The Armory · The Avatar Engine
The Avatar Engine
A modern reimagining of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985) — the real game intact underneath, dressed in modern art, mouse control, maps, and adaptive music.
Windows Installer · Self-contained · v2.0.0
JRH Avatarv2.0.0
A complete, self-contained engine for Ultima IV, with a bundled Java runtime — nothing else to install. A full 256-tile modern art set (with the original EGA graphics one keypress away), complete mouse support, in-game maps, adaptive music, and dozens of quality-of-life features, while keeping the true 1985 game intact underneath. Playable start to finish, from character creation to the Codex ending.
On first launch, the engine helps you fetch the free game data. It walks you through downloading the free, legal Ultima IV data yourself — a normal one-time step, not a bug — then fetches, unpacks, and files it automatically. The engine ships no Ultima IV content of its own; this “bring your own free game data” model is the project’s legal foundation, in the tradition of Exult and xu4.
Windows may warn you the first time. Because the installer isn’t code-signed, Windows might show a “Windows protected your PC” screen. Click More info → Run anyway — standard for independent software.
◆ New in v2.0.0
🎨Painted dungeons. 260 pieces of art across ten themes — icy Deceit, dragon-scorched Destard, the blood-red Abyss. Every dungeon now looks like the sin it is named for.
👤A real equipment screen. 58 hand-made character portraits that change with the armour you wear, your readied weapon in hand, and a blue glow on enchanted gear.
📓The Avatar’s Notebook. Captures conversation clues and gossip automatically, maps where you have been, and holds your own notes alongside them.
⚖Verified complete. 2.0.0 ships behind a systematic audit against the game’s own data files — not against anyone’s memory of it. All 26 command verbs reachable. All 26 spells mixable, castable and effective. 254 of 256 dialogue records reachable, and the other two are unreachable in the original as well.
✨All 21 virtue rules firing. Six of Ultima IV’s rules about virtue — the subject the whole game is about — were found inert when the audit began. Attacking someone peaceful. Giving alms. Donating blood. Sparing a wounded animal that turns to flee. They work now.