Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures, also known as Unlimited Adventures, or by the acronyms FRUA or UA, is a computer game originally released on March 17, 1993 by Strategic Simulations, Inc. for the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Strategic Simulations, Inc. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The iMac G5, Apples flagship consumer desktop. ...

The chief feature of interest in this computer role-playing game is that it contains an editor that allows the user of the game to create new adventures that anyone else who owns the game can play. The game uses a variant of TSR, Inc.'s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules in the gameplay. The engine within which adventures are played is based on the "Gold Box" engine that made its debut in the game Pool of Radiance. Despite being based on an 8-bit engine, and having limited graphic resolution of 320×200 pixels, the versatility and ease of use offered by this engine has created a community of users who remain active to the present day. A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. ... TSR was a company formed as Tactical Studies Rules in 1972 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye (and others later) to publish the rule set for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. ... The original Dungeons & Dragons set Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast. ... Gold Box is the name for a series of computer games produced by SSI Simulations. ... Pool of Radiance, released in 1988, was the first of a long series of computer role playing games that shared a common engine that came to be known as the Gold Box Engine after the gold boxes in which most games of the series were sold. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... A pixel (a portmanteau of picture element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ...

The original game allowed the user to create dungeon modules, some editing and renaming of monsters and characters, and to import pictures and monster sprites. However, some art, such as walls, combat backdrops, and title screens, could not be changed in the unmodified game. The dungeon of Bothwell Castle seen from the Great Hall A dungeon (derived from the Old French donjon, from the Latin dominus, lord), in its original medieval usage, was the keep, the main tower of a castle which formed the final defensive position the garrison could retreat to when outer... Monster is a term for any number of legendary creatures that frequently appear in mythology, legend, and horror fiction. ...

Those deficiencies have been overcome by a now fairly extensive library of hacks, that allows the designer to change things not changeable in the game out of the box. Other hacks allow the designer to alter the game play itself: to create new weapons and other items, to alter spells, and otherwise to change other aspects of gameplay. The availability of these hacks has led to the creation of a number of comprehensive "worldhacks," designed to allow the creation of science fiction, superhero, Western and Roman Empire adventures, among others. A programme called "UASHELL" applies and manages these hacks and enables the player to apply them. The fanmade game design program Dungeon Craft (originally called UA Forever) is a stand-alone program that partially emulates FRUA's engine, but with a greater ease of user modification. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Superman (left) and Batman, two of the most recognizable and influential superheroes. ... Western fiction is a genre of literature that is typically set in any of the American states west of the Mississippi River and between the years of approximately 1860 and 1900. ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ...

More than seven hundred adventure designs have been created for this game. They vary widely in quality, and the best of them are comparable in depth to the original commercial releases.

External links:

• The Magic Mirror: The largest FRUA resource online
• UA Mailing List
• Dungeon Craft at Sourceforge
• Dungeon Craft at The Ironworks
• Manikus' Dungeon Craft page