In 1980 he was finished with it and sold it to California Pacific Computer Company. Ultima I was intended as a sequel to Akalabeth, and this is an aspect of this story that is unknown to me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A History of Ultima | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Akalabeth - The Seed that became Ultima | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Screen shot from Apple Akalabeth, the late 70's | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Richard Garriot was spending much of his free time fiddling with a game he was creating for the Apple II in the late 1970's. He called the game Akalabeth. He was working after school at a computer store in Texas, and he showed the owner of the store the game. The owner was impressed to such a degree that he, unbeknownst to Richard, sent a copy of the game to a major software publisher in California, who instantly bought the game. This game became a huge success and certainly meant a personal triumph for Richard Garriot. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Akalabeth has recently become available in a PC-compatible version as well as the BASIC source code for the game. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Age of Darkness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ultima I - The Beginning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Screen shot from PC version of Ultima I, 1986 version | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After the success that Akalabeth became, Richard Garriot made up plans for his next project, which would be a role-playing game set in a medieval environment. In 1980 he was finished with it and sold it to California Pacific Computer Company. Ultima I was intended as a sequel to Akalabeth, and this is an aspect of this story that is unknown to me. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ultima I introduced the tile-graphics engine that we can find in almost all of the Ultima games today. This new in-game perspective(in combination with the old first-person perspective from Akalabeth) was that which most strongly contributed to the success of Ultima I. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After Ultima III had been released, Richard Garriot returned to this project to give it an update to the standards of the middle 1980's. The new version of Ultima I was released in 1986, and it is that version that is available today. The original Ultima I is even more clouded in mystery than Akalabeth; this is another black hole that needs to be filled. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ultima I takes place in a world called Sosaria. It is a world where vile monsters roam the land in search of people to prey upon. It is a land in which the ethereal energies can be harnessed and controlled by the strong will of a mighty wizard. It is a land in which an evil wizard with a strong will has started to realize his perverted vision of himself as leader over the entire land, and all people and creatures his slaves. The necromancer Mondain has summoned hordes of monsters to aid him in his cause of evil. Stopping him will not be easy, because he is not only protected by his armies of monsters, but he is also... immortal! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ultima2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||