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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Inside 
                        Origin Systems</font></i></font></b><br>
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        <a href="mailto:tim@damarr.freeserve.co.uk">Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; 
                        O'Malley</a></font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 11<br>
                      February 7, 2000</font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart>

              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <h3 align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Technical 
                Innovations</font></h3>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                Origin, unlike many companies, moves with the flow of technology, 
                and sometimes redefines it. Every game in the <b>Ultima</b> series 
                scrapped the previous game&#146;s engine, and instead used a totally 
                new one. It is this attitude to always staying &#145;on the ball,&#146; 
                which has kept Origin ahead of the bulk of software houses. If 
                you look at <b>Ultima I</b>, you can clearly see its simplicity. 
                As you go through the games, they change rapidly, with color, 
                proper graphics, new views to see the action from, a bigger game 
                and finally with <b>Ultima IX: Ascension</b>, a full-blown 3D 
                view for a 3D world. Despite its many bugs, no one who has played 
                the game can deny how impressive and large its world can seem 
                at times, with hundreds of animals and NPCs (Non Player Characters) 
                just walking about, living their lives. In <b>Ultima I</b>, the 
                code used for the dungeons was the same code that had been used 
                to design <b>Akalabeth</b>, and<b> Ultima II</b> was the first 
                game he made in assembly language.<b> Ultima III</b> was the first 
                game that Garriot actually got to do exactly what he wanted, as 
                his lack of experience in code meant that the other games were 
                all very rough around the edges. <b>Ultima III </b>was much better 
                defined, and everything was much more coherent, and was the last 
                game in what is referred to as the &#147;Age of Darkness Trilogy.&#148; 
                </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Ultima 
                IV </b>was the first game to penalize players for bad behavior, 
                with NPCs treating you badly if you were a known psychopath, but 
                at the other end of the scale, if you were a hero who went around 
                helping people out, NPCs would be more willing to do you favors, 
                showing a clear advance in computer AI and understanding of the 
                player. <b>Ultima V </b>challenged the traditional good/bad scenario, 
                as it introduced characters with many shades of gray, and so it 
                was no longer obvious what side someone was on. <b>Ultima VI </b>was 
                the first game were continuity was a concern, and was more a game 
                of personal exploration, as the Avatar was killing gargoyles only 
                to find they saw humans as monsters, just as humans saw them. 
                This was the first game that concentrated heavily on storyline, 
                and a step forward for the series in establishing itself as a 
                true RPG epic. This was also the last game in the &#147;Age on 
                Enlightenment Trilogy.&#148;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Following 
                this,<b> Ultima VII </b>was released. This was a major step forward 
                for the series, as it was the first Ultima to contain a truly 
                impressive world, and would set the standard for the titles to 
                come after it. <b>Ultima VIII </b>was best known for its arcade 
                style adventure, but lacked real gameplay, and only advanced the 
                series in terms of its graphical appearance. <b>Ultima IX</b>, 
                as many people will know, brought the series to a close, but was 
                a massive leap forward at the same time. No 3D game has ever had 
                such a large and detailed world, with something interesting around 
                every corner, and it is on a truly huge scale. This ended the 
                &#147;Guardian Trilogy&#148; and the &#147;Trilogy of Trilogies,&#148; 
                as some had called it, brining the story of the Avatar and Britannia 
                to a satisfying close.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">FMV being 
                used in a game, although now a largely disused form of telling 
                the story, was seen being displayed to its full affect in Origin&#146;s 
                <b>Wing Commander </b>series of games. Featuring Mark Hamill, 
                the sequences were used as a new form of storytelling for a video 
                game. Aside from the FMV, the <b>Wing Commander</b> games set 
                the benchmark for other space simulators. The latest (and possibly 
                last) installment of <b>Wing Commander</b>, called <b>Wing Commander: 
                Secret Ops</b> was released on the Internet as a free download, 
                with each level weighing in from 30-50 megabytes each. </font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Joachim. This article is &copy; 2000 Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; O'Malley. 
  All other content is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction 
  is prohibited. So don't do it, or we'll make you cry, sissy.</font></i></p>
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