Arthurian Legends was a cancelled project, briefly in development at Origin Systems. The idea for the game, which was co-designed by Sheri Hobbs(now Sheri Graner Ray) and Brian Martin, would have used the Ultima 7 engine to re-tell the legend of King Arthur. Although the game would have likely been released under the Worlds of Ultima brand, it doesn’t seem to have featured many (if any) of the trappings of the series.

Several design documents for the project were discovered on a diskette given to Joe Garrity by Sheri Graner Ray, which Joe then shared with us here at the Ultima Codex. The first of these, a Word document entitled INTRO.DOC, contains an outline of the planned opening of the game. Here’s a sample:

INTRODUCTION

INT – MACSEN’S TAVERN, 20 YEARS AND ONE DAY AFTER THIS GAME TAKES PLACE-NIGHT

A busy, prosperous tavern scene
An elderly man sitting in corner by fire plucking a mandolin.

JOEL THE BARD

So, come again, hast thou?  Dost thou wish to hear another tale? Ye youngsters never can get enough of my tales of our good King Arthur can ye? Very well then, tonight I have a special tale.  One that began twenty years and a day ago this night.  On that particular night, a young fighter, much like thyself, came into this very tavern.

And it goes from there. As always, download and enjoy this document; there’s a new entry over on The Origin Gallery that hosts it, and which will host other Arthurian Legends-related documents in the near future. The Ultima Codex is grateful to Joe Garrity and the Origin Museum for unearthing these files, and to Sheri Graner Ray for handing over the diskettes on which they were found.