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. It is considered a seminal game of its genre. Today, Electronic Arts holds the brand.
Overview
The Ultima series can be divided in two parts. While the first three games (the 'Age of Darkness' trilogy) are the usual "kill the evil overlord" fantasy games, the later ones added an innovative moral element, in that the character had to excel at the eight virtues of honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality and humility. Most of the virtues are loosely based on the Chivalry code of knighthood (but without any explicit Christianity), although Garriott took some ideas from the movie The Wizard of Oz as well.
The creator, Richard Garriott, no longer owns the rights to the game, nor participates in the development.
Ultima 1-5 were originally developed on and released for the Apple II family of computers. All the games from Ultima 6 on were developed on IBM PC compatible machines.
The earlier Ultima games were ported to many computer types, including 8-bit Atari (Ultima 1-4), Atari ST (Ultima 2-6), Commodore 64 (Ultima 1-6), Commodore Amiga (Ultima 3-6) and IBM PC (Ultima 1-5).
The Ultima games were also famous for the goodies included in the game boxes. From Ultima II on, every main Ultima game came with a cloth map of the game world. 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.
There is also a substantial community of Ultima fans known as the Ultima Dragons.
The main games of the series are a trilogy of trilogies. The three trilogies are the Age of Darkness, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Age of Armageddon.
The Age of Darkness
Ultima (1980)
The first game in the series was published by California Pacific Computer Co., and featured a storyline revolving around a quest to find and destroy a Gem of Power belonging to an evil wizard known as Mondain, who has enslaved the lands of Sosaria. Early on, the title Ultimatum was chosen, but the name was trademarked by a board game already, so the publisher suggested truncating it to Ultima, and Garriott liked it much more than the original name. This game is unique among the Ultima series (and a rarity among computer RPGs in general) for containing an action element, as the player must find a spaceship and participate in first-person space combat. The first version of the game was coded in interpreted BASIC with a few auxiliary routines in assembly language, and was published only for the Apple II computer; two years later Sierra On-Line, Inc. released a port for the 8-bit Atari computers.
The game was one of the first commercial computer RPGs and the first commercial game to feature tile graphics to represent the environment. The tile graphics system was programmed in machine language by Ken Arnold, a friend of Richard Garriott. The game itself also owes much of its heritage (and, in the case of the dungeon exploration, the actual code itself) to Lord British's first commercial game, Akalabeth, which is unofficially referred to as Ultima 0 by Lord British himself.
This game was re-released in 1986 as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, entirely re-coded in assembly language, with improved graphics, much faster action, and with slightly improved gameplay, by Origin Systems. This re-release was sold in much greater numbers than the original release (thanks to the much increased market for computer games in general) and was ported to numerous other systems.
Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress (1982)
This was the only other Ultima game published by Sierra On-Line. From the game's story, we learn that Mondain's lover, Minax, is threatening our Earth through disturbances in the space-time continuum, and the player must guide a hero through time to destroy her. Also, the player must travel to other planets in the solar system in order to gain a critical item. Speculation continues that Garriott was somehow disgruntled at the prospect of working with Sierra On-Line and intended this game to be partially an exercise in learning to code in assembly language and partly just a joke, inspired by the movie Time Bandits: the game contains a number of bizarre and decidedly inappropriate anachronisms when examined in context with similar fantasy games, such as: the game's world map is identical to real-life Earth, and the player must visit such mundane locations as San Antonio, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, modern-day and futuristic weaponry is used, and completely incongruous pop-culture references and in-jokes abound. However, futuristic weaponry and technology featured in the first game as well.
In addition, this game is known to contain numerous design flaws and bugs and shows general signs of being hurried onto the market before being properly finished and tested, like e.g. large map areas with nothing interesting happening in them whatsoever. For these reasons, Revenge of the Enchantress is considered to be the weakest Ultima game by some fans. Regardless, Ultima II still sold very well for its time.
The game was re-released with updated graphics and improved screen layout for the Apple II only in 1989, but this re-release version was only sold as part of the Ultima Trilogy collection of the first three games, and Origin discontinued its Apple II product line soon afterwards; thus the re-release is relatively rare.
Ultima III: Exodus (1983)
Considered one of the most influential Computer role-playing games in history, the story of Exodus centered on a quest (back in Sosaria) to destroy the final remnant of the evil Mondain and Minax. It is also the first Origin Systems, Inc. game. Exodus featured revolutionary graphics for its time, being the first computer RPG to feature animated characters. Also, Exodus differed from previous games in that players now directed the actions of a party of several characters rather than just one. Players now battled groups of enemies on a separate battle screen, where the player had to understand fairly complex weapons and magic systems and employ rudimentary tactics in order to overcome each opponent, as opposed to the system in the previous two games, in which the player was simply depicted as trading blows with one opponent on the main map until either was defeated.
While previous Ultima games let the player "explore" randomly generated dungeons (in Part I) or badly-designed and plotwise completely irrelevant dungeons (in Part II) in wire-frame first-person, Exodus's dungeons were solid-3D in appearance, were integrated into the game's plot, and would remain the same across multiple plays (therefore introducing the element of requiring a player to actually create his/her own maps for dungeons). In many other ways Exodus was more focused than the earlier parts; futuristic references were largely (though not completely) gone; also there were almost no map areas that didn't serve some particular purpose in the game. The look of the game went away from being based on certain characteristics of the Apple II hardware to a carefully designed screen layout.
The game is named for its chief villain, Exodus, a demonic creation of Minax and Mondain that the series later describes as neither human nor machine. At the beginning of the game, Exodus is terrorizing the land of Sosaria from his stronghold on the Isle of Fire (later called Fire Island in Ultima Online). The player character is summoned by Lord British to defeat Exodus and embarks on a quest that takes him to the lost land of Ambrosia, to the depths of the dungeons of Sosaria to find the mysterious Time Lord, and finally to the Isle of Fire itself to confront Exodus in his lair. In the great tradition of old-school "Kill The Foozle" CRPGs, the game ends immediately upon Exodus' defeat; but unlike many games in the genre, Exodus cannot simply be killed in battle by a strong party of adventurers, but only through clever puzzle-solving and by paying attention to the many clues given throughout the game.
Although this is the last game in the series to take place in Old Sosaria, places in the game such as Ambrosia and the Isle of Fire make cameo appearances in later games, namely Ultima VII.
Exodus became a smash hit, and it is often cited as a main inspiration for later game developers.
The Age of Enlightenment
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)
Quest of the Avatar is a rarity among RPGs in that the game's story does not center on asking a player to overcome a tangible ultimate evil. Rather, the object of this game is to become the "prophet" (called "The Avatar") of a new "religion" (or philosophy) for the fledgling land of Britannia (founded on the remains of ruined Sosaria), by understanding and exercising the Eight Virtues of the Avatar, and finding the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Richard Garriott has stated that he began writing this game when he realized (partly from letters of enraged parents) that in the earlier games immoral actions like stealing and murder of peaceful citizens had been necessary or at least very useful actions in order to win the game, and that that might be objectionable. Garriott himself considers this game his most outstanding work, and has released the PC version for free download on the Internet in later years.
Technically, the game was very similar to part III, although much larger. However, this was the first Ultima game to feature a "conversation system"; whereas NPCs in the earlier parts would only give one canned answer when talked to, now players could interact with them by specifying a subject of conversation, the subject determined either by a standard set of questions (name, job, health) or by information gleaned from the previous answers, or from other characters. Many subquests were arranged around this.
Another addition were "dungeon rooms", uniquely designed combat areas in the dungeons which supplemented the "standard" combat against randomly appearing enemies. Also, beginning with this game, an overarching storyline was begun that linked the games more closely together than the thin "new bad guy is the son/daughter of old bad guy" of the earlier games. The world map created for this game remained in use (with a few minor changes) until the last part of the series.
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)
At the start of Warriors of Destiny, the player learns that Lord British has been lost on an expedition into the Underworld, and the throne of Britannia has been usurped by a tyrant known as Blackthorn, while three shadowy figures known as Shadowlords terrorize the countryside. Blackthorn enforces a hypocritically moralistic code of law ostensively based on strict enforcement of the eight virtues, but in fact anything but virtuous. The Avatar is summoned back to Britannia by his friends; together they form the "Warriors of Destiny" in order to eliminate the Shadowlords, undermine Blackthorn's rule, and restore Lord British to his throne.
It can be said that the game deals with the issues of fundamentalism and moral absolutism.
Warriors of Destiny featured much more polished writing (earlier games were riddled with some orthographical errors and uneven vocabulary) and considerably greater detail than previous games, and also included a time-of-day system in which the sun rises and sets, and non-player characters would appear to have set daily schedules. This game has been lauded as realistically portraying a culture living under a dictatorial regime; its tone is much darker than that of Ultima IV.
This game was the last Ultima developed on the Apple II; the limits of that system were increasingly becoming a hindrance to further technological advance, and thus all later parts were developed on PC systems. This was also the last part in which Garriott had a major share in the actual coding, in the later parts he acted as a game designer only.
Ultima V is being remade by a group of volunteer programmers in a project called Ultima V: Lazarus (see below).
Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)
Some years after Lord British has returned to power, the Avatar is captured unawares and tied on a sacrificial altar, about to be sacrificed by red demon-like creatures, the gargoyles. The Warriors of Destiny suddenly appear and save the Avatar and collect the sacred text the gargoyle priest was holding. In Castle Britannia, the Avatar learns that the shrines of Virtue are captured by the gargoyles and he embarks on a quest to rescue Britannia from the invaders.
The game deals with issues such as cultural differences, racism, and xenophobia, among others. It manages to suggest in-game solutions to these issues, without trying to deny any basis for them in some "politically correct" way.
Technically, this game ended the use of multiple scales; in earlier games a town, castle, or dungeon would be represented as a single symbol on the world map, which then expanded into a full sub-map when entering the structure. Now, the whole map used a single scale with the towns etc. seamlessly integrated into the main map; dungeons were now also represented in 2D instead of 3D. The game kept the basic tile system and screen layout of the three preceding parts, but altered the look into a much more colorful pseudo-isometric view, to take full advantage of the newly-released VGA graphics cards for PCs. Also, Non-player characters had their portraits shown when you talked to them, something that would not have been feasible on Apple IIs. It was one of the first major PC games directly targeted to PC systems equipped with VGA graphics and a mouse, when the big "gaming computer" was still the Commodore Amiga. The game supported sound cards for music as well, which were not yet common when it was released. Other sound effects, such as the clashing of swords, magical zaps, or explosions, were still played through the PC speaker.
The Age of Armageddon
Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
200 years have passed since the Gargoyle threat was solved and the Avatar is suddenly whisked into Britannia by a red moongate. The Avatar is asked to solve a ritualistic murder that occurred last night. Along the way, he learns that "The Fellowship", a new "religious philosophy" led by a man called Batlin, is tied up with the murders and is attempting to bring an evil force that is named "The Guardian" into Britannia.
"The Fellowship" is probably based on Scientology and similar "personal improvement" groups and faiths; the game can be said to satirize "psycho babble".
Technically this game introduced a major change; turn-based gameplay was abandoned for real-time gameplay, and the whole screen was now devoted to the map, with anything else being overlayed whenever the need arises. This way larger, much more detailed, and no longer visibly tile-based graphics were possible. Also, the game was the first that was entirely mouse-driven; in theory it could be played without ever touching the keyboard.
In Ultima VII, the virtue system was not enforced as strictly as it was in Ultima IV. Instead, the game simulated a society that sticks to some of the virtues: the NPCs - either the party members or the people of Britannia - reacted to killings of innocents and stealing whenever they got aware of it. Also the combat system was changed due to the change to real-time gameplay. The new AI system allowed you to choose general tactics for party members. The AI was not perfect, but it saved the player the need to micromanage up to eight different characters in battle.
Unfortunately Ultima VII (both parts) and Ultima VIII contained an odd DOS-based memory management system that severely impedes their compatibility with modern Windows-based PCs. However fans have released some patches to address this problem; others have taken the task of rewriting the engine. (See Related Projects at the bottom of this article for more information.)
The Forge of Virtue was an expansion pack that adds a quest to Ultima VII in which the Avatar must pass a series of tests to revalidate himself in the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, and destroy the last remnants of Exodus. The player is rewarded with a powerful weapon, the Blackrock Sword, also known as the Black Sword or the Shade Blade. The Avatar also gains maximum strength, intelligence, and dexterity in the course of the tests, and Lord British grants the player double strength on top of that.
In later releases of Ultima VII this add-on was always included.
Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993)
While the Avatar destroys the Black Moongate that the Guardian is just coming through, Batlin flees to Serpent Isle. The Warriors of Destiny pursue the rogue fanatic and find a strange land that has many very different customs than Britannia: a large, icy island, only lately recolonized by men, with many remains of an ancient culture where serpents played a central role.
This is the first game in the series to take place outside Britannia as it has been known since Ultima IV. It is also more linear than the earlier parts -- unlike the earlier games where the order in which sub-quests were completed was of little concern; the new approach makes it possible to give the game a more carefully-plotted storyline, while at the same time somewhat limiting the players choice.
Since most of the game's code was recycled from Part VII, it was decided not to call it Ultima VIII; Richard Garriott had stated in interviews around 1988 that no two Ultimas shared the same program code, unlike the then-competing The Bard's Tale series, and he probably felt bound by this statement.
The Two "Part VII" games are seen by many players as the high-point of the series, with their incredibly detailed worlds and their many memorable NPCs.
Expansion Pack - The Silver Seed
The expansion adds the Silver Seed story arc to the game, in which the party visits a subterranean keep in the ancient civilization of Serpent Isle (probably at some time in the past, but this is not known for sure). Powerful magic items, including a keyring, a ring of unlimited reagents, and a strength increasing belt can be found in this area and in nearby dungeons. In later releases of the game, the expansion pack was always included.
The Exult project is a complete, free reimplementation of the original Ultima VII games which can be played on modern computer systems.
Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994)
Following the defeat of Batlin on Serpent Isle, the Guardian drops the Avatar onto a world that he has already destroyed, Pagan. The world of Pagan is in eternal twilight as the result of an ancient battle between the Elemental Titans and the evil "Destroyer", which resulted in the victory of the Titans. However the people of Pagan had to pay a high price for that -- the world's sun was eternally dimmed, and they must now worship the Titans as gods. The Titans bestow powers on their most ardent followers, but they are otherwise cruel and unloving rulers, and their followers terrorize the general population. And what is the Guardian's role in this scheme?
In this part of the series Richard Garriott delegated most of the work to others, and the result disappointed many fans. The world was much smaller than in the preceding parts, NPC portraits were eliminated, day-and-night cycles were eliminated, the game went back from the "party" concept to the "lone hero" of the first two parts, platform-game-like "jumping" was introduced, and the first release had major plot holes and was very buggy. A second release corrected the bugs, fixed some plot holes, and mostly eliminated the "jumping", but by then the damage to the game's reputation had already been done. However this fixed second release (and all the identical later releases) is actually a very decent RPG, even if maybe not quite up the immediate predecessors.
Expansion Pack - The Lost Vale
This expansion to Ultima VIII was planned from the outset, and was much anticipated, but never released; it was cancelled when the main game didn't sell as well as had been expected. Hints from texts in the main game suggested that the expansion pack would have added a new story regarding resisters to the Pagan gods, followers of the old religion known as Zealans.
Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)
Following the Avatar's liberation of Pagan, he is transported back to Britannia for one final battle with the Guardian, who is increasingly ruining the physical and moral fabric of that land. He must restore the Runes of Virtue and cleanse the shrines of the Guardian's taint and he must restore the people to the way of the Virtues - knowing that he will now never again be able to return to Earth.
The long pause between the release of Ultima VIII and this game was mostly caused by the fact that a three-quarters-finished isometric "Ultima IX" was thrown away because it was decided to aim for a true 3D game, and then the Voodoo 3D graphics cards fell out of public favor and thus the Glide-based code had to be readjusted another time for Direct3D. While being better than the previous part, and with a stunningly detailed, seamless 3D world, this game also had its reputation spoiled by a very buggy first release; the design team had objected strongly to that release, but Electronic Arts management enforced it. A few months later, a fixed version was released; a further unofficial fix was leaked on the Internet a bit later by an anonymous member of the team. After this, the game was not bug-free and still had memory leaks, but was much more playable than in the first release.
It is also of note that the rush in the release resulted in an unfinished storyline and game world. The game story failed to link itself with that of the previous games. Many fans hate it because it greatly disregards its predecessors. There exists a Nitpick list for Ascension, as well as a series of fan made patches to the game that enhance three different aspects of it. The latest official patch version released is 1.18
- Patch v1.19, which enhances the game's performance and fixes some bugs, released unofficially by an anonymous member of the development team
- Dialogue Patch - which amongst other things rewrites the dialogue for the entire game, fixing plot holes and increasing coherency with the rest of the series.
- Economy Patch - The shops have more on stock, the monsters are harder to beat are the most noticeable changes with other details on the rather long list.
Shortly after the release of this game, Richard Garriott left Electronic Arts, while EA kept the rights to the "Ultima" name, thus effectively ending the series.
There have been several community-based projects aimed at reproducing and/or replacing the original Ultima IX for the many Ultima fans dissatisfied with the original game.
The most active project as of the 5th of September 2004 is the Ultima: Redemption project, which aims to create a 'true' Ultima - i.e. an Ultima game that has traditional plot elements and characters included - with a heavy focus on preserving continuity (a sticking point with many long-time Ultima fans) with regards to the previous games. Ultima Redemption is being produced using the game engine from the successful computer role-playing game Morrowind. The Ultima: Redemption team have a website where there you can find an active discussion forum, which occasionally includes an update on the project's progress from the team.
Other Ultima games:
Akalabeth (1979)
Original forerunner of the Ultima series that started Richard Garriott's career. Based on D&D28, his twenty-eighth text game based on the Role-Playing Game Dungeons & Dragons, with added graphics for the Apple II computer, the game was called D&D28b. After showing the game to friends, it was later named Akalabeth. Originally self-published by Richard Garriott (a dozen or so were sold by a local computer store), since 1980 published by California Pacific Computer Co. The name originates from Tolkien's legend of Númenor (though leaving out one "L" for whatever reason). The game was later also known as "Ultima 0" among fans, though this was never official.
The Game was started as a hobbyist project, was entirely written in BASIC, was on a level with many of the type-in games of the early 1980s, and was originally released for the Apple II only. The player would mainly explore randomly-generated dungeons and battle the monsters living within them, while trying to become a knight.
An unofficial fan-made PC version existed on the Internet since about 1995, but only in 1998(?) did an official PC version see the light of day when it was included in the "Ultima Collection" release together with parts I through VIII.
Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire (1990)
After Ultima VI, the Avatar is transported by a friend's failed experiment with Blackrock to a jungle valley in another world, whose indigenous people were modeled on some of the aboriginal tribes of Mesoamerica and tropical Africa. The player need to understand and master some aspects of their stone-age tribal culture and their "jungle magic" to find a way to bring peace to the valley.
This game and the following use the Ultima VI game engine, with some improvements. They are among the best RPGs with "non-traditional" settings.
Worlds of Ultima II: Martian Dreams (1991)
The Avatar finds himself on a spaceship right from the pages of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, and lands on Mars, together with various well-known persons from the late 1800s, such as Nellie Bly, Sigmund Freud, and Nicola Tesla.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1991)
The first 3D Ultima, and one of the first successful "true 3D" games worldwide (predating DOOM). The Avatar is thrown in the Stygian Abyss by a Baron whose daughter was recently kidnapped. The storyline is only very loosely connected to the main series. Developed by Looking Glass Studios.
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1992)
The second 3D Ultima. Following the Black Gate incident, the Avatar and the rest of Lord British's palace is captured by the Guardian under a dome of blackrock. The storyline is more fully connected to the main series than it was in the first Underworld game; it takes place between Ultima VII and Ultima VII: Part II. Also developed by Looking Glass Studios.
Ultima Online series (1997)
A MMORPG version of the world of Britannia. In Ultima Online, thousands of players interact online in Britannia. See Ultima Online for much more information.
Ultima X: Odyssey
More Info: Ultima X
A MMORPG, slated to be released sometime in Q1, 2004, but finally cancelled, after numerous delays, in June 2004.
Console games
Console versions of Ultima have allowed further exposure to the series, especially in Japan, where the Famicom ports have supposedly inspired the Dragon Quest series, and manga based on Ultima. In most cases, gameplay and graphics have been changed significantly.
- Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash (Commodore Vic-20) - Designed by Keith Zabalaoui, a friend of Richard Garriott, in Coarse Gold, California. Published by On-line Systems (later Sierra) around the same time as Akalabeth. Related to Ultima in name only. Creatures called Garrintrots have imprisoned the main character, who must fight through Mt. Drash in order to escape.
- Ultima: Exodus (NES)
- Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES, Master System)
- Ultima: Warriors of Destiny (NES)
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue (Game Boy) - Non-canonical, action based gameplay and puzzle solving. The antagonist is called the "Black Knight."
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue 2 (Game Boy, SNES)
- Ultima: The False Prophet (SNES) - Gameplay adapted for the game pad. Includes plot changes and reduction in violence.
- Ultima: 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.
Related projects
Many communities of dedicated programmers have taken it upon themselves to patch the old Ultima games to run under modern operating systems, or to remake and/or revise their cherished series with modern gaming engines. This is a partial listing of them.
Engine Rewrite projects
- Ultima Classics Revisited - An open-source, work-in-progress portable engine, currently covering Akalabeth (complete) and Ultima I (partial).
- u3project - An open-source, work-in-progress portable Ultima III engine.
- xu4 - An open-source, work-in-progress portable Ultima IV engine.
- nu5 - A planned open-source, portable Ultima V engine.
- Nuvie - An open-source, work-in-progress portable Ultima VI engine. (Works with Savage Empire and Martian Dreams, too)
- Exult - An open-source, portable Ultima VII Black Gate and Serpent Isle engine. (Works with the Expansions)
- Pentagram - An open-source, work-in-progress portable Ultima VIII engine. (May later work with Crusader games, too)
- Underworld Adventures - An open-source, work-in-progress portable Ultima Underworld engine.
Remakes and New Games
- Ultima V Lazarus - A remake of Ultima V by voluntary programmers using the Microsoft Dungeon Siege engine. Currently in beta (2004).
- Titans of Ether merges two former development efforts, both based on Morrowind game engine. Ultima IX: Redemption is an effort to recreate Ultima IX, effectively creating a new ending to the series 'for the fans'. Ultima: The New King is a planned new adventure chronologically set after Ultima IX.
Major and Recurring Characters
See Also
External links
- Origin Systems, Inc.
- Moby Game's entry on the Ultima Series
- The Ultima Legacy from GameSpot, a historical overview of the series
- CD Mag Interviews Interviews concerning Ascension and other games in the series.
- UXO Online, active community visited by developers
- Ultima X OGaming, part of OGaming network, it receives exclusive material from developers
- UXO Official Site
Ultima is also the name for the game originally known as Baroque chess.
In the Final Fantasy console RPGs, Ultima is a powerful magical spell, usually the most powerful spell in the game. There are also weapons and/or monsters called "Ultima Weapon" in several of the more recent entries in the series.