Ultima 2 Turns Thirty
Thirty years ago today, Ultima 2: The Revenge of the Enchantress was released by Richard Garriott. It was the only Ultima game published by Sierra On-Line, and was far and away the weirdest entry in the Ultima series. Featuring a story involving a nuclear holocaust on Earth, time travel, and setting the young lover of Ultima 1’s villain as its antagonist, Ultima 2 continued the story of the Stranger From Another World as he battled to save that other world.
And it was released, yes, on August 24, 1982…first on the Apple ][ and subsequently on several other platforms.
To celebrate, the Ultima Codex has put together an Ultima 2 subdomain, at which various Ultima 2-related fan projects and patches will be re-released after being moved over from Ultima Aiera. Watch for these during the day. Astute readers may also note the change in the site’s backdrop…
And if you haven’t yet tried Ultima 2, good reader, why not pick it up at GOG.com while it’s on sale and give it a go?
Ultima II had a combination of the best and wierdest box art in the series.
The front of the box featured a time traveller appearing through a blue moongate, wearing a futuristic flight suit and wielding a blaster, with a gargoyle posed to attack him from behind. Fortunately, that is the strange part.
The background of that scene, and the box back, created a fantastic wrap-around image of Shadowguard, perched on a mountain with the two moons of Sosaria behind. Truly amazing.
Does anyone know who the original artist is for this? I’ve seen it questioned several times, but never definitively answered.
I can’t answer the question but there is a fairly large signature on the inside bottom left of the back half of the box. It’s in flowing italic and folded exactly over one edge on my copy and I can’t make sense of it – others may have more luck. I think the same person did the art for quite a few Sierra games like Wizard and the Princess. They definitely did the cover for Marauder as it features the same Ultima II spaceman.
Geez… I always thought the Ultima II cover art had been made by Dennis Loubet. Guess I was wrong.
I love the Ultima II boxart. It also has the advantage of being like 25% bigger than any of the other Ultima releases. That, plus the original map is larger and of higher quality than any of the other releases.