Ultima Online
Announced: May 1996
Official Launch Date: September 24, 1997
Previous Expansion: None (Well Beta/Pre-Alpha)
Next Expansion: UO: The Second Age
Books Related to Ultima Online:
- Ultima Online Unofficial Strategies and Secrets (1997)
- ORIGIN’s Official Guide to Ultima Online (aka Ultima Online: The Official Strategy Guide) (1997)
Description, from OWO.com, June 7, 1997
he best-selling role-playing series of all time makes its multi-player debut in Ultima Online. This revolutionary product allows literally thousands of people to exist simultaneously in the same fantasy game world over the Internet.
Players can enjoy true social interaction with other participants in real time — form adventuring parties, engage in battles with other players, take on perilous quests, or chat in a tavern over a goblet of virtual wine.
Other elements of the game constantly evolve — a functioning virtual ecology drives monsters to roam in search of food if it’s scarce, and world events are inter-related through a closed economic system and limited resources.
Ultima Online allows players to indulge in a continuous, ever-changing game world, complete with day and night, light and shadow effects, 3-D terrain and 16-bit color SVGA graphics.
> Ultima Online Developers/Dev Team
Notes:
- Two editions - standard retail and a pre-order “Charter” edition from Origin, that included a signed lithograph from the Hilderbrandt brothers of their famous Ultima Online artwork, a pewter pin of the UO logo. Richard Garriott signed the box as well. Both of these boxes contained a cloth map of Britannia.
UO’s Official Launch Date, according to Wilki, in this Stratics post:
Beta ended on September 23rd. While most Charter Edition players who pre-ordered and opted for overnight shipping didn’t get their box until the 25th, the servers were up on September 24th with a few players who obtained the game early playing, so that is the official launch date.
