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The More the Merrier?

Screenshot from Ultima On-Line

Ultima On-Line was one of the earliest Massively Multiplayer On-Line Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs. This screenshot features character, stats, options, and a map of the world of Ultima.

The More the Merrier?

What’s more awesome than playing Ultima? Playing Ultima with thousands of others. Or so Origin Systems reasoned when it adapted its 1980 role-playing fantasy as a “massively multiplayer” online game.

Ultima On-Line made a pre-release appearance in 1996 at the E3 consumer electronics show. Its brilliant graphics created so much buzz that within six months of its 1997 debut, 100,000 players had created accounts. At its height, Ultima On-Line boasted more than 250,000 simultaneous players.

Later competitors eroded Ultima’s popularity. But this multiplayer milestone pioneered an online medium where far-flung friends compete with each other, or join against computer-generated opponents.

Ultima software boxes

Ultima began as a series of role-playing games designed by Richard Garriot, also known as Lord British after one of his created characters. The extremely successful Ultima series of games branched out into the world of Massively Multi-Player On-line Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) with the release of Ultima On-Line in 1997.

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Ultima V advertisement

The Ultima series of computer role-playing games began in 1980 and ran for more than 25 years. There were nine sequels on at least a dozen platforms. Ultima releases were major events.

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