Sergorn Dragon likes giving me more work to do, it seems. Because really, a site such as this should put at least a bit of attention on games that are, either in whole or in part, clones of — or heavily inspired by — entries in the Ultima series. And while I certainly like the idea of occasionally making mention of all sorts of games like that…I am rather maxed-out as far as my ability to track and follow games is already.
Now, since you’re probably all wondering what the heck I’m on about, allow me to explain. This all stems from a question that Sergorn Dragon posed on Twitter yesterday. First, he asked:
So Internet, tell me: what games whether old or new, classics or unknown, full fledged, indie or shareware would count as #Ultima clones ?
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
And then he answered his own question, tossing out several possible suggestions. Along the way, his thinking morphed from looking at games which were straight-up Ultima clones, and turned into an analysis of games that had taken inspiration from the series:
The Magic Candle series is an one of of the most obvious one of course, you can’t get more classic Ultima than that!
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Origin’s own Times of Lore and Knights of Legends albeit with their differences also had an obvious #Ultima vibe as well
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
What about Space 1999? It played more like MegaTraveller in a way, but it also reminds one of Martian Dreams
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
More recently Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome, is a pretty neat Ultima VII clone in ancient Rome
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Obviously we can count some more recent endeavour as Gothic, Risen and Skyrim as Ultima-ish though I’m more interested in old school vibes
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
And of course Dragon Quest very much *was* an Ultima III clone in many ways, but let’s keep it to WRPG mostly…
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Hmmm D&D Warrior of the Eternal Sun on Genesis/Megadrive had kin of a Ultima vibe in that it mixed overhead 2D gameplay with 3D dungeons!
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Gaming journalist and freelance writer Rowan Kaiser jumped in next:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Magic Candle. Exile. Are we counting Ultima Underworld? Cause then you could make the case for The Elder Scrolls.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
Sergorn replied:
@ultimaaiera @RowanKaiser If we count Underworld thought, we obviously *have* to mention Arx Fatalis !
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
To which the good Mr. Kaiser commented:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Yeah, there were others, too. Ravenloft/Menzoberranzan were UU with D&D trappings.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera Well…all of those, including UU, come from Dungeon Master, but UU added the 360 movement.
— Rowan Kaiser (@RowanKaiser) January 30, 2012
To which Sergorn rejoined:
@RowanKaiser @ultimaaiera True but the movement, solo adventure and combat gave UW a unique feel different from Ravenloft and such
— Sergorn Dragon (@UltimaReturn) January 30, 2012
Finally, our good friend Dominus (of Exult fame) chimed in:
@UltimaReturn @ultimaaiera the early Spiderweb games series Exiles. Actually all their games
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— Dominus of Exult (@Dominus_Exult) January 30, 2012
For my own contribution to the discussion, I told Sergorn I’d look up various iOS games (eliciting a “GAH!” from him in response) that might count as Ultima-inspired. Now, short of buying Akalabeth for iOS, there’s not really an exact match for Ultima to be found in the iOS app ecosystem. At least, I have failed to notice any such thing.
Still…I’ve come up with a few titles that are worthy of mention:
Underworlds and Underworlds Ultimate Edtion
Actually, Underworlds is worth a special mention due to the fact that former Ultima artist Denis Loubet is a co-owner of (and the art director for) Pixel Mine Games, which produces Underworlds.
Ravensword: The Fallen King and Aralon: Sword and Shadow
On the Android side, there are of course a couple different Exult ports in the works. In a search of the Android Market, I did turn up a few other titles that might be worth looking at:
I also tripped across this Ultima Online “soundboard” app during my search, which claims to feature all the classic songs from UO. It’s free, and was listed as compatible with my Nook Tablet, so I’ll try it out and let you all know whether it’s worth a look.
Finally, and here again I have to apologize to someone, I’d like to mention Dark Disciples 2, by the oddly-named Dodgysoft. But, as a certain Mr. Steffen Hagen told me some months ago, when first he brought the game to my attention:
Dark Disciples II…is a tile-based RPG with some pretty extensive dialogues, [which] certainly has been inspired by Ultima. It looks quite a bit nicer than Ultima V, though…and it has an easy-to-use editor to boot. Just as NWN 2 wins because of all the premade objects, DD2 has a wide range of complex events predefined. So for those who’d like to create something on a smaller scale than Lazarus this would be definitely worth a visit…uh, and apart from that, it’s also a nice game in its own right.
Screenshot!
So, yes…Dark Disciples 2. Mr. Hagen, my apologies for my tardiness in getting mention of that one onto the site. I have created a project entry for the game and its prequel, since the editing toolkit may in fact be of some interest to Ultima fans contemplating doing a project with an “old school” look and feel.
Anyhow: There’s a pretty exhaustive list of games, Dragons and Dragonettes, which either are or at least seem to be clones of and/or inspired by one Ultima game or another. If there are any others you can think of which you feel merit mention, please do sound off in the comments with your thoughts.
Bonus question: Which, if any, of these Ultima-inspired/Ultima-clone games do you think Aiera should either include amongst its listed projects and/or track news for?










