Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES)

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar is a loose adaptation of Ultima IV with many gameplay alterations to account for the limitations of NES hardware (mainly its lack of a keyboard) and to be more accessible to players whose only experience with RPGs was Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy.

Unused Spells#

Three unused spells can be hacked into your spellbook by modifying the data at $681B-$681E in RAM. In the US version they are all named "!", but in the Japanese version they have unique names. None of them appears to do anything, and one of them can't be cast anywhere.

"Darkness". Listed between Quick and Sleep on the third page of the Recipe menu. Uses Silkweb and Fungus. Appears in the Magic menu in battle and can be selected and cast; it costs 25 MP and does apparently nothing (not even flash the screen).

"Metamor". Listed between Negate and Destroy on the third page of the Recipe menu. Uses Ginseng, Garlic and Moss. Does not appear in the Magic menu anywhere - neither on the world map, in towns, in battles, nor in dungeons.

"Inner Light". Listed between Life and Defeat on the last page of the Recipe menu. Uses Ash, Ginseng, Garlic, and Silkweb. Appears in the Magic menu everywhere except in battle. It costs a whopping 60 MP and does apparently nothing (not even flash the screen).

Regional Differences#

Japan	US

In the US version, the positions of two stat names in the Status window were accidentally reversed: きようさ (dexterity) became INT and かしこさ (intelligence) became DEX. As a result, a character's maximum MP in the US version is determined by their "DEX" and the accuracy of their physical attacks is determined by their "INT".