I really should have reported on this back toward the beginning of the month, so my apologies to Fenyx4 for the delay in getting the news out. Because it’s pretty significant news, all things considered: the Ultima Web Archive is once again available online, here at the Ultima Codex.

For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the archive, it was actually put together by William Herrin, an Ultima Dragon, and served as a resource for the Ultima Dragons, a treasure trove of files, media, and information for every Ultima game up to Ultima 7 (including Serpent Isle). Richard Garriott was so impressed with it, he actually made it part of the official Origin Systems website. The Archive was then migrated to UO.com, after Origin was shut down in 2004, and it resided there until late 2012. Around the time of the fifteenth anniversary of Ultima Online, Mythic Entertainment rebuilt UO.com as the official online home of Ultima Online (appropriately enough!), and the archive was taken offline.

However, Fenyx4 — the technical wizard who maintains the Codex of Ultima Wisdom (the Ultima wiki) — was able to piece the archive back together (helped, in no small part, by some contributions from Mythic proper) — late last month, and it now resides at its new home here: https://ultimacodex.com/archive/. Update your bookmarks and hyperlinks, Dragons and Dragonettes!

It would seem that Fenyx4 has fixed all the various internal links within the Archive, but it’s not impossible that one or two have been missed; the Archive is massive. Kindly do report any broken links you encounter.

And finally, let’s all give Fenyx4 a note of thanks for his work here. The Ultima Web Archive is an indispensible piece of Ultima — and Ultima Dragons — history, and it’s wonderful to have it back online again. Kudos also go to Mythic, for their help filling in gaps in the content!