The first three Ultimas asked the player to kill an evil wizard. The fourth had no villain at all: the goal was to become a good person, and the game was watching how you behaved.
Follows: Ultima III: Exodus
What Changed
Removed the villain entirely — the quest is to become a virtuous person, not to defeat an enemy
Introduced eight virtues built from three principles: Truth, Love and Courage
Tracked the player's moral conduct invisibly, turning ordinary actions like theft into consequences
Made the character creation itself a moral test, through a series of ethical dilemmas posed by a gypsy fortune teller
Replaced a final battle with a pilgrimage to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in the Stygian Abyss
Established the Avatar as the protagonist of every Ultima that followed
Key Facts
Released for the Apple II on 16 September 1985 by Origin Systems
Garriott wrote it after noticing that his earlier games rewarded stealing and murdering peaceful citizens, and after letters from angry parents
The Avatar concept was inspired by a television programme about the avatars of Hindu mythology
Sold more than 100,000 copies in the US by August 1986 and over 400,000 worldwide by May 1989
Later ported to the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, MS-DOS, NES and Master System