New Fan Project – Ultima 3: Exodus Remastered
The newly-released Exodus Remastered is a significant overhaul of the Nintendo Entertainment System port of Ultima 3. According to the announcement of its release, the patch “not only fixes bugs and restores missing text and clues, but also updates the graphics, reintroduces enemies that were only found in the computer versions, and improves the gameplay without completely altering it.”
Specifically, this version of Ultima 3 boasts an improved and more user-friendly UI, improvements to the 3D dungeon view, NPC portraits in conversations, a revamped enemy AI that improves the speed and tactical experience of battles, rebalanced battle and magic systems, lootable weapons and armour, and improved graphics based on sprites and tiles from Ultima 4, Ultima 5, and Ultima 6. And, in addition to the aforementioned bug and quality of life fixes (e.g. horses now affect your movement rate), Fox Cunning has also overhauled character professions to make them more distinct from each other.
One notable aspect of the game that Exodus Remastered does not change is the music. This was a deliberate choice, so as to allow the mod to be compatible with future hacks that do modify the game’s sound effects or music.
You can download Exodus Remastered at the project’s ROMhacking page, or at its freshly-minted project entry here at the Codex.
(Hat tip: Tantrik Dragon)
That’s nice, but… why? Why not just play the superior computer version, especially with fan upgrades?
Because some people prefer the NES version.
…Seriously? There are people who prefer butchered ports like that?
Nostalgia is a powerful force, so…yes, there are. And that’s fine, as far as it goes.
As it is, the NES release of U3 came six years after the original game was released, so it boasts significantly better graphics than the original. It also has a completely new soundtrack; one piece of music from the port was released as a single simultaneous with the game. The NES port also has a few more quests as compared to the original, and most NPCs have more dialogue.
There were several changes made to the interface and save system as well, necessary accommodations for the NES platform. But overall, I don’t think it’s fair to call this a “butchered” port.
Now, the SNES port of U6 is a very butchered port indeed. That would be a very weird one to be enthusiastic about.
I preferred the Master System port of U4 to the pc version. The graphics were much better and I didn’t have to deal with the convoluted control system of the pc version.
i downloaded the game and it looks good and all the rule changes makes it much more modern and playable. Only thing is for people like me who played with computer (probably most people) it’s hard to get used to the controller interface, is there a computer port for this remake?
I don’t believe so, no. Targeting the NES port makes this a very specific thing, not something that’s easily ported to other platforms.