It’s been a while since last we heard anything about Ultima from The Digital Antiquarian; when last we checked in with him, he had just completed a playthrough of Akalabeth.

That was late last year, and I really didn’t follow up on his progress through the series past that point. As such, I missed his playthrough of Ultima 1 earlier this year (see: part 1, part 2, and part 3). More recently (that is: in October), he completed a playthrough of Ultima 2, which merited a two-part article series (see: part 1, part 2).

The Antiquarian’s playthrough of Akalabeth was accompanied by a commentary on California Pacific, the first publisher of Ultima games. Ultima 2 is similarly accompanied, this time by an opinion piece comparing Ultima and Wizardry. It’s an interesting article, especially (I think) for this insight into the turmoil surrounding the development of Ultima 2, and the tension between Garriott and people at Sierra On-Line:

Without the distractions of a full-time university course-load, Garriott could now work full-time on his new game. Yet progress proved slower than expected. He had jumped in at the deep end in attempting to code something as ambitious as this as literally his first assembly-language project, ever. Ken [Williams] tried to be as patient and encouraging as possible, keeping his in-house programming staff available as a sort of technical-support hotline for Richard. When Richard truly looked to be foundering about mid-year, he invited him to stay in Oakhurst for a time in one of the flats he had bought up around town, to work in On-Line’s offices and enjoy the feedback and comaraderie of the group. It seems to be here that the relationship really began to deteriorate.

On-Line wasn’t exactly Animal House, but they did like to party and have their fun on occasion. Richard, who for all his early success and fame had nevertheless lived a very sheltered life, didn’t fit in at all. “I’m not sure they liked me,” he later said. I recently asked John Williams about Garriott’s time in Oakhurst. He stated that everyone did their best to welcome Richard. For his part, however, Richard showed no interest in attending parties or in any of the outdoor activities that just about everyone at On-Line enjoyed. Still, John stated:

On a personal level, I really liked Richard and I think most at Sierra did. He was scary smart, knew what he wanted and did what needed to be done to make it happen, and in general was just an impressive person. He was quite young then – but you could tell he was going places. I had no idea how far he would go then. Certainly I never would have guessed outer space — but if he had said he planned to go, I’d have believed him.

Perhaps the strains on Richard’s relationship with Ken arose from that very “impressiveness.” As John told me, “There are very few people as smart and driven as Ken — and Richard was one of them.” Both were accustomed to being the center of their social universes; after all, it’s not every kid who can convince his friends to spend hours in a movie theater watching the same film over and over, trying to copy an esoteric map onto paper from the most occasional onscreen glimpses. Ken could be gruff and even confrontational, particularly so with people he thought were really good but whom he also thought needed that extra push to reach their full potential. He may have thought Richard needed just this sort of pressure to finish a game On-Line had originally projected to release in April. Yet Richard, with two hit games under his belt and a big contract from Ken himself proving his worth, was unwilling to be treated as a junior partner in anything. Serious tension was the inevitable result.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but that’s one I hadn’t heard before.

(Hat tip: Infinitron Dragon)