Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Mixed tile overworld with wireframe first-person dungeons, launching the defining Western RPG series.

Released 1981 Developer Richard Garriott Publisher California Pacific Computer Platform Apple II Genre CRPG Era The home cartridge

Mechanics it built on

Ideas Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness inherited rather than invented — each traceable back through the ontology to a root.

Experience Points and Levels ~~1980~~Hit Points ~~1980~~First-Person Vector Space ~~1980~~Character Classes ~~1981~~

Directly influenced

Dragon Quest ~~1986~~

The Ultima series in this dataset

1981

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness ~~this page~~

1983

Ultima III: Exodus ~~1983~~

1985

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar ~~1985~~

1988

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny ~~1988~~

1992

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss ~~1992~~

1992

Ultima VII: The Black Gate ~~1992~~

1997

Ultima Online ~~1997~~

Look this game up elsewhere

Wikipedia ↗MobyGames ↗Giant Bomb ↗

~~Next in series →~~Ultima III: Exodus