This installment of Reggie's computer role-playing game retrospective features Origin Systems, whom you might know best as the developer of the Ultima series. Read on as he chronicles the studio's rise to fame, acquisition by Electronic Arts, and eventual downfall. Catch up by reading last week's look at Strategic Simulations, Inc., and don't forget to check back in a week for the next featured CRPG studio of the eighties and early nineties.

Hard game, but the martial arts action wasn't bad.

Ultima Underworld set the CRPG world on fire when it first came out.
Further reading:
Hacki Dragon's History of Ultima IX
Rausch, Allen, "From Origin to Destination." GameSpy. May, 2004
Scorpia, “Computer Role-Playing Games: Now and Beyond” Computer Gaming World. June-July, 1987, p. 28.
Steinberg, Scott. "A chat with the Lord." GameSpy. February, 2003
Thorsen, Tor, "D.I.C.E. '08: Riccitiello lords over "city-state" studio model" Gamespot
Varney, Allen "The Conquest of Origin." The Escapist. October, 2005
















