About: C64-Port of Ultima VI   Sponge Permalink

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Originally, Richard Garriott had wanted to write Ultima VI using the 8-bit Apple II as a base, as he had done with each of the previous Ultimas. However, after about a year of stalled development he'd come to realize that the planned scope of the game was simply too much for the Apple to handle and scrapped everything, moving the primary development platform to an 80286-based IBM PC with VGA graphics and soundcard. The game's creative progress went very fast after that decision.

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  • C64-Port of Ultima VI
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  • Originally, Richard Garriott had wanted to write Ultima VI using the 8-bit Apple II as a base, as he had done with each of the previous Ultimas. However, after about a year of stalled development he'd come to realize that the planned scope of the game was simply too much for the Apple to handle and scrapped everything, moving the primary development platform to an 80286-based IBM PC with VGA graphics and soundcard. The game's creative progress went very fast after that decision.
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abstract
  • Originally, Richard Garriott had wanted to write Ultima VI using the 8-bit Apple II as a base, as he had done with each of the previous Ultimas. However, after about a year of stalled development he'd come to realize that the planned scope of the game was simply too much for the Apple to handle and scrapped everything, moving the primary development platform to an 80286-based IBM PC with VGA graphics and soundcard. The game's creative progress went very fast after that decision. However, after the game was finished and in the stores, the matter of ports came up; the PC, though it was increasingly dominant in the market, still had its competitors at the time, especially in the gaming department. While ports for the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST computers were straightforward enough, as they could easily handle a game of this scale (albeit with some minor compromises in audiovisual quality), there was one older 8-bit platform that was too tempting for Origin to pass up: the Commodore 64, which despite its age and increasing limitations still commanded a sizeable percentage of the home computer market at that time. As a bonus, a C64 port would mean the complete second trilogy would be available on the platform, something only the PC could otherwise boast (since the planned Apple II version had been stillborn). However, although the C64 was theoretically a more powerful system than the Apple II, such a conversion faced a similar problem to that which Garriott had dealt with early in Ultima VI's development: Ultima had become so complex and demanding by this point that it had, simply put, outgrown the 8-bit systems of old. Regardless of the difficulties involved, Origin got the help from Axel of Imagitec Design to somehow reverse-port the game to the C64. The only 8-bit version of Ultima VI (and the last 8-bit Ultima of any kind), the C64 port was released in early 1991, just about one year after the release of the original.
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