ABSTRACT

If nothing else, the unparalleled success of Wizardry and especially of the Ultima series demonstrated that the CRPG was a lucrative genre with a long future ahead of it. Although Greenberg and Woodhead had been content to introduce only minor innovations to their Wizardry games, Richard Garriott was forging ahead, constantly reinventing Ultima and its underlying mechanics. No one doubted that his next game would be an even bolder experiment. Meanwhile, new developers were hard at work translating their own visions into code, and large publishers such as Electronic Arts wanted to get their work before the public. Avid CRPG fans bought up every CRPG they could fi nd and clamored for more. Demand and budgets soared. Developers slaved away at their keyboards, fueled by Mountain Dew and extraordinary constitutions.