Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (PC98)

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Platform: PC-9801 Year: 1987 Developer: Origin Systems, Inc., Newtopia Planning, Foretune Co. Ltd.

For other games in the series see Ultima.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is an RPG where you play the role of a hero known as the Avatar who must embody eight virtues by performing helpful tasks to the inhabitants of the land of Britannia. From there, you must collect various artifacts from and descend into a deep volcano to destroy the skull of an earlier foe and bring forth the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, proving your worth.

Ultima IV was original released for the Apple II in 1985 and quickly ported to various other platforms. This PC-9801 port remains quite faithful to the original, with an impressive improvement to the quality of graphics and sound, though, unfortunately for English readers, it is almost entirely in Japanese.

Screenshots

The title sequence. The story that finds you in the world of Britannia. A gypsy helps you to determine your patron virtue. An audience with the king. Standing outside of Lord British's Castle. Battling some rogues.

Music

The original music of Ken Arnold has been retained, but is now played on a more impressive sounding audio chip, the YM2608. The music features period-sounding tunes (though with a chippy timbre) and includes the Ultima mainstay, Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia!

If you watch the opening demo of Ultima IV it plays various tracks from the score in a semi-random fashion. It plays all the tracks that you commonly hear in the game, but it will not play Fanfare of Lord British.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Wanderer	Ken Arnold	Unknown	1:41		Download
02	Towne	Ken Arnold	Unknown	2:59		Download
03	Lord British's Castle	Ken Arnold	Unknown	1:35		Download
04	Rule, Britannia!	Thomas Arne	Unknown	1:19		Download
05	Shopping	Ken Arnold	Unknown	1:12		Download
06	Combat	Ken Arnold	Unknown	0:29		Download
07	Shrines	Ken Arnold	Unknown	1:03		Download
08	Dungeons	Ken Arnold	Unknown	3:21		Download
09	Fanfare of Lord British	Ken Arnold	Unknown	2:54		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Unknown
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Ken Arnold
  • Not Credited Composer: Thomas Arne
  • Not Credited Arranger: Unknown

(Source: Game lacks audio credits.)

Someone at Newtopia Planning or Foretune probably converted the music to play on the PC-9801.

Game Rip

Format	Conversion	Download
		Download (Info)

The tracks have been recorded in roughly the order you hear them during normal game play. They were recorded with S98 Input v1.11 in foobar2000.

Audio Devices

Music	File:Icon - PC-9801-86.png
Sound	File:Icon - PC-9801-86.png

If you have a PC-9801-86 installed, it will be auto-detected.

Releases

Japan Title: ウルティマ IV: Quest of the Avatar (Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar) Platform: PC-9801 Released: 1987-07-18 Publisher: Pony Canyon, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/pc98/ultima-iv-quest-of-the-avatar - MobyGames.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_IV:_Quest_of_the_Avatar - Wikipedia.