game is also available.