Ultima (video game series)

"Ultima" is a series of fantasy computer role-playing games from Origin Systems, Inc. "Ultima" was created by Richard Garriott, a.k.a. Lord British. Several games of the series are considered seminal games of their genre. Today, Electronic Arts holds the brand.

Overview

The main "Ultima" series consists of nine installments (the seventh is further divided into two parts) which are grouped into trilogies or "Ages": The Age of Darkness ("Ultima I-III"), The Age of Enlightenment ("Ultima IV-VI"), and The Age of Armageddon ("Ultima VII-IX"), also referred as "The Guardian Saga" after its chief antagonist. The first three games were set in a fantasy world named Sosaria but during the cataclysmic events of The Age of Darkness, three quarters of it vanish. What is left becomes known as Britannia, a realm ruled by the benevolent Lord British where the later games mostly take place. The protagonist of all games is a canonically male resident of Earth who is called upon by Lord British to protect Sosaria and later, Britannia from various dangers. Originally, the player character was referred as "the Stranger" in the games but by the end of "Ultima IV", he becomes universally known as the Avatar.

In ' (1980), the Stranger is first summoned to Sosaria to defeat the evil wizard Mondain who aims to enslave it. Since Mondain possesses the Gem of Immortality, which makes him invulnerable, the Stranger locates a time machine, travels back in time to kill Mondain before he creates the Gem, and shatters the incomplete artifact. ' (1982) details Mondain's secret student and lover Minax's attempt to avenge him. Having destroyed Earth, Minax launches the conquest of Sosaria but the Stranger escapes Earth in time, pursues the evil sorceress to the Castle Shadowguard at the Origin of Time and defeats her. "" (1983) reveals that Mondain and Minax had an offspring, the titular Exodus, "neither human, nor machine", according to the later games. Some time after Minax's death, Exodus starts his own attack on Sosaria and the Stranger is summoned once again to destroy it. "Exodus" was the first installment of the series featuring a player party system, which was used in many later games.

' (1985) marked a turning point in the series from the traditional "hero vs. villain" plots, instead introducing a complex alignment system based upon the Eight Virtues. Although Britannia now prospers under Lord British's rule, he fears for his subjects' spiritual well-being and summons the Stranger again to become a spiritual leader of Britannian people by example. Throughout the game, the Stranger's actions determine how close he comes to the ideal and upon achieving enlightenment in every Virtue, he becomes their "Avatar". In ' (1988), Avatar returns to Britannia to find that after Lord British had been lost in the Underworld, his throne was usurped by Lord Blackthorn who enforces a radically twisted vision of the Virtues, deviating considerably from their original meaning. Avatar and his companions overthrow the tyrant and restore the Virtues in their true form. "" (1990) details the invasion of Britannia by Gargoyles, which Avatar and his companions have to repel, and explores the themes of racism and xenophobia.

The spin-off "Worlds of Ultima" series uses the game engine of "Ultima VI" and describes Avatar's adventures after its conclusion. In ' (1990), a failed experiment transports Avatar to the Valley of Eodon, a jungle world populated by thirteen primitive tribes whom he unites against a common enemy, the insectoid Myrmidex. ' (1991) takes place after "The Savage Empire" and sees Avatar travel back in time to the Victorian era and eventually land on Mars to rescue humans stranded on it by accident and to restore the native Martian civilization. The third game, "Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 3: Arthurian Legends" was planned to be set in the times of King Arthur but was canceled in 1993.

"Ultima VII" consists of two games: "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" (1992) and "Ultima VII, Part Two: Serpent Isle" (1993), with an expansion pack released for each ("Forge of Virtue" and "The Silver Seed", respectively). In "The Black Gate", Avatar is entangled in the plan of a seemingly virtuous organization named the Fellowship to create a gateway for the evil entity known as the Guardian to enter Britannia. Following the Fellowship's defeat, its founder Batlin flees to the Serpent Isle, the remnant of a lost Sosarian continent, and is pursued by Avatar and companions in "Part Two". By the end of the game, Avatar confronts the Guardian but is overpowered and thrown into another world, where ' (1994) is set. In "Pagan", Avatar masters the ways of Elemental Titans, god-like servants of the Guardian now controlling that world, defeats them with their own magic, and finally returns to Britannia. An expansion pack, "The Lost Vale", was canceled after "Ultima VIII" failed to meet sales expectations. The final installment of the series, ' (1999) sees Britannia conquered and its Virtues corrupted by the Guardian, so Avatar has to cleanse and restore them. The Guardian is revealed to be the evil part of Avatar himself, expelled from him when he became the Avatar. To stop it, he has to merge with it, destroying himself as a separate entity. The featured a more apocalyptic ending, with the Guardian and Lord British killed, Britannia destroyed, and Avatar ascending to a higher plane of existence.

The second spin-off series, "Ultima Underworld", consisted of two games. Set after "Ultima VI", ' (1992) sees Avatar descending into the Great Stygian Abyss to rescue a Britannian baron's kidnapped daughter and prevent the summoning of a powerful demon. ' (1993) is set between the two parts of "Ultima VII" and starts with the Guardian trapping Lord British, Avatar and his companions within impenetrable barrier in their castle. To free them, Avatar has to travel through several parallel universes looking for a way to undo the spell.

"Ultima Online" (1997), a MMORPG spin-off of the main series, has become an unexpected hit, making it one of the earliest and longest running successful MMORPGs of all time. Its lore retconned the ending of "Ultima I", stating that when the Stranger shattered the Gem of Immortality, he discovered that it was tied to the world itself, therefore its shards each contained a miniature version of Britannia. The player characters in "Ultima Online" exist on these "shards". Seven expansion packs for "UO" have been released (', ', ', ', ', ', and '), with the eighth (') currently in development. The aging "UO" graphic engine was renewed in 2007 with the official ' client. "Ultima Online 2", later renamed to ' and canceled in 2001, would have introduced steampunk elements to the game world, following Lord British's unsuccessful attempt to merge past, present, and future shards together.

The canceled MMORPG "" (2004) would have continued the story of "Ultima IX". Now merged with the Guardian, Avatar creates a world of Alucinor inside his mind, where the players were supposed to pursue the Eight Virtues in order to strengthen him and weaken the Guardian. "Ultima X" was developed without participation of the original creator Richard Garriott and he no longer owns the rights to the series. However, he still owns the rights to several of the game characters so it is impossible for either him or Electronic Arts to produce a new "Ultima" title without getting permission from each other.

"Ultima" game boxes often contained so-called "feelies"; i.e. from "Ultima II" on, every game in the main series came with a cloth map of the game world. Because the maps were crucial to navigation in the Ultima game, they also served as anti-software piracy devices, since the primitive file sharing methods of the 1980s did not allow transferring large images over the early low-baud rate computer connections used by darknets. Furthermore, the map was large (18" x 12") and in color, and so was not easily reproduced by photocopiers. Starting with "Ultima IV", small trinkets like pendants, coins and magic stones were found in the boxes. Made of metal or glass, they usually represented an important object also found within the game itself. These other feelies served a similar purpose, being crucial elements of the gameplay not otherwise represented in the game itself, and it was almost impossible to transfer their images over phone lines or by the low capacity floppy disks of the time.

Media

Games

Main series

* "" (1980)
* "" (1982)
* "" (1983)
* "" (1985)
* "" (1988)
* "" (1990)
* "" (1992)
** "" (Expansion Pack) (1993)
* "" (1993)
** "" (Expansion Pack) (1993)
* "" (including Speech Pack) (1994)
* "" (1999)

Collections

* "Ultima Trilogy" (1989) - an early compilation of the first three "Ultima" games released for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and DOS by Origin Systems.
* "Ultima: The Second Trilogy" (1992) - a later trilogy of the second three "Ultima" games released by Origin Systems for Commodore 64 and DOS.
* "Ultima I-VI Series" (1992) - a compilation of the first six "Ultima" games and published for DOS by Software Toolworks. Includes reprints of the instruction manuals and original maps.

Ultima Collection

The "Ultima Collection" is a CD-ROM collection of the first eight "Ultima" computer games (MS-DOS versions only), including their respective expansion packs. It was released in February 17, 1998 for Windows 95/98 and DOS. The disk will not work as such on Windows 2000 or newer; a DOS Emulator such as DOSBox and some manual work is required to get all the games working on modern versions of Windows. The included version of "" is incomplete, see for details.

Along with "Ultima"'s I-VIII this collection also included:
* The PC port of "Akalabeth".
* A sneak preview of "Ultima IX" with an interview with Richard Garriott.
* A complete atlas of the maps used in each game.
* The original documentation converted into Windows help file format.

Other games

* " (a.k.a. Ultima 0)" (1980)
* "" (1983) — not considered canonical part of the series, as it was produced by Sierra On-Line without any authorization from Garriott and has little in common with the other games of the series. Highly sought after by collectors due to extreme rarity.

* (a.k.a. Worlds of Ultima):
** "" (1990)
** "" (1991)

* Ultima Underworld:
** "" (1992)
** "" (1993)

Unreleased games

* "Arthurian Legends" (cancelled in 1993)
* "" (expansion pack, cancelled in 1994)
* "" (a.k.a. "Ultima Online 2", cancelled in 2001)
* "" (cancelled in 2004)

Ultima Online

An MMORPG version of the world of Britannia. In "Ultima Online", thousands of players interact online in Britannia. See "Ultima Online" for more information.

"UO" spawned two sequel efforts that were cancelled before release: ' (cancelled in 2001, though the game's storyline was published in the Technocrat War trilogy.) and ' (cancelled in 2004). However, several expansions were released for "Ultima Online", adding new features and areas to be explored. They are ', ', ', ', ', ', and "".

Console games

Console versions of "Ultima" have allowed further exposure to the series, especially in Japan where the games have been bestsellers and were accompanied by several tie-in products including "Ultima" manga.In most cases, gameplay and graphics have been changed significantly.

*"Ultima: Exodus" (NES)
*"Ultima: Quest of the Avatar" (NES)
*"Ultima IV : Quest of the Avatar" (Sega Master System) — A faithful port of the original. Only released in English.
*"Ultima: Warriors of Destiny" (NES)
*"Ultima: Runes of Virtue" (Game Boy) — Non-canonical, action based gameplay and puzzle solving. The game's antagonist is called the "Black Knight." This is Garriott's favorite console-based "Ultima". [http://www.gamespot.com/features/ultima/g15.html]
*"Ultima: Runes of Virtue 2" (Game Boy, Super NES)
*"Ultima VI: The False Prophet" (SNES) — Gameplay adapted for the game pad. Includes plot changes and reduction in violence.
*"Ultima VII: The Black Gate" (SNES) — Gameplay adapted for the game pad. Includes plot changes and reduction in violence.
*"Ultima: The Savage Empire" (SNES) — A graphical update using the "Black Gate" engine for the SNES. Japan only, cancelled in the US.
*"Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss" (PlayStation) — Uses 3D models rather than the 2D sprites of the original. Released only in Japan.

Remakes and new games

* "" - A remake of "Ultima V" by volunteer programmers using the "Dungeon Siege" engine. The final version of the game, "Ultima V: Lazarus" v1.2, was released on April 1, 2006. ( [http://www.u5lazarus.com website] )
* " [http://www.u6project.com The Ultima 6 Project] " - A remake of "Ultima VI" also using the "Dungeon Siege" engine. Currently in development, with four demos released.
* " [http://ultima.cfkasper.de/ Titans of Ether] " merges two former development efforts, both originally based on ' game engine. "Ultima IX: Redemption" is an effort to create an alternative to "Ultima IX: Ascension", writing a new ending to the Age of the Guardian saga of the Ultima series. Production is approximately 75% completed as of December 2007. "Ultima X: The New King", a sequel to Ultima IX: Redemption, will be created by the same team and will likely feature ' game engine.
* " [http://www.biggles2k.com/darkcore/ Ultima: The Dark Core] " is a post "Ultima VIII" game made for web browsers by Michael D. Hilborn.

Novels

*"The Ultima Saga", by Lynn Abbey (Warner Books)
**" [http://www.lynnabbey.com/html/forge_of_virtue.html The Forge of Virtue] " (1991)
**" [http://www.lynnabbey.com/html/temper_of_wisdom.html The Temper of Wisdom] " (1992)

*"Ultima: The Technocrat War", by Austen Andrews (Pocket Books)
**"Machinations" (2001)
**"Masquerade" (2002)
**"Maelstrom" (2002)

Manga

*"Ultima: EXODUS No Kyoufu" (The Terror of EXODUS)
*"Ultima: Quest of the Avatar"
*"Ultima: Magincia no Metsubou" (The Fall of Magincia)

Engine rewrite projects

* [http://xu4.sourceforge.net xu4] - An open-source, portable "Ultima IV" engine.
* [http://nu5.sourceforge.net nu5] - A planned open-source, portable "Ultima V" engine.
* Nuvie ( [http://nuvie.sourceforge.net website] ) - An open-source, work-in-progress, portable "Ultima VI" engine (also supports "The Savage Empire" and "Martian Dreams").
* Exult ( [http://exult.sourceforge.net website] ) - An open-source, portable "Ultima VII" engine (supports all four "Ultima VII" titles).
* Pentagram ( [http://pentagram.sourceforge.net website] ) - An open-source, work-in-progress, portable "Ultima VIII" engine (may later work with the "Crusader" series).

Characters

* The Avatar
* The Companions of the Avatar
** Dupre
** Gwenno
** Iolo
** Jaana
** Katrina
** Shamino
* Batlin
* Lord Blackthorn
* Lord British
* Chuckles
* Exodus
* The Guardian
* Mondain
* Minax
* Smith, Iolo's talking horse
* Dr. Johann Schliemann Spector, a.k.a. Zipactriotl
* The Time Lord

Ultima Dragons

The Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter (http://www.udic.org) is a large fanclub of Ultima devotees. Some members have been honored with tributes to them in various games in the "Ultima" series, and the "Dragon Edition" of "Ultima IX" was named in their honor.

It was founded on Prodigy in 1992 as a "help club" to assist members and guests on completing the games in the series. It also became a social club where members shared tips and special tricks to take advantage of "easter eggs" built into the game. Changes to Prodigy's rate system and the expansion of the Internet caused the group to leave Prodigy.

ee also

* Artificial scripts in Ultima series
* Britannia
* Felucca
* Gargish
* List of characters based on developers in Ultima series
* List of Ultima series characters
* Moongate
* Richard Garriott
* Sosaria
* Stones (song)
* Trammel
* Virtues of Ultima
*

External links

* [http://www.origin.ea.com/ Origin Systems, Inc.] (redirects to the "Ultima Online" website)
* [http://www.uo.com/archive/ The official Ultima WWW Archive] - Information and files concerning the entire saga
*moby game|id=-group/ultima-series|name="Ultima" series
* [http://www.gamespot.com/features/ultima/ The Ultima Legacy from GameSpot] - A historical overview of the series
* [http://www.udic.org/ Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter]
* [http://ultima.wikia.com The Codex of Editable Wisdom (Ultima Wiki)]
* [http://www.ultima-universe.com Ivanhoe's Ultima Universe] Fan Site