The Gate of Sosaria began as an attempt by Red Dragon to remake Ultima 1 using a custom game engine, and initial progress on it seemed promising. Within a short time frame after beginning work on the project, Red Dragon had implemented much of the overland of Sosaria, and had also begun work on building and dungeon interiors. Graphics from Ultima 7 were used as stand-ins for artwork that was to be added later on.

Red Dragon did intend to make some changes to Ultima 1’s story; the intent was for the game to begin on Earth, for example. You, as the Stranger, would encounter a gypsy, and then a mysterious glowing door that would appear amidst a circle of stones. Through the door, you would find Britannia (Sosaria, rather). Upon your arrival in Sosaria, after finding your way to Lord British’s castle, Mondain would attack. Lord British, in this retelling, would then task you with ridding the world of Mondain’s menace,

As of 2014, Red Dragon opted to cancel the project. However, as of at least 2022, Ultima Mercator has resurrected it, this time using RPG Maker VX as the underlying engine. Mercator has even released a short playable demo of the remake in its current state, which you can download from either Google Drive or The Gate of Sosaria’s project entry here at the Codex. (Fair warning, the demo is in French, not English, and the controls can be a bit tricky to grasp.)

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