Ultima Online History
 The original description of Ultima Online from the 1996 owo.com: "Ultima Online is a multi-player role-playing game designed for real-time adventuring over the Internet. Eventually, thousands of people will be able to access this fantastic world around the clock and interact simultaneously with each other and the entire world. Set in the Ultima universe, Ultima Online enables players to adventure in a truly ongoing world. A world where battles are fought with might and mind, alliances are formed and shattered, and both enemies and friends are just as interested in wealth and power as you are. Slay a dragon, form a government, join a guild, craft and sell wares, and meet your friends at the tavern, all while playing Ultima Online." -ORIGIN Historical Ultima Online Maps :    The first map is from the 1996 owo.com website, it is the original concept OSI had for Ultima Online. The world or shards would consist of four continents. The first continent is obviously Sosaria or the Lands of Lord British commonly known as Britannia. The second continent is the Lands of the Feudal Lords. The third continent is the Lands of the Dark Unknown. And the fourth continent is upside down and reversed, but it is the great Serpent Isle, originally known as the Lands of Danger and Despair.
The second map is from the 1996 owo.com website, the original was cut into 2 jpgs. This was the map OSI provided for the pre-alpha testers. As you can see the pre-alpha was a very small portion of the map used today. The map used today was created from scratch, but this pre-alpha map was used as a guide. This explains the differences and similarities found on this map. The map consisted of the city of Britain, farms, orc camps & crypts. Not listed it also included the tower of the evil npc mage Myndon, and the godlands which were outside of the boundary. I will add a very detailed pre-alpha page with screenshots in the future. The third map is from the 1997 owo.com website, it is the original drawing made of the map that would be turned into the cloth map. Lord British :   This is Lord British as he was in the 1996 Pre-Alpha Test. His character was made to always hold a maul, it must be his favorite weapon. His character also has a ponytail just like he does in real life. His character has a transparent hole, that's how it was made, up close you can see the cobblestone ground through LB. (Cropped screenshots of LB are from Auric's Ultima Moongates and Newton Dragon. The transparent clear images of LB are thanks to InsideUO by Alazane (a cool program you can use to view UO art) The link is broken I will look for a new one.
The Shattered Legacy of Ultima By Razimus Friday, February 4th, 2005  Ultima Online, originally sub-titled "The Shattered Legacy". A fitting name to the online incarnation of the Ultima series. Ultima was a legacy that was shared by many, that legacy has since shattered. Richard Garriott also known as Lord British along with his father and a friend founded ORIGIN Systems Inc. in 1983. ORIGIN grew into the most successful independent computer game company in the United States. The Garriotts sold ORIGIN to Electronic Arts in 1992. It was a logical move at the time, but little did they know the biggest source of success would begin in 1997 with Ultima Online. Garriott continued to work for ORIGIN, he was the creative director over the games he produced. As the success grew, the insidious EA collective of corporate directors increased their control over the direction of ORIGIN's games. Garriott had many good ideas that EA ignored, this is the reason UO today is a clone of Diablo II. Electronic Arts is a major company which focuses on money rather than quality. Examples of this are the failed Ultima Online 2, the budget cutbacks in Ultima IX, and the horrible mutation of Ultima X, which by no means resembles an Ultima in any way. To make a long story short, EA is the reason the Ultima legacy was shattered. Despite the exodus of the Ultima series it remains alive in the millions of web pages dedicated to the original Ultimas.
 Back to UO History Main
|
