| Ultima 3 for Game Boy Color | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General | |
| Author | Sven Carlberg |
| Type | Role Playing |
| Version | 2022 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 |
| System | CGB |
| Last Updated | 2022/02/24 |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Website | |
| Source | |
Ultima 3 port to the Gameboy Color first released in 2001.
Graphics were lifted from the C64 16x16 tiles and shrunk to 8x8. Music was converted from the C64 SIDs.
Game logic, text, etc were taken from the MSDOS version. In order to achieve the highest fidelity, the MSDOS version was decompiled and portions were converted to C. Things like when a ship a generated, to-hit/damage battle calculations, whirlpool movement, etc are all maintained. Therefore this version should play exactly like the MSDOS version.
Instructions for the original ultima 3 game can be found here.
User guide
When you press the A button, you will be presented with a menu of options (Attack, Board, etc...). If you press the D-Pad left or right, you will get the 2nd set of options (Transact, Unlock, etc).
There are two savegame files included:
- U3START.SAV - Use this to "quick-start" the Ultima 3 game. It includes a preconstructed party that will start off at the very beginning of the original Ultima 3 game.
- U4START.SAV - Use this to "quick-start" the additional adventure that immediately follows the original Ultima 3 game. You will start off exactly as you would when you finish the original Ultima 3 game.
Important
When you finish Ultima 3 and start the new adventure, do not disperse your party and form another one. If you do this, you will start at the beginning of Ultima 3 - you will not continue the post-Ultima 3 adventure with the new players.
The 11 clues in the second adventure are a logic puzzle. Here is an online resource to help solve it.
Cheats
When you beat the second adventure, you're presented with a congratulations screen that tells you to "ENTER 37,18" which corresponds to coordinates on Sosaria.
If you "ENTER" that square, you will be taken to a cheat menu with lots of different cheat options. The easiest way to get there is to position your avatar over Lord British's castle and walk 8 squares to the left.
Some cheats are not intuitive (only have so much screen real estate) so here's a better list of descriptions:
- MUSIC - Select/test all music in the game.
- XRAY - See through all tiles.
- NOFIGHT - Automatically win every battle.
- NOHURT - HP never decreases.
- NOBLOCK - Walk through any tile.
- FULL MP - MP never decreases.
- NOCLASS - All characters can cast all spells.
- MAX ALL - Max stats, exp, level, food, gems, keys, powders, torches ; all armors, all weapons.
- +POWERS - In the original game, grants all marks/cards to everyone. In second adventure, grants all the powers.
- -POWERS - In the original game, removes all marks/cards from everyone. In second adventure, removes all the powers.
- JUMPEND - In the original game, this starts the ending sequence after defeating Exodus. If you enter/exit any castle/town after this, you'll begin the second adventure. In the second adventure this doesn't do anything, but if you +POWERS and then OTHER > BUILD, that will start the ending sequence where you can play the final arcade-like game.
The battles in the second adventure are very hard. Probably the best way to enjoy the second game is to turn on the "NOFIGHT" and "MAX ALL" cheats and then just explore the game and solve the puzzles.
Controls
Start - Advance intro screens
A - Bring up the menu, Make selections
B - Pass, Cancel out of menus
D-Pad - Move
Screenshots
Changelog
v0.995 2001/03/20
- I was going over some sections of the code and I found a bug that would make it impossible to finish the second game under certain circumstances. To save yourself a lot of frustration later, I suggest you download this updated binary.
v0.994 2001/03/17
- Thanks to Keithley Crooks for pointing out the following bugs:
- Game would freeze if the only weapon you had was "HANDS" and you tried to scroll through your weapons.
- Thanks to "Aleksi" for finding the following bugs:
- The game hangs if you tried to walk into a force field (and didn't have the force mark yet)
- When leaving a dungeon the "wind north/south/east/west" still reads "HEAD north/south etc
- Weird characters in some dungeon text "G* T* and G" (*'s were some graphic character)
- All of these problems are now fixed and the updated GB image is available for download from any of the usual download links.
0.992 2001/03/10
- Thanks again to Stephen Knox for pointing out that the exotic allowances were messed up. All characters should be able to ready and wear exotics. Also, there was a bug that was allowing more than 2550 HP in the Ultima 3 portion of the game. These problems are all now fixed and you can download the updated file.
v0.992 2001/03/09
- The first bug was found! Apparently, any character could equip any weapon while in battle. This should clearly not be allowed to happen. Thanks to Stephen Knox for finding this bug. Click on any of the download links to get the latest update.
2001/03/02
- It's only 2 days into March and my bandwidth usage is already at 10% for the month. The hits on average keep going up each hour, too....I fear my bandwidth will be used up before the end of the month. The link to the actual ZIP file will always be valid however - so perhaps you should keep it written down somewhere for any updates that may happen. I'll continue to keep Retrogames informed of any updates so if my site runs over its limit you'll always be able to keep abreast of updates and be able to download the updates. I've also moved the history to its own page.
v0.991 2001/03/01
- Added "Test Game Music" option to main menu (per request).
- Added easter egg (per request).
v0.990 2001/02/28
- It's probably v1.0, but I should leave some version numbers open for bugfixes.
External links
- GitHub - https://github.com/RetroSven/ult3gbc
- Author's website - http://sven.50webs.org/ultima3.html (archived)