Ultima IV Short

Release on the apple 2 in 1985. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is old school in the truest sense. In order to play this surprising large text based rpg you WILL need the following: Notepad, Reference Card, Spellbook, Cluebook, Translated Map and ManuAl.

t may take some study but it can be just as rewarding as any modern game of this genre. There are some things that may offend your modern expectations. Having no ingame map can be frustrating. Its also not super clear that from the start you're not necessarily supposed to just kill everything to level up your character. The aim is to live a virtuous life and become the titular Avatar.

Combat is turn based and the enemies can be quite varied. Snakes poison will last after the battle ala pokemon style, reapers will put your party to sleep and trolls use ranged attacks.

Preparation and finding the right town for supplies is key to ensuring long term survival as death can be quite punishing after accumulating a large amount of wealth. 

Ultima IV is available from gog.com.