LairWare's Special Version

Ultima III has thousands of fans around the world, and here's the home for the Mac users among them.
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LairWare's Special Version

Post by Guest » Thu May 06, 2004 3:40 pm

One thing that sets LairWare's version apart from almost* any other recent Ultima remake/update is that it was allowed to include data from the original program in its distribution. exult, nuvie and so forth are great, but they all require that you supply the data files from an original (usually Windows version) of the program.

Even though the U3Project is cool, I can't use a legal copy of Ultima III for Mac (from Origin, not LairWare) to run their game. I've got to find a Windows version to pirate or pay extrordinary dollars for since they have become rather rare (even the compilation CD's are getting pricey). With Lairware's software I don't even need a legal Mac version of Ultima III, the Lairware version is legally blessed.

I know that Origin was bought by EA and that EA just doesn't respond to the efforts of the update writers. I'd be very interested to know just how Beastie was able to arrange commercial resale of the complete Ultima III without these problems. Some game companies find value in being able to keep their old games off the market (so you'll buy a rehash of what's basically the same game), was Beastie simply able to arrange a deal about Ultima III before this modern philosophy of "kill old games to sell new ones" came about?

-- William

(*Of course the other update that doesn't need original files is the Ultima IV remake hosted at xu4.sf.net. It's based on the data files from the IBM DOS version of Ultima IV which Origin released for public consumption. This wasn't really done with EA's blessing as much as being done in a manner they can't complain about.)
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