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Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

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. It takes place inside the Great Stygian Abyss: a large cave system that contains the remnants of a failed utopian civilization. The player assumes the role of the Avatar—the Ultima series's protagonist—and attempts to find and rescue a baron's kidnapped daughter.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Cover art by Denis R. Loubet
Developer(s)Blue Sky Productions
Publisher(s)Origin Systems[a]
Director(s)Richard Garriott
Producer(s)Warren Spector
Designer(s)Paul Neurath
Programmer(s)
  • Jonathan Arnold
  • Doug Church
  • Jon Maiara
  • Dan Schmidt
  • Carlos Smith
Artist(s)
  • Carol Angell
  • Douglas Wike
Writer(s)
  • Brad Freeman
  • Dan Schmidt
Composer(s)
SeriesUltima
Platform(s)
Release
March 21, 1992
  • DOS
    • NA: March 21, 1992
  • FM Towns
    • JP: December 1993
  • PC-98
    • JP: December 17, 1993
  • PlayStation
    • JP: March 14, 1997
  • Windows Mobile
    • NA: May 29, 2002
Genre(s)Action role-playing, dungeon crawl
Mode(s)Single-player

Ultima Underworld has been cited as the first role-playing game to feature first-person action in a 2.5D environment. Its design combines simulation elements with concepts from earlier role-playing video games, including Wizardry and Dungeon Master, which led the game's designers to call it a "dungeon simulation". As such, the game is non-linear and allows for emergent gameplay.

Ultima Underworld sold nearly 500,000 units, and was placed on numerous hall of fame lists. It influenced game developers such as Bethesda Softworks and Valve, and it was an inspiration behind the games Deus Ex and BioShock. The game had a sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993), and a new game in the series, Underworld Ascendant, was released in late 2018.

Gameplay edit

Ultima Underworld is a role-playing video game (RPG) that takes place from a first-person perspective in a three-dimensional environment.[1] The player's goal is to adventure through a large, multi-level dungeon, in which the entire game is set.[2] 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 player uses the Look icon to examine objects closely, while the Fight icon causes the player character to ready their weapon.[1][3] The player's progression through the game is non-linear: areas may be explored, and puzzles and quests finished, in any order.[2] An automatically filling map, to which the player may add notes, records what the player has seen above a minimum level of brightness.[4] The player character may carry light sources to extend the line of sight in varying amounts.[2] Exploratory actions include looking up and down, jumping, and swimming.[5][6]

 
A goblin walks up an inclined surface. The player has selected the Fight icon, causing the player character's current weapon, a fist, to appear at the bottom of the screen.

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, quests and exploration, the character gains experience points. When certain amounts of experience points are accumulated, the character levels up, gaining additional hit points and mana. Experience is required to recite mantras at shrines 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.[2] An inventory on the HUD lists the items and weapons carried by the player character; capacity is limited by weight.[3] 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.[1] 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.[2] Simulated dice rolls occur behind the scenes to determine weapon accuracy.[7] Enemies sometimes try to escape when near death,[5] and the game's stealth mechanics may occasionally be used to avoid combat altogether.[8] 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;[9] their effects range from causing earthquakes to flight.[1]

The developers intended Ultima Underworld to be a realistic and interactive "dungeon simulation", rather than a straightforward role-playing video game. For example, many objects in the game have no actual use,[4] while a lit torch may be used on corn to create popcorn.[9] Weapons deteriorate with use, and the player character must eat and rest; light sources burn out unless extinguished before sleeping.[2] A physics system allows, among other things, for items to bounce when thrown against surfaces.[5][7] The game contains non-player characters (NPCs) with whom the player may interact by selecting dialogue choices from a menu. Most NPCs have possessions, and are willing to trade them.[1] The game was designed to give players "a palette of strategies" with which to approach situations, and its simulation systems allow for emergent gameplay.[8][10]

Plot edit

Setting edit

Ultima Underworld is set in Britannia, the fantasy world of the Ultima series. Specifically, the game takes place inside a large, underground dungeon 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.[11]

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 utopian 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.[11] At the time of Ultima Underworld, the Abyss contains the remnants of Cabirus's colony, inhabited by fractious groups of humans, goblins, trolls and others.[11][12]

Story edit

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, Arial, at the doorway to gain entrance.[13]

In the game's introduction, the ghost of Garamon haunts the Avatar's dreams with warnings of a great danger in Britannia.[14] The Avatar allows Garamon to take him there,[15] where he watches Tyball kidnap Arial. Tyball escapes, leaving the Avatar to be caught by the Baron's guards.[16] The guards take him to the Baron, who banishes him to the Great Stygian Abyss to rescue Arial.[17] After the introduction, the Avatar explores the dungeon and finds remnants of Cabirus's colony.[2] A few possible scenarios include deciding the fate of two warring goblin tribes, learning a language, and playing an instrument to complete a quest.[9][14] The Avatar eventually defeats Tyball and frees Arial.[13][18]

However, as he dies, Tyball reveals that he had decided to contain the Slasher of Veils, whose prison he had been weakening, within Arial as a way to prevent it from destroying the world. Arial 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; Garamon uses the energy they release to open a portal and 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 edit

Ultima Underworld was conceived in 1989 by Origin Systems employee Paul Neurath. He had just completed work on Space Rogue, a hybrid title that features sequences both of 2D tile-based role-playing and of 3D space flight simulation.[7][19] 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.[19]

I had played lots of D&D. I also read a range of fantasy: Howard, Leiber, Vance, Zelazny, Le Guin, and of course, Tolkien. Tolkien's description of Moria struck me in particular, and it seemed like a fine setting for a game.

Paul Neurath[10]

Neurath had enjoyed role-playing video games like Wizardry, but found that their simple, abstract visuals were an obstacle to the suspension of disbelief.[20] He believed that Dungeon Master's detailed first-person presentation was a "glimpse into the future", and he sought to create a fantasy role-playing game that built on its example.[20] In early 1990, Neurath wrote a design document for a game titled Underworld,[19] 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."[21] He contracted former Origin employee Doug Wike to create concept art.[20] Wike created a brief, hand-drawn animation with Deluxe Paint Animation, which depicted the game's interface and a creature moving toward the player. The animation defined the game's direction,[7][21] and it was used as a reference point for the game's tone and features throughout development.[7][22] That spring, Neurath founded the company Blue Sky Productions in Salem, New Hampshire, with the intention to create Underworld.[20] Among the company's first employees was Doug Church, who was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[20] The team was thus composed of Doug Church as programmer, Doug Wike as lead artist and Paul Neurath as lead designer.[10] Development began in May 1990.[22]

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 he believed that the more powerful IBM PCs of the time might 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.[19][20][23] 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.[7][10][20][23] 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."[4] The team demonstrated it at the June 1990 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and impressed Origin Systems.[10][20][21][23] 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."[23] The two companies reached a publishing agreement that summer, and Origin suggested that the game be reworked to fit into the Ultima universe.[10][20] The team agreed, and the game was renamed Ultima Underworld.[20] While Spector had hoped to produce the game, he was not assigned to the role;[21][23] and he later said that he "sort of watched [the other producer] jealously from the sidelines."[21]

After the game was renamed, Doug Church recruited Dan Schmidt, a college friend who had just graduated from MIT, as a programmer.[24] 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.[4] Church estimated that the first year of production was dedicated to creating the game's technological base.[7] 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".[4] 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."[4] Each member of the small team assumed multiple roles; for example, the game's first two levels were designed by Paul Neurath, while the rest were built by artists, designers and programmers.[20] According to Schmidt, Neurath contracted a writer to create the game's story and dialogue, but the relationship was a "mismatch"; and so the team decided to write the plot themselves.[24] Alongside his programming work, Church co-wrote the game's story with Dan Schmidt, and he gradually took on project leader responsibilities.[7][21][23] Writing duties for each level were given to the person who created that level; Schmidt's role was to edit the dialogue of each level to fit with that of the others.[24] Schmidt also created the game's sound effects, which were synthesized—no recorded sounds were used—in a graphical sound editor.[24] 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.[7]

Church explained that the core of the project was its "dynamic creation". He noted that the team had "no set of rules ... or pre-written plan", but rather worked organically toward the general idea of creating a "dungeon simulation".[4] Church believed that the game's Ultima series heritage was extremely helpful, as it gave the team an anchor for their experiments.[7] According to Church, because the team was young and inexperienced, they were "improvising almost the whole time".[21] He said that they would "just write something" that seemed interesting, but would then "get it half done, and we'd say, 'Eh? That's not working.'" He believed that this iterative method was useful overall, but that it entailed an abnormally large workload:[7] it resulted in the creation of "four movement systems before we were done, several combat systems, and so forth".[21] Certain failed experiments meant that the team created "[AI] code for many ideas which turned out to be largely irrelevant to the actual gameplay".[19]

During the first year of the game's development, Church believed that Origin had little faith in the team's ability to complete the game. He later said, "They didn't pay any attention at all, frankly."[7] While Origin CEO Richard Garriott helped the team in fitting the game into the Ultima franchise,[20] Warren Spector later said that the company seemed "blasé" about Ultima Underworld "for the first several months after ORIGIN and Blue Sky signed the deal", despite his own belief that it was a "change-the-world project".[23] Neurath opined that this was due to the team's status as outsiders, whose company was "some 1,500 miles distant" from their publisher.[10] The team was advanced $30,000 to create the game, but its final cost was $400,000.[20] The game was funded partly by Ned Lerner, and by Neurath's royalties from Space Rogue. Throughout the game's production, the studio was run on a tight budget.[20]

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.[10][20][23] Neurath later said that "neither [producer] had much involvement" in the game,[20] and that, following the second's departure, the team spent time without any producer at all.[10] Rumors circulated that Origin planned to cancel the project.[20] Following a proposal by the team around this time, Spector, who had previously worked with Neurath on Space Rogue, assumed the role of producer. Church later described this event as "a big win for everyone".[10][20][23] Spector began to interact regularly with the team by phone and to visit the studio in person.[7][21] 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."[20] Church said that Spector helped the team polish the game and "make it real", and that Spector's past experience in the industry enabled him to keep the team focused on completing the game. 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."[7]

We had about eight of us in this 15x15 room, sitting in uncomfortable red deck chairs, faxing bug lists to Origin and back, blasting music and playing Monkey Island II about 30 minutes a day to avoid insanity.

Doug Church[22]

The final four months of the game's development constituted "crunch time".[20][22] 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.[10][20][22] Furniture consisted of inexpensive folding tables and "uncomfortable red deck chairs".[10][20][22] Development took place during the winter, but the room was drafty and poorly heated.[10][22] The team hired college friends such as Marc LeBlanc to bug test the game,[25] and Spector stayed at the studio for roughly a month and a half, according to Church.[22] Spector later said that "in that little office, that team created some serious magic. I mean, the sense of doing something incredible was palpable".[10] 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."[20] The game was released in March 1992.[4]

Technology edit

Ultima Underworld's game engine was written by a small team.[4][10][11] Chris Green provided the game's texture mapping algorithm,[20] 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.[4][10] Ultima Underworld was the first video game to implement many of these effects.[26] 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.[10]

Ultima Underworld uses two-dimensional sprites for characters,[1] but also features 3D objects, as the team believed that it "had to do 3D objects in order to have reasonable visuals".[10] The game uses physics to calculate the motion of thrown objects.[5][7] During the game's alpha testing phase, part of the programming team worked to create a smooth lighting model.[4] The game's advanced technology caused the engine to run slowly,[10] and its system requirements were extremely high.[1][3][14] 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 Underworld's most important achievement was its incorporation of simulation elements into a role-playing game.[10]

Reception edit

Ultima Underworld was not an immediate commercial success, which caused Origin to decrease its marketing support.[19] However, its popularity increased via word of mouth in the years following its release.[19] Sales eventually reached nearly 500,000 copies,[20] with praise for its 3D presentation and automapping feature.[1][6][30][35] In 1993 the game won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992,[34] and was nominated for an award at the Game Developers Conference.[36]

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."[1] Dragon Magazine opined that "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."[6]

Computer Gaming World's Allen Greenberg in 1992 described it as "an ambitious project" but "not without its share of problems." He 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". He summarized the game as "an enjoyable challenge with a unique game-playing engine to back it up."[3] Scorpia was also positive, stating that despite flaws "Ultima Underworld is an impressive first product. The meticulous construction of a real-world dungeon environment is outstanding. [It] may be a dungeon trek, but it is certainly the dungeon trek of the future".[37] In 1993 she praised the "superb graphics" of "a definite must for game players".[38] The magazine later awarded the game "Role-Playing Game of the Year".[39] 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".[35] 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".[33]

The game was also well received by non-English publications. The Swedish Datormagazin considered the game to be "in a class by itself".[28] In Germany, Power Play praised its "technical perfection" and "excellent" story,[30] while Play Time lauded its graphical and aural presentation, and awarded it Game of the Month.[14] Finland's Pelit stated, "Ultima Underworld is something totally new in the CRPG field. The Virtual Fantasy of the Abyss left reviewers speechless."[31]

Ultima Underworld was inducted into many hall of fame lists, including those compiled by GameSpy, IGN and Computer Gaming World.[5][40][41][42] 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".[43] In 2004, readers of Retro Gamer voted Ultima Underworld as the 62nd top retro game: the staff called it "easily one of the best entries in the long-running Ultima series."[44]

In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 18th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "Light-years ahead of their time, and still regarded as some of the best roleplaying games ever created".[45] A poll conducted in May 2023 by GQ among a team of video game journalists listed it as the 95th-best video game of all time.[46]

Legacy edit

Ultima Underworld is considered the first example of an immersive sim, a genre that combines elements from other genres to create a game with strong player agency and emergent gameplay, and has influenced many games since its release.[47] The game's influence has been found in BioShock (2007),[48] 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]."[49] Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski also cited it as an early influence, stating that it had "far more impact on me than Doom".[50] Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include The Elder Scrolls: Arena,[51] Deus Ex,[52] Deus Ex: Invisible War,[53] Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines,[54] and Half-Life 2.[55] 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."[56] Ultima Underworld was also the basis for Looking Glass Technologies' later System Shock.[7]

Id Software's use of texture mapping in Catacomb 3-D, a precursor to Wolfenstein 3D, was influenced by Ultima Underworld.[26] Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence, however.[57] 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.[58] However, Doug Church has said that John Carmack saw the game's summer 1990 software convention demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper. Paul Neurath has recounted the incident similarly, with both Carmack and Romero present.[19][57]

Despite the technology developed for Ultima Underworld, Origin opted to continue using traditional top-down, 2D graphics for future mainline Ultima games.[59] The engine was re-used and enhanced for Ultima Underworld's 1993 sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.[4] Looking Glass Studios planned to create a third Ultima Underworld, but Origin rejected their pitches.[19] After Electronic Arts (EA) rejected Arkane Studios' pitch for Ultima Underworld III, the studio instead created a spiritual successor: Arx Fatalis.[60]

On the 14th March 1997 a complete 3D remake of the game was released for the Playstaton 1 by Infinity Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts Victor. This version was only released in Japan. All of the creatures and NPCs were recreated using polygon models, whilst the items and environments use their original textures. The HUD and inventory were reworked allowing the game to be displayed using the full screen. The character portraits were redraw in an anime style to make them more appealing to the Japanese market. Sound effects were added and a new sound track was recorded for the game. New ending and introduction videos were also added.[61]

In the early 2000s, Paul Neurath approached 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,[10] and the port was released in 2002.[59]

GOG.com released an emulated version in June 2011 for Windows and in October 2012 for Mac OS X.[62][63]

In 2015, Otherside Entertainment, a new developer founded by Paul Neurath and other Looking Glass and Irrational veterans, announced a new entry in the series, entitled Underworld Ascendant. The new title is an officially licensed part of the series set in the Stygian Abyss, but this licensing agreement does not extend to the Ultima name or greater IP, effectively orphaning Underworld from the Ultima series.[64]

References edit

  1. ^ Published in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor
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External links edit

  • Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss at MobyGames
  • - (from Well Played 1.0)

ultima, underworld, stygian, abyss, ultima, underworld, redirects, here, sequel, ultima, underworld, labyrinth, worlds, first, person, role, playing, video, game, developed, blue, productions, later, looking, glass, studios, published, origin, systems, release. Ultima Underworld redirects here For the sequel see Ultima Underworld II Labyrinth of Worlds 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 It takes place inside the Great Stygian Abyss a large cave system that contains the remnants of a failed utopian civilization The player assumes the role of the Avatar the Ultima series s protagonist and attempts to find and rescue a baron s kidnapped daughter Ultima Underworld The Stygian AbyssCover art by Denis R LoubetDeveloper s Blue Sky ProductionsPublisher s Origin Systems a Director s Richard GarriottProducer s Warren SpectorDesigner s Paul NeurathProgrammer s Jonathan Arnold Doug Church Jon Maiara Dan Schmidt Carlos SmithArtist s Carol Angell Douglas WikeWriter s Brad Freeman Dan SchmidtComposer s George Sanger Dave GovettSeriesUltimaPlatform s DOS FM TownsPC 98PlayStationWindows MobileReleaseMarch 21 1992 DOSNA March 21 1992FM TownsJP December 1993PC 98JP December 17 1993PlayStationJP March 14 1997Windows MobileNA May 29 2002Genre s Action role playing dungeon crawlMode s Single playerUltima Underworld has been cited as the first role playing game to feature first person action in a 2 5D environment Its design combines simulation elements with concepts from earlier role playing video games including Wizardry and Dungeon Master which led the game s designers to call it a dungeon simulation As such the game is non linear and allows for emergent gameplay Ultima Underworld sold nearly 500 000 units and was placed on numerous hall of fame lists It influenced game developers such as Bethesda Softworks and Valve and it was an inspiration behind the games Deus Ex and BioShock The game had a sequel Ultima Underworld II Labyrinth of Worlds 1993 and a new game in the series Underworld Ascendant was released in late 2018 Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot 2 1 Setting 2 2 Story 3 Development 3 1 Technology 4 Reception 5 Legacy 6 References 7 External linksGameplay editUltima Underworld is a role playing video game RPG that takes place from a first person perspective in a three dimensional environment 1 The player s goal is to adventure through a large multi level dungeon in which the entire game is set 2 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 player uses the Look icon to examine objects closely while the Fight icon causes the player character to ready their weapon 1 3 The player s progression through the game is non linear areas may be explored and puzzles and quests finished in any order 2 An automatically filling map to which the player may add notes records what the player has seen above a minimum level of brightness 4 The player character may carry light sources to extend the line of sight in varying amounts 2 Exploratory actions include looking up and down jumping and swimming 5 6 nbsp A goblin walks up an inclined surface The player has selected the Fight icon causing the player character s current weapon a fist to appear at the bottom of the screen 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 quests and exploration the character gains experience points When certain amounts of experience points are accumulated the character levels up gaining additional hit points and mana Experience is required to recite mantras at shrines 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 2 An inventory on the HUD lists the items and weapons carried by the player character capacity is limited by weight 3 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 1 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 2 Simulated dice rolls occur behind the scenes to determine weapon accuracy 7 Enemies sometimes try to escape when near death 5 and the game s stealth mechanics may occasionally be used to avoid combat altogether 8 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 9 their effects range from causing earthquakes to flight 1 The developers intended Ultima Underworld to be a realistic and interactive dungeon simulation rather than a straightforward role playing video game For example many objects in the game have no actual use 4 while a lit torch may be used on corn to create popcorn 9 Weapons deteriorate with use and the player character must eat and rest light sources burn out unless extinguished before sleeping 2 A physics system allows among other things for items to bounce when thrown against surfaces 5 7 The game contains non player characters NPCs with whom the player may interact by selecting dialogue choices from a menu Most NPCs have possessions and are willing to trade them 1 The game was designed to give players a palette of strategies with which to approach situations and its simulation systems allow for emergent gameplay 8 10 Plot editSetting edit Ultima Underworld is set in Britannia the fantasy world of the Ultima series Specifically the game takes place inside a large underground dungeon 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 11 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 utopian 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 11 At the time of Ultima Underworld the Abyss contains the remnants of Cabirus s colony inhabited by fractious groups of humans goblins trolls and others 11 12 Story edit 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 Arial at the doorway to gain entrance 13 In the game s introduction the ghost of Garamon haunts the Avatar s dreams with warnings of a great danger in Britannia 14 The Avatar allows Garamon to take him there 15 where he watches Tyball kidnap Arial Tyball escapes leaving the Avatar to be caught by the Baron s guards 16 The guards take him to the Baron who banishes him to the Great Stygian Abyss to rescue Arial 17 After the introduction the Avatar explores the dungeon and finds remnants of Cabirus s colony 2 A few possible scenarios include deciding the fate of two warring goblin tribes learning a language and playing an instrument to complete a quest 9 14 The Avatar eventually defeats Tyball and frees Arial 13 18 However as he dies Tyball reveals that he had decided to contain the Slasher of Veils whose prison he had been weakening within Arial as a way to prevent it from destroying the world Arial 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 Garamon uses the energy they release to open a portal and 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 editUltima Underworld was conceived in 1989 by Origin Systems employee Paul Neurath He had just completed work on Space Rogue a hybrid title that features sequences both of 2D tile based role playing and of 3D space flight simulation 7 19 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 19 I had played lots of D amp D I also read a range of fantasy Howard Leiber Vance Zelazny Le Guin and of course Tolkien Tolkien s description of Moria struck me in particular and it seemed like a fine setting for a game Paul Neurath 10 Neurath had enjoyed role playing video games like Wizardry but found that their simple abstract visuals were an obstacle to the suspension of disbelief 20 He believed that Dungeon Master s detailed first person presentation was a glimpse into the future and he sought to create a fantasy role playing game that built on its example 20 In early 1990 Neurath wrote a design document for a game titled Underworld 19 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 21 He contracted former Origin employee Doug Wike to create concept art 20 Wike created a brief hand drawn animation with Deluxe Paint Animation which depicted the game s interface and a creature moving toward the player The animation defined the game s direction 7 21 and it was used as a reference point for the game s tone and features throughout development 7 22 That spring Neurath founded the company Blue Sky Productions in Salem New Hampshire with the intention to create Underworld 20 Among the company s first employees was Doug Church who was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT 20 The team was thus composed of Doug Church as programmer Doug Wike as lead artist and Paul Neurath as lead designer 10 Development began in May 1990 22 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 he believed that the more powerful IBM PCs of the time might 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 19 20 23 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 7 10 20 23 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 4 The team demonstrated it at the June 1990 Consumer Electronics Show CES and impressed Origin Systems 10 20 21 23 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 23 The two companies reached a publishing agreement that summer and Origin suggested that the game be reworked to fit into the Ultima universe 10 20 The team agreed and the game was renamed Ultima Underworld 20 While Spector had hoped to produce the game he was not assigned to the role 21 23 and he later said that he sort of watched the other producer jealously from the sidelines 21 After the game was renamed Doug Church recruited Dan Schmidt a college friend who had just graduated from MIT as a programmer 24 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 4 Church estimated that the first year of production was dedicated to creating the game s technological base 7 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 4 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 4 Each member of the small team assumed multiple roles for example the game s first two levels were designed by Paul Neurath while the rest were built by artists designers and programmers 20 According to Schmidt Neurath contracted a writer to create the game s story and dialogue but the relationship was a mismatch and so the team decided to write the plot themselves 24 Alongside his programming work Church co wrote the game s story with Dan Schmidt and he gradually took on project leader responsibilities 7 21 23 Writing duties for each level were given to the person who created that level Schmidt s role was to edit the dialogue of each level to fit with that of the others 24 Schmidt also created the game s sound effects which were synthesized no recorded sounds were used in a graphical sound editor 24 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 7 Church explained that the core of the project was its dynamic creation He noted that the team had no set of rules or pre written plan but rather worked organically toward the general idea of creating a dungeon simulation 4 Church believed that the game s Ultima series heritage was extremely helpful as it gave the team an anchor for their experiments 7 According to Church because the team was young and inexperienced they were improvising almost the whole time 21 He said that they would just write something that seemed interesting but would then get it half done and we d say Eh That s not working He believed that this iterative method was useful overall but that it entailed an abnormally large workload 7 it resulted in the creation of four movement systems before we were done several combat systems and so forth 21 Certain failed experiments meant that the team created AI code for many ideas which turned out to be largely irrelevant to the actual gameplay 19 During the first year of the game s development Church believed that Origin had little faith in the team s ability to complete the game He later said They didn t pay any attention at all frankly 7 While Origin CEO Richard Garriott helped the team in fitting the game into the Ultima franchise 20 Warren Spector later said that the company seemed blase about Ultima Underworld for the first several months after ORIGIN and Blue Sky signed the deal despite his own belief that it was a change the world project 23 Neurath opined that this was due to the team s status as outsiders whose company was some 1 500 miles distant from their publisher 10 The team was advanced 30 000 to create the game but its final cost was 400 000 20 The game was funded partly by Ned Lerner and by Neurath s royalties from Space Rogue Throughout the game s production the studio was run on a tight budget 20 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 10 20 23 Neurath later said that neither producer had much involvement in the game 20 and that following the second s departure the team spent time without any producer at all 10 Rumors circulated that Origin planned to cancel the project 20 Following a proposal by the team around this time Spector who had previously worked with Neurath on Space Rogue assumed the role of producer Church later described this event as a big win for everyone 10 20 23 Spector began to interact regularly with the team by phone and to visit the studio in person 7 21 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 20 Church said that Spector helped the team polish the game and make it real and that Spector s past experience in the industry enabled him to keep the team focused on completing the game 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 7 We had about eight of us in this 15x15 room sitting in uncomfortable red deck chairs faxing bug lists to Origin and back blasting music and playing Monkey Island II about 30 minutes a day to avoid insanity Doug Church 22 The final four months of the game s development constituted crunch time 20 22 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 10 20 22 Furniture consisted of inexpensive folding tables and uncomfortable red deck chairs 10 20 22 Development took place during the winter but the room was drafty and poorly heated 10 22 The team hired college friends such as Marc LeBlanc to bug test the game 25 and Spector stayed at the studio for roughly a month and a half according to Church 22 Spector later said that in that little office that team created some serious magic I mean the sense of doing something incredible was palpable 10 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 20 The game was released in March 1992 4 Technology edit Ultima Underworld s game engine was written by a small team 4 10 11 Chris Green provided the game s texture mapping algorithm 20 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 4 10 Ultima Underworld was the first video game to implement many of these effects 26 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 10 Ultima Underworld uses two dimensional sprites for characters 1 but also features 3D objects as the team believed that it had to do 3D objects in order to have reasonable visuals 10 The game uses physics to calculate the motion of thrown objects 5 7 During the game s alpha testing phase part of the programming team worked to create a smooth lighting model 4 The game s advanced technology caused the engine to run slowly 10 and its system requirements were extremely high 1 3 14 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 Underworld s most important achievement was its incorporation of simulation elements into a role playing game 10 Reception editReceptionReview scoresPublicationScoreAllGame nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 27 Dragon6 out of 5 6 ACE938 out of 1000 1 Datormagazin nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 28 Mega Zone87 29 Power Play DE 94 30 Play Time95 14 Pelit98 31 Svenska Hemdatornytt sv 66 32 AwardsPublicationAwardChicago TribuneBest Game of the Year 33 Origins AwardBest Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992 34 Ultima Underworld was not an immediate commercial success which caused Origin to decrease its marketing support 19 However its popularity increased via word of mouth in the years following its release 19 Sales eventually reached nearly 500 000 copies 20 with praise for its 3D presentation and automapping feature 1 6 30 35 In 1993 the game won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1992 34 and was nominated for an award at the Game Developers Conference 36 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 1 Dragon Magazine opined that 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 6 Computer Gaming World s Allen Greenberg in 1992 described it as an ambitious project but not without its share of problems He 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 He summarized the game as an enjoyable challenge with a unique game playing engine to back it up 3 Scorpia was also positive stating that despite flaws Ultima Underworld is an impressive first product The meticulous construction of a real world dungeon environment is outstanding It may be a dungeon trek but it is certainly the dungeon trek of the future 37 In 1993 she praised the superb graphics of a definite must for game players 38 The magazine later awarded the game Role Playing Game of the Year 39 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 35 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 33 The game was also well received by non English publications The Swedish Datormagazin considered the game to be in a class by itself 28 In Germany Power Play praised its technical perfection and excellent story 30 while Play Time lauded its graphical and aural presentation and awarded it Game of the Month 14 Finland s Pelit stated Ultima Underworld is something totally new in the CRPG field The Virtual Fantasy of the Abyss left reviewers speechless 31 Ultima Underworld was inducted into many hall of fame lists including those compiled by GameSpy IGN and Computer Gaming World 5 40 41 42 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 43 In 2004 readers of Retro Gamer voted Ultima Underworld as the 62nd top retro game the staff called it easily one of the best entries in the long running Ultima series 44 In 1998 PC Gamer declared it the 18th best computer game ever released and the editors called it Light years ahead of their time and still regarded as some of the best roleplaying games ever created 45 A poll conducted in May 2023 by GQ among a team of video game journalists listed it as the 95th best video game of all time 46 Legacy editUltima Underworld is considered the first example of an immersive sim a genre that combines elements from other genres to create a game with strong player agency and emergent gameplay and has influenced many games since its release 47 The game s influence has been found in BioShock 2007 48 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 49 Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski also cited it as an early influence stating that it had far more impact on me than Doom 50 Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include The Elder Scrolls Arena 51 Deus Ex 52 Deus Ex Invisible War 53 Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 54 and Half Life 2 55 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 56 Ultima Underworld was also the basis for Looking Glass Technologies later System Shock 7 Id Software s use of texture mapping in Catacomb 3 D a precursor to Wolfenstein 3D was influenced by Ultima Underworld 26 Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence however 57 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 58 However Doug Church has said that John Carmack saw the game s summer 1990 software convention demo and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper Paul Neurath has recounted the incident similarly with both Carmack and Romero present 19 57 Despite the technology developed for Ultima Underworld Origin opted to continue using traditional top down 2D graphics for future mainline Ultima games 59 The engine was re used and enhanced for Ultima Underworld s 1993 sequel Ultima Underworld II Labyrinth of Worlds 4 Looking Glass Studios planned to create a third Ultima Underworld but Origin rejected their pitches 19 After Electronic Arts EA rejected Arkane Studios pitch for Ultima Underworld III the studio instead created a spiritual successor Arx Fatalis 60 On the 14th March 1997 a complete 3D remake of the game was released for the Playstaton 1 by Infinity Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts Victor This version was only released in Japan All of the creatures and NPCs were recreated using polygon models whilst the items and environments use their original textures The HUD and inventory were reworked allowing the game to be displayed using the full screen The character portraits were redraw in an anime style to make them more appealing to the Japanese market Sound effects were added and a new sound track was recorded for the game New ending and introduction videos were also added 61 In the early 2000s Paul Neurath approached 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 10 and the port was released in 2002 59 GOG com released an emulated version in June 2011 for Windows and in October 2012 for Mac OS X 62 63 In 2015 Otherside Entertainment a new developer founded by Paul Neurath and other Looking Glass and Irrational veterans announced a new entry in the series entitled Underworld Ascendant The new title is an officially licensed part of the series set in the Stygian Abyss but this licensing agreement does not extend to the Ultima name or greater IP effectively orphaning Underworld from the Ultima series 64 References edit Published in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor a b c d e f g h i j Upchurch David April 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss ACE 55 36 41 a b c d e f g Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Player s Guide Origin Systems 1992 a b c d Greenberg Allen July 1992 Abyssmal Perspective Computer Gaming World No 96 42 44 a b c d e f g h i j k l An Interview With Looking Glass Technologies Game Bytes 1992 Archived from the original on April 19 2013 Retrieved February 15 2009 a b c d e The GameSpy Staff GameSpy s Top 50 Games of All Time GameSpy Archived from the original on January 8 2007 Retrieved February 15 2009 a b c d Lesser Hartley Lesser Patricia amp Lesser Kirk November 1992 The Role of Computers PDF Dragon Magazine 187 62 63 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rouse III Richard 2005 Game Design Theory amp Practice Second Edition Wordware Publishing 500 531 ISBN 1 55622 912 7 a b Ultima Underworld II Labyrinth of Worlds Manual Origin Systems 1993 a b c Carlson Rich Hall Of Fame Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss GameSpy Archived from the original on December 27 2007 Retrieved February 15 2009 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Mallinson Paul Games That Changed The World Supplemental Material PC Zone Archived from the original on July 21 2010 Retrieved March 9 2009 a b c d Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Manual Origin Systems 1992 The Ultima Legacy GameSpot Archived from the original on April 30 1999 Retrieved March 9 2009 a b Allston Aaron 1992 Ultima Underworld Clue Book Mysteries of the Abyss Origin Systems ISBN 0 929373 08 1 a b c d e Geltenpoth Alexander Menne Oliver June 1992 Ultima Underworld Play Time 20 21 Looking Glass Studios 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Origin Systems Ghost Treachery and doom My brother will unleash a great evil Britannia is in peril Narrator Sure that the ghost can take you to Britannia you allow yourself to be drawn to him Looking Glass Studios 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Origin Systems Tyball No matter thou shalt serve to draw the hounds from the scent Narrator Below a creature heads toward the dark woods a thrashing sack slung over its massive shoulder Looking Glass Studios 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Origin Systems Baron Almric If thou art truly the Avatar then perhaps thou canst offer hope None here can survive the Stygian Abyss and rescue Ariel My mind is set Corwin shall take thee to the Abyss Return here with my daughter and thy innocence shall be proven If thou dost not return Avatar then thy lie shall have brought thee low Looking Glass Studios 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Origin Systems Baron Almric Thou hast earned my gratitude and more Were it not for thee my daughter tells me we would have lost more than her delightful company a b c d e f g h i Mallinson Paul April 16 2002 Feature Games that changed the world Ultima Underworld Computer and Video Games Archived from the original on December 12 2007 Retrieved February 10 2009 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Neurath Paul June 23 2000 The Story of Ultima Underworld Through the Looking Glass Archived from the original on June 13 2011 Retrieved February 12 2009 a b c d e f g h i Hallford Jana June 7 2001 Swords amp Circuitry A Designer s Guide To Computer Role Playing Games Cengage Learning 61 63 ISBN 0 7615 3299 4 a b c d e f g h Bauman Steve January 30 2000 The Tracks of His Games Computer Games Magazine Archived from the original on September 8 2003 Retrieved November 2 2010 a b c d e f g h i Warren Spector Doug Church Interview PC Gamer US October 2001 Archived from the original on December 11 2001 Retrieved November 14 2010 a b c d Weise Matthew March 21 2011 Looking Glass Studios Interview Series Audio Podcast 2 Dan Schmidt Singapore MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Archived from the original on March 27 2014 Weise Matthew November 10 2011 Looking Glass Studios Interview Series Audio Podcast 8 Marc Mahk LeBlanc Singapore MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Archived from the original on November 1 2013 a b Shahrani Sam April 25 2006 Educational Feature A History and Analysis of Level Design in 3D Computer Games Part 1 Gamasutra Archived from the original on June 29 2006 Retrieved February 10 2009 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Review AllGame Archived from the original on November 16 2014 Retrieved June 28 2016 a b Frojdh Goran May 1992 Tjuvtitten Ultima Underworld Datormagazin 66 Mega Zone issue 23 August September 1992 pages 52 53 a b c Hengst Michael June 1992 Das ultimative Dungeon Power Play a b Nirvi Niko April 1992 Virtuualifantasian mestarinayte Pelit in Finnish 22 24 ISSN 1235 1199 Svenska Hemdatornytt Vol 1992 No 5 May 1992 page 40 a b Lynch Dennis January 29 1993 Winners and worsts From Corn Gods to Bart Simpson a look back Chicago Tribune Section 7 46 a b 1992 List of Winners Origins Game Fair Archived from the original on May 7 2008 Retrieved February 26 2009 a b Freund Jim August 1 1992 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss Computer Shopper The 7th International Computer Game Developers Conference Computer Gaming World July 1993 p 34 Retrieved 12 July 2014 Scorpia July 1992 Scorpion s Tale Computer Gaming World p 106 Retrieved 25 November 2013 Scorpia October 1993 Scorpia s Magic Scroll Of Games Computer Gaming World pp 34 50 Retrieved 25 March 2016 CGW Salutes The Games of the Year Computer Gaming World November 1992 p 110 Retrieved 4 July 2014 The Top 25 PC Games of All Time IGN July 24 2000 Archived from the original on June 13 2002 Retrieved March 6 2009 IGN s Top 100 Games 2005 IGN Archived from the 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Retrieved March 17 2009 Totilo Stephen May 22 2006 Gaming Roundtable Considers Bloody Monsters MTV Archived from the original on March 4 2010 Retrieved March 6 2009 Arena Behind the Scenes Bethesda Softworks Archived from the original on December 11 2007 Retrieved 2007 09 28 Warren Spector of Ion Storm Part Two Eurogamer August 4 2000 Archived from the original on May 18 2011 Retrieved March 6 2009 Aihoshi Richard November 17 2003 Deus Ex Invisible War Interview Part 1 IGN Archived from the original on November 19 2003 Retrieved March 6 2009 Boyarsky Leonard December 13 2003 Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Designer Diary 3 GameSpot Archived from the original on May 18 2016 Reed Kristan May 12 2004 Half Life 2 Valve speaks to Eurogamer Eurogamer Archived from the original on January 26 2010 Retrieved March 6 2009 Gibbon Dave June 28 2001 Q amp A The man who made Lara BBC Archived from the original on July 17 2004 Retrieved March 6 2009 a b James Au Wagner May 5 2003 Masters of Doom Salon com Archived from the original on March 7 2008 Retrieved March 9 2009 Kushner David 2003 Masters of Doom How Two Guys Created An Empire And Transformed Pop Culture Random House 89 ISBN 0 375 50524 5 a b Barton Matt April 11 2007 The History of Computer Role Playing Games Part III The Platinum and Modern Ages 1994 2004 Gamasutra Archived from the original on December 28 2007 Retrieved March 7 2009 Todd Brett March 20 2002 Arx Fatalis Preview GameSpot Archived from the original on November 2 2010 Retrieved February 9 2009 Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss PSX Data Center Retrieved 26 September 2023 Galimatias June 2 2011 New Release Ultima Underworld 1 2 GOG com Archived from the original on January 24 2013 Retrieved 29 July 2012 GOG com goes Mac GOG com CD Projekt October 2012 Archived from the original on 19 October 2012 Retrieved 24 August 2022 Underworld Ascendant Retrieved March 22 2016 External links editUltima Underworld The Stygian Abyss at MobyGames Descending into the Abyss A Storyteller explores the narrative accomplishments of Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss from Well Played 1 0 Portals nbsp 1990s nbsp Speculative fiction nbsp Video games Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss amp oldid 1177143040, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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