What is Ultima?
Ultima is a computer role-playing game series, developed by Richard Garriott and his company Origin Systems, and first released in 1980. Ultima presented players with expansive fantasy worlds ripe for exploration, character development, and engaging combat. Emerging in the nascent years of computer gaming, Ultima introduced groundbreaking features such as 3D dungeon crawling, offering an immersive first-person perspective within labyrinthine environments. In the following two decades, in addition to new mainstream releases of the game, several spin-offs were created in the form of computer games, on-line games, console games, books, mangas and countless fan material. In September of 1992, the Ultima brand was sold to Electronic Arts, along with Origin Systems. However, Ultima had reached its zenith in the 1990s and EA’s interest in producing or licensing the brand began to decline. Consequently, the name has stagnated and is less well-known than it used to be. Some more recent, though not totally successful attempts to revive the brand include the mobile-only Ultima Forever in 2012, and Garriott's spiritual successor, Shroud of the Avatar, in 2018.
Legacy[edit]
One of the more noteworthy traits of the Ultima series is the system of Eight Virtues introduced in Ultima IV. Garriott envisioned a world where players were encouraged to act morally and strive for a higher purpose. The game rewarded virtuous behavior and penalized evil actions, adding a new dimension of moral choice rarely seen in games at the time.
Gallery[edit]
Box art to Ultima I
Interactive conversation in Ultima IV
A 3D dungeon crawl (Ultima V)
Ultima IX screenshot
External Links[edit]
- Ultima (series) (Wikipedia)
- Ultima Codex – the current host of the Codex of Ultima Wisdom