Ultima IV Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on GOG

June 2, 2011

You may recall that earlier this year Electronic Arts shut down a number of Ultima IV remakes, but wouldn't publicly say their reasoning for it. After all, EA was well aware the game was widely available on the Internet for a long time, and several indie developers had made remakes or reworked the old code to work better on modern operating systems. Today they revealed why: because they wanted to give it away free as part of its 30 year anniversary of the series.

To that end, EA and BioWare Mythic are offering a free PC download of the classic RPG Ultima IV, one of the most heralded RPGs in gaming history. The download is available at the newly launched Ultima heritage site, www.UltimaForever.com.

For now, the Ultima Forever website offers the download for Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, and some slight information on EA's MMO Ultima Online. Hopefully they will offer more information on other classic Ultima games as well as Ultima Underworld in the future.

And on a related note, Good Old Games is offering classic PC editions of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II. The games  have been re-mastered for current PC operating systems and are available today on GOG.com. Additional re-mastered Ultima titles will be available on GOG in the future. Wing Commander: Privateer and Dungeon Keeper are also available today. In all, 25 classic EA games are coming to Good Old Games.

Comments

Re: Ultima IV Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by Cecil475 on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 07:45.

I've been watching Spoony review this series at 'That guy with the glasses' website and have been thinking about giving it a try.

 -W

Re: Ultima IV Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by Arell on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 09:19.

I missed the whole Ultima series when it first came out, I was just into other things and I always thought it looked like crap.  I have since learned that my assessment was wrong.  I've been watching Spoony's retrospective on the Ultima series (funny, btw), and it looks interesting.  I may check this out.

EDIT - IV looks just aweful, at least graphically.  I'm sure the story is great, but the visuals and the control scheme are a real turnoff.  I may still check out Underworld, though.

Re: Ultima VI Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by nightwng2000 on Thu, 06/02/2011 - 19:14.

The article itself says "Ultima IV" whereas the title says "Ultima VI".  It had me a wee bit confused when you started talking about EA coming down on Ultima IV remakes but seeing the Ultima VI reference in the title.  So I take it the title is wrong?

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000

Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Nightwng2000 NW2K Software http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Re: Ultima VI Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by Thad on Thu, 06/02/2011 - 19:12.

...James, you know we love you, but for God's sake you need to learn to proofread things before you hit the Post button.

Re: Ultima VI Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by SeanB on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 07:26.

Good luck there thad. Few problems though

1) He doesn't read his comments, he has to have his lacky "forward" the important ones to him

2) When a mistake is pointed out, it's almost NEVER corrected, even when the mistake is factual. Something small like spelling or grammar is not worth his time

3) Andrew will be here soon defending james, trying to make it sound like the constant and repeated spelling and grammar mistakes don't matter, and then picking apart our posts for content 'mistakes'. 

Re: Ultima VI Released For Free, Ultima Games Available on ...

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 12:25.

1.  Far as I know, GP rarely reads the comments.  Posting an average of 10 stories every day is time consuming, you know?  I guess you mean me when you say "lacky" but I don't recall forwarding much of anything from the comments to him.  I've forwarded a few site suggestions to the developers and I've copied James on them, though.

2.  Really?  He corrected the errors I pointed out to him about this article.

3.  I double dog dare you to point out one instance of me ever doing that.

 

Andrew Eisen

 
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Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm
Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm
Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm
Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm
Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm
Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm
james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm
Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm
Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm
PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm
Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm
Zen: Is it just me or is call of duty hitting the "uncanny valley" with their nicely modeled faces and dead looking eyes? I found it distracting and seemed actually "less" real to me lol.05/21/2013 - 4:10pm
james_fudge: it sounds like if you have an HD reciever you'll be able to use it with a pass-through cable... not 100 percent sure yet05/21/2013 - 2:41pm
james_fudge: happening now http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/05/21/2013 - 2:20pm
E. Zachary Knight: Some reading material for Microsoft on its used games blocks. That will hurt the console more than helping. http://ezknight.net/?page_id=20505/21/2013 - 2:18pm
james_fudge: yeah good luck with over the air TV05/21/2013 - 2:12pm
E. Zachary Knight: But what if I want to only watch over the air tv? I don't subscribe to pay tv. I never will. If that is a requirement, then MS wasted 45 minutes telling me how great TV will be.05/21/2013 - 2:08pm
james_fudge: EZK it will depend on your provider, just like HBO Go i'd imagine.05/21/2013 - 2:05pm
PHX Corp: @IanC there's also a chance that those titles might be Xbox one exclusive, but it's too early to tell afaik05/21/2013 - 2:03pm
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