Ultima III: Exodus (C64)

Ultima III: Exodus

Platform: Commodore 64 Year: 1983 Developer: Origin Systems, Inc. Buy: Amazon

For other games in the series see Ultima.

In Ultima III: Exodus, you create and control a party of four adventurers who are trying to foil the plans of the dreaded Exodus, the spawn of Mondain and Minax. In doing so, you will save the land of Sosaria from certain destruction. Unfortunately, you must first perform a painful amount of grinding to gain enough gold, levels, and stats to become strong enough to fight Exodus. The game has a decent amount of additions from its predecessors. Multiple-character parties, separate combat screens, travel by ship, various quests, the signed victory letter from Lord British himself, and most important for this site, music!

The game was ported to the Commodore 64 by Chuck Bueche and was very similar to the original Apple II game. It features comparable graphics, music, and controls. These two versions are superior to the Atari 8-bit and DOS ports, but later ports for the Amiga, NES, and other platforms were superior.

Though C64 port features a 1983 copyright, it may have been released in 1984.

Screenshots

The title sequence. Putting together a party. Sosaria is a dangerous land. Lord British's throne room. Buying some better weapons. The 3D-rendered dungeons.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

Each main section Ultima III: Exodus has its own music which continues to play in the background as the game unfolds. This is the first Ultima game to be released with a full soundtrack and the well-composed tunes add much-needed mood to the game. The over world music is long and intricate, the dungeons have more aggravating music, and the now iconic British tune Rule, Britannia! plays in Lord British's throne room for the first time. There are eight songs, and two fanfares, which was pretty impressive for 1983. The music was originally composed by Ken Arnold for the original Apple II version of the game, and was ported along with the Commodore 64 version.

The arrangement to the Commodore 64 was probably done by Arnold, but it may have been done by the C64 porter, Chuck Bueche. The music is kept similar to the Apple II version which was composed to play in the inferior AY-3-9830 chip on the Apple II's Mockingboard, so the port doesn't take full advantage of the C64's SID chip. The conversion process added a rather buzzy sound to the music, and it plays at a slightly slower tempo than the original Apple II version. It's barely perceptible, but about one minute of music on the Apple II will be stretched to about a minute and two seconds on the C64 port. Two songs, Towne and Shrines, have been trimmed in half and are missing the second verses with altered pitch.

Ultima III: Exodus is also the first of the Ultima games to feature a title screen demonstration of the game. As the demo is acted out, music from the game is played in the background eventually playing the game's entire soundtrack, even the Exodus' Castle theme.

The titles come from the original Apple II soundtrack. They are based on popular names found on the Internet and where the songs appear in the game. Ken Arnold should be contacted for official titles, and game files should be researched to find more appropriate titles. The track order is based on when you'll likely hear the songs through normal game play.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Wanderer	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	4:34		Download
02	Towne	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	1:14		Download
03	Lord British's Castle	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	1:36		Download
04	Rule, Britannia!	Thomas Arne	Ken Arnold	0:16		Download
05	Shopping	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	0:42		Download
06	Combat	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	1:27		Download
07	Dungeons	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	0:52		Download
08	Ambrosia	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	0:48		Download
09	Shrines	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	0:26		Download
10	Exodus' Castle	Ken Arnold	Ken Arnold	2:40		Download

Credits

• Ripper: HVSC
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Music Composed By: Ken Arnold credited as Kenneth W. Arnold
  • Not Credited Composer: Thomas Arne

(Source)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

The tracks have been recorded in the same order that they appear in the SID file. They were recorded with SID Decoder v1.43.

Releases

USA Title: Ultima III: Exodus Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1983-??-?? Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc.     UK Title: Ultima III: Exodus Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1986-??-?? Publisher: Origin Systems, Inc., All American Adventures

Links

• mobygames.com/game/c64/exodus-ultima-iii - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/c64/572140-ultima-iii-exodus - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_III:_Exodus - Wikipedia.