Ultima Dragons

The Ultima Dragons are the largest Ultima fan club. They are also known as Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter, or UDIC due to their previous history.

History
The Ultima Dragons are the largest and longest-running Ultima fan club, founded by Doug Ricket (Gold Dragon) in early 1992 on Prodigy. By mid-1994, the club had disbanded and dispersed due to changes in the Prodigy Network's fee structures, but reformed on the Internet in fall 1994 due to the efforts of an ex-Prodigy member of the Ultima Dragons, Ethereal Dragon. There is a website dedicated to the club, including a roster of members. The club members gather in Usenet (particularly in [news:rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons] newsgroup), but large numbers of the members also gather in various Ultima-related web message boards, and a MOO called the Weyrmount.

As a tribute to their fandom, Origin released the Dragon Edition of Ultima IX which was a premium edition of the game with extra content such as a cloth map, a metal ankh, and tarot cards.

Two individual members have also received tributes in Ultima Games.


 * Arbuthnot Dragon (William Jensen) in Ultima V (he and his family may be found in one of the game's lighthouses), and the guidebook for Ultima Underworld I (as a former bearer of the Ring of Humility). He also created the Codex symbol which comes with Ultima V.
 * Umbrae Dragon (Jim Hammons)'s appearance was used in Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle as the face of the mage Ensorcio.

The group is currently most active on the UDIC Facebook group, which has over 1000 members.

Projects
Several members of the Ultima Dragons have been involved in remake projects regarding the Ultima series, some of which have received critical acclaim.

Ultima V: Lazarus is the most prominent of these remake projects. It recieved reviews in Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, and a number of other gaming publications worldwide, and has received other press from multiple sources, including Slashdot. Several members of the UDIC were involved in its development.

Exult is also popular, though it is different from Lazarus in that it is less of a ground up remake and more of an engine replacement. It started life as a map viewer and evolved into a full fledged multi-platform engine for Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle. Many of its developers are UDIC members, including Colourless Dragon (Ryan Nunn) who wrote several of the integral parts of the engine - movement, rendering, NPC flags, and SI support - as well as Dominus Dragon (Dominik Reichardt), who wrote and maintains the documentation. "Lord British" (Richard Garriott) the series creator gave his own unofficial support to the project.