Ultima IX: Ascension by Al Giovetti

 

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Requirements:Windows 95/98, Pentium II 266 or equivalent, 64MB RAM, 600 MB hard disk space, DirectX 7 compatible sound card, 8 MB 3D graphics accelerator
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Ultima IX: Ascension

History * Company Line * Game Play * Plot * Graphics * Animation * Voice Actors * Music Score * Sound Effects * Utilities * Multi-player Features * Cheats, Hints, and Walkthrough * Journalists * References * Letters * Ultima IX: Ascension Cheats

History

About 20 years ago Richard Garriott, aka Lord Brittish, spent four weeks programming a BASIC game called Alkabeth. Alkabeth started the entire Ultima story.

Ultima now is composed of 12 single player over head perspective games (Ultima 0: Alkabeth - 1979, Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness - 1980, Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress - 1982, Ultima III: Exodus - 1983, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - 1985, Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny - 1988, Ultima VI: The False Prophet -1990, Ultima VII Part 1: The Black Gate -1992, Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle - 1993, Ultima VIII: Pagan - 1994, one online game world (Ultima Online - 1997), one expansion to the online gameworld (Ultima Online: The Second Age - 1998), and three first person perpective games: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, Ultima Underworld II: The Labyrinth of Worlds and now Ulitma IX: Ascension.

Alkabeth (1999) was the first game to come from Richard Garriott, a company which now makes up one part of Electronic Arts, valued at over 50 million dollars with over 50 game titles to its credit. Alcabeth's first run of the game sold a little over two dozen copies. A later run of the game gave Brittish $5 for each of 30,000 copies produced by a company called California Pacific.

If you missed the first introduction of Alkabeth, Ultima IX: Ascension gives you the chance to see first hand one of the games that started the computer gaming industry. Those who were in on the computer gaming industry early on, and played games on the Apple II computer will find a return to Alkabeth in order when they see the new product.

Origin has announced that they will no longer be producing singly player games. (Interactive Magic announced this year that they were also going totally online.) The Ultima Online series has made tremedous gross sales since its introduction. Since Ultima Online has grossed well over 56 million comprised of 20 million in initial sales (400,000 units sold at $50 per unit) and 36 million in subscriptions ($10 per month for 24 months for 150,000 subscribers).

Company Line

Game Play

Plot

Graphics

Animation

Voice Actors

Music Score

Sound Effects

Utilities

Multi-player Features

Journalists

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    References

  1. Steve Steinberg, Happy Puppy Review, 8/10(80%)

    Letters

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