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The Commodore 64/128 versions of ''Wizardry'' 1-3 share a common code base with the Apple originals, as they all use the same run-time 6502 Pascal interpreter which provides support for overlays and low-level functions to interface with the hardware. USCD Pascal was also used for the IBM versions, but with an x86 version of the interpreter.
Sir-Tech did not initially make any effort to port the game to platforms other than the Apple II, citing the slowness of the Commodore 64's disk drive and the lack of storage space on the Atari 8-bit's drives. The IBM port was released in 1984 and a Macintosh port a little after that; the Mac version has a completely revamped GUI interface with menus and mouse controls.
The Wizardry games were also ported to Japanese personal computers such as the [[NEC PC-8801]] and became extremely popular and influential in Japan. The JPC ports introduced several improvements such as a more user friendly interface; the player could select spells from a list instead of manually typing them; in addition the spells had literal names that described their purpose instead of the nonsense words from the Apple II games.
The C64/C128 did not get a port of any of the Wizardry games until 1987, six years after it originally debuted on the Apple II. It has been suggested that this delay was due to the lack of USCD p-System libraries for the C64, which had become available since then (the Atari 8-bit computers never received any libraries). As the C64 ports came later, they made use of the UI improvements from the Japanese PC ports of the games.
The [[Nintendo Entertainment System]]/Famicom received ports of the Wizardry games as well; Wizardry I and II were released in North America by FCI/Pony Canyon, but Wizardry III was not released outside Japan. In addition, Wizardry III was ported to the console before Wizardry II. These ports have a streamlined interface designed to be played with the NES controller instead of a keyboard, full color dungeons and background music--the games also provide the player with an option to disable them and use wire frame graphics and no music if he desired the look and feel of the computer original more. The NES ports were designed to be more accessible and friendly for children to play than the computer games; they auto-save the player's progress each time a battle is won and the player cannot die from old age if he plays long enough. In Japan the games supported the ASCII TurboFile, a device that plugged into the expansion port on the Famicom, so the player could transfer his party between the different editions of the game; this gimmick was removed from the North American releases.
Lengthy load time and extensive disk access was a problem with ''Wizardry''; however, the Commodore versions, which particularly suffer from this, provided a variety of workarounds. In C128 mode, the VDC memory is used to store overlays and REUs are supported in both C64 and C128 mode. Wizardry 2-5 also detect if 16k or 64k of VDC memory is present and can use the 1571 drive's burst mode for faster load time.
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