The Collectible ULTIMA


ULTIMA II: Revenge of the Enchantress

"The climax was the devastation of 2111, Minax's greatest triumph, when ancient civilizations born of love and beauty, wisdom and reason, turned on one another in hatred and destroyed most of the very earth that had nurtured them. If it were not for the time doors, we would not be here now. Only the ability to move in time enabled any living thing to survive..."

-- from the writings of Lord British

Following on the heels of Ultima's astounding success, Richard Garriott took about two years to complete work on the second game. Mondain, it seems, had a young female apprentice - what self-respecting evil wizard wouldn't? Minax was her name, and her revenge for her mentor's death was the destruction of the entire world. Or almost: a series of breaches in the timestream gives the player one shot to travel back in time, find Minax, and defeat her, hopefully undoing all she had wrought in the process. Garriott would up signing with Sierra Online to distribute Ultima II, because they were the only company that would agree to his idea to include a cloth map with every copy of the game. Later, though, Richard and then Origin would have problems with Sierra trying to obtain publishing rights for this title. In the end, Ultima II became the only game of the first trilogy that was never independently re-released, leading to its being very rare today.



Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress Ultima II:
Revenge of the Enchantress
  • Platform: Apple II.
  • Publisher: Lord British and Sierra Online,© 1982.
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (2).
  • Author: Richard Garriott.
  • Included: Ultima II book (18pp.); Ultima II cloth map (22"x17").
  • Platform: Atari 8-bit.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online, © 1983.
  • Author: Conversion by Chuckles.
  • Platform: PC.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online, © 1983.
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (3).
This is the original version of Ultima II. Some people refer to this as the "big box" version, because it comes in on oversized 8.5"x11" box. It also has the SierraVenture logo on the bottom; this was a particular product line of Sierra (which also includes Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash) that disappeared by around 1984. There are at least three different versions of the Ultima II map (see also the Collectors Notes page). The map included with this version contains the full "Sierra Online" logo at the bottom right.


Ultima II, Black box Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Black box version
  • Platform: Commodore 64.
  • Publisher: Lord British and Sierra Online,© 1983.
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (2).
  • Included: Same as above.
  • Platform: PC.
  • Thought to exist, but not observed yet.
For some reason, Sierra decided to change the box design for some of the ports of Ultima II. In particular, I've only seen this design for the Commodore 64 port, though the box implies there's a PC version, and I suppose there could be others. Aside from the box, and the logo change from SierraVenture to Sierra Online, this version seems to be identical to the original.


Ultima II, Gray box Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Gray box version
  • Platform: Apple II.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online,© 1984.
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (2).
  • Included: Ultima II book; Ultima II cloth map (17"x22 OR 16"x12"); Reference card.
  • Platform: Atari ST.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online,© 1984.
  • Characteristics: 3.5" (1), 5.25" (2).
  • Platform: Commodore 64.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online,© 1985.
  • Author: Conversion by "Bobbit!".
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (2).
  • Platform: Macintosh.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online,© 1985.
  • Characteristics: 3.5" (1), 5.25" (2).
Sierra produced several later ports of Ultima II. Again they changed the box artwork, and this time the box was a slight 6"x9". The map also changed, to have a Sierra logo in the lower right instead of the earlier Sierra Online logo. For later runs, they apparently ran out of maps and reproduced a much smaller version without the bat symbol or corporate logo.


Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Commodore 64/Atari 8-bit combo
  • Platform: Commodore 64 AND Atari 8-bit.
  • Publisher: Sierra Online,© 1985.
  • Characteristics: 5.25" (2).
  • Included: Same as above.
This is exactly like the gray box version above, but for two different platforms. The "A" sides of the disks contain the Commodore 64 version of the game, and the "B" sides contain the Atari 800 (8-bit) version. Go figure. Presumably, "Bobbit" did both conversions. They may have released the Atari version separately too, but I haven't seen it.


Ultima II, Origin version Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Origin version

Now this is not a separate commercial version of Ultima II, but it bears mentioning. Around 1985 Origin acquired the rights to Ultima II from Sierra and began remaking the early games. In particular, they removed any references to Sierra (such as the ending text that referred to a Sierra adventure game) and replaced them (in this case, with a reference to Ultima III). But while Origin's Ultima I got rereleased as a separate commercial product, Ultima II didn't; it can only be found in the Ultima collections Origin put out. In fact, if you look at the front of the "first trilogy" collection, you'll find that the artwork representing Ultima II is actually the cover of Akalabeth, not Sierra's Ultima II cover. Origin replaced it, presumably because they don't own the rights to the "moongate" cover shown above. The whole story is an interesting example of how convoluted intellectual property rights can become.



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