The Digital Antiquarian - The Road to Ultima V

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@The Digital Antiquarian, Jimmy Maher explores the development of Ultima V. In this article we learn about the internal squabbles, business deals and relocation of Origin.

The most dangerous of these conflicts was the great sibling squabble over just where Origin Systems should be located. Back at the end of 1983, you may remember, Robert had been able to convince Richard to move the company from their parents' garage in Houston, Texas, up to New Hampshire, where his wife Marcy had found a fine position of her own working for Bell Labs. The deal was that they would remain there for at least three years. Robert, who had spent the months before the move commuting cross-country in his private plane, hoped that during the three years something might change: Marcy might get a transfer, or Richard might decide he actually liked New England and wanted to stay there. Well, at the end of 1986 the three years were up, and neither of those things had happened.
[...]

Thus Richard and company, reunited again with Bueche, found themselves a minimalist office in Austin in early 1987, fifteen desks ranged along a single long hallway. And Richard himself, now becoming a very wealthy young man indeed thanks to the huge success of Ultima III and IV, started work on Britannia Manor, a custom-built house-cum-castle worthy of Lord British; it came complete with secret passageways, a cave, a wine cellar, and a stellar observatory. It was pretty clear he wasn't planning to go anywhere else anytime soon.
Jimmy also examined the specifics of the business deal between Origin and EA and how it went sour.

The origin of Origin's EA problem dated back to August of 1985, about a month before the release of Ultima IV. By this point distribution was starting to become a real issue for a little publisher like Origin, as the few really big publishers, small enough in number to count on one hand, were taking advantage of their size and clout to squeeze the little guys off of store shelves. Knowing he had a hugely anticipated game on his hands with Ultima IV, one that with the proper care and handling should easily exceed the considerable-in-its-own-right success of Ultima III, Robert also knew he needed excellent distribution to realize its potential. He therefore turned to EA, one of the biggest of the big boys of the industry.

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Great article with a lot of behind the scenes info on the issues between Origin Systems and EA.

All I had known was that they had some problems, and that he had named a mausoleum Pirt Snikwah (Trip Hawkins backwards) and also had Hawkins references in Ultima V and VI, the latter being a pirate whose cruelty led to him being murdered by his own crew and his treasure map split into multiple parts.
 
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one of the biggest of the big boys of the industry.

Sounds like Mafia to me ... I only know the term "big boy" witzh the meaning of a drug dealer or an otherwise "heavy" criminal. I guess the notorious big was a boy, too.
 
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Interesting article. Some stuff I didn't know there. The practice of sneaking in refunds on overstock items seems like it would have been easy to avoid in future contracts so surprising that so.many companies were killed by it. Or maybe that was just one example of sneaky contracts they would sneak in.

Miss the good olde days where I could stay up all night playing Ultima IV until my Dad would leave for work and be shocked by that I was still up. Maybe just the times but I still haven't had.more fun gaming since.
 
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