Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

Atari 8-bit version

An early prototype Atari 8-bit version of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was made, but never released. It can be found on the internet (there's even at least one video of it on YouTube), and offers nothing more than the game's main menu and credits screen.

Extras

Original boxes of Ultima V included a symbol stamped coin representing The Codex from within the plot and in some cases with a cloth map of the world.

FLIPFLOP

In the Apple II version of the game (and possibly others, though not the DOS version), yelling FLIPFLOP outdoors would cause each tile on the screen to invert itself, top to bottom. This is quite bizarre -- check the screenshots page to see it in action. Yelling it again will restore the tiles to their normal status.

Music

• There is no music in PC version, but there exist a freeware patch that adds all the glorious music from C-128/Apple versions to play properly with the PC version as MIDI.
• Contrary to popular belief, the Commodore 64 version did not have any music. The music was only available to those who had a Commodore 128 and started the game in Commodore 128 mode. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was one of very few games that gave particular attention to the Commodore 128.

References: Electronic Arts

• ORIGIN founder Richard Garriott has always had a bit of a grudge against Trip Hawkins, co-founder of Electronic Arts, because he didn't like their treatment as an EA affiliated label. Not only did he name a mausoleum after him (Pirt Snikwah backwards) in his Britannia Manor (a house in Austin, Texas, designed and used for creepy real-life RPG's), but, more related, he also made him appear in Ultima V as shipwright Hawkins.
• There has long been animosity between EA and Origin. Just dig through the Ultima V binaries. Ultima V had a list of swear words that, when used in conversation, would result in the response 'With language like that how didst thou become an Avatar?!'. In this swear word list in the binaries were the usual 4 letter words as well as 'Electronic Arts'.

References

• Many of the people in Ultima 5 are constructed from other Origin employees or friends of Richard Garriot - one example is Christopher in West Britanny, modeled after Chris Roberts of Times of Lore and Wing Commander fame.
• The name of captain Johne's ship is Ararat. According to the Bible, that is also the name of the mountain where Noah's ark landed after the flood. Quite an appropriate name for a ship that's run ashore.

Remake

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny has been remade by fans in 2005 using the Dungeon Siege engine. It is a highly ambitious attempt to reconstruct the original title, including an enhanced plot, and adds strategy elements and updates conversational mechanisms to resemble modern game dialog systems. It is free for download from the TeamLazarus homepage (See Links section).

Smith

In the stable near Iolo's Hut, you'll find Smith (a talking horse). If you talk with him, he'll give you a "very important clue" -- however, the clue is for Ultima IV. Apparently, the Ultima IV design team forgot to include the clue so they put it in Ultima V as a joke. This tradition has since carried on throughout subsequent Ultima games.

Awards

• ACE
  • 1989/1 (issue #16): ACE Adventure Awards 1988 - "Game of the year" (editorial choice)
  • 1989/1 (issue #16): ACE Adventure Awards 1988 - "Best RPG-influenced game of the year" (editorial choice)
  • February 1991 (issue #41) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time, section Role-Playing Games (editorial staff choice)
• Amiga Power
  • May 1991 (Issue #00) - #18 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"* Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #14 Most Memorable Game Villain (Pirt Snikwah)
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #42 Top Game of All Time
• ST Format
  • January 1990 (issue #06) - Included in the list 50 Games of the Year

Information also contributed by Eisentel, jlebel, Mattias Kreku, Mirrorshades2k, rstevenson, Sciere, SimonG and Timo Takalo