Origin
Origin Systems, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated as OSI) was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas, that was active from 1983 to 2004. It is most famous for the Ultima and Wing Commander game series.
History[edit]
The company was founded in 1983 by brothers Robert and Richard Garriott ("Lord British"), their father Owen, and Chuck "Chuckles" Bueche after Richard had terminated his contract with Sierra Online to publish the third part in Richard's Ultima series, Ultima III.
Origin produced many successful games including the Ultima series, Wing Commander series, Strike Commander, Crusader, System Shock, and Wings of Glory.
However, in the summer of 1992, Origin came into serious financial problems. The market for home computer ports had vanished rather abruptly, leaving Origin with their remaining stocks of these ports. Also the re-tooling of the distribution pipeline for the IBM PC had cost them many resources. It was impossible to get a loan since right during that time the banking system in Texas was in a severe crisis. In September 1992 Electronic Arts (EA) acquired the company.
While people at Origin at first thought it would open new resources to them, EA quickly moved to streamline the company to increase profits and gave them deadlines for the games, that often were impossible to hold. This caused Ultima VII Part Two, but especially Ultima VIII lose numerous plot elements just because there was not any time to finish them. Ultima IX even was pretty much crippled because of the deadline being far too tight, resulting in a bug-ridden game with an emergency-plot created at the last minute.
In 1997, they released one of the earliest and most successful graphical Massively multiplayer online role-playing games: Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999. However, within a year's time, EA cancelled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2, Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000.
In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on the Ultima franchise such as Ultima X, originally to be released in 2004 but later cancelled. In February of 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts.
Logo Gallery[edit]
Officially, Origin only had three logos in its history. However, the second logo is sub-divided further in the games themselves due to going through a significant change in 1991. Therefore the gallery below speaks of four logos.
Logo in the games
First logo (Ultima I-V) 1983 - 1988
Second logo (Ultima VI, WoU) 1988 - 1991
Third logo (Ultima VII-VIII) 1991 - 1996
Fourth logo (Ultima IX, UO) 1996 - 2004
Official print logo
Print version of the first logo, 1983 - 1988
Print version of the second and third logo, 1988 - 1996
Print version of the fourth logo, 1996 - 2004
Characteristics[edit]
Origin's motto was "We create worlds" and its games were known for their well-realized (if not always creative) plots and the amount of detail furnished into the game's stories.
The original Wing Commander, for instance, came with a booklet purporting to be a shipboard magazine named Claw Marks, written and published by the crew of the Tiger's Claw (ghost written by Aaron Allston); it provided the player with a number of irrelevancies (such as an interview with the star of a popular televised wartime drama) as well as convenient statistics and user guides for ships, weapon systems, and information regarding pilots and tactics on both Terran and Kilrathi sides and also hints on a rich background history. Claw Marks was actually a fairly rare commodity on eBay before it was re-released as part of the Kilrathi Saga packaging.
List of Games[edit]
| Year | Ultima | Wing Commander | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Ultima III: Exodus | Caverns of Callisto | |
| 1985 | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar | Moebis: The Orb of Celestial Harmony | |
| 1986 | Ultima I Remake - The First Age of Darkness | Auto Duel
Ogre Ring Quest 2400 A.D. | |
| 1988 | Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny | Times of Lore | |
| 1989 | Knights of Legend
Omega Space Rogue Tangle Tales: The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice Windwalker | ||
| 1990 | Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Worlds of Ultima - Savage Empire |
Wing Commander
Secret Missions |
Bad Blood |
| 1991 | Worlds of Ultima - Martian Dreams | Wing Commander II - Vengeance of the Kilrathi
Special Operations |
|
| 1992 | Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss | ||
| 1993 | Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle |
Wing Commander Academy
Wing Commander Privateer |
ShadowCaster
Strike Commander |
| 1994 | Ultima VIII: Pagan | Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger
Wing Commander Armada |
Meta Morph
Pacific Strike |
| 1995 | BioForge
CyberMage: Darklight Awakening Wings of Glory | ||
| 1996 | Wing Commander IV - The Price of Freedom
Privateer 2: The Darkening |
Crusader: No Remorse
Abuse Jane's AH-64D Longbow Transland Crusader: No Regret | |
| 1997 | PSX-port of Ultima Underworld | Wing Commander: Prophecy
Secret Ops |
|
| 1999 | Ultima IX: Ascension |
Trivia[edit]
- Origin was also known for their colorful Origin catalog, through which the various games, books and merchandise could be bought. The catalog was quite expensively made for its time.
- The star in Origin's logo was used for the logo of the Terran Confederation in the Wing Commander universe as an in-joke by the creators.
In-Game Logo Gallery[edit]
In this gallery, it's shown how the various Origin logos appeared in the Ultima-games themselves without any alteration. Ports different from the PC are only shown if there is a significant difference in resolution or presentation.
For Ultima I, only the remake had an actual logo as the original was created before Origin's founding. Ultima II as well was created before Origin was founded. Ultima III and Ultima IV had simple text which doesn't count as a logo. For some reason, Savage Empire is missing a logo. Interestingly, in Ultima VII and Serpent Isle, the logo was only found in the credits, while the logo for some reason was simplified for Ultima VIII.
Of all the console ports, only the NES-port of Ultima V and the PSX-port of Ultima Underworld do have a logo. The logos, if applicable, are the same in the Japanes ports as in the original games, but there are exceptions. For Ultima V, where the logo in the PC-98 and Sharp X68000 ports, while still rotating like the original one, is the newer one with the star, Ultima I has the new logo and Ultima II, which in the original was before Origin's time, has the same logo as Ultima I.
The Origin logo in Ultima Online was cut out in later editions of the game after Origin was closed by EA.
The in-game logo in Ultima I
The in-game logo in Ultima I on the MSX, PC-88 and PC-98
The in-game logo in Ultima II on the MSX, PC-88 and PC-98
The in-game logo in Ultima V
The in-game logo in Ultima V on the C64
The in-game logo in Ultima V on the PC-98 and Sharp X68000
The in-game logo in Ultima V on the NES
The in-game logo in Ultima VI
The in-game logo in Ultima VI on the C64
The in-game logo in Martian Dreams
The in-game logo in the Ultima Underworld demo
The in-game logo in Ultima Underworld
The in-game logo in the PSX-port of Ultima Underworld
The in-game logo in Ultima VII
The in-game logo in Ultima Underworld II
The in-game logo in Serpent Isle
The in-game logo in Ultima VIII
The in-game logo in Ultima Online
The in-game logo in Ultima IX
External Links[edit]
- The Collectible ULTIMA: Origin history
- Origin Systems on MobyGames
- The Origin Museum
- The Conquest Of Origin in The Escapist
| Companies involved with the Ultima series | |
|---|---|
| The Main Studio | Origin Systems Inc. |
| Western Companies | California Pacific Computer Co. ☥ Electronic Arts ☥ Looking Glass Studios ☥ MicroProse ☥ Mindscape ☥ Sierra On-Line, Inc. |
| Japanese Companies | Fujitsu Ltd. ☥ PonyCanyon Inc. ☥ StarCraft Inc. |