Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
This article is about the first game in the Ultima Underworld series. For other uses, see Ultima Underworld (disambiguation).
This article is about a game. For the dungeon, see Great Stygian Abyss.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a computer game developed by Blue Sky Productions (later Looking Glass Studios) and published by Origin Systems in March, 1992. It is part of the Ultima series. In 1993, a sequel Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds was released.
Name[edit]
The full title of the game is Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and the official main title is Ultima Underworld. Rarely it is refered to as Ultima Underworld I, usually in conjunction with the sequel, such as Ultima Underworld I & II
The logical initialism of Ultima Underworld is UU but as that could refer to the series, some people prefer to call the game UU1.
The game wasn't always part of the Ultima universe, it began development as an independant game simply titled Underworld. This was the name used in development, and even in the final game the executable file to launch the game is named "UW.EXE". For this reason many people refer to the game as UW or UW1.
Some people combine both of these concepts and call the game UUW or UUW1.
In summary, the game can be refered to by any of these initialisms: UU, UU1, UW, UW1, UUW, UUW1
Gameplay[edit]
The game was born from a concept brought to Origin by Blue Sky of a "simulation style" RPG using advanced 3D engine technology that was later combined with the Ultima gaming universe created by Richard Garriott. It was released before and featured significantly more complex technology and gameplay than the exceedingly popular Wolfenstein 3D by id Software, but had higher system requirements. Id Software programmer John Carmack has himself said that the engine used for Wolfenstein 3D was inspired by a technology demonstration of the first Ultima Underworld game.
The Story[edit]
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
On the Isle of the Avatar, a colony was built in the Abyss to promote Virtue by the highly ambitious Sir Cabirus, who thought that it could lead to all races living together in peace. Unfortunately, the colony failed after his death, and the differences between the races again broke open. Thus, in the end the Abyss became a prison.
The player is cast in the role of the Avatar, the protagonist of the Ultima series. After being drawn back to Britannia by an apparition of a dead wizard named Garamon, the Avatar witnesses the kidnapping of Baron Almric's daughter Arial by the wizard Tyball. However, the wizard escapes and the Avatar is caught by the baron's guards and taken before Almric. The Avatar is found guilty of the kidnapping and banished to the Great Stygian Abyss, to either rescue the baron's daughter or perish within. The player has to deal with the survivors of the failed colony and, after rescuing Arial, discovers a plot by Tyball to summon a daemon, the Slasher of Veils, into Britannia. The Avatar manages to banish the daemon with the Talismans of Sir Cabirus and escape the Abyss, thus proving his innocence, although this causes the Abyss to erupt violently.
In relation to the main Ultima series, the game takes place between Ultima VI and Ultima VII.
Spoilers end here.
Development[edit]
Ultima Underworld was originally only called Underworld and had no relations to the Ultima series, which explains the appearance of some rather unusual races in Britannia. The game was later integrated into the Ultima series at the suggestion of Richard Garriott, who was still fondly attached to the idea of 3D dungeons in Ultima games, even though he ended up removing them in Ultima VI.
Differences Between Platforms[edit]
Ultima Underworld was originally exclusively produced for the IBM PC. A port for the Japanese FM Towns computer was made, but it is an exact copy of the original, apart from sporting music in CD audio format.
Then in 1993, a port for the PC-9801 was released by Origin and Electronic Arts Victor (EAV) in the format of 3.5" and 5.25" disks. Although it first came in 256 colors, a later version in 1994 had 16 colors. The box contained a set of translated manuals, a slightly different paper map and an ankh-shaped paper knife as trinket.
Several years later in 1997 there was a Japanese release of the game for the PlayStation. Most the storyline is identical between the ports except for a few key differences. The introduction and endgame sequence of the PlayStation-port consists of a cinematic movie using completely new graphics. The PlayStation port uses 3D models for all in-game characters. All menus have been altered in the PlayStation version to compensate for the system's lack of keyboard or mouse. Read more here: PSX-port of Ultima Underworld.
For technical comparison between the versions, see Ultima Underworld Version Differences
Translations[edit]
Ultima Underworld is one of the first games which shipped with part of its documentation translated in foreign markets. However, the game itself and the book Memoirs of Sir Cabirus remained in English in most international editions, the Spanish version contains all documentation in Spanish, including the clue book. Only the installation guide had French, Spanish, Italian and German sections. Of note is that the Japanese FM Towns-port and the Taiwanese edition have fully translated manuals.
The remake for the PlayStation is completely in Japanese. However, a fan translation is availbale (see below).
There have been a few fan-made translations:
- Brazilian Portuguese is included in the Portable bundle. See the Upgrades section for info.
- Spanish Separate male and female protagonist versions were made (the Spanish language requires different words depending on the gender and UW's string handling engine wasn't designed with this in mind) and were once hosted at Clan DLAN but that site has been offline since 2022. The site has been archived on the Wayback Machine but the downlods don't seem to be available.
- Russian A Russian version was made by a team at this site: Notabenoid but that site has been down since 2018.
Release[edit]
Despite its technical excellence, and being voted the top role-playing game of 1991 by Computer Gaming World,[1] the game was not a great financial success. Today the game has a cult following among fans of the Ultima series, in some abandonware circles, and by the occasional nostalgic early 1990s gamer. In 1993, Ultima Underworld won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992.
It was later also released in the Underworld Series and also in a bundle together with Wing Commander II.
Distribution of the game in Europe was done by Mindscape.
Ultima Underworld (as well as Ultima I and ten other classic games) was available on the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer Magazine (CD-ROM edition).
Included with the game[edit]
The release of Ultima Underworld included these things with the game:
- The book Memoirs of Sir Cabirus.
- A paper map of the first level of the Abyss.
- Bag with six metallic rune stones (which appear in the game).
The Japanese FM Towns and the PC-98 version came with an ankh paperknife trinket.
Legacy[edit]
Ultima Underworld inspired the Wolfenstein 3D engine:
- "According to id Software programmer John Carmack, the game's engine was inspired by a technology demo of Looking Glass Studios'/Origin's first-person CRPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss from 1991. Carmack claimed he could make a faster renderer. In this he was successful. The Wolfenstein engine lacks many features present in the Underworld engine, such as height changes, sloped floors and lighting, but it runs well on relatively weak hardware."
Ultima Underworld also partially inspired The Elder Scrolls: Arena.
Availability[edit]
Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II can be purchased from Good Old Games at Ultima™ Underworld 1+2.
Upgrades[edit]
Genral MIDI Patch[edit]
Ultima Underworld has an audio upgrade available: A patch to convert the music for General MIDI usage instead of Roland Sound. Download it here: MIDI patch
The John Glassmyer Patch: Mouselook and more[edit]
A fan-made patch for Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 by John Glassmyer does several things:
- Adds a modern mouselook mode. The mouse mode can be toggled between mouse-look and free-cursor with the tilde key.
- Increases the maximum up/down viewing angle
- Remaps movement to the typical WASD keys and remapps a lot of other keys as well. Q=3D Look, E=3D Use
- Introduces a few new quick-key functions - R=Runebag, Z=Map, G=Compass, H=Flasks
- CTRL-ALT keys for runic magic, fiddling with the runebag is no longer needed.
- CTRL+ALT-Backspace to clear the rune shelf
- CTRL+ALT+(A-Z) to move a rune to the shelf
- CTRL+ALT+Space to cast the rune spell
This list is incomplete, there are additional useful keymaps and features. Get more information and the patch on the project's Gethub page UltimaHacks
Ultima Underworld Portable[edit]
Ultima Underworld Portable is not a patch in of itself, but is a system of scripts to create a "portable" copy of Ultima Underworld from the GOG version and optionally installing and uninstalling patches from it there. This is ideal for less technical users who just want to get the "best" version of Ultima Underworld up and going and ready to play. Changes from the GOG version are these:
- Executes under a more modern DosBox Staging fork v0.80.1, where GOG uses standard Dosbox 0.74.3
- Tweaks video, audio, and mouse issues known to exist in the GOG version
- Installs and tweaks the MIDI patch described above
- optionally installs "mouselook mod" (John Glassmyer's patch as described above)
- Optionally installs Brazilian Portuguese translation patch for UW1
- Optionally installs a lighting brightness patch
All of these un/installs are simple and menu driven from a script. Get the patch and more info at the GitHub page Ultima Underworld Portable
PSX Translation[edit]
The Ultima Underworld PSX Translation is a patch that translates the PSX-version to English. For more, see the respective article.
More Game Related Information[edit]
In-Game Lore[edit]
These links don't directly contain any major spoilers (but could link to some) but neither are they entirely void of minor spoilers:
- Character creation in the Underworld games
- Skills (the skill system of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II)
- The Abyssal Colony (the setting location of the game, individual pages can contain minor spoilers)
- Runic magic (the magic system of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II, spoiler: undocumented spells)
- NPCs (a simple list of all NPCs seen or mentioned in the game)
- Characters (a list of all talkable characters in the game with some brief details)
- Training (techniques to improve skills)
Spoilers[edit]
These links contain out-right spoilers to puzzles and challenges in the game:
- Ultima Underworld walkthrough
- Guide to lizard men language
- Cheating in Ultima Underworld
- Magic item locations in Ultima Underworld
- Key locations in Ultima Underworld
- Runic magic/Undocumented spells
External and Technical[edit]
Technical information about the game outside of the lore:
- Bugs
- Cut NPCs in Ultima Underworld
- Critters Not Seen in Ultima Underworld
- Ultima Underworld Real-life references and Easter eggs
- Ultima Underworld internal formats
- Ultima Underworld Engine Quirks
Trivia[edit]
- Towards the end of the game, a spell that will destroy all life can be learned. If cast, all other creatures, items, doors and even stairways are destroyed, leaving only the walls, floors and ceilings.
- Despite the mispronunciation of "Stygian" during the introduction, the correct pronunciation is stij-ee-uhn.
- Narrator in the introduction is voiced by Brian Martin.
- A completion certificate could originally be obtained after winning the game. This is the only one not from Lord British. It is from Baron Almric.
- All of the tombstones in the game have a Christian cross on them instead of an ankh. That is another artifact of the game first being developed outside of the Ultima-universe.
- The Resilient Spheres which appear throughout the game are an utterly useless item, which can be credited to David Shapiro.
- Sir Cabirus Ultima Page offers excellent resources for the game down to the smallest detail.
Gallery[edit]
Back cover
FM Towns box art
PC-9801/9821 front box art
PC-9801/9821 front back cover
Zero July 1992 Ultima Underworld advertisement
Ultima Underworld advertisement
The bundle with Wing Commander II
Concept art of the box image
German advertisement
External Links[edit]
- Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss on Wikipedia
- StygianAbyss.com – UW 1&2, Arx Fatalis and, Dark Messiah information site
- Through the Looking Glass forums – a site dedicating forums to several games, including Underworld
- Underworld Adventures – a discontinued project to recreate Ultima Underworld on modern operating systems, using the original game files.
- Ultima Underworld on Ultima Aiera
- UnderworldGodot – a Godot-based port of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II that replaces Underworld Exporter, the Unity-based port.
References[edit]
- ↑ Computer Gaming World, Number 100. November 1992. Page 110.
This article includes material originally taken from Wikipedia article Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. Wikipedia material is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.
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