Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness

The story of the first part of one of the greatest game series originates somewhere in a parallel universe, in a fairy-tale world called Sosaria. Here internecine wars are raging - small rulers of different lands are fighting for power over the surrounding territories, while fighting off attacks from all sorts of monsters that the evil sorcerer with the glorious name of Mondane seems to send. The villain killed his father, put the predatory paws on the magic stone that belonged to him and with the help of black magic turned this artifact into the Diamond of Immortality. The ruler of one of the city-states, Lord British (concurrently, the author of the series Richard Garriott), calls from our world anonymous Hero, who will have to defeat Mondane.

In the first part of the series, fantasy and fiction elements were combined - with an epic scale over time, swords and magic armor are replaced by lasers and flying ships. Here various gameplay elements are mixed up - exploring the vast world, hunting monsters in 3D dungeons and space battles. Garriot's D & D enthusiasm, his membership in the SCA role-playing club, and all sorts of allusions to contemporary realities are reflected in the game.

Nice tile graphics became a step forward in comparison with Akalabeth's conventional look. Even more beautiful game began to look in the official remake of Origin in 1986, which, in fact, presented on our website. For the curious - the first version of the game was released on Apple II at the turn of 1980-81.

Ultima 1 (or just Ultima, as it was called in the first edition) was Garriott's first serious step in the field of commercial video games. If Akalabeth gained popularity only by chance, Ultima 1 was already created with the expectation of making a profit and did not disappoint expectations, having sold out with a circulation of 50 thousand copies. Not a bad result for a two-person development team. The second was Kenneth Arnold, the author of the music for many subsequent games in the series.

PS: In System Shock 2, you can pick up a cartridge with this game and even play it.