Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Encyclopedia
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a first-person role-playing video game
developed by Blue Sky Productions
(later Looking Glass Studios) and published by Origin Systems
. Released in March 1992, the game is set in the fantasy world of the Ultima series, and takes place inside the Great Stygian Abyss: a large, underground cave system that contains the remnants of a failed utopia
n civilization. The player assumes the role of the Avatar—the Ultima series' protagonist
—and attempts to find and rescue a baron's kidnapped daughter.
Ultima Underworld has been cited as the first first-person perspective role-playing game with three-dimensional
(3D) graphics, and it introduced many technological innovations, such as allowing the player to look up and down. Its design combines simulation elements with concepts from earlier CRPGs, including Wizardry
and Dungeon Master; this led the game's designers to label it as a "dungeon simulation". As such, the game is non-linear and allows for emergent gameplay
.
Ultima Underworld received widespread critical acclaim and sold nearly 500,000 copies. The game was later placed on numerous hall of fame lists. It influenced game developers such as Bethesda Softworks
and Valve Corporation
, and it was an inspiration behind the games Deus Ex
and BioShock
. The game has one sequel: Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
(1993).
(3D) environment. The player's goal is to adventure through a large, multi-level dungeon
, in which the entire game is set. The player uses a freely movable mouse cursor
to interact with the game's world, and with the icon-based interface on the heads-up display
(HUD). Each icon has a specific effect; for example, the Look icon allows the player to examine objects closely, while the Fight icon causes the player character
to ready its weapon. The player's progression through the game is non-linear: areas may be explored, and puzzles and quests finished, in any order. An automatically filling map, to which the player may add notes, records what the player has seen above a minimum level of brightness. The player character may carry light sources to extend the line of sight
in varying amounts. Exploratory actions include looking up and down, jumping, and swimming.
The player begins the game by creating a character, for whom traits such as gender, class
and skills may be selected. Skills range from fighting with an axe, to bartering, to picking locks. By participating in combat
, quest
s and exploration, the character gains experience point
s. When certain amounts of experience points are accumulated, the character levels up
, gaining additional hit points and mana
. Experience also allows the player to recite mantras at shrine
s in the game. Each mantra is a statement—such as "Om Cah"—that increases proficiency in a specific skill when typed. Simple mantras are provided in the game's manual, while more complex ones are hidden throughout the game. An inventory on the HUD lists the items and weapons currently carried by the player character; capacity is limited by weight. Players equip items via a paper doll system, wherein items are clicked-and-dragged onto a representation of the player character.
Combat occurs in real-time, and the player character may use both melee and ranged weapons. The player attacks by holding the cursor over the game screen and clicking, depressing the button longer to inflict greater damage. Some weapons allow for different types of attacks depending on where the cursor is held; for example, clicking near the bottom of the screen may result in a jab, while clicking in the middle produces a slash. Simulated dice rolls occur behind the scenes to determine weapon accuracy. Enemies sometimes try to escape when near death, and the game's stealth mechanics may occasionally be used to avoid combat altogether. The player may cast spells by selecting an appropriate combination of runestones. Like mantras, runestones must be found in the game world before use. There are over forty spells, some undocumented; their effects range from causing earthquakes to allowing the player character to fly.
The developers intended Ultima Underworld to be a realistic and interactive "dungeon simulation", rather than a straightforward role-playing game
. For example, many objects in the game have no actual use, while a lit torch may be used on corn to create popcorn
. Weapons deteriorate with use, and the player character must eat and rest; light sources burn out unless extinguished before sleeping. A physics system allows, among other things, for items to bounce when thrown against surfaces. The game contains non-player character
s (NPCs) with whom the player may interact by selecting dialogue choices from a menu. Most NPCs have possessions, and are willing to trade them. The game was designed to give players "a palette of strategies" with which to approach situations, and its simulation systems allow for emergent gameplay
.
called the Great Stygian Abyss. The dungeon's entrance lies on the Isle of the Avatar, an island ruled by Baron Almric. The Abyss first appeared in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, in which it contains the player's final goal, the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom.
Ultima Underworld is set after the events of Ultima VI: The False Prophet; in the time between the two games, a man named Cabirus attempted to create a utopia
n colony inside the Abyss. The eight settlements of the Ultima series each embody one of eight virtues, and Cabirus wished to create a ninth that embodied all virtues. To achieve this, he united diverse cultures and races in peaceful co-existence and planned to promote harmony by giving each group one of eight virtue-imbued magical artifacts. However, he died before distributing the artifacts, and left no instructions for doing so. As a result, the colony collapsed into anarchy and war, and the artifacts were lost. At the time of Ultima Underworld, the Abyss contains the remnants of Cabirus's colony, with fractious groups of humans, goblins, ogres and others living there.
In the game's introduction, the ghost of Garamon haunts the Avatar's dreams with warnings of a great danger in Britannia. The Avatar allows Garamon to take him there, where he watches Tyball kidnap Baron Almric's daughter. Tyball escapes, leaving the Avatar to be caught by the Baron's guards. The guards take him to the Baron, who banishes him to the Great Stygian Abyss to rescue his daughter. After the introduction, the Avatar explores the dungeon and finds remnants of Cabirus's colony. A few possible scenarios include deciding the fate of two warring goblin tribes, learning a language, and playing an instrument to complete a quest. The Avatar eventually defeats Tyball and frees the Baron's daughter.
However, as he dies, Tyball reveals that he had decided to contain the Slasher of Veils, whose prison he had been weakening, within the Baron's daughter as a way to prevent it from destroying the world. The Baron's daughter asks the Avatar to prevent the Slasher of Veils from being unleashed, and magically teleports back to the surface to evacuate its inhabitants. With help from Garamon's ghost, the Avatar gathers the eight talismans of Cabirus and throws them in the volcano at the base of the Abyss; the energy they release allows Garamon to open a portal that will send the Slasher of Veils into another dimension. The Avatar is sucked through the portal into a chaotic alternate dimension, but escapes back to the Isle of the Avatar and makes it on board the Baron's ship as the volcano erupts. As the game ends, Garamon's spirit reveals that he teleported the inhabitants of the Abyss to another cave.
employee Paul Neurath
. He had just completed work on Space Rogue
, a hybrid title that features sequences of 2D
tile-based
role-playing, and of 3D
space flight simulation
. According to Neurath, Space Rogue "took the first, tentative steps in exploring a blend of RPG and simulation elements, and this seemed to me a promising direction". He felt that the way it combined the elements was jarring, however, and believed that he could create a more immersive experience.
Neurath had enjoyed role-playing video game
s like Wizardry
, but found that their simple, abstract visuals "required a bit of imagination to achieve suspension of disbelief". He believed that Dungeon Masters detailed first-person presentation was a "glimpse into the future", and sought to create a fantasy role-playing game that would "bring even more immediacy". In early 1990, Neurath wrote a design document for a game titled Underworld, which described such elements as "goblins on the prows of rowboats tossed in the waves, shooting arrows at the player above on a rope bridge swinging in the wind". He contracted former Origin employee Doug Wike to create concept art
; the result was a brief, hand-drawn animation made in Deluxe Paint Animation
. Depicting the game's interface and a creature moving toward the player, the animation defined the game's direction, and was used as a reference point for the game's tone and features throughout development. That spring, Neurath founded the company Blue Sky Productions in Salem, New Hampshire
, with the goal of creating Underworld. Among the company's first employees was Doug Church
, who was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). The team was thus composed of Doug Church as programmer, Doug Wike as lead artist and Paul Neurath as lead designer. Development began in May 1990.
An early difficulty was the implementation of texture mapping
. Neurath had experimented unsuccessfully with the concept on an Apple II
computer in the late 1980s, but believed that the more powerful IBM
PCs of the time may be able to process it. He contacted Lerner Research programmer Chris Green—an acquaintance from his past work with Ned Lerner—who created a working algorithm
. Using the Space Rogue engine, Green's algorithm, assembly code from Lerner Research's Car and Driver and original programming, the Blue Sky team completed a prototype of Underworld after roughly a month of work. Neurath described the prototype as "fast, smooth, and [featuring] true texture mapped walls, though the ceiling and floor were flat shaded and the corridors and rooms were all 10' [3.0 m] high—it looked a lot like Wolfenstein-3D
in fact". The team demonstrated it at the June 1990 Consumer Electronics Show
(CES), and impressed Origin Systems
; Origin producer Warren Spector
later said, "I remember Paul showing me that demo [...] at CES and being totally floored by it. None of us had ever seen anything like it". The two companies reached a publishing agreement that summer, and Origin suggested that the game be reworked to fit into the Ultima universe. The team agreed, and the game was renamed Ultima Underworld. While Spector had hoped to produce the game, he was not assigned to the role; he later said that he "sort of watched [the other producer] jealously from the sidelines".
After the game was renamed, Doug Church recruited Dan Schmidt, a college friend who had just graduated from MIT, as a programmer. The team abandoned the Space Rogue engine and created a new one that could display a believable 3D world—one with varying heights and texture-mapped floors and ceilings. Church estimated that the first year of production was dedicated to creating the game's technological base. However, Neurath stated that the team spent "comparatively little" time on the game's technology, and that "most was spent working on game features, mechanics, and world building". Their ultimate goal was to create the "finest dungeon game, a game that was tangibly better than any of the long line of dungeon games that came before it". Each member of the small team assumed multiple roles; for example, the game's first two levels were designed by Paul Neurath, and the rest by "a variety of programmers, artists, and designers on the team". According to Schmidt, Neurath contracted a writer to create the game's story and dialogue, but the relationship was a "mismatch", and the team decided to create the plot themselves. Alongside his programming work, Doug Church co-wrote the game's story with Dan Schmidt, and gradually took on project leader responsibilities. Writing duties for each level were given to the person who created the level; Schmidt's role was to edit the dialogue of each level to fit with the others. Schmidt also created the game's sound effects, which were synthesized—no recorded sounds were used—in a graphical sound editor. Neurath, who Church said was "very day to day at the beginning of the project", became more involved with the company's business and finances.
Church explained that "the most important thing was the dynamic creation of the game[; ...] there was no set of rules which we followed, or pre-written plan. We started with the idea of a first-person dungeon simulation [... and] as the game was worked on, people would suggest behaviours and systems, and we would all try and figure out how to do it". "We wrote four movement systems before we were done, several combat systems, and so forth," Church later said. "The programming team was mostly just out of school and new to game writing, so we were improvising almost the whole time". He said that the team would "just write something" that seemed interesting, but then would "get it half done, and we'd say, 'Eh? That's not working.'" He believed that the method was "nice in a lot of ways; it let us do things we probably couldn't have done otherwise. But it also meant that we worked a lot. All the time, basically, for a long time". Certain failed experiments resulted in the team "writing [AI] code for many ideas which turned out to be largely irrelevant to the actual gameplay". He believed that the game's Ultima series heritage was a "huge advantage", as it gave the team an anchor for their experiments.
During the first year of the game's development, Church believed that Origin "didn't really think it was ever going to get done. They didn't pay any attention at all, frankly". While Origin CEO Richard Garriott
was "instrumental in helping integrate the Ultima fictional elements into the game", Warren Spector later said that the company seemed uninterested with the game "for the first several months after ORIGIN and Blue Sky signed the deal. I mean, it looked like a change-the-world project to me but most everyone else was kind of blasé about it". Neurath believed that this was largely due to the team's status as "an outside group, some 1,500 miles distant, at a time when Origin was increasingly focused inward on their in-house projects". The team was advanced $30,000 to create the game, but its final cost was $400,000. The game was funded partly by Ned Lerner, and by Neurath's royalties from Space Rogue. Throughout development, the studio was run on a tight budget.
Roughly a year into development, the team discovered that their second producer—the first having quit Origin near the beginning of development—had left the project. Neurath later said that "neither [producer] had much involvement" in the game, and that, following the second's departure, the team was "left with no producer for a while". Rumors circulated that Origin planned to cancel the project. Following a proposal by the team, Spector, who had previously worked with Neurath on Space Rogue, assumed the role of producer around this time, which Church described as "a big win for everyone". Spector began regularly interacting with the team by phone, in addition to visiting the studio in person. Neurath later said, "Warren understood immediately what we were trying to accomplish with the game, and became our biggest champion within Origin. Had not Warren stepped in this role at that stage, I'm not sure Ultima Underworld would have ever seen the light of day". On Spector's role, Church said that "not only was he great creatively to help us put finishing touches on it and clean it up and make it real, but he also knew how to finish projects and keep us motivated and on track". He explained that Spector "had that ability to help me and the rest of the guys reset, from the big-picture view of someone who has done it before".
The final four months of the game's development constituted "crunch time". During this period, Neurath rented an extremely small basement office space in a Somerville, Massachusetts
social services building; he sought to circumvent the long commute that several team members had been making from Massachusetts. Furniture consisted of inexpensive folding tables and "uncomfortable red deck chairs". Development took place during the winter, but the room was drafty and poorly heated. The team hired college friends to bug test the game, and Spector stayed at the studio for "about six weeks", according to Doug Church. Spector later said that "in that little office, that team created some serious magic. I mean, the sense of doing something incredible was palpable. [...] I was there [...] working on docs, going over buglists with them, testing the game as it changed, daily, and I felt how special it was every minute I was there". Neurath summarized, "Despite the austere working environment, the game came together amazingly well in the final stretch, and we delivered the Gold Master
just about two years after we had started". The game was released in March 1992.
was written by a small team. Chris Green provided the game's texture mapping algorithm, which was applied to walls, floors and ceilings. The engine allowed for transparencies, walls at 45 degree angles, multiple tile heights and inclined surfaces, and other aspects. Ultima Underworld was the first video game to implement many of these effects. The game was also the first indoor, real-time, 3D first-person game to allow the player to look up and down, and to jump.
Ultima Underworld uses two-dimensional sprite
s for characters, but also features 3D objects, as the team believed that it "had to do 3D objects in order to have reasonable visuals". The game uses physics to calculate the motion of thrown objects. During the game's alpha testing phase, part of the programming team worked to create a smooth lighting model. The game's advanced technology caused the engine to run slowly, and its system requirements
were extremely high. Doug Church later downplayed the importance of the game's technology, stating that technological advancement "is somewhat inevitable in our field ... [and] sadly, as an industry we seem to know much less about design, and how to continue to extend and grow design capabilities". Instead, he claimed that Ultima Underworlds most important achievement was its incorporation of simulation elements into a role-playing game.
caused sales to reach nearly 500,000 copies. The game received critical acclaim, with significant praise directed toward its 3D presentation and automapping feature. In 1993, the game won the Origins Award
for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992'".
ACE
called Ultima Underworld "the next true evolutionary step in the RPG genre", and noted that its simulation-style dungeon was "frighteningly realistic". The magazine thought that the game's sprite
character models "detract from the dense atmosphere a bit", but ended the review by stating, "If you've got a PC, then you've got to have Ultima Underworld". Dragon Magazine
wrote, "To say this is the best dungeon game we've ever played is quite an understatement[, ... and it] will leave you wondering how other game entertainments can ever stack up against the new standards Abyss sets".
Computer Gaming World
described it as "an ambitious project [...] not without its share of problems". They praised the game's "enjoyable story and well-crafted puzzles", but disliked its "robotic" controls and "confusing" perspectives, and stated that "far more impressive sounds and pictures have been produced for other dungeon games". They summarized the game as "an enjoyable challenge with a unique game-playing engine to back it up." The magazine later awarded the game "Role-Playing Game of the Year". Computer Shopper
enjoyed its storyline and characters, and believed that the game "makes you feel as if you've entered a virtual reality". Despite describing its interface as "not truly intuitive", the reviewer finished by calling the game "addictive" and "a fine value". The Chicago Tribune
awarded it Best Game of the Year, and called it "an amazing triumph of the imagination [... and] the creme de la creme of dungeon epics".
The game was also well received by non-English publications. The Swedish Datormagazin considered the game to be "in a class by itself". In Germany, Power Play praised its "technical perfection" and "excellent" story, while Play Time lauded its graphical and aural presentation, and awarded it Game of the Month. Finland's Pelit
stated, "Ultima Underworld is something totally new in the CRPG field. The Virtual Fantasy of the Abyss left reviewers speechless."
Ultima Underworld was inducted into many hall of fame lists, including those compiled by GameSpy
, IGN
and Computer Gaming World. PC Gamer US
ranked the game and its sequel 20th on their 1997 The 50 Best Games Ever list, citing "strong character interaction, thoughtful puzzles, unprecedented control, and genuine roleplaying in ways that have yet to be duplicated".
posited that "all 3D RPG titles from Morrowind to World of Warcraft
share Ultima Underworld as a common ancestor, both graphically and spiritually ... [and] for better or for worse, Underworld moved the text-based RPG out of the realm of imagination and into the third dimension". The game's soundtrack, composed by George Sanger and Dave Govett, was the first in a major first-person game to use a dynamic music
system; the player's actions alter the game's music.
The game's influence has been found in BioShock
(2007), and that game's designer, Ken Levine, has stated that "all the things that I wanted to do and all the games that I ended up working on came out of the inspiration I took from [Ultima Underworld]". Gears of War
designer Cliff Bleszinski
also cited it as an early influence, stating that it had "far more impact on me than Doom". Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include The Elder Scrolls: Arena
, Deus Ex
, Deus Ex: Invisible War
, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and Half-Life 2
. Toby Gard
stated that, when designing Tomb Raider
, he "was a big fan of ... Ultima Underworld and I wanted to mix that type of game with the sort of polygon characters that were just being showcased in Virtua Fighter". The game was the basis for Looking Glass Studios' later System Shock
.
id Software's use of texture mapping
in Catacomb 3-D, a precursor to Wolfenstein 3D
, was influenced by Ultima Underworld. Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence, however. In the book Masters of Doom
, author David Kushner asserts that the concept was discussed only briefly during a 1991 telephone conversation between Paul Neurath and John Romero
. However, Paul Neurath has said that John Carmack
and John Romero saw the game's summer 1990 software convention demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper.
Despite the technology developed for Ultima Underworld, Origin opted to continue using traditional top-down, 2D graphics for future mainline Ultima games. The engine was re-used and enhanced for Ultima Underworlds 1993 sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
. Looking Glass Studios planned to create a third Ultima Underworld, but Origin rejected their pitches. After EA rejected Arkane Studios
' pitch for Ultima Underworld III, the studio instead created a spiritual successor: Arx Fatalis
.
In the early 2000s, Paul Neurath approached Electronic Arts
(EA) to discuss a port of Ultima Underworld to the Pocket PC
. EA rejected the suggestion, but allowed him to look for possible developers; Neurath found that ZIO Interactive enthusiastically supported the idea, and EA eventually licensed the rights to the company. Doug Church and Floodgate Entertainment
assisted with portions of its Pocket PC development, and the port was released in 2002.
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
developed by Blue Sky Productions
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....
(later Looking Glass Studios) and published by Origin Systems
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
. Released in March 1992, the game is set in the fantasy world of the Ultima series, and takes place inside the Great Stygian Abyss: a large, underground cave system that contains the remnants of a failed utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n civilization. The player assumes the role of the Avatar—the Ultima series' protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
—and attempts to find and rescue a baron's kidnapped daughter.
Ultima Underworld has been cited as the first first-person perspective role-playing game with three-dimensional
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
(3D) graphics, and it introduced many technological innovations, such as allowing the player to look up and down. Its design combines simulation elements with concepts from earlier CRPGs, including Wizardry
Wizardry
Wizardry is a series of computer role-playing games, developed by Sir-Tech, which were highly influential in the development of modern console and computer role playing games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence to early console RPGs, such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. ...
and Dungeon Master; this led the game's designers to label it as a "dungeon simulation". As such, the game is non-linear and allows for emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics....
.
Ultima Underworld received widespread critical acclaim and sold nearly 500,000 copies. The game was later placed on numerous hall of fame lists. It influenced game developers such as Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...
and Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
, and it was an inspiration behind the games Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
and BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
. The game has one sequel: Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds is a 1993 first-person role-playing video game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It is the sequel to Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. Set in the Ultima fantasy universe, the game puts the player in control of the...
(1993).
Gameplay
Ultima Underworld is a computer role-playing game that takes place from a first-person perspective in a three-dimensional3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
(3D) environment. The player's goal is to adventure through a large, multi-level dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
, in which the entire game is set. The player uses a freely movable mouse cursor
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
to interact with the game's world, and with the icon-based interface on the heads-up display
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
(HUD). Each icon has a specific effect; for example, the Look icon allows the player to examine objects closely, while the Fight icon causes the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
to ready its weapon. The player's progression through the game is non-linear: areas may be explored, and puzzles and quests finished, in any order. An automatically filling map, to which the player may add notes, records what the player has seen above a minimum level of brightness. The player character may carry light sources to extend the line of sight
Line of sight (gaming)
Line of sight, sometimes written line-of-sight or abbreviated to LoS, is a term used in wargames and some role-playing games . It refers to visibility on the playing field. Many abilities can only be used against an enemy within line of sight.In some games, miniature figures are used to determine...
in varying amounts. Exploratory actions include looking up and down, jumping, and swimming.
Character class
In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
and skills may be selected. Skills range from fighting with an axe, to bartering, to picking locks. By participating in combat
Combat
Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
, quest
Quest
In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and...
s and exploration, the character gains experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s. When certain amounts of experience points are accumulated, the character levels up
Level Up
Level Up was a UK children's TV programme that was broadcast on CBBC. It was launched on the 3rd April 2006, replacing Xchange. The show was an hour long and during the school year broadcasting from 7:30am until 8:30am...
, gaining additional hit points and mana
Magic point
Magic points are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing, computer role-playing and similar games as an expendable resource that is needed to pay for magic spells and other abilities, such as special attacks...
. Experience also allows the player to recite mantras at shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
s in the game. Each mantra is a statement—such as "Om Cah"—that increases proficiency in a specific skill when typed. Simple mantras are provided in the game's manual, while more complex ones are hidden throughout the game. An inventory on the HUD lists the items and weapons currently carried by the player character; capacity is limited by weight. Players equip items via a paper doll system, wherein items are clicked-and-dragged onto a representation of the player character.
Combat occurs in real-time, and the player character may use both melee and ranged weapons. The player attacks by holding the cursor over the game screen and clicking, depressing the button longer to inflict greater damage. Some weapons allow for different types of attacks depending on where the cursor is held; for example, clicking near the bottom of the screen may result in a jab, while clicking in the middle produces a slash. Simulated dice rolls occur behind the scenes to determine weapon accuracy. Enemies sometimes try to escape when near death, and the game's stealth mechanics may occasionally be used to avoid combat altogether. The player may cast spells by selecting an appropriate combination of runestones. Like mantras, runestones must be found in the game world before use. There are over forty spells, some undocumented; their effects range from causing earthquakes to allowing the player character to fly.
The developers intended Ultima Underworld to be a realistic and interactive "dungeon simulation", rather than a straightforward role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. For example, many objects in the game have no actual use, while a lit torch may be used on corn to create popcorn
Popcorn
Popcorn, or popping corn, is corn which expands from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Corn is able to pop because, like sorghum, quinoa and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy interior. This allows pressure to build inside the kernel until an explosive...
. Weapons deteriorate with use, and the player character must eat and rest; light sources burn out unless extinguished before sleeping. A physics system allows, among other things, for items to bounce when thrown against surfaces. The game contains non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s (NPCs) with whom the player may interact by selecting dialogue choices from a menu. Most NPCs have possessions, and are willing to trade them. The game was designed to give players "a palette of strategies" with which to approach situations, and its simulation systems allow for emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics....
.
Setting
Ultima Underworld is set in Britannia, the fantasy world of the Ultima series. Specifically, the game takes place inside a large, underground dungeonDungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
called the Great Stygian Abyss. The dungeon's entrance lies on the Isle of the Avatar, an island ruled by Baron Almric. The Abyss first appeared in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, in which it contains the player's final goal, the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom.
Ultima Underworld is set after the events of Ultima VI: The False Prophet; in the time between the two games, a man named Cabirus attempted to create a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n colony inside the Abyss. The eight settlements of the Ultima series each embody one of eight virtues, and Cabirus wished to create a ninth that embodied all virtues. To achieve this, he united diverse cultures and races in peaceful co-existence and planned to promote harmony by giving each group one of eight virtue-imbued magical artifacts. However, he died before distributing the artifacts, and left no instructions for doing so. As a result, the colony collapsed into anarchy and war, and the artifacts were lost. At the time of Ultima Underworld, the Abyss contains the remnants of Cabirus's colony, with fractious groups of humans, goblins, ogres and others living there.
Story
Before the beginning of the game, the Abyss-dwelling wizard brothers Garamon and Tyball accidentally summon a demon, the Slasher of Veils, while experimenting with inter-dimensional travel. Garamon is used as bait to lure the demon into a room imbued with virtue. However, the demon offers Tyball great power if he betrays Garamon. Tyball agrees, but the betrayal fails; Garamon is killed, but seals the demon inside the room. Because he lacks virtue, Tyball cannot re-enter by himself, and plans to sacrifice Baron Almric's daughter at the doorway to gain entrance.In the game's introduction, the ghost of Garamon haunts the Avatar's dreams with warnings of a great danger in Britannia. The Avatar allows Garamon to take him there, where he watches Tyball kidnap Baron Almric's daughter. Tyball escapes, leaving the Avatar to be caught by the Baron's guards. The guards take him to the Baron, who banishes him to the Great Stygian Abyss to rescue his daughter. After the introduction, the Avatar explores the dungeon and finds remnants of Cabirus's colony. A few possible scenarios include deciding the fate of two warring goblin tribes, learning a language, and playing an instrument to complete a quest. The Avatar eventually defeats Tyball and frees the Baron's daughter.
However, as he dies, Tyball reveals that he had decided to contain the Slasher of Veils, whose prison he had been weakening, within the Baron's daughter as a way to prevent it from destroying the world. The Baron's daughter asks the Avatar to prevent the Slasher of Veils from being unleashed, and magically teleports back to the surface to evacuate its inhabitants. With help from Garamon's ghost, the Avatar gathers the eight talismans of Cabirus and throws them in the volcano at the base of the Abyss; the energy they release allows Garamon to open a portal that will send the Slasher of Veils into another dimension. The Avatar is sucked through the portal into a chaotic alternate dimension, but escapes back to the Isle of the Avatar and makes it on board the Baron's ship as the volcano erupts. As the game ends, Garamon's spirit reveals that he teleported the inhabitants of the Abyss to another cave.
Development
Ultima Underworld was conceived in 1989 by Origin SystemsOrigin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
employee Paul Neurath
Paul Neurath
Paul Neurath is a veteran game designer and creative director in the computer game industry. He founded both Blue Sky Productions and Floodgate Entertainment. He is currently Creative Director of Zynga Boston....
. He had just completed work on Space Rogue
Space Rogue
Space Rogue is a science fiction computer game released in 1989 by Origin Systems, makers of the hit Ultima series, for the Apple II and Commodore 64 and later ported to the PC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST and FM Towns. The game combined elements of both a space combat simulator and a role-playing...
, a hybrid title that features sequences of 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
tile-based
Tile-based video game
A tile-based video game is a type of video or computer game where the playing area consists of small rectangular, square, or hexagonal graphic images, referred to as tiles. The complete set of tiles available for use in a playing area is called a tileset...
role-playing, and of 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
space flight simulation
Space flight simulator game
A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator...
. According to Neurath, Space Rogue "took the first, tentative steps in exploring a blend of RPG and simulation elements, and this seemed to me a promising direction". He felt that the way it combined the elements was jarring, however, and believed that he could create a more immersive experience.
Neurath had enjoyed role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
s like Wizardry
Wizardry
Wizardry is a series of computer role-playing games, developed by Sir-Tech, which were highly influential in the development of modern console and computer role playing games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence to early console RPGs, such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. ...
, but found that their simple, abstract visuals "required a bit of imagination to achieve suspension of disbelief". He believed that Dungeon Masters detailed first-person presentation was a "glimpse into the future", and sought to create a fantasy role-playing game that would "bring even more immediacy". In early 1990, Neurath wrote a design document for a game titled Underworld, which described such elements as "goblins on the prows of rowboats tossed in the waves, shooting arrows at the player above on a rope bridge swinging in the wind". He contracted former Origin employee Doug Wike to create concept art
Concept art
Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design...
; the result was a brief, hand-drawn animation made in Deluxe Paint Animation
Deluxe Paint Animation
Deluxe Paint Animation is a graphics editor and animation creation package that is an MS-DOS adaptation by Brent Iverson of Deluxe Paint, with additional animation features by Steve Shaw, released by Electronic Arts.-Features:...
. Depicting the game's interface and a creature moving toward the player, the animation defined the game's direction, and was used as a reference point for the game's tone and features throughout development. That spring, Neurath founded the company Blue Sky Productions in Salem, New Hampshire
Salem, New Hampshire
Salem is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 28,776 at the 2010 census. Salem is a marketing and distributing center north of Boston, with a major amusement attraction, Canobie Lake Park, and a large shopping mall, the Mall at Rockingham Park.- History :The...
, with the goal of creating Underworld. Among the company's first employees was Doug Church
Doug Church
Doug Church is an American computer game designer and producer. He attended MIT in the late 1980s, but left and went to work with Looking Glass Studios, when they were making primarily MS-DOS-based first-person adventure/shooter/roleplaying games, including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II,...
, who was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT). The team was thus composed of Doug Church as programmer, Doug Wike as lead artist and Paul Neurath as lead designer. Development began in May 1990.
An early difficulty was the implementation of texture mapping
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
. Neurath had experimented unsuccessfully with the concept on an Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computer in the late 1980s, but believed that the more powerful IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
PCs of the time may be able to process it. He contacted Lerner Research programmer Chris Green—an acquaintance from his past work with Ned Lerner—who created a working algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
. Using the Space Rogue engine, Green's algorithm, assembly code from Lerner Research's Car and Driver and original programming, the Blue Sky team completed a prototype of Underworld after roughly a month of work. Neurath described the prototype as "fast, smooth, and [featuring] true texture mapped walls, though the ceiling and floor were flat shaded and the corridors and rooms were all 10' [3.0 m] high—it looked a lot like Wolfenstein-3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
in fact". The team demonstrated it at the June 1990 Consumer Electronics Show
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
(CES), and impressed Origin Systems
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
; Origin producer Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
later said, "I remember Paul showing me that demo [...] at CES and being totally floored by it. None of us had ever seen anything like it". The two companies reached a publishing agreement that summer, and Origin suggested that the game be reworked to fit into the Ultima universe. The team agreed, and the game was renamed Ultima Underworld. While Spector had hoped to produce the game, he was not assigned to the role; he later said that he "sort of watched [the other producer] jealously from the sidelines".
After the game was renamed, Doug Church recruited Dan Schmidt, a college friend who had just graduated from MIT, as a programmer. The team abandoned the Space Rogue engine and created a new one that could display a believable 3D world—one with varying heights and texture-mapped floors and ceilings. Church estimated that the first year of production was dedicated to creating the game's technological base. However, Neurath stated that the team spent "comparatively little" time on the game's technology, and that "most was spent working on game features, mechanics, and world building". Their ultimate goal was to create the "finest dungeon game, a game that was tangibly better than any of the long line of dungeon games that came before it". Each member of the small team assumed multiple roles; for example, the game's first two levels were designed by Paul Neurath, and the rest by "a variety of programmers, artists, and designers on the team". According to Schmidt, Neurath contracted a writer to create the game's story and dialogue, but the relationship was a "mismatch", and the team decided to create the plot themselves. Alongside his programming work, Doug Church co-wrote the game's story with Dan Schmidt, and gradually took on project leader responsibilities. Writing duties for each level were given to the person who created the level; Schmidt's role was to edit the dialogue of each level to fit with the others. Schmidt also created the game's sound effects, which were synthesized—no recorded sounds were used—in a graphical sound editor. Neurath, who Church said was "very day to day at the beginning of the project", became more involved with the company's business and finances.
Church explained that "the most important thing was the dynamic creation of the game[; ...] there was no set of rules which we followed, or pre-written plan. We started with the idea of a first-person dungeon simulation [... and] as the game was worked on, people would suggest behaviours and systems, and we would all try and figure out how to do it". "We wrote four movement systems before we were done, several combat systems, and so forth," Church later said. "The programming team was mostly just out of school and new to game writing, so we were improvising almost the whole time". He said that the team would "just write something" that seemed interesting, but then would "get it half done, and we'd say, 'Eh? That's not working.'" He believed that the method was "nice in a lot of ways; it let us do things we probably couldn't have done otherwise. But it also meant that we worked a lot. All the time, basically, for a long time". Certain failed experiments resulted in the team "writing [AI] code for many ideas which turned out to be largely irrelevant to the actual gameplay". He believed that the game's Ultima series heritage was a "huge advantage", as it gave the team an anchor for their experiments.
During the first year of the game's development, Church believed that Origin "didn't really think it was ever going to get done. They didn't pay any attention at all, frankly". While Origin CEO Richard Garriott
Richard Garriott
Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...
was "instrumental in helping integrate the Ultima fictional elements into the game", Warren Spector later said that the company seemed uninterested with the game "for the first several months after ORIGIN and Blue Sky signed the deal. I mean, it looked like a change-the-world project to me but most everyone else was kind of blasé about it". Neurath believed that this was largely due to the team's status as "an outside group, some 1,500 miles distant, at a time when Origin was increasingly focused inward on their in-house projects". The team was advanced $30,000 to create the game, but its final cost was $400,000. The game was funded partly by Ned Lerner, and by Neurath's royalties from Space Rogue. Throughout development, the studio was run on a tight budget.
Roughly a year into development, the team discovered that their second producer—the first having quit Origin near the beginning of development—had left the project. Neurath later said that "neither [producer] had much involvement" in the game, and that, following the second's departure, the team was "left with no producer for a while". Rumors circulated that Origin planned to cancel the project. Following a proposal by the team, Spector, who had previously worked with Neurath on Space Rogue, assumed the role of producer around this time, which Church described as "a big win for everyone". Spector began regularly interacting with the team by phone, in addition to visiting the studio in person. Neurath later said, "Warren understood immediately what we were trying to accomplish with the game, and became our biggest champion within Origin. Had not Warren stepped in this role at that stage, I'm not sure Ultima Underworld would have ever seen the light of day". On Spector's role, Church said that "not only was he great creatively to help us put finishing touches on it and clean it up and make it real, but he also knew how to finish projects and keep us motivated and on track". He explained that Spector "had that ability to help me and the rest of the guys reset, from the big-picture view of someone who has done it before".
The final four months of the game's development constituted "crunch time". During this period, Neurath rented an extremely small basement office space in a Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
social services building; he sought to circumvent the long commute that several team members had been making from Massachusetts. Furniture consisted of inexpensive folding tables and "uncomfortable red deck chairs". Development took place during the winter, but the room was drafty and poorly heated. The team hired college friends to bug test the game, and Spector stayed at the studio for "about six weeks", according to Doug Church. Spector later said that "in that little office, that team created some serious magic. I mean, the sense of doing something incredible was palpable. [...] I was there [...] working on docs, going over buglists with them, testing the game as it changed, daily, and I felt how special it was every minute I was there". Neurath summarized, "Despite the austere working environment, the game came together amazingly well in the final stretch, and we delivered the Gold Master
Golden master
In hardware and software development, a golden master is the reference model from which copies are mass-produced. An analogy is made to the production of certain types of physical media...
just about two years after we had started". The game was released in March 1992.
Technology
Ultima Underworlds game engineGame engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
was written by a small team. Chris Green provided the game's texture mapping algorithm, which was applied to walls, floors and ceilings. The engine allowed for transparencies, walls at 45 degree angles, multiple tile heights and inclined surfaces, and other aspects. Ultima Underworld was the first video game to implement many of these effects. The game was also the first indoor, real-time, 3D first-person game to allow the player to look up and down, and to jump.
Ultima Underworld uses two-dimensional sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
s for characters, but also features 3D objects, as the team believed that it "had to do 3D objects in order to have reasonable visuals". The game uses physics to calculate the motion of thrown objects. During the game's alpha testing phase, part of the programming team worked to create a smooth lighting model. The game's advanced technology caused the engine to run slowly, and its system requirements
System requirements
To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer. These pre-requisites are known as system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule. Most software defines two sets of system...
were extremely high. Doug Church later downplayed the importance of the game's technology, stating that technological advancement "is somewhat inevitable in our field ... [and] sadly, as an industry we seem to know much less about design, and how to continue to extend and grow design capabilities". Instead, he claimed that Ultima Underworlds most important achievement was its incorporation of simulation elements into a role-playing game.
Reception
Ultima Underworld was not an immediate commercial success, which caused Origin to decrease the game's marketing support. However, word of mouthWord of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
caused sales to reach nearly 500,000 copies. The game received critical acclaim, with significant praise directed toward its 3D presentation and automapping feature. In 1993, the game won the Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992'".
ACE
ACE (games magazine)
ACE was a multi-format computer and video game magazine first published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and later acquired by EMAP.-History:...
called Ultima Underworld "the next true evolutionary step in the RPG genre", and noted that its simulation-style dungeon was "frighteningly realistic". The magazine thought that the game's sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
character models "detract from the dense atmosphere a bit", but ended the review by stating, "If you've got a PC, then you've got to have Ultima Underworld". Dragon Magazine
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
wrote, "To say this is the best dungeon game we've ever played is quite an understatement[, ... and it] will leave you wondering how other game entertainments can ever stack up against the new standards Abyss sets".
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
described it as "an ambitious project [...] not without its share of problems". They praised the game's "enjoyable story and well-crafted puzzles", but disliked its "robotic" controls and "confusing" perspectives, and stated that "far more impressive sounds and pictures have been produced for other dungeon games". They summarized the game as "an enjoyable challenge with a unique game-playing engine to back it up." The magazine later awarded the game "Role-Playing Game of the Year". Computer Shopper
Computer Shopper (US magazine)
Computer Shopper was a monthly consumer computer magazine published by SX2 Media Labs, it ceased publication in April 2009.The publisher continues to run ComputerShopper.com, a related website.- Web Site :...
enjoyed its storyline and characters, and believed that the game "makes you feel as if you've entered a virtual reality". Despite describing its interface as "not truly intuitive", the reviewer finished by calling the game "addictive" and "a fine value". The Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
awarded it Best Game of the Year, and called it "an amazing triumph of the imagination [... and] the creme de la creme of dungeon epics".
The game was also well received by non-English publications. The Swedish Datormagazin considered the game to be "in a class by itself". In Germany, Power Play praised its "technical perfection" and "excellent" story, while Play Time lauded its graphical and aural presentation, and awarded it Game of the Month. Finland's Pelit
Pelit
Pelit is a Finnish video games magazine published 11 times a year by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. Being by far the largest of its kind in Finland and covering both PCs and consoles, it has for a long time lacked serious competition and is thought by many to be the magazine of...
stated, "Ultima Underworld is something totally new in the CRPG field. The Virtual Fantasy of the Abyss left reviewers speechless."
Ultima Underworld was inducted into many hall of fame lists, including those compiled by GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
and Computer Gaming World. PC Gamer US
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
ranked the game and its sequel 20th on their 1997 The 50 Best Games Ever list, citing "strong character interaction, thoughtful puzzles, unprecedented control, and genuine roleplaying in ways that have yet to be duplicated".
Legacy
Ultima Underworld has been cited as the first first-person perspective RPG to use 3D graphics. GamasutraGamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
posited that "all 3D RPG titles from Morrowind to World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
share Ultima Underworld as a common ancestor, both graphically and spiritually ... [and] for better or for worse, Underworld moved the text-based RPG out of the realm of imagination and into the third dimension". The game's soundtrack, composed by George Sanger and Dave Govett, was the first in a major first-person game to use a dynamic music
Dynamic music
Dynamic music is a concept used in many video games, whereby specific events cause the background music to change. Its first uses in major video games were Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. It has since been used in such games as Mushroom Men and Guitar Hero...
system; the player's actions alter the game's music.
The game's influence has been found in BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
(2007), and that game's designer, Ken Levine, has stated that "all the things that I wanted to do and all the games that I ended up working on came out of the inspiration I took from [Ultima Underworld]". Gears of War
Gears of War
Gears of War is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios...
designer Cliff Bleszinski
Cliff Bleszinski
Clifford Michael "Cliff" Bleszinski is the design director for the game development company Epic Games in Cary, North Carolina. He is most famous for his continuing hand in the development of the Unreal franchise, especially 1999's Unreal Tournament, and the Gears of War franchise...
also cited it as an early influence, stating that it had "far more impact on me than Doom". Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first game in the Elder Scrolls series. It is a first-person computer role-playing game for MS-DOS, developed by Bethesda Softworks and released in 1994...
, Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
, Deus Ex: Invisible War
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Deus Ex: Invisible War is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive. Released simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox video game console on December 2, 2003, the game is a sequel to the critically acclaimed Deus Ex...
, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
. Toby Gard
Toby Gard
Toby Gard is an English computer game character designer and consultant, notably creating female British archaeologist Lara Croft...
stated that, when designing Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
, he "was a big fan of ... Ultima Underworld and I wanted to mix that type of game with the sort of polygon characters that were just being showcased in Virtua Fighter". The game was the basis for Looking Glass Studios' later System Shock
System Shock
System Shock is a first-person action-adventure video game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. Released in 1994, the game is set aboard the fictional Citadel Station in a cyberpunk vision of 2072...
.
id Software's use of texture mapping
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
in Catacomb 3-D, a precursor to Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
, was influenced by Ultima Underworld. Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence, however. In the book Masters of Doom
Masters of Doom
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture is a book by David Kushner about id Software and its influence on popular culture, focusing chiefly on John D. Carmack and John Romero.-Content:...
, author David Kushner asserts that the concept was discussed only briefly during a 1991 telephone conversation between Paul Neurath and John Romero
John Romero
Alfonso John Romero is a game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and was a designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake...
. However, Paul Neurath has said that John Carmack
John Carmack
John D. Carmack II is an American game programmer and the co-founder of id Software. Carmack was the lead programmer of the id computer games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage and their sequels....
and John Romero saw the game's summer 1990 software convention demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper.
Despite the technology developed for Ultima Underworld, Origin opted to continue using traditional top-down, 2D graphics for future mainline Ultima games. The engine was re-used and enhanced for Ultima Underworlds 1993 sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds is a 1993 first-person role-playing video game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It is the sequel to Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. Set in the Ultima fantasy universe, the game puts the player in control of the...
. Looking Glass Studios planned to create a third Ultima Underworld, but Origin rejected their pitches. After EA rejected Arkane Studios
Arkane Studios
Arkane Studios is a video game developer based in Lyon, France. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, Arx Fatalis, in 2002. Arkane Studios opened an Austin, Texas-based office in July 2006....
' pitch for Ultima Underworld III, the studio instead created a spiritual successor: Arx Fatalis
Arx Fatalis
Arx Fatalis is a partially open source first-person role-playing video game for the Xbox and PC, released on November 2002 by Arkane Studios, a video game developer based in Lyon, France....
.
In the early 2000s, Paul Neurath approached Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
(EA) to discuss a port of Ultima Underworld to the Pocket PC
Pocket PC
A Pocket PC is also known by Microsoft as a 'Windows Mobile Classic device'. It is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer, personal digital assistant , that runs the Microsoft 'Windows Mobile Classic' operating system...
. EA rejected the suggestion, but allowed him to look for possible developers; Neurath found that ZIO Interactive enthusiastically supported the idea, and EA eventually licensed the rights to the company. Doug Church and Floodgate Entertainment
Floodgate Entertainment
Floodgate Entertainment is a Boston-based video game developer, founded by Paul Neurath in 2000. Many of the company's employees are former Looking Glass Studios employees....
assisted with portions of its Pocket PC development, and the port was released in 2002.
External links
- Ultima World Wide Web Archive: Ultima Underworld - Part of the official Origin Webpage (last access 2010-01-06)
- "Descending into the Abyss: A Storyteller explores the narrative accomplishments of Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss" -(from Well Played 1.0)
- Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss at the Ultima Wiki