Timeline | 1981-1983: Ultima: Age of Darkness (Ultima I-III)

The first three Ultima games, collectively known as the 'Age of Darkness' were some of the best gaming experiences around in the early '80s.

Most long-time RPG players are likely to know that series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and the majority of the older great RPG games are Japanese in origin. In fact it has only been relatively recently (ie the last decade or so) that great (and/or great selling) RPG games have again started to emerge from North America and Europe - but before the Video Gaming industry shifted to a decidedly Japanese focus, Ultima was a huge name in gaming.

The series would rise to popularity on early PCs (Apple II, Commodore 64, early IBM compatibles, etc.) and eventually spawn one of the earliest and longest running MMORPGs (Ultima Online, started in 1997 - still going!). But, it was in the early '80s that Lord British himself, Richard Garriott made Ultima: The First Age of Darkness (later known as Ultima I) and founded the franchise.

The Original Ultima was released on the Apple II computer in 1981

Ultima presented a fantastic world to the player likely unlike anything he/she had ever experienced before. It established a trope that would be in most RPGs moving forward, a topdown overworld with various dungeons. The dungeons in Ultima are displayed in first person, one-point perspective (much like the later Shin Megami Tensei series). The game starts with character creation not unlike table-top RPGs (like Dungeon's and Dragons) in which the player chooses a race (and class) and has a number of attribute points to customize their character with. Ultima was also unique in that it allowed the player to pick a gender (although it had little to no effect on the gameplay). The character had Hit Points (abbreviated HP, this would become standard in even modern RPGs) Food, Experience Points (or EXP) and Gold. Ultima had fairly rudimentary magic and combat systems but the combination of all of these things together involved in an overall story made the game incredibly deep and engaging for the time.

A screenshot of the overworld of Ultima I

A screenshot of Ultima's space sequence, the enemy fighter looks similar to a TIE fighter from Star Wars

Ultima II was originally released in mid 1982

Ultima II built upon the original, it was larger with more places to explore (even several planets, dungeons and towers that could be fully explored but were not required to complete the game). The game had the player traveling through several different time periods of Earth and out into the solar system. It is interesting to note that Ultima II took place on Earth when Ultima I (and all other games in the series) took place in the land of Sosaria/Britannia - this was later retconned as the lore of the Ultima universe grew.

Ultima II had a very similar visual style to Ultima but had a few enhancements.

Inside the dungeons in Ultima II there were actual pixelized monsters instead of just stick figures

Ultima III: Exodus was released for the Apple II in 1983 and further catapulted the franchise to popularity. For the time the game had amazing graphics, it was the first computer RPG to display animated characters. It introduced a character party, in which the player could control the actions and destinies of up to 4 characters (a feature influenced from the game Wizardry that would go on to be in most later major RPGs). The battle mechanics of the game were also upgraded to include rudimentary tactics and understanding of the weapon and magic system could now really effect the outcome of a battle.

Ultima III: Exodus was more widely ported than the first two games, specifically Exodus was the first to receive a home console port in the form of the upgraded NES version released in 1988. All three games of the original series were redone and released for DOS in 1986 shortly after the release of Ultima IV - this is the version that most played and is still most widely available today, besides graphical updates the games remained largely unchanged.

Ultima III's overworld continued to receive graphical upgrades along with the Character Party system.

Ultima III's dungeons were no longer wire-frame but 3D (albeit rudimentary)

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_II:_The_Revenge_of_the_Enchantress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_III:_Exodus

GoG.com
http://www.gog.com/game/ultima_1_2_3

Timeline | 1980-1983: Zork Trilogy

Zork I was probably one of the greatest Text-Adventure games ever released.

'Zork' was originally slang among members of the MIT community for an unfinished program (especially a game) and it was under this name that several programmers at MIT developed a game they would eventually name 'Dungeon'. They finished their program somewhere around 1977 but received a copyright violation notice from the publishers of 'Dungeons & Dragons' and so they renamed the game back to Zork and released it for PDP-10 mainframe computers (common in universities at the time).

Zork was an immediate cult classic among the university scene and so those same programmers decided to get together and form a company to publish and distribute Zork to the masses. As common computers of the time couldn't handle the entire game as it existed on the PDP-10, Infocom (the company they formed) split the game into three parts: Zork I, Zork II and Zork III. Each game was slightly altered and more content added so they could function as stand alone games and they began releasing the games, starting with Zork I on common computers of the day (Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM compatibles, etc.)

Zork I was released in 1980, the premise of the game was simple: you were an 'adventurer' presented with situations and questions and you entered commands into the game like 'open door' 'go to the right' and so on to navigate the story and find all the treasures to earn the title 'Master Adventurer' doing so give you a map to a 'stone barrow' which is where Zork I ends...

Zork II was released in 1981 and was a well received follow up to Zork I

...and Zork II begins! Zork II was very similar to Zork I in terms of gameplay (they are all three text-adventure games based on the same engine) but the storyline is a little different. In this game you are still looking for treasues, however collecting them is not the entire goal - in fact it will not win the game for you if you collect all 10, nor is collecting all 10 necessary to finish the storyline and advance the plot to win but some of them are.

The final game of the original Zork trilogy was released in 1983.

Zork III takes a slightly different path than I and II, in this game instead of looking for treasure to advance the plot you are trying to prove yourself worthy of becoming the 'Dungeon Master'. An interesting twist in this game is a time sensitive event, an earthquake that usually occurs somewhere around turn 130 that the player must have advanced for enough into the game to have gotten the key by that point or the game becomes unwinnable (also there are things you can't do until the earthquake alters the landscape).

The Zork games where very challenging, very engaging and tons of fun when they were released. Even as early Action-Adventure games were coming out Zork really defined the Text-Based Adventure game. Later Action-Adventure and RPG games were heavily influenced by the Zork Trilogy.


You can download all three of the original Zork games for free here:
http://www.infocom-if.org/downloads/downloads.html

GoG.com also has the Anthology and later Zork games available here (its about $10 for the entire series)
http://www.gog.com/game/the_zork_anthology

Timeline | 1981: Missile Command for Atari 2600

Missile Command was another hit for Atari in both the Arcades and on the Atari 2600

Another game born of the Space Invaders craze that also became quite popular in its own right was 'Missile Command'. In Missile Command the player took the role of the commander of a regional missile defense grid with the goal of defending six cities from destruction as Nuclear ICBMs rained down from the sky. The initial premise made for fairly simple gameplay where the player used their own explosions to destroy the falling missles before they could hit the ground. After several rounds the game would get harder with the missiles falling faster, more often and in greater numbers and eventually doing things like splitting into multiple projectiles and coming from low flying planes, etc..

A screenshot of Missile Command for the Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 version of Missile Command came out in 1981 (just 1 year after the Arcade version) and continued the string of Arcade ports that were making the Atari 2600 very popular at the time. The Atari 2600 game's manual refers to the game taking place between two alien species, the defending Zardon and the attacking Krytol, although this is not in any of the documentation for the arcade version of the game. The Atari 2600 version also has an Easter Egg from its designer tucked away on the 13th level, the second Easter Egg ever (or at least known and admitted by Atari). Besides some graphical limitation the 2600 version of Missile Command is a decent representation of the Arcade classic and is still quite fun to play.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Command

Timeline | 1981: Asteroids for Atari 2600

Asteroids was a huge hit for Atari both in the Arcades and on the 2600

Following the success of Space Invaders, Atari released Asteroids in the Arcades in 1979. The Atari 2600 version came out in 1981. Asteroids took the adventure into outer space where the player pilots a star ship through an asteroid field, destroying the asteroids into smaller and smaller pieces and fighting the occasional alien spacecraft along the way.

Asteroids was an immediate hit in the arcades in the US, supplanting the behemoth that was Space Invaders after a short time. The Atari 2600 version wasn't quite as successful but did sell quite a bit and help to continue the success of the console.

A screenshot of Asteroids on the Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 version of the game had several key differences from the Arcade version. First and foremost was the raster graphics instead of vector graphics, this made the asteroids and ship movement much more jerky and contributed to lower graphical quality overall (which of course made sense due to the limitations of the machine when compared to Arcade machines of the time). An effort to make up for this was the inclusion of some color to the game in the form of multi-colored asteroids, even though this made little sense for asteroids to be pink and purple...

Like many early video game hits (Pong, Space Invaders, etc.) Asteroids had many 'clones' which were basically rippoff Arcade cabinets or game cartridges that were basically the exact same game. Unfortunately Asteroid clones were prevelant enough and of high enough quality that they actually cut into the real Asteroid's popularity, one Asteroids in Space on the Apple II computer was named the most popular software for that computer in 1980.

All-in-all Asteroids for the 2600 doesn't really hold up well, one would be better suited to play an arcade port on the computer or any number of other remakes/ports from later sources but it was very important for the time and still a great game.

In modern times retro gamers have developed a cult following for all things Atari including Asteroids. A recent remake/remastering of Asteroids by game designer Darrell Spice Jr. at AtariAge.com named 'Space Rocks' adds in many new and improved features in the graphics and the gameplay, and it plays on a real Atari 2600. This would be a great addition to any Atari 2600 collection (and I plan for it to be in mine soon).

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)

AtariAge:
http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1026