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.