A newsletter from Broadsword’s Ultima Online team landed in my inbox a couple days ago with a stark reminder of just how old some of us are getting: Ultima Online celebrated its 29th year yesterday.

September 24th has been the annual birthday for as long as most of us have been logging in. On that date in 1997 the game went live as, in the team’s own words, “an experiment about what the internet could be and how it could change gaming forever.”

Every year, on September 24th, we celebrate the launch of Ultima Online! For nearly three decades, Britannia has been our home for adventure and excitement. For those of you who still roam the realms of Sosaria, it is an opportunity to celebrate with one another and remember those friends of ours who do not. On September 24th, 1997, Ultima Online launched as an experiment about what the internet could be and how it could change gaming forever. What was only supposed to last a few years has endured for 29. That is only possible because of you – a community that is not only bound together by encounters, adventures, and monster loot, but the friendships we form along the way. Today, we celebrate not only the game we all love, but the people who bring it to life.

Alongside the birthday cake, the note points to a few concrete things worth knowing if you’re still poking around Sosaria (or thinking about logging back in for the day).

Over the past week the studio has been introducing the current Ultima Online crew on a Meet the Team page — community manager Fenneko, producer Kyronix, and the rest of the art, design, engineering, and QA folks who keep the shards humming under Broadsword. It’s a small courtesy that goes a long way when a live service has outlived several corporate landlords.

Today also kicks off the first day of 29th Anniversary Gifts for veteran characters on login. The newsletter stays light on the details, but the Publish 124 notes spell out the usual anniversary-token setup (characters at least thirty days old, virtue furniture and Adventurer’s Shelves among the redemption options, with a claim window running through the end of October). Check those notes before you burn a token on the wrong shelf color.

To mark the day itself, Fenneko hosted a special 29th Anniversary stream (with guest appearances from the team) — topics included New Legacy Season 2, Publish 125, the Classic Client Update, and more — on Twitch and YouTube, with chat and giveaways pointed at the game’s official Discord server.

Twenty-nine years is a ridiculous run for a game that taught a generation of us what an online world felt like before the genre had a settled name for itself. Whether you’re still grinding on a production shard, primarily a New Legacy player, or mostly here for the lore and the friends you made along the way, you’d do well to peek at the celebration note, the team page, and the Discord before the birthday cake crumbs disappear.