What is Ultima?
What is Ultima you ask. Well, I will attempt to explain just that. I will write a few words about my experience with Ultima, then because other people have done this job so much better than I ever could, I will unashamedly plagiarise their work by providing links.
Ultima is a roleplaying adventure game. It has been through nine incarnations to date, each more complex than the one before. The underlying principle is similar throughout - you, as the central character or hero of the game, must triumph over some evil that is present in the land, and restore conditions to normal. You do this by:
This is NOT a game for "petrol-heads", who play Need for Speed" or similar; likewise it is NOT a shoot-em-up, like DOOM or Goldeneye. Rather it is a game for those who want a totally immersive adventure which can continue unfolding and developing for weeks or months.
I first found Ultima atfer we bought an Apple IIGS many years ago - I saw the Ultima Trilogy in a box, which was Ultimas 1-3. This was enough to get me hooked; I completed I and II, but couldn't get the hang of III. Later my sons bought themselves an Amiga, and I found Ultima V for this platform. Later still we upgraded to an IBM, and found Ultima VII. Ultima VII part 2 followed, then VIII. There was a long hiatus after VIII, followed by the eventual release of Ultima IX - Ascension in late 1999. This is the last instalment in the Ultima series - the story arc has run its course and sadly there will be no more..
For a good summary of the Ultima story (with great screenshots as well), click here.
(Note - this site was recently taken down - I am hoping for a resurrection..)Also, an excellent historical overview can be found here.
The Ultima series has spawned a large fan club, which exists on the internet as the Ultima Dragons. Membership is open to anyone who has played at least one Ultima, and members choose a "Dragon" name on joining. I called myself Gaseous (well, I am an anaesthetist :-) ), and under that pseudonym occasionally post words of wisdom(?) to the newsgroup -rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons. This is one newsgroup where literally nothing is considered as being off-topic.
After many delays, Ultima IX - Ascension was finally released late in 1999, to a mixed reception. It is truly an awesome game, with the use of the 3D engine, and in my opinion it is truly immersive and addictive. Unfortunately there were many bugs still present in the game, and Origin had to bustle around and make patches, which were released via the internet. After the third patch, the game is allegedly bug-free. I have recently finished the game and thoroughly enjoyed it; others have criticised it on the grounds of corny dialogue, poor NPC scripts and lack of depth. I suggest that you play it for yourself and formulate your own opinion.
Another outlet for Ultima enthusiasts is the Weyrmount. This is a MOO - an acronym for Multi-user Object - Oriented programming. It is like IRC in that it enables real-time conversation, but with the added attraction that users can create a text-based virtual reality to "live" in while chatting to each other. Unfortunately, the company hosting the original Weyrmount (Sensemedia) chose not to pick it up the last time it fell over; for several months the Dragons were without their haunt.
Nothing daunted, a few enterprising Dragons got together and established a new Weyrmount. This is totally new, and not a copy of the original; it is already looking very good. If you have a MUD client, the address is moo.weyrmount.org port 8000 - if you don't, just click here to telnet. I really don't get there any more (I have a life....) but a lot of the programming I did is still there.
If you have never heard of a MOO (apart from watching cows graze...) and would like to know more about it, Obtuse Dragon has a page which will answer all your questions - just check here.
I have written a (very basic) tutorial on writing verbs in the MOO environment - it's a bit of basic programming. If you wish to look into this you can find it here.