To celebrate the 9th anniversary of this website and its predecessor, Ultima Aiera, we’ve added a new collection to the Origin Gallery: scans of a packaging and patch development notes from the Ultima 9 production team.

Ultima 9 had a tumultuous development history, to say the least, and not just because its development process was interrupted in order to get Ultima Online finished and out the door. Engine reworkings, multiple plot rewrites, and changes in project direction happened repeatedly throughout its development, until Richard Garriott finally stepped in and took it upon himself to oversee the game.

To give an example: a writer was brought in on contract to work on the game’s manual, which of course (per Ultima tradition) was written from an “in game” perspective. The writer was brought in about a year prior to the game being shipped…but this proved to be far too early, and the changes made to the game’s plot and story between that time and its release necessitated multiple rewrites — not mere edits! — of the documentation. As a result, the contractor ended up losing a significant amount of time and money creating material for the game.

At any rate, enjoy! If you ever wanted a closer look at just how messy the development of Ultima 9 got, there should be something of interest in these images for you.