UO’s 14th Anniversary: The Second Age – Delucia in the Papua

Yesterday we covered the launch of Ultima Online and today we are continuing on with the quest of looking back at all of the expansions and major events of Ultima Online, as we head towards the 14th Anniversary. That brings us to The Second Age. The Second Age rolled into UO in October of 1998, but a lot happened between the original release of Ultima Online and T2A. I’ve included some specific highlights in this previous post if you’re curious. It must be noted that not long after T2A launched, UO would grow to reach 100,000 players. These were pretty heady times for UO.

Ultima Online: The Second Age (Box Front)

Note: Click on images for larger versions or visit the entire flickr set of T2A

So how was it being sold? With a similar message as the original UO, but adding in all of the accolades it had received (Game of the Year type of stuff), as well as emphasizing the social aspects. It also emphasized things that had been added since the original UO launch – guilds and vendors.

From the back of the box:

Ultima Online: The Second Age - Back of the Box

Thousands of Players
Potentially thousands of players online day and night from around the world, each character as indivdiual as the person who created it. A vibrant player community, hundreds of websites, hundreds of guilds to join. Are you with us?

A Persistent World
Your actions have a real, lasting impact on this fully simulated world. Regular and ongoing automatic updates to the game snure that it remains fresh and exciting.

Endless Possibilities
Ultima Online offers an unprecedented degree of freedom for you to seek out your own destiny. Craft weapons, tame wild animals, build a house, run a shop, quest for treasure, delve into dungeons – true role-playing where your only limitation is your imagination.

The Second Age
Ultima Online truly enters a new age, with over a year of gameplay refining, increased land mass, new creatures, towns, and terrain, enhanced interface, extended chat features, new in-game language translation, and a new tutorial.

The Best-Selling Role-playing series of all time has revolutionized online gaming again with Ultima Online: The Second Age. Interact with thousands of players simultaneously in this breakthrough Internet fantasy world. Get online and immerse yourself in the adventure of a lifetime..

Inside the flap/cover of the box, you got a very nice display showing some of what was going on. If you don’t look at this and grin, then you have no soul:

Ultima Online: The Second Age - Inside of Box Flap

Click for a large/readable version

As the first expansion, what did T2A bring? Quite a bit:
* The Lost Lands, a new land for us to explore, with jungles (also new)
* Delucia and Papua
* Better chat features
* New dungeons
* New Monsters
* New language translation for players in-game
* New tutorial
* The Big Window Client

Now “Quite a bit” is very subjective obviously. If you were doing the upgrade price, it was a steal.

What was in the box?
Note: This is for the full version of the US retail box
* The game on a CD
* Ultima Online: The Second Age Install Guide
* Ultima Onilne: The Second Age Reference Guide
* Ultima Online The Second Age Playguide
* Reversible map – one side was Britannia, one was the Lost Lands
* EULA

Ultima Online: The Second Age - Everything

So what about the contents of the box? If you purchased the upgrade, you didn’t get the box, you just got a CD and the guides/documentation – pretty good for I think it was $7 or $8. I picked up a copy of the retail box for another account, which is what I’ve scanned. Looking back at the original UO boxes, retail or charter, the install guide for T2a was actually expanded to explain in more detail the in-game support. The Reference Guide was shortened, most likely because of the Playguide. The Playguide. Simply amazing, probably 150-200 pages, very hefty. Two steps forward, one step back – the map was paper and reversible – one side was the Lost Lands, one was Britannia:

Ultima Online: The Second Age - Map of Britannia

Click for a huge version of the map

Ultima Online: The Second Age - Map of the Lost Lands

Click for a huge version of the map

As much as I liked the cloth maps, I don’t have as much of a problem as these were pretty detailed, more detail than you get with cloth, as you can see from my scans above.

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UO’s 14th Anniversary: The Charter Edition

With Ultima Online’s Anniversary fast approaching, I was debating on a way to celebrate it. It’s been an interesting 14 years and a rocky road at times but the future is looking much brighter these days, in more ways than one.

For some reason, I looked across at my book shelf and it hit me. As we are looking forward towards UO’s future, why not revisit the past? That’s mostly what anniversaries are for. While I’ve seen photos of some of the materials on many websites, I rarely see any large scans, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Every day for the rest of the month I will scan in or post photos of UO’s retail releases along with interesting UO-related memorabilia I’ve picked up over the years. I will include high-resolution images, mostly cleaned up where I can do so. Warning, there maybe stray dust and creases and other wear and tear ahead. Do not cringe over the condition of my boxes, manuals, CDs, etc., for they have served their purpose well. As an example, while trying to get the CD insert out this morning, I even accidentally sacrificed the CD case. It was worth it.

ultima-online-charter-edition-hildebrandt

Click for large 3000 by something version of Hildebrandt print
Click any of the images for larger versions and for the full set of photos/scans, see the Ultima Online: Charter Edition flickr set

This one is for you Paul Barnett, because it wouldn’t be Ultima without cloth maps:
ultima-online-charter-edition-cloth-map

First Up:
Ultima Online: The Charter Edition
Year: 1997
Information: Ultima Collector’s Guide and Codex of Ultima Wisdom and UO Guide

Who can forget the tagline “Are you with us?

The advertising was effective, drawing many people in, even people who had never touched an Ultima game, and it’s clear where Richard Garriott got his inspiration for his interest in social gaming 14 years later, with with descriptions such as:

Experience real-time social interaction with thousands of people in the same exciting game world. Meet new friends and foes, engage in group combat, venture off to uncharted lands, or visit a tavern and chat with players from around the world. It’s an ongoing, ever-changing world of adventure.

and

What happens when thousands of people are unleashed on a never-ending ever-changing fantasy world?

You tell us.

and finally:

The time has come to enter Ultima Online. You and thousands of people from around the world will live, quest, fight, love or hate in a persistent world, where every action you take affects the lives of others.

It’s more than a fantasy, because it really exists. It’s more than a game because it never ends. And it’s a quantum leap beyond anything you’ve ever seen before.

Go betyond life as you know it to an adventure more incredible than you can imagine. Are you with us?

The features listed by Origin in advertising and on the boxes included:
* Mass player engine allows thousands of real people to play simultaneously
* Day and night effects, 3-D terrain and 16-bit color SVGA graphics.
* Customize your onscreens characters, including gender, skin tone, clothing and hairstyle
* Detailed character-defining systems and fully simulated virtual ecology
* Real-time combat, adventuring and social interaction
* Fully-simulated ecology and economy
* Visible dialog above speaking characters
* 3D terrain and dynamic lighting in 16-bit color

ultima-online-charter-edition-main

What did it Include:
* Comes in a Large, Flat Box, with an imprint of Lord British’s signature
* Large Hildebrandt poster/print
* Cloth Map
* Charter Membership Gift Certificate
* Pewter Ultima Online pin
* CD-ROM in a case without a cover
* Ultima Online Install Guide
* Guide to UltimaOnline.com (the website)
* Guide to playing Ultima Online
* 90 Days Gametime
* Ad insert for Dungeon Keeper
* 1997 Catalog of Electronic Arts, Origin, Jane’s Combat Simulations, Bullfrog

Ultima Online: Charter Edition: Certificate

Did I say a large box? Yes, I did, here it is compared to the Dragon Edition of Ultima IX

ultima-online-charter-edition-huge-2

Other Editions:
* Retail version: Same as the Charter Edition, only without the large Hildebrandt print, Charter Membership certificate, or the 90 days gametime

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Jeff Skalski Introduces Himself to the UO Community

Yesterday I guessed that Jeff Skalski had something to do with UO and today he started the process of introducing himself to the community, with a post on Stratics:

Just wanted to stop by and say hi to everyone. I got a lot of catching up to do as you can imagine with getting reacquainted with UO. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve played and a lot has changed since then as many of you know. Regardless, the team has run me through what they have planned for the next couple of publishes and cool things are coming. Right now I’m focused on doing everything I can with getting us through the remaining migration issues. I know it hasn’t been as seamless of an experience as we originally hoped for some people, but we have more fixes in the works.

See you online,

Jeff

That’s a good opening post to the community. Things are looking good.

Richard Garriott Would Like to do More Ultimas with EA

I never know what my news reader will turn up, and I’ve got to say this one really surprised me.

But don’t get your hopes up too much, as Garriott explains why.

In an interview with Industry Gamers, Garriott actually brought up the Ultima franchise first, and mentioned that he found it funny that EA was using the Origin name for its online services. He then went on to mention that he’s actually had talks at “very high levels” about collaborating with Electronic Arts.

“I find the use of the word Ultima to be more interesting as they’ve tried to give that legs again. I hope that Ultima does survive forever, yet I also, of course, have my own very particular ideas for what Ultima can and should become over time and so we’ll see if they do things quite the way I would do them… since I’m not there at the moment,” he commented.

IndustryGamers asked Garriott if he could still collaborate with EA. “We would be open to that. In fact, we’ve had some discussions at what I’ll call very high levels, but the individuals who are currently shepherding the property don’t seem to be particularly interested in that, so we’ll see,” he replied. “Who knows? You never know what’s going to happen in the future… the doors always open if they were ever interested.”

As for those individuals who are “currently shepherding the property”, that would probably include Paul Barnett of BioWare Mythic. He is a big fan of Origin and Ultima titles, and is rumored to be working on an Ultima project of some sorts, as his so-called “secret project” that he tweets about. This week for instance, he’s posted this:

Earlier Today

Ultima 4, free, on GOG.com , it’s a miracle. It’s like there is a plan to re-release all the great old origin games…. What can it mean?

And a few days ago

Will be testing the secret project in London this week. Hoping for positive feedback. Latest build will be sent via dropbox!

I have a hard time believing that Barnett would turn Garriott down, so I’d be willing to bet that other personalities are at play, probably outside of the BioWare label.

Full article: IndustryGamers

via Eurogamer.net

Ultima I-III Available at Good Old Games

Last week it was reported that Good Old Games would be selling Ultima I-III and they are now doing so.

If you’re only experience with the Ultima series of games is Ultima Online, you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise.

$5.99 gets you the following:
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress
Ultima III: Exodus
Manuals, Cluebook, Spellbook, and Maps

You can find the games, screenshots, and information at GOG’s Ultima I-III page.

Ultima Aiera is celebrating by posting several stories, videos, and information about the Ultima I-III games, including a look at the difference in platforms, the introductions, and many other things.