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Feature: The stuff of legend
After reading a lot of “Have You Played” retrospectives, it’s very common to dig up an old game, boot it up, and enjoy fifteen minutes of nostalgia, followed by the creeping realisation that it’s not as good as either you or the author of the post remembered. Luckily, Ultima Online - the first game I ever played online - is immune to this fate. That’s…
Feature: What are these controls?!
I was never allowed to play Crusader: No Regret or indeed its predecessor Crusader: No Remorse when I was a lad. Despite being two of Origin System's most impressive action games, they completely passed me by. Yet the Silencer was such a distinctive character in my mind, his bright red space armour glimmering as I stared at the box for both games. What was going…
Feature: Good muscles, cyber pal
BioForge was a work of experimental fusion, the unfathomable prowess of the human brain fused with the constant vigilance of a mid-1990s desktop computer. Adventure game meets hand-to-hand combat, a feverish exploration of a cybernetic figure of unknown origin and capabilities. Your character (the cyborg) wakes up in a cell, and finds himself the newly-formed avatar of Promethean strength, nervously wearing all the muscles of…
Feature: How do you become a videogame archivist?
Meet the man who runs the Origin Museum, collecting the history of Wing Commander and Ultima
In the basement of an unassuming suburban home just outside Washington, D.C., you'll find one of the largest collections of documents, data, images and props from Origin Systems, the company behind the Ultima and Wing Commander game series of the 80s and 90s. The Origin Museum is owned and curated by Joe Garrity, and has been running since 1999, when Garrity lived in Virginia. Over…
Feature: Rule Britannia
I'll never forget where I was when I heard that Lord British had been killed. The character, Ultima creator Richard Garriott's alter-ego and in-game avatar, burned to a crisp during a beta test of Ultima Online on August 9th, 1997. The game officially launched a month and a half later, twenty years ago today, and I loved it in a way that has kept me…
Feature: Revisiting The Ancient MMO
Later this year, Ultima Online [official site] will turn 18 years old. In the genre of MMOs, that makes the game positively ancient - and it's even more remarkable when you consider that it's still funded via a subscription model. I’ve never played an Ultima game, much less one that’s nearly my age. I wanted to find out what the game is like to play…
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. I wasn't sure if I remembered Crusader: No Remorse more fondly than I should and then I noticed that it's free on Origin at the moment, so I downloaded it to check. You should download it as well because it might well be…
Mark Hamill might be wearing those dusty old wizard robes again, but 20 years ago, the Wing Commander games were the only hope of Hamillaniacs to see him zapping about in spaceships and all that. Perhaps in the spirit of his renewed Star Warring, or patting Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts on the back for Star Citizen, or--who knows!--possibly even promoting their service, EA are…
Free RPGs of old! I hadn't thought about the Worlds of Ultima games for a long time but they are now free on GOG.com and seeing that made me hunger for a continuation. Rather than taking place in Britannia, land of vice and virtue, the short-lived spin-off series transports the Avatar to fantastical Vernian environments, namely a savage jungle empire and a Victorian era Mars.…
Feature: Intrinsic Virtues
I was only young when I played Ultima VII but I had already ventured to the depths of dungeons that dripped with dread, partaken in interstellar war and defended my home planet from invaders. Like Roy Batty and all people who grew up with games, I had seen and done so much. Between adventures in space, I’d rezone my commercial districts or build a new…
Gaming archaeology: now there's an idea. It can only be better than Bonekickers, anyway. Upon hearing that EA Mythic had received several crateloads full of Origin Systems (the long-dead studio behind the Wing Commander and Ultima games, plus System Shock, and once home to the power duo of Warren Spector and Richard Garriot) archive materials, a group of fans arranged to catalogue the treasure trove.…
