Exodus: Ultima III

Trivia

Most people don't know that the IBM PC port is supposed to be played on an IBM CGA with a *composite* color monitor. Using that configuration, the pink-striped borders become a solid dark blue, the white-speckled road tiles become a bright red, and the cyan trees appear as green. :)

My memory is a bit sketchy (it's been 20 years), but I think you can still kill Lord British in this game, albeit not by hand to hand combat. If memory serves, there's a boat in his castle behind some locked doors that can be used to sail around the moat in. Get British pissed off by wacking one of his jesters then head towards the boat and sail to the front of the city. Wait there until he shows up and cut loose on him with the ship's cannons. I believe it takes a handful of hits to wipe him out.

In 2001 Sven Carlberg made an unofficial port of Ultima III: Exodus to the Color Game Boy, featuring graphics and music largely adapted from the C64 version, fortified with an additional game following the completion of the regular game. A year later, he released its source code. For more (including free download of the playable version!) check http://gonow.to/sven/

This is the first Ultima in which Lord British's hit points are static (you can't lower them), making him unkillable in combat. In the first 2 games British had a ton of health but could eventually be killed by a strong enough character. From Ultima III onward, British is unkillable by normal means.

There is no music in PC version, but there exist a freeware patch that adds all the glorious music from Apple/C-64 -versions to play properly with the PC version as MIDI. There are a freeware EGA graphics patch available as well.

Starting with Exodus, Origin began offering certificates, signed by Lord British, to players who completed the games.

The title, Exodus, is a nice irony, considering that Lord British took leave of Sierra to found his own company, Origin, during the game's development.

A unofficial Mac conversion of this game was created, featuring much improved graphics including color and detailed sprites (hair, faces, etc).

This is one of the few Ultimas in which you can actually kill Lord British (in all the Ultimas he's invincible and helluva tough, but in certain Ultimas there are little tricks to kill him).