#ultima

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Calling Ultima the single most consistently groundbreaking, pioneering, influential series of videogames in the history of the medium would be kind of an understatement (Akalabeth and Ultima I pioneering the idea of adapting tabletop RPGs to the medium of videogames in a way that established so many elements that would become intrinsic to the identity of the genre for decades, like the concept of grid-based first person dungeon crawling and tile-based overworld travel, later games establishing the mold for isometric top-down RPGs, Ultima Online being a critical tipping point in cementing the popularity of the MMORPG), but even among a series that consistently pumped groundbreaking videogame after groundbreaking videogame it's just completely impossible to overstate how massive Ultima Underworld's legacy stands over a huge chunk of the gaming medium, even if its effects manifest in subtle ways nowadays like I legitimately believe no individual videogame in the history of the medium has been as influential as it.

It's legitimately insane how many seemingly unrelated videogames can be directly traced back to Underworld in some form or another. Like, to get the obvious out of the way first, it established the DNA of the immersive sim genre, so if you like games like System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex, Bioshock, Dishonored, Prey, all of those games were either made by people who worked on Ultima Underworld (sometimes by the same studio even), or otherwise directly influenced by games that were.

But also, if you like any first person shooters influenced by Doom and other ID Software games? John Carmack was there when the demo of Underworld was first shown and decided he could create a faster texture-mapped first-person 3D engine. Which he did, at the cost of sacrificing true polygonal 3D environments in favor of the pseudo-3D that he would use for Catacombs 3D and Wolfenstein 3D, eventually resulting in the creation of Doom. RPGs like the Elder Scrolls or Gothic? It would take all day to list off how much they directly owe to Ultima Underworld. That videogame trope of finding out what happened to the occupants of a place through finding in-game logs and documents? It was established by Ultima Underworld and popularized by one of its successors.

That's without mentioning how many games directly cite it as an influence. Some already mentioned like Bioshock, Deus Ex, and Elder Scrolls, but also like. Half-life 2? Tomb Raider? Gears of War? Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? All cite it as a direct influence in their game design.

Like of course a lot of these things are by virtue of being one of the earliest free-moving 3D first person videogames, when you're that early in the history of the medium you'll inevitably end up being the first to do *something* that otherwise someone else would eventually have ended up doing anyway, but no other game has a "first videogame to do [thing]" list anywhere as long and important as Ultima Underworld's.

[prokopetz]

this is a stupid question but i'm young enough to not know this: i've noticed that baldur's gate 3 has picked up a lot of the same level of both broad acclaim and fandom presence as the Bioware games did during the 7th generation. were there western RPGs in the decades before then with about the same level of success both commercial and critical? if so, what were they?

That's one of those "yes and no" deals.

The critical thing to understand is that home Internet service only became a thing in 1994; prior to that point, video game fandoms not only didn't have the same kind of reach, they tended to be geographically regional owing to the lack of online distribution, so what commercial and critical success looked like was very different.

To a large extent, the popularity of Baldur's Gate owed less to anything about the game itself, and more to the fact that it was simply a major production from a major brand which happened to debut at the same time that home Internet service was in a phase of rapid expansion. You can see this phenomenon occurring in other formerly regional genre fandoms that had major titles drop around that time; for example, JRPGs with Chrono Trigger, and later, Final Fantasy VII.

That said, with the understanding that what being a critically and commercially successful video game franchise looked like was a fundamentally different proposition in the pre-Internet era, the king of Western computer RPGs was undeniably the Ultima franchise. Indeed, failure to fully understand the possibilities of the post-Internet era is arguably a big part of why the Ultima series lost its crown – which is ironic, given that Ultima Online was the first truly popular graphical MMO, but somehow they just couldn't stick the landing.

[lockescoles]

@pscentral event 19: music ↳ FINAL FANTASY XVI OST + CHARACTERS' LEITMOTIF (template)

[adalheidis]

Spot illustrations done for @runicmagitek's fic "Ignite your Heart and Light the Path Unknown" as part of a collaboration for the @ffladieszine. I love Runic's writing so working with them on a piece featuring Ashe and illustrating their words was a dream project, and I greatly recommend you read their piece!

[asturlavi]

pathos begets mythos

[moonilit]

Do you think how Dion attempting to just end the whole world might have made Ultima panic for a sec?

[foone]

So there's a running joke in the Ultima series of games involving Smith the Horse, a talking horse who appears in Ultima IV through Ultima VII Part Two, and in most of those appearances he gives you hints on how to beat the game.

But it's the previous game. So in Ultima V, he tells you the answer to the riddle at the end of Ultima IV. In Ultima VI, he tells you a hint about how to finish Ultima V.

This made me think it might be funny to do a story about a person who has a time-traveling friend/future self who keeps sending them hints and important things, but always too late.

Like, you get into a fight on the street, and the next day a package arrives saying "Don't go to 3rd street tonight". It arrives to your hospital bed.

Or you lose your job and have a lot of financial hardships, and you finally get back on your feet, and then a package arrives which is a brand new pocketwatch... which is a priceless antique from the late 17th century, you could sell it for millions.

You're recovering from your bottom surgery and they mail you a package with a 27th century "gender change potion" which is built on technomagic nanotech. You end up giving it to your roommate so they don't have to do it the old fashioned way. the, uh, today fashioned way?

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Ultima GTR, 1999. A mid-engined sports car built in Hinckley, Leicestershire that was available fully built or in kit form. Factory made cars were powered by a range of Chevrolet small block V8 engines but owners who built their own could use a wider variety of engines and transmissions with the Ultima chassis being rated for engines up to 1,000bhp. The Ultima was replaced by the Evolution in 2016

[knifefightandchill]

[videogamepolls]

Requested by anon

[linesonwhite]

I have finally finished the Ivalice raids in FFXIV as of last night, thanks to my friends helping me out. OwO Even if I died a few times, we never got entirely wiped out, which was cool.

I was also really happy to see that the original FFT design of Ultima didn't go unused, even if it only shows up briefly, so I'm using today's drawing to celebrate that. UwU

Got her posted on twitter toooooooo

[ageha-sds]

also known as the CEO of Epic Games

[everth1ne]

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken - wallpapers

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[assassin1513]

For @millitron 💙 I very hope you and your community love this ☺️