The following isn’t really a project-related update per sé, but it is a rather interesting project (of sorts) that someone has undertaken. It’s Ultima-related, and it’s worth mentioning.

Ophidian Dragon has set out on a quest to play through each Ultima game in sequence, and is blogging his way through each one, offering progress reports, opinions, and other notes on the Ultima title currently occupying his time.

My character is extremely powerful, now, due to the combination of Lord British’s crown (to stop magic), magic axes (to kill monsters rapidly) and invisibility rings (to keep monsters from hitting me). As a result, I decided to tackle the Underworld–although I did exit through Deceit, I will describe my whirlpool experience first. In short, I sailed my ship into the whirlpool, and made a detailed map of the underground realm. There I also encountered Captain John, who looks like a wizard for some reason, and discovered something I had not realized–John first set foot into the Underworld and the Shadowlords were created by him when he killed his three companions! Wow. Random plot detail filled in! To my dismay, there was nothing else in that area–except an exit to dungeon Despise, whose Word of Passage I don’t know. I went back to Britain and asked around, but to no avail. I recall one wizard guy whotold me the mantra; probably he knows the Word.

Click on over and keep up to date with him. For the most part, his reports are pretty by-the-numbers analysis of the games he’s playing, but it’s interesting to see such detailed progress notes — when he’s done, his site might well become a rather definitive walkthrough for the whole Ultima series.

(Frothy mug of ale: Voyager Dragon)