About Ultima

MSRP: $39.95

As the story goes, the wizard Mondain was intent on world domination. Over 1,000 years ago, he created the gem of immortality and granted him invincibility. Mondain is evil. The gem of immortality is evil. These are indisputable facts because it says to in the playbook. However, you won't be seeing Mondain doing anything evil in the present world and time. The player controls a stranger from another world (Earth) come to the land Sosaria to save it and its people from Mondain. The fact that Mondain is immortal and invincibility makes this a difficult task. So the stranger will travel back in time to kill Mondain before he creates his gem.

Ultimatum was the working title of this game. The game also did not have the Ultima I title, it was just plain "Ultima"

The first version of the first game in the The Age of Darkness trilogy from the Ultima series of games. This game was written in BASIC. The 5.25" disk, play book, reference card and cover art page came in a ziploc baggie. The disk and cover art page were branded "top of the orchard software". There was no map, cloth or otherwise. This package sold approximately 50,000 copies. This version was also published with a "Progame" label. Progame was a division of California Pacific Computer. In 1986, a machine language rewrite from Origin was released and called Ultima I.

The Lord British Starter Kit was a compilation of Akalabeth and Ultima released by California Pacific Computer Co. before rights were sold to Sierra On-line.