Ultima 4 now free, EA launches UltimaForever.com

EA and Bioware have announced the launch of a new website (and Twitter account) dedicated to the "heritage" of the Ultima series. UltimaForever.com is billed as "a celebration of all things Ultima" and will be expanding over time to look back at the 31 year old series. To celebrate the launch, EA is offering a free download of Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar.

Also, in addition to Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 now being available on GoG.com, EA advises players to "stay tuned for more information about additional re-mastered Ultima titles in the future." In the meantime, you can grab your free download of Ultima 4 from right here on Joystiq. Note that you'll need to download and set up DOSBox in order to run it, unless you're somehow reading this from 1985.

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EA and BioWare release Ultima 4 for free, launch UltimaForever.com

EA and BioWare Mythic are celebrating 30 years of the Ultima Franchise by offering a free PC download of the classic Ultima IV, one of the most heralded RPGs in gaming history. The download is available at the newly launched Ultima heritage site www.UltimaForever.com.

Stretching across dozens of games, multiple platforms and three decades, millions of people from all over the world have set out on great adventures in the world of Ultima. Beginning with the classic Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, they have braved perilous dungeons, faced off against fearsome enemies, conquered lands and saved the world. The original Ultima series includes some of the most beloved fantasy games of all time and helped set the stage for the pioneering Ultima Online, which launched more than a decade ago and was recognized with the inaugural GDC Online Hall of Fame award in 2010.

Continuing the celebration, the classic PC editions of Ultima, Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II have been re-mastered for current PC operating systems and are available today on GOG.com. Stay tuned for more information about additional re-mastered Ultima titles in the future.

For additional information on EA and BioWare Mythic's celebration of the Ultima franchise, its heritage and Ultima IV please visit www.UltimaForever.com.

Reader Comments (30)

Awesome, bring on Ultima 7 complete remastered! Best Ultima in the series!!

ah I was hoping it was Ultima Exodus :(

@xDoorakx U7 is superb, it did open world way before it became a buzzword for driving cars into lightpoles.

@xDoorakx

last sentence made me lol

@xDoorakx

U7, one of the best games evar!

"Yes Please" to implied new Ultimas in the future.

Now I want a new Ultima Online :'( or at least the Classic one back, best MMO of all time.

@Ashkental

This 1000 times! So many crazy times on the Great Lakes servers, until they screwed over PKs with the hefty penalties! :(

Everytime I try an MMO it ultimately fails to live up to my UO experiences. I had so much fun playing that game, but it was kind of silly in retrospect.

Oh! I wonder if they will ever re-release the Worlds of Ultima games? I could totally go for some Warren Spector Ultima-Martian action...

The link doesn't seem to work. This announcement takes me back, I remember finishing Ultima IV on my old Atari 800XL back in '85. Very long game, don't think I'll be doing it again.

Anyone notice the "Bioware" stamp at the bottom?....

@RudyHuxtable

Ultima + Bioware = a need to change one's pants.

Uh, Ultima 4 has been free for YEARS. The only difference is that EA is hosting it now and yelled at several other people for hosting it.

Not that it's not awesome. Go play it.

Nice timing with E3 just around the corner. I would love a "Remastered" Ultima VII, or a version of UO that ran on modern systems at modern resolutions.

So, uh, maybe I'm just computer-illiterate, but I figured I should ask... will this work on a Mac?

@gatotsu911
Yes it should work fine on a Mac. Joystiq gave the clue right in the post: you need to go install Dosbox (which emulates a crap old PC). There are versions of Dosbox for all platforms.

I played a couple of old PC games that GoG were offering free recently. They were reasonably entertaining despite the crap graphics and (in one case) horrific voice acting, but those were graphic adventures; I think other genres might have aged a bit less well. Don't think I'm going to bother trying Ultima 4.

@gatotsu911

YO!!

I use a program called "Boxer" for mac. Actually... I don't think I've ever used it! So I would if I needed to. Check it out, is what I'm saying.

http://boxerapp.com/

Ultima VII still has the best game world ever created. Fact.

Was interested in checking this out until the part about needing DOS... or the ability to travel back in time

Would be really cool if they could re-release this for XBLA/PSN, including II and III

Just got the Ultima collection - If I had the time I'd go through all the Ultimas, but as it is I'm going to skip from 4 to 7 so I can play the series highlight.

@Aerothorn
Ultima IV through VII Part 2 ARE the highlights of the series. It's worth playing all of the games in that part of the series.

@xxxsam
I downloaded and unzipped the game and Dosbox, and followed the installation instructions, but Dosbox is telling me that the file I'm trying to boot doesn't exist. What's the OSX equivalent of the "C" drive I'm supposed to zip Ultima to?

@gatotsu911 the directions arent accurate at all...to mount the thing you have to type mount c c:\ultimaiv not ultima4. that got me mounted...but it says illegal command when i try to launch it so idk from there

@mu93n
It still won't mount for me.

Unless Richard Garriott is making it, it's not an Ultima game. EA owns a name.

Cry me a river, he sold it to them. I don't think he was regretting it when he bought his way into space with the money. He seems to be having a blast post ultima, good for him. It'd be cool if he worked with Bioware and made the series the finale it deserved.

@(Unverified)

"Cry me a river"

Heh, what? You're going to have to stick a little closer to reality to successfully troll.

I would like to see a remake of Ultima 8. It's considered as a flawed Ultima (especially compared to both 7ns) but I think Pagan could be on par with 7 when some parts of the game are remade.

I figure I'll play 4 through 8, it was still a lot of fun.

Ultima 4 now free, EA launches UltimaForever.com

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:34PM xDoorakx said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:55PM Rahabib said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 4:15PM Chumm said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 4:19PM HedonisticKai said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:42PM Mopo said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:35PM edgore said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:35PM Ashkental said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 5:10PM barrit said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 8:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:40PM edgore said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:40PM Cranky Penguin said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:45PM RudyHuxtable said

Posted: Jun 4th 2011 11:53AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:54PM MasterYogurt said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 3:57PM morikaweb said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 4:38PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 5:12PM xxxsam said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 6:38PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 4:45PM Lucky The Fox said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 4:51PM Starcade said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 5:12PM Aerothorn said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 5:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 5:22PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 6:47PM mu93n said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 10:50PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 6:16PM Jenks said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 8:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 4th 2011 1:09AM Jenks said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 8:22PM derdaim said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2011 8:26PM (Unverified) said

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