Ultima VII: The Black Gate

MS-DOS, SNES, PSP1992

  1. JP1994
  2. NA1992
  3. EU1992
  4. RU—

On PC the game is Ultima VII: The Black Gate; the reworked Super NES version is called Ultima: The Black Gate. Today the DOS original is sold on GOG as part of Ultima 7 The Complete Edition, running through DOSBox.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate is a role-playing game developed and published by Origin Systems for MS-DOS on 17 April 1992. Richard Garriott designed it, Ken Demarest programmed it and Raymond Benson was among the writers. The PC version used a custom DOS extender called Voodoo that ran the CPU in unreal mode and clashed with standard DPMI extenders.

The Forge of Virtue expansion followed on 7 September 1992, and later compilations bundled the game with Serpent Isle. A heavily changed Super NES version was published by Pony Canyon in Japan on 18 November 1994 and by FCI in North America in November 1994; it returned on PSP in the EA Replay compilation in 2006.

Japanese Wikipedia notes that no complete port of Ultima VII ever came out in Japan.12

Names and releases

RegionTitle on the boxPlatformDatePublisherSrc
NA Ultima VII: The Black GateGOG lists 16 April 1992. MS-DOS Apr 17, 1992 Origin Systems 1
NA Ultima VII: Forge of VirtueExpansion; included in all later releases. MS-DOS Sep 7, 1992 Origin Systems 1
NA Ultima VII: Complete EditionBoth Ultima VII parts and both expansions on 3.5-inch floppies. MS-DOS 1993 Origin Systems 1
NA Ultima: The Black Gate SNES November 1994 FCI 1
NA The Complete Ultima VIICD-ROM. MS-DOS 1994 Origin Systems 1
NA EA ReplayIncludes the Super NES version. PSP Nov 14, 2006 Electronic Arts 1
EU Ultima VII: The Black GateUK publisher. MS-DOS 1992 Mindscape 1
JP —Super Famicom; the Japanese title could not be confirmed from accessible sources. SNES Nov 18, 1994 Pony Canyon 1

Also known as: Ultima: The Black Gate NA1The Complete Ultima VII NA1Ultima 7 The Complete Edition WW3

Box art by region

  • Ultima VII: The Black Gate box art, North America release
    NA Ultima VII: The Black Gate

Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.

Version differences

  • GameplaySuper NES

    The Super NES version drops the party system, so the Avatar travels alone.1

  • CensorshipSuper NES

    To meet Nintendo's content guidelines, the murder investigations of the PC story became kidnapping investigations on the Super NES.1

  • ContentSuper NES

    Maps, many items and plotlines were redesigned for the Super NES, which squeezed the whole game into one megabyte against about 20 MB on PC.1

All differences (5)

Translations

  • German Official

    Origin SystemsMS-DOS · PC versionReleased

    Wikipedia lists English, German, French and Spanish as the game's languages.1

  • Spanish Official

    Origin SystemsMS-DOS · PC versionReleased

    Spanish is among the game's listed languages, but the current GOG edition is English only.1

Where to play legally today

  • GOG Purchase

    Ultima 7 The Complete Edition

    DOS version with DOSBox; English only

    Checked: 2026-10-134gog.com

How to run it today

The GOG edition runs the DOS version through DOSBox on Windows and macOS. Exult, a free GPL recreation of the engine with Richard Garriott's unofficial blessing, plays the game on modern systems using the data from a legal copy.

1

Reception

Ultima VII was a commercial success and cost about $1 million to make. Computer Gaming World nominated it for Role-Playing Game of the Year 1992, and PC Gamer placed it 10th on a 2011 list.1

In lists

Sources

  1. 1en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2ja.wikipedia.org
  3. 3catalog.gog.com
  4. 4gog.com

Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13

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