Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

User Summary:

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness is the first game in the Ultima series (second if you count Akalabeth) created by Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British). Originally written in BASIC and published in 1980, it is one of the earliest commercially available CRPGs. The game was reprogrammed in assembly and rereleased in 1986 with a greatly improved running speed, better graphics and a few minor content changes.

The game uses a top down, third-person view using icons for the main character, monsters, cities, towns, dungeon entrances and other places of interest in the overworld. The game switches to a simple 3-D, one-point perspective view during dungeon and tower exploration.

The main character, a hero from another world, is brought to the land of Sosaria to defeat the evil wizard Mondain who is devastating the land with hordes of creatures from the standard fantasy roster. Setting a precedent for most CRPGs to follow, the hero improves his skills and equipment until he is powerful enough to complete the final quest and defeat Mondain.