Lord British Fans??? Any idea where he is/went?

[akdj]

I was an AVID player, especially early on, of Ultima...I, II, III, IV...not sure if I ever even made it to V (5)...as it was the 80s, on my Apple IIe

Anyway...all this talk of nostalgia on MR, and the reminiscing of older games, had me wondering what ever happened to the franchise. I actually read the entire post on Wikipedia (VERY interesting, BTW...for those of you that played the game!), but we all know how Wikipedia works

Just curious if anyone has any knowledge of what ever became of Lord British, whether or not we can expect some sort of "resurrection" of the franchise; either in a new game for Mac/PC, console....or, actually taking the old game and making it iOS friendly...that would actually be Very Cool in my book! I'm enjoying kind of a midlife crisis with these iOS games...especially with my young son and playing the game Dungeon Hunter 2. I really dug Diablo 1, played Diablo 2 for a while...didn't win it, because I eventually lost interest, got married...bought a house, took out a 2nd, kids, Little League...et al You know the drill, I'm sure.

Any insight would be great.

Jer

 

[Dyne]

I was an AVID player, especially early on, of Ultima...I, II, III, IV...not sure if I ever even made it to V (5)...as it was the 80s, on my Apple IIe

Anyway...all this talk of nostalgia on MR, and the reminiscing of older games, had me wondering what ever happened to the franchise. I actually read the entire post on Wikipedia (VERY interesting, BTW...for those of you that played the game!), but we all know how Wikipedia works

Just curious if anyone has any knowledge of what ever became of Lord British, whether or not we can expect some sort of "resurrection" of the franchise; either in a new game for Mac/PC, console....or, actually taking the old game and making it iOS friendly...that would actually be Very Cool in my book! I'm enjoying kind of a midlife crisis with these iOS games...especially with my young son and playing the game Dungeon Hunter 2. I really dug Diablo 1, played Diablo 2 for a while...didn't win it, because I eventually lost interest, got married...bought a house, took out a 2nd, kids, Little League...et al You know the drill, I'm sure.

Any insight would be great.

Jer

Richard Garriott had a job at NCSoft for a while, where he developed the short-lived MMORPG Tabula Rasa. Then he went into space. Then he came back from space, and hasn't made any games since then. That is the cliffnotes version of what's going on with good ol' Lord British.

Considering EA owns the rights to the Ultima franchise now, I sincerely doubt you will ever see another Ultima game created by him. Considering how terrible Ultima IX was, that could be a good thing.

 

[akdj]

Thanks Dyne

I appreciate the info. With EA owning the rights though, perhaps that bodes well for a possible release on iOS? Seems to be a cool way to compete with Gameloft in the appstore, no? A cool addition to their sport games with an Old School RPG.

Thanks again!

Jer

 

[jlc1978]

Richard Garriott had a job at NCSoft for a while, where he developed the short-lived MMORPG Tabula Rasa. Then he went into space. Then he came back from space, and hasn't made any games since then. That is the cliffnotes version of what's going on with good ol' Lord British.

Considering EA owns the rights to the Ultima franchise now, I sincerely doubt you will ever see another Ultima game created by him. Considering how terrible Ultima IX was, that could be a good thing.

Don't know where he is, but he is the (AFAIK) the only father / son combo to go into space. His dad was was on Skylab and shuttle; he went on a Soyuz capsule to the ISS.

I also remember Ultima fondly form the Apple ][+.

 

[akdj]

Wow! I didn't realize Dyne was "serious" with the "space" comment...lol, just figured he'd disappeared from the earth (computer world)

That's awesome! I had no idea...maybe I didn't actually make it that far through his biography

Incredible

J

 

[Huntn]

Richard Garriott had a job at NCSoft for a while, where he developed the short-lived MMORPG Tabula Rasa. Then he went into space. Then he came back from space, and hasn't made any games since then. That is the cliffnotes version of what's going on with good ol' Lord British.

Considering EA owns the rights to the Ultima franchise now, I sincerely doubt you will ever see another Ultima game created by him. Considering how terrible Ultima IX was, that could be a good thing.

I was going to make a crack that he went into hiding after the failure of Tabula Rasa. I played the beta, and it was a cross between BTDT/wannabee. I admit I'm getting much more critical of new games. I disliked Vanguard and LOTRO too. WoW set a very high bar although I am retired from it.

 

[Xendin]

Loved the Ultima saga.

Pity that Origin got gobbled up by EA. The EA effect led to a rapid decline in the series (Ultima VIII & IX).

I'm hoping EA doesn't ruin BioWare as well (Dragon Age II was rushed out of the gate way too soon).

Richard Garriott has been more active in space tourism ventures than gaming of late. I wish he would buy back the rights to Ultima to allow for a proper return to Britannia!

 

[akdj]

I was going to make a crack that he went into hiding after the failure of Tabula Rasa. I played the beta, and it was a cross between BTDT/wannabee. I admit I'm getting much more critical of new games. I disliked Vanguard and LOTRO too. WoW set a very high bar although I am retired it.

As mentioned, I was done early on (Not sure now if it was UIV or V). I believe the last one I tried (VI?) was on a 2/386 IBM something or rather...just after my life with Apple IIe and IIc. I just remember the last one I played was short lived...and it was BIG compared to the earlier versions...seemed like it had a half dozen of those 1.4mb 3.5" floppies Anyway...had to get a job at that point in life, college, broke...fell away from gaming. In the past half decade, I'm kinda back! I have an almost 7 year old son, we live in Alaska...so we have this time of the year (winter) that lends itself to perfect "gaming" weather! I've enjoyed playing on the Wii with him...and I'm finally figuring out the PS3 (bought it when it first came out due to it's BluRay ability...and it's price compared to the stratospheric prices of the original and SLOW BluRay decks).

Wow...sorry to digress...point being, I'm finally getting back in to gaming a bit with the consoles, iPhones, iPads, et al.> But quite honestly, I find myself most excited to play a game on my Macs. Something about the nostalgia of gaming on a computer...probably due to my early days with the IIe and IIc. But I, too, find myself EXTREMELY critical of today's titles. Maybe due to the lack of imagination one needs to successfully "Win" today's big games....not sure. As a 40 something though, I have way too many bills to get caught up in a game as extensive and time consuming as WoW. I did give it a shot, it's out of this world...absolutely incredible....but the time is not there, and it's a bit "boring" to a six year old, I'm afraid. Not sure if it's how I want him spending time as he gets older either....not that there's anything wrong with it Just too much else happening in "Life" to devote the time and energy to a single game.

Loved the Ultima saga.

Pity that Origin got gobbled up by EA. The EA effect led to a rapid decline in the series (Ultima VIII & IX).

I'm hoping EA doesn't ruin BioWare as well (Dragon Age II was rushed out of the gate way too soon).

Richard Garriott has been more active in space tourism ventures than gaming of late. I wish he would buy back the rights to Ultima to allow for a proper return to Britannia!

Hopefully those guys in space "tourism" will start making money soon. As well, due to the lack of future NASA funding, many of these agencies stand to make some real money as the space travel and transport contracts need to go somewhere. It'll be interesting to see how much richer all these "Richards" get! (Branson, Garriott....)

Is there anyway these days to find emulators that'll run programs from the 80s? Or are we relegated to playing on the old hardware as well? I suppose it would be next to impossible to find working 5 1/4" floppy drives...and then somehow connect the "Ribbon" to a PC for transfer? Nevermind...don't even answer that question...as mentioned, no TIME!!!

Take care

J

 

[Xendin]

BTW there are many independent remakes of old Ultima games (some for OSX).
Most of the old Ultima games are now freeware.

http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?event=project&typeKeyword=remakes

This page is old but some of the downloads are still around. At the bottom of the page is XU4 - Ultima IV Recreated which I downloaded years ago. It is a great port of Ultima IV.

 

[Huntn]

But I, too, find myself EXTREMELY critical of today's titles. Maybe due to the lack of imagination one needs to successfully "Win" today's big games....not sure. As a 40 something though, I have way too many bills to get caught up in a game as extensive and time consuming as WoW. I did give it a shot, it's out of this world...absolutely incredible....but the time is not there, and it's a bit "boring" to a six year old, I'm afraid. Not sure if it's how I want him spending time as he gets older either....not that there's anything wrong with it Just too much else happening in "Life" to devote the time and energy to a single game.

I'm a 50 something. I started computer gaming in my late 30's when everything seemed shiny and new, when many computer gaming concepts & premises were seen for the first time. Now, it's mostly subtle variations or blatantly repeat ideas. Every so often something new grabs me. Lately I've been a big fan of Left4Dead. Not up a 6 year old's alley. I'm hoping that Star Wars:The Old Republic a new MMO, that promises to be a time sink is worthy. In its day, WoW was very compelling.