Ultima III: Exodus

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Ultima III: Exodus

Ultima III - Exodus - C64 - USA.jpg

Commodore 64 - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Origin Systems
Publisher Origin Systems
Published 1981-??-??
Platforms Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Game Boy Color, Fujitsu FM-7, Macintosh Classic, MSX, NEC PC-8800, NEC PC-9800, Sharp X1
Genres Exploration, Role-playing game
Themes Adventure, Fantasy
Series Ultima
Distribution Commercial

Ultima III: Exodus, originally styled "EXODUS: Ultima III," is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Origin Systems initially for the Apple II on 1983-08-23, and then ported to over a dozen platforms. This is the third title in the Ultima series and represents a totally new game engine adding multiple party members and enemy mobs.

In the game's story, Exodus, the offspring of Mondain and Minx (antagonists from the first two games), continues their reign of terror filling the land of Sosaria with monsters. You control a party of adventurers who you must train to become a powerful force, seek out the clues that will grant you entrance into Exodus's castle, and defeat the beast.

Personal

Own?Yes. Two MS-DOS copies published in the Complete Ultima CD-ROM compilation.
Won?No.

My first experience with this game comes from the NES port, Ultima: Exodus, which has a fair amount of differences, so I've put it in it's own page. I loved the NES port a lot, but it wasn't until the 2000s that I bought a copy of the DOS port of Ultima III: Exodus in the Ultima Collection bundle. However, after seeing that the game had such low fidelity, the DOS port is especially bad, and learning that it's essentially a grindfest, I never really became interested enough to play it.

Review

I haven't played the game enough to review it, although from playing around with various ports, I find the Commodore 64 version to be the best.

Media

Box Art

All regions and ports use this box art except for the NES/MSX2 port. It was painted by Denis Loubet in 1983 and features a demonic looking monster perched on a rock above a smoldering lava pit. Unearthly fires erupt from his cupped hands. I really like this art; it's striking and well-detailed, and conveys a strong fantasy theme. I don't care much for using Ultima as a subtitle, but this was fixed in the later Japanese releases which retcon the box with Ultima IV logo.

Documentation

Ultima III: Exodus continues the tradition of making manuals as though they were books in the game universe itself. The three main manuals were included with all ports and apply to all versions. Reference cards were made for each platform which included game play instructions and anything specific to the hardware.

Videos

Longplay - Apple II.

Play Online

Commodore 64, MS-DOS

Representation

Strong female character?PassThe player can choose to make an all-female party if they want.
Bechdel test?PassWith female party members, you can pass the test with female NPCs.
Strong person of color character?FailHuman is a "race," but you can't choose to be a person of color.
Queer character?PassThe game allows you to choose "other" as a gender.

Download

This is the source code of the Game Boy Color port.

Credits

Roles Staff
Apple II Designer, Programmer, Graphics Richard Garriott (as Lord British)
Apple II Music Kenneth Arnold
Book of Play Author Roe Adams III
Book of Play Illustrations and Box Art Denis Loubet
Spell Books Author Margaret Weigers
Spell Books Illustrations Helen Walker
Commodore 64 Port Chuck Bueche (as Chuckles)
Atari ST Port Bob Hardy (as "Banjo" Bob Hardy)
Macintosh Classic Port James Van Artsdalen
Macintosh Classic Graphics Marsha Meuse
Game Boy Color Port Sven Carlberg

Links

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