The games comprising the Ultima series were, between 1981 and 1999, the defining computer role-playing games. Both the Western and Eastern RPG “schools”, if that is an appropriate term for them, were heavily inspired by the Ultima games, and still feature numerous gameplay and interface conventions that one Ultima or another introduced.
Ultima Online (UO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Origin Systems, which launched on September 24, 1997. It can’t claim to be the first graphical MMO, it can rightly claim to be one of the defining titles of the genre, and continues to run to this day.
The Ultima Codex is a collaboration between several members of the Ultima and Ultima Online fan communities: a single online space where fans from both sides of the legacy of Origin Systems’ amazing RPG series can come to find content that is of interest to them.
Zygon Dragon has a question about the soundtrack for Ultima 5 (for the Apple II) and the capabilities of some of the advanced audio hardware of the day.
Stephen Emond needs some information about whether certain international releases of various Ultima Online expansion packs were localized or not.
I had an out-of-date version of Zeph’s texture pack for Minecraft on the site. He has taken steps to rectify the error.
Andrew Owen has posted a survey to the Ultima Dragons Facebook page, asking which NPCs Ultima fans would like to see incorporated into his upcoming game, Ultima 3.5: Pax Britannia.
Zeph has begun work on a highly detailed map of Britannia using WorldPainter, a map creator for Minecraft. Check out his early results!
PCMAG.COM did a story of 10 Classic Computer RPGs from the 1980s. The Ultima series is cited but only one of them is really shown. There are also 9 other classic games that are interesting to see.
Andrew Owen is working on a tile-based Ultima fan-game set between Ultima 3 and Ultima 4. He has given it the title “Pax Britannia”.
