Ultima IV Special Edition

Final version!

Current status:

• Both versions are completely playable from start to finish.

• There is no MIDI music for new tracks!

• I won't be updating this anymore as I consider it to be complete.

Disclaimer:

This game has been modified on my free time and is available for free. You are not allowed to sell or 'adapt' it in any way, shape or form!

The minimal system config is an Atari ST with 512 Kb of RAM. This has only been tested with standard TOS, any other OS is not supported (even though  it runs fine with EmuTOS).

This modified version of Ultima IV for the ST/Falcon 030 includes the following changes:

• A big part of the tileset has been replaced with the much better looking Ultima V tiles

• LZW compression has been removed for faster loading and replaced with Speed Packer 3

• Runs on 512Kb machines even from hard disk, unlike some subpar 'adaptations'

• Multilingual English/French with the French translation from Ubi Soft fully fixed

• Restored unused music track for the main menu and Lord British Castle

• Fits on one floppy disk, no more floppy disk swapping messages

• Fixed for hard drive

• New intro/character creation graphics converted from the Sharp x68000 version

• Additional music tracks from Ultima III

• Cheat/debug menu accessible with the numpad '*' key

• Exit any towne, village or castle directly with the ESC key

• Save in all cities, villages and castles, with the exception of Lord British's castle.

• Reload your previous save with the numpad '-' key.

• Display your progression in each virtue (aka. karma) with the numpad key 9.

• Display character statistics directly with numpad keys 1-8, and main inventory with 0

• Shake screen effect when you hit or get hit in combat and when you fire your ship's canons

• Correct music tempo in PAL mode

• There is now music when you talk to NPCs

• Dungeon 2D rooms now have a correct palette

• Dungeon 3D graphics tweaked and updated

• No more mouse cursor artefacts when peering a gem

• You can now camp in cities (not as effective as renting a room at the inns)

• You can now camp while aboard a ship (with a brand new map)

• You can no longer disembark from a ship in the middle of the ocean (this was used as an exploit in the original game to use the camp function while aboard a ship, and is now useless)

• You can now walk in shallow water (it is as slow as walking through hills). If you are attacked by a land monster, you will fight on the swamp combat map

• New medieval font (actually "borrowed" from Demon's Winter)

• No more distracting green colour font for character names

• Actions are now turn based, turns do not pass after 5 seconds of inactivity

• The game now asks if you want to exit a city when you reach its border

• When talking to Hawkwind, the music played is the Avatar theme instead of the merchant theme

• Smaller and better looking mouse cursor

• Includes Hythloth dungeon fix from https://www.moddb.com/games/ultima-iv-quest-of-the-avatar/downloads/hythloth-fix

• Balloon can now land on swamp, grass, trees and hill tiles and is completely controlable whitout drifting

• Ultima V Shop signs added for all shops

• Ultima V furniture added in all inhabited places

• Rebalanced karma loss/gain

• Added roads like in Ultima V - they allow to travel more easily between some towns

• No more bumping into NPCs while exploring cities

Other bugs fixed (source: https://github.com/xu4-engine/u4/blob/master/doc/AmigaFileFormats.txt )

• Lord British Castle: Water NPC dialog fixed (tlka.bin)

• Serpent's Hold: Guards dialog fixed (mapd.bin)

• Minoc: Alkerion dialog trigger fixed (tlki.bin)

• Skara Brae: Shamino question trigger fixed (tlkk.bin)

• Cove: Charm dialog trigger fixed (tlkp.bin)

• Dungeon Wrong: realigned a ladder on level 4 (dng3.bin)

• Dungeon Covetous: added a missing ladder on level 7 (dng4.bin)

• Dungeon Covetous: fixed room 11 on level 7 (drm4.bin)

• Serpent's Hold: fixed both entrance guards havin Sentri's dialog assigned to them (mapd.bin).

• Serpent's Hold: fixed Michelle giving wrong directions (tlkd.bin).

Downloads

• Floppy disk version (English) - last update 13.04.2025

• Floppy disk version (French) - last update 13.04.2025

• Hard drive version (English) - last update 13.04.2025

• Hard drive version (French) - last update 13.04.2025

• Source code - last update 13.04.2025

• Brainstorm Assemble asm.ttp (this is all that is needed to compile the sources) - there are a few absolute paths in the main source file (for the font and the mouse cursor shapes) that you will need to change to suit your needs.

Various cheats can be set by modifying the source and recompiling the main executable, as well as incomplete features.

If the game seems to hang while playing from floppy disk, make sure your disk is not set to read-only.

You will need the manual to complete the game!

Update log

• 19.08.2024: Searching for main quest items was broken. Now fixed.

• 19.08.2024: New fix for landing the balloon on swamp, grass, trees (both types) and hill tiles (by default, the balloon can only land on grass)

• 19.08.2024: New cheat added to source code: Infinite keys.

• 20.08.2024: Fixed a crash when reaching partial avatarhood in a shrine (an ASCII string was not of even length - English version only)

• 20.08.2024: You can now partially control the balloon while it is drifting.

• 20.08.2024: New cheats added to the source code.

• 21.08.2024: New intro/character graphics converted from the Sharp X68000 version (source:Sharp X68000 - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - Intro - The Spriters Resource (spriters-resource.com) ) using Gimp and the online tool from Retro Image Tool (anides.de) .

• 22.08.2024: Added new tiles for the hot air balloon (source: https://tartarus.rpgclassics.com/ultima4/travel&terrain.php) and the phantom (also used in Minoc at the blacksmith) (converted from Ultima IV VGA patch).

• 22.08.2024: Reactivated the animated text cursor and replaced it by the animated ankh from Ultima VI.

• 23.08.2024: Tweaked dungeon 3D graphics.

• 24.08.2024: Fixed the Use function for the stones in the dungeon altar rooms. Key of three parts is now obtainable.

• 25.08.2024: Fixed Sextant always available even if missing from the inventory.

• 25.08.2024: Tested the use of remaining quest items and fixed broken ones (Skull of Mondain and Wheel of HMS Cape). Entering the Abyss now works fine.

• 26.08.2024: Fixed partially corrupted CODX.BIN file.

• 26.08.2024: Fixed Codex crash during the final set of riddles.

• 27.08.2024: Fixed end picture colour palette.

• 27.08.2024: After you give a wrong answer to the Codex final questions and are sent back to Britannia, the music played will be the Explore theme instead of the Dungeon theme.

• 28.08.2024: Fixed crash when leveling up while talking to Lord British (lord.bin file issue).

• 29.08.2024: Tweaked dungeon 3D graphics.

• 29.08.2024: Restored content: Unused 'Lord British fanfare' music track is now played in the main menu and in Lord British's Castle.

• 29.08.2024: Rebalanced all karma gains/losses in order to have more rewarding gains and less penalizing losses.

• 30.08.2024: Updated boot.bin to actually play the newly restored music track.

• 31.08.2024: Updated the tileset with various new tiles: furniture, shop signs, etc in place of the letter tiles.

• 31.08.2024: Updated all towne/castle/village maps and one dungeon map (DRM5.BIN) accordingly.

• 31.08.2024: It is now possible to hole up and camp while aboard a ship.

• 31.08.2024: Added new 11*11 map for camping while aboard a ship (CMPS.BIN).

• 31.08.2024: Fixed bug where the cursor was invisible when trying to move to an unpassable tile.

• 01.09.2024: Exploit fixed: you can no longuer disembark from a ship in the middle of the ocean.

• 01.09.2024: Added Ultima V road tiles to the tileset.

• 01.09.2024: Added roads to the mainland map.

• 02.09.2024: Fixed unpassable crossroads tile.

• 02.09.2024: Moving to a tile occupied by an NPC is now possible in cities, villages and castles, with the exception of Lord British, making exploration less annoying.

• 02.09.2024: Tweaked CONA.BIN combat map.

• 02.09.2024: Tweaked one Despise dungeon room (DRM1.BIN).

• 02.09.2024: Tweaked two Destard dungeon rooms (DRM2.BIN).

• 02.09.2024: Tweaked one Covetous dungeon room (DRM4.BIN).

• 02.09.2024: Tweaked one Shame dungeon room (DRM5.BIN).

• 03.09.2024: Tweaked one room in the Abyss (DRM7.BIN).

• 03.09.2024: Tweaked towne maps MAP@.BIN, MAPB.BIN, MAPC.BIN, MAPD.BIN, MAPE.BIN, MAPF.BIN, MAPG.BIN, MAPH.BIN, MAPK.BIN and MAPP.BIN.

• 03.09.2024: Added pier tile ($66).

• 03.09.2024: Added piers to the map near Britain, Minoc, Buccaneer's Den and Jhelom.

• 03.09.2024: Added fountain tile for dungeon 3D view that replaces the standard water tile used in dungeons.

• 03.09.2024: Tweaked dungeon 3D graphics and palette.

• 03.09.2024: Fixed chest tile semi-transparent in dungeon 3D view.

• 04.09.2024: Program will cleanly exit if started from high resolution.

• 04.09.2024: Added new music.

• 04.09.2024: Ultima 3 Wanderer theme will play when using a horse, ship or balloon.

• 04.09.2024: Ultima 3 Combat theme will play in combat while using a horse, ship or balloon.

• 04.09.2024: Ultima 3 Towne theme will play in villages.

• 08.09.2024: Fixed wrong tempo for the Outside and the Towne themes (by default they play too slow compared to the original Apple II music).

• 08.09.2024: Fixed wrong song playing when loading a game when you are using a transport.

• 08.09.2024: Fixed various situations where the wrong song was played.

• 08.09.2024: Added music for default conversations with NPCs (by default there is none).

• 08.09.2024: Fixed wrong music playing after being resurrected by Lord British (default game bug).

• 08.09.2024: Fixed music restarting when you save a game (default game bug). It will now continue playing.

• 15.12.2024: Reverted music playing after saving as it brought issues when ending fights.

• 29.03.2025: MAPD.BIN: Fixed both entrance guards havin Sentri's dialog assigned in Serpent's Hold (original game bug).

• 29.03.2025: TLKD.BIN: Fixed Michelle giving wrong directions in Serpent's Hold (original game bug).

• 29.03.2025: Fixed text still in all caps when using the (L)ocate with sextant command.

• 29.03.2025: Shortened French name of Serpent's hold when entering it so that it fits in one line.

• 29.03.2025: Fixed incorrect music playing after fighting in townes, castles (excepted for Lord British castle) and dungeons.

• 29.03.2025: Partial fix for incorrect music playing while and after fighting in villages and Lord British Castle. It now plays Ultima III combat music during combat, and Wanderer theme after exiting combat mode.

• 29.03.2025: Fixed incorrect 50Hz tempo for the castle music and Lord British themes.

• 29.03.2025: Game now checks if running in PAL 50 Hz or NTSC 60 Hz and adapts music tempo accordingly (default tempo in NTSC mode, fixed tempo in PAL mode).

• 29.03.2025: Checked and fixed all dialogs in the French tlkx.bin files.

• 06.04.2025: Fixed all remaining issues with wrong songs playing after a fight.

• 06.04.2025: Fixed all remaining issues with wrong songs playing after peering a gem.

• 06.04.2025: Fixed a few typos, added some missing line breaks.

• 06.04.2025: Commented more parts of the code.

• 06.04.2025: New cheat added: firealldirs to be able to fire a ship's canons in all four directions, not just broadsides.

• 06.04.2025: New cheat added: locate position without having a sextant in the inventory.

• 06.04.2025: When you fire your ship's canon, it will now do a short screen shake effect.

• 06.04.2025: If the HMS Cape wheel is in your inventory, your ship's canon will fire a magic projectile instead of a standard one (this is purely cosmetic).

• 06.04.2025: Fixed double quote character looking out of place compared to single quote, fixed quote character slightly too low. Cleaned up the source font folder.

• 06.04.2025: Added ingame cheat menu, launched by 'V'. Music on/off is still available in the 'Misc' submenu of the cheat menu.

• 06.04.2025: Recruitable character names are now properly capitalized (1st letter is upper case, remaining ones are lower case). Starting a new game is required!

• 06.04.2025: New command added: anywere in cities, castles and villages, press ESC to return to main map. Doesn't work on purpose inside dungeons or during fights.

• 06.04.2025: Fixed incorrect prices and other issues in reagent shops

• 06.04.2025: Removed now useless LZW load and floppy disk check routines.

• 13.04.2025: Cleaned up the whole shoppe part.

• 13.04.2025: The balloon can now land on road and pier tiles.

• 13.04.2025: It is now possible to save in castles, cities and villages. The only exception is Lord British's Castle, as there is no way to tell if the save occured on the first or the second floor, and the game always reloads the save on the first floor. So when you save inside Lord British's Castle, you will be at the default entrance coordinates when you reload your save.

• 13.04.2025: New command added: Reload saved game during game with Numpad key '-'.

• 13.04.2025: Fixed an issue where a line was commented in the Codex trial routine, making it impossible to complete it.

• 13.04.2025: Moved the cheat menu from key 'V' to Numpad key '*'.

• 13.04.2025: Fixed palette transitions in dungeons when the wrong palette was visible for less than half a second.

• 13.04.2025: Added virtue karma display with Numpad key '9'.

• 13.04.2025: Updated the cheat menu with new features and translated it to French.

• 13.04.2025: A lot of general cleanup.

• 13.04.2025: You can now walk in shallow water (it is as slow as walking through hills). If you are attacked by a land monster, you will fight on the swamp combat map.

• 13.04.2025: Completely fixed the balloon, which is now fully controlable without being affected by the wind.

• 13.04.2025: Faster player movement when poisoned or starving achieved by deactivating the inverse video effect that happens at every move when afflicted by those 2 status.

• 13.04.2025: You can rename main player character from the cheat menu (Party/Rename player).

• 13.04.2025: Cleaned up the main file source code and removed absolute file paths. You can compile it by dragging and dropping it on asm.ttp (as long as it is in the same directory and your OS/TOS version permits it).

Some before after/comparison screenshots:

End pictures:

Misc. pictures:

A few tips;

• Get a copy of and read the manual! Also get the map, and the runic alphabet. They are mandatory in order to complete the game.

• This is an old-school RPG. Be prepared to take notes during every dialog.

• If you answer A to all questions from the gypsy, you will start as a mage near Moonglow.

• If you answer B to all questions, you will start as a sheperd near the ruins of Magincia. This is the hardest start with the weakest character class.

• All commands can be performed with the mouse, but it is much faster to use the keyboard. You can also right click on the upper right window to display a clickable menu with all commands that can act as a reminder if you forget which command corresponds to which key.

• Even the 3 main menu options respond to keyboard shortcuts (R, J and I in the English versions, R, V and D in the French version).

• Actions are now turn-based, but not the moon phases and the wind changes so use this at your advantage.

• You can pass your turn with space.

• You can save in dungeons even in the original game, but not in cities, castles and villages, only outside.

• Boats can shoot canon sideways only. Killing foes with the canon does not give XP.

• While on horse, press Y to Yell and go faster (2 squares at a time), Yell again to go back to the default speed.

• To use the balloon, while on board, you must press on 'K'limb!

• Carefully observe the wall tiles, some are fake!

• Don't be afraid to die, as Lord British will resurrect you (you might lose some gold and rations if you have high amounts of those).

• Lord British is also the one who promotes your characters to the next level.

• Your first goal when you start a new game should be to talk to Lord British in Castle Britannia.

• Hawkwind in Lord British's Castle is another essential character. Talk to him often, he will tell you if you progress on the way of the Avatar.

• Your Avatarhood status will be displayed as a red ankh in the right part of the screen, between the rations and the gold indicators. The more it is visible, the more virtues you have mastered.

• You can lose karma (and partial avatarhood) if you do stupid things.

• Every dialog has common words that apply to anyone: NAME, HEALTH and JOB (or NOM, SANTE and PROFESSION in the French version). There is also JOIN (REJOindre in the French version) to ask NPCs to join your party.

• There are 8 virtues you have to master. Each city follows the principles of one of those virtues. There is one recruitable character per city (even Magincia) but you must have a certain level of mastery of the virtue they follow. You cannot recruit a character of the same class as your main character.

• Actually, in any dialog, only the first 4 letters matter.

• In the French version, the first 4 letters for HONNêteté and HONNeur being the same, the UBI Soft translator used the old wording HONOR in many places and I kept this as well (at least as a keyword).

• The cheats activated with the cheat menu that affect the party and the inventory are only made permanent when you save your game.