Welcome to Ultima Faux. Ultima 4 Quest of the Avatar is my favorite game of all time. As a fun hobby project I wanted to recreate the game except make it run in a web browser. The code is 100% JavaScript and was written entirely from scratch over many years. In the process of recreating the game I ended up adding many things and changing some things from the original game that I thought could be improved upon. A comprehensive list is below. Hope you enjoy playing it! I think you will find the original spirit of the game has been retained but the overall look and feel has been improved. Note that the game is designed to be played on a desktop or a laptop. The keyboard is used so heavily that attempting to play on a mobile phone is probably not feasible. You can email me with any questions and comments at ultimafaux@gmail.com. Note that I have played the game to completion and fixed many bugs, but obviously there could be bugs yet to be discovered. If you happen upon a bug please email ultimafaux@gmail.com with as much detail as possible about what happened, where, and any other details you feel are relevant. If you are tech savvy the browser should have a console log that can be viewed. Please include some of this log as well if you can. There are many, many help pages and walkthroughs available on the web for Ultima 4 Quest of the Avatar that should also be consulted if you are new to the game. See the links below for some helpful Ultima 4 pages. *) If you want to save and restore multiple games, just use a different username and password combination at the beginning of the game. Note that for both username and password there are few restrictions and the combination of the two uniquely identifies any particular game. There is also no checking that someone else has used that combination of strings so I would recommend using at least 8 characters on each. *) The beginning of the game (and ending) are vastly different than the original game. There is still a gypsy who gives you the virtue test though and that test is almost exactly like the original game. *) The ending of the game is vastly different. I don't want to spoil it but if you dont have all the requirements to enter the chamber of the codex you will be kicked out of the Abyss, so save before going in! The requirements include being 8 parts Avatar, having the key of 3 parts, having all joined actors, and knowing the word of passage. *) The original game is notoriously free of bugs, but there were a few. Those have been fixed in this implementation. *) You will begin the game at the faire level and talk to the gypsy. After the virtue test is complete you will always start by Lord British's castle. In the original game you start by the town that represents the virtue that you picked as your character class, but I always thought that it's better to start by the castle. In the beginning your character is not very strong and you can always go talk to Lord British and be healed. *) In my opinion starting the game as a Paladin is the best option as you will have fairly good weapons and some magical ability. To become a Paladin just keep selecting Honor in the initial virtue test. *) There are no "frames" in the main display as in the original game. You will see the entire display as a square and context sensitive popups and HUD's (heads up display) will appear as necessary. Speaking to the NPC's is accomplished via a popup as well and the dialog is displayed as talk bubbles. *) The main display is larger. I believe the original game showed an 11x11 tile grid. This implementation shows 21x21 tiles and again no frames showing party stats, dialog etc. All that additional information can be seen in the stats or other popup boxes and HUD's. *) There are many new tiles that were not in the original game. *) There are clouds in this game on the main overworld map. Darker colored clouds have precipitation. *) There are real latitudes in this game and seasons like the Earth. Towns such as Minoc are at the upper latitudes and hence will get more snow if a cloud with precipitation passes over it. This is all just for visual eye candy though. *) Some basic particle systems like smoke around firepits has been added. Spells and weapon rendering may use animations or show graphics that were not in the original game. *) The terrain, structure, and levels of the main overworld map have been altered. There are many new levels that can be explored like caves and there is new terrain such as deserts added. There is also weather added to the main map. There is rain and snow and even hurricanes. *) Some of the maps of the towns have been altered slightly. There are shop signs now and many new NPC's that you can talk to, as well as new levels (like sewers) added. *) You cannot enter a town on a horse. This was always strange to me in the original game. *) When you are in a town your entire party will be displayed individually as opposed to a single character like in the original game. When you are on an "overworld" level such as the main map or a dungeon level then you will see the party character icon which indicates your entire party of characters moves together. Note that when you are in a town you dont have to move every party member like you have to in a dungeon room or battle. The joined player characters automatically follow and position themselves as you move. *) If you get into a battle in a town, your party members will flee alongside the other town members. Only guards will stay to engage you in combat. Of course you will lose virtue if this happens. *) Enemies on the overworld levels, main and dungeon, will track you with a more advanced algorithm than a simple difference in position which in the original game often lead to them "getting stuck" somewhere on the map. *) On some town levels, like the ruins of Magincia, your party members will camp at the entrance/exit of town. It is up to you to explore it alone! *) Treasure chests that can be taken have a small skull on them. Any treasure chests that do not have this and instead have a small gold circle in the middle cannot be taken without loss of virtue. *) There are some new "good" creatures such as mermaids in addition the original ones in the game like horses and bulls. Do not attack these and if you are attacked by any of them then flee the battle to keep your virtue intact. *) There are trade ships on the main map. These are also good characters. Do not attack these and flee the land to ship battle or ship to ship battle if you are attacked by them. Trade ships are lighter in color and follow pre-defined routes on the map. Pirate ships are spawned randomly and appear darker in color. *) You can flee from a ship to ship battle with a trade or pirate ship. Just have your main player (the one that represents yourself, i.e. the Avatar or Stranger) next to the wheel of the ship and hit the 'F' key. *) There are a few volcanoes on the main map. They will erupt periodically and a lava flow will appear. They may even hold secrets! *) If you are stuck on an island and need a pirate ship to appear so that you can attack it and take it over to escape the island, simply hole up and camp next to the water. A pirate ship should usually appear after your party wakes up. *) Every key command that was present in the original game is present in this game. There are additional uses of the keys that were not in the original game such as fleeing from a ship to ship battle mentioned above. *) There is a bank in Lord British's castle. You can deposit gold, weapon, and armor there. Note that based on the size of your party, there is a limited amount of each type of weapon and armor you can carry as well as the total amount of gold. This is more realistic than being able to carry an unlimited supply. *) Food is less of a burden in this implementation of the game. In the original game it was always a pain to keep your food supply up. Now food is used up about 1 value per party member every 8 hours. *) You can get drunk in this game. If you drink too much your character will start to move in funny ways until you sober up. If you keep drinking your character will eventually die! *) There are prostitutes in the game. If you "receive their services" you will lose virtue. Do not accept it. Barmaids are particularly know to engage in this and you can also be robbed by them. *) There are now sub levels and sewers in many towns. Only the main player will descend into these. Down there you will find many new NPC's that will give clues to numerous new side quests. Also there are "evil" creatures like rats down there. These can be killed without loss of virtue and even give some experience. As always, do not attack any human or good NPC's in these levels as that will cause loss of virtue. Again only your player character will enter these sub levels! *) In addition to the many new sub levels of the towns, Lord British's castle has new upper levels that can be explored. Be careful as you can fall off the roof and die! *) There are a number of lighthouses in the game. You can climb them to reach the top and maybe there is some use for the oil up there? Also search around the outside of the lighthouses as there could be important new NPC's around. Be careful while climbing the lighthouse ladders as you can fall off and die. *) Like mentioned above, some levels like the roof of Lord British's castle and lighthouse ladders, your character can fall off of and die. In other words there is the concept of height on some levels. You should see double the amount of tiles displayed when you are higher up to give the illusion of height. *) In addition to height, some levels now have pits that you can fall into and die. For example in the ruins of Magincia and in the caves these pits exist. A completely black tile indicates the presence of a pit. *) There are many new weapons and armor that can be obtained. Again speak to all the NPC's and especially the new ones to get the clues to finding them. *) There are new reagents that can be found. The NPC's contain the clues to finding them. *) In addition to the new reagents, there are numerous new spells that can be cast. *) A number of spells need to be learned before they can be cast. Speaking to the right NPC's will allow you to learn the spell and then it will appear in both the Mix Reagents and Cast Spell popups. *) All spells from the original game are supported with the execption of Y-Up and Z-Down. I always found these spells make exploring the dungeons unnecessary. *) You can now save in the dungeon levels, even in the Abyss! This was always a huge pain in the original game where you could only save on the main map. Save often! You cannot save in the towns, caves, etc or while in battle though. *) The dungeon levels are displayed similar to the main map, i.e. they are overworlds. I got rid of the first person display for the dungeons which I always found a bit strange and out of place with the rest of the game. *) The battle levels on the main map with monsters and in the dungeons are procedurally generated. In other words it wont be the same static maps over and over as was with the original game. *) There are difficulty levels of the game added. Hit '1', '2', or '3' to toggle between beginner, intermeditate, and expert mode. The difficulty levels affect many aspects of the game with the spawning of enemies being the most noticeable. The constant grinding of the original game got a little tedious. Switching to beginner mode will seriously reduce the amount of battles you have to fight. Of course if you want to grind to gain experience or gold then switch to expert. Expert mode is designed to be as close to the original game (which was really hard) as possible. *) There are many more ways to get gold in the game besides just fighting. Find the clues! *) Experience can be gained in the game in many ways besides just fighting, especially for your main player which represents you, the Avatar or Stranger. *) After a victory in a battle, depending on the monster type sometimes a chest will be left behind just like in the original game except now there may be weapons and armor inside not just gold. *) The moon phases and time in general operate more realistically. In parts of the original game you had to wait for both moons to be completely dark to find things such as Nightshade. In this implementation just wait for early AM nighttime hours, around 3AM is best. *) There are many new items that can be obtained that were not in the original game. One important one is a timepiece so that you can track time and find items that can only be found in the early AM hours. Speak to the NPC's to get the clues. *) In addition to many new NPC's, characters that were in the original game may have additional dialog to support finding the myriad of new weapons, armor, reagents, items, etc. that were not in the original game. Speak to everybody! *) The conversation still uses a similar matching of the prefix of what you say. Dont forget to write LOOK, JOB, HEALTH to everyone and then try to deduce what keywords will reveal more of their dialog. *) The shopkeepers operate similarly in towns as to the original game, with some slight differences. *) There are many pre-canned animations (or machinimas) in this implementation. For example when you rent a room your character will walk over to the room, open and close the door and lie down. A camera icon will appear in the top left corner if one of these animations is occurring. *) Give more gold to a beggar and they will give you a flower. The flower has a use! *) Shrine levels are much different than the original game. Simply walk up to the Oracles at the entrance to a shrine and use the correct rune to gain entry. Apprach the altar and your character will begin to meditate. If you have learned the mantra it will be automatically used so you dont have to type it. If you use the wrong rune or you havent learned the mantra you will be booted from the shrine and lose virtue. There is no concept of cycles in the shrine but the text displayed after successful meditation is the same as the original game. *) In towns, you will notice at night many of the characters go to sleep in a tent. They can still be talked to. Just go next to the tent and hit 'T' with a direction and they will wake up and engage in their normal dialog. *) When on a balloon the wind operates much like the original game. When not on a balloon there is much more accurate modeling of wind. You can use the wind spell to change the direction of the wind (when on a balloon) just like the original game. *) The balloon only had one real practical use in the original game which is to find a certain item. There may be another way to retrieve that item instead of using the balloon! *) Way more sound effects are in this implementation! Sound is attenuated by distance and obstructions like walls as in real life. *) There is real lighting in this game that is much more realistic and gets blocked off by walls, etc. This is not the same as the line of sight algorithm. *) The original game's line of sight algorithm has been replicated as exact as possible. Areas that are out of the line of sight are simply left as black tiles just like the original game. *) By finding the right clues, you can actually buy ships or balloons instead of always having to find them or beat a pirate ship in battle. *) There is a dock level where you can repair your ship and buy cannonballs. It is located near Lord British's castle. Simply move your ship over the dock tile and hit the Enter key 'E' as you would to enter a town. *) Like ship cannons, some other weapons have a limited supply of ammunition. For example you need to buy bolts for a crossbow. You don't get an unlimited supply. After a battle though your party will automatically forage the battle field to retrieve a portion of this spent ammunition. *) There is an additional skull to be found. Like the original game the skulls cannot be used without loss of all virtues except over the entrance to the Abyss. *) The Silver Horn operates slightly different. Simply use it in the right place and the daemons will disappear. You have limited to time to access the shrine and get away from it before the daemons reappear. *) Spoiler alert but have to mention it, there is a destroyed town of Atlantis that appears in the ocean somewhere. When it appears move your ship over it and hit 'E' to enter the level. You will be swimming above the ruins at that point. Exit the level as you would any other town and you will be back on your ship. *) There are new trap types on chests with a bomb being the most deadly. Again only chests with a small white skull icon in the middle can be taken. *) Orbs operate a little differently than the original game. Each party member can touch any orb exactly once. There might even be orbs in other places than the original game! Move your party or player over the orb and hit the 'S' key. *) Your party will heal slightly over time naturally, but it can take a while. There is a new spell called 'Heal All' that can really help in regaining health. Of course you can always ask Lord British to HEAL the party if you are nearby. Hit the 'H' key to hole up and camp as in the original game or rent rooms in towns to rest. Like the original game, you can be ambushed if you are camping. In beginner/intermediate mode this will happen way less often though. *) The rate of being attacked by bridge trolls while crossing is reduced in beginner and intermediate mode. The expert mode closely, if not exactly, matches the original game. *) Your character stats of Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence are used in other ways besides just fighting. For example when using a jimmy lock on a locked door. *) Jimmy locks might break when using them. As your dexterity increases the chance that it happens decreases. *) Peering at a gem by using the 'P' key (if you have a gem) or using the View spell gives a way better displayed map. In dungeon levels the map is "unrolled" as much as possible so that they are easier to understand. The original game's display was very confusing especially in dungeons that have many sections that wrap around. *) In addition to the afore mentioned timepiece, there are other items that can be used to display HUD's giving information. Your character always begins the game with a moons viewer. Again moon phases operate on an approximately 30 day cycle just like in real life and they are not really used except for visual eye candy. Even moongates just use the time of day and not the phases of the moon, but that doesn't really affect the game as you can still use them to move around the map. *) The pirate ships at the mouth of the Abyss entrance operate very similarly to the original game. They will not attack unless you go inside with your ship. If your ship escapes they will halt their attack and return to their original positions. *) There might be a way to get to the isle of Abyss and bypass the pirate ship battles... find the clues. *) There is a new item that will make your ship go faster, much like a horse that is in running mode. You can use the HMS Cape wheel to make the "health" of your ship higher. There is even a Frigate that can be purchased that gives you much stronger cannons. *) As mentioned before, there are numerous new side quests to find new weapons and armor for example. Speaking to the right NPC and gaining the clues may enable parts of the maps to be accessed that were not accessible before! *) When mixing reagents to make spells, you dont need to remember the combination of reagents for each spell. The popup will show the spell enabled or disabled based on the reagents you currently possess. *) Mana of your character is used accurately. There is a mana drain for every spell cast. The popup HUD will display green over the mana amount if your character has enought to cast it and red otherwise. The character will regain mana over time at a certain rate. *) As mentioned many times, there are many popups and HUD's used in this game. For example Ready a Weapon or Wear Armor open a HUD now. Navigate around the HUD's using the arrow keys. Selecting is with the Enter key. You should be able to exit most HUD's by using the Escape key. Certain popups like a message box will fade after a certain amount of time. *) There is the concept of being "cursed" in this game. You will need to pay for a blessing or cast a spell to undo it. A cursed character will appear as all black. *) There is also the concept of being "diseased" in this game. There are only a few limited ways for that to happen but that will kill your character no matter what you do. *) You can move and shoot diagonally! I threw this in even though it's technically not needed. Personally I have found shooting or moving diagonally to not be very useful but it's there if you want to use it. *) There are a number of actions that affect virtue, positively or negatively, that were not in the original game. A tricky new one is destroying cursed armor or weapons. Note destroying cursed armor or weapons can only be done by the main Avatar player. Just equip them and they will be destroyed. You will become cursed but gain virtue. Just use a blessing spell or go to the healer. *) There are theme songs in the background. Use the 'V' key to turn them off. As mentioned before there are many more sounds than the original game. These cannot be turned off with the 'V' key, only the background music. *) In this implementation you can become Ratava in all virtues by being as evil as possible. I have not fully tested this so I don't even know if it's possible. Becoming Ratava will make the game unwinnable though. Let me know if you can achieve it in all eight virtues! It's really just for fun to see if it can be done. Hawkwind will tell you when you can become Ratava in a virtue. The mantra is the inverse of the normal one and you visit the shrine just like when becoming Avatar in that virtue. *) The whirlpool that transports you to the lake where you can visit Cove operates the same. However as mentioned above you can usually get a pirate ship to appear by camping next to water so you may not even need the whirlpool. *) Monsters, players, and NPC's all have some animations like shaking when being hit. Like the original game some will flee if their health goes down too much. You can kill these fleeing monsters though without loss of virtue. *) In dungeon room battles, you can leave the room at any time. That is not considered fleeing. Note that any monsters you kill will not regenerate until the dungeon is exited or the game restarted. In the original game the full complement of monsters appeared in every dungeon room every time you entered it no matter how many times you went in there. *) The rate of being poisoned decreases at the lower difficulty setting and you cannot die from being poisoned in beginner mode. In the original game being poisoned happened all the time and it became very tedious. There is also a new spell called 'Cure All' that will cure the entire party of poison instead of having to cast individual Cure spells. *) If you say TIME to a guard, they will give you the current time. *) The stats popup box gives you a lot more information than the original game. It even gives you your virtue points if you have the rune for that virtue. That makes it a lot quicker than having to talk to Hawkwind all the time, although talking to him gains virtue as well. *) To drink from a dungeon or sewer fountain, just move your party or character over it and hit the 'S' search key. If you are in party mode you will then have to select who will drink. *) If you have at least one joined player in your party, when visiting the healer you will have to select which party member gets the heal, cure, resurrection, etc. Note that healers in this game also give blessings to reverse a cursed player. *) Less powerful and non-magical weapons can be broken in this game either through too much use or by hitting solid objects such as rocks or walls. *) The mystic sword can actually break rocks! It is the only weapon in the game that can. *) In addition to new items, there are new guild items. You will need to unravel new clues to be able to get or buy them. *) There are slight differences in the rendering of male and female player characters and NPC's. For example female characters have long hair. *) Because this implementation has more character animations, machinimas, etc., there will be times that keyboard input to the game will be temporarily disabled. *) In battles with spawned monsters, often you will be fighting a mix of that monster type and some added on monsters. For example if you are fighting a party of Orcs you may see other monsters in that group such as flies or bats. This just gives a little variation that the original game didn't have. Also not all monster types will leave a chest after being defeated. For example if you are fighting a group of bats how could they leave behind a treasure chest? As mentioned before though, there are other ways to get gold in this game, with some being a large amount. Hopefully this will reduce the tedious grinding of the original game. *) On the main overworld level more dangerous monsters will spawn at night. In the dungeon overworld levels even more deadly monster types spawn there. To reduce the frequence of spawning reduce the difficulty level. Note this difficulty setting can only be changed on an overworld level, i.e. the main map and dungeon levels (not dungeon rooms).
Walkthrough
Keyboard Commands
Maps
Walkthrough and Hints
Full Map
Dungeon Maps