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The first computer game I really fell in love with was Ultima Underworld - Labyrinth of Worlds and I think it spoiled my taste for the rest of my life. I just wouldn't touch another game unless you could pick everything up, had freedom of movement, a real plot, lovable characters� and in fact didn't want to play a game that hadn't Ultima written all over it. Okay, of course I played and enjoyed (lots of) other games, but I always kept looking for more Ultima games or games like the Ultima's I enjoyed so much.

We have been blessed with worthy successors like Arx Fatalis and Divine Divinity, but the keen interest in the Ultima label did not fade.

About a month ago, RPGdot was looking for new editors and I had just decided for myself that I really hadn't the time for such a job, when I noticed that this might be for new RPGdot network sites for (for example) the Ultima series. Guess what? Here I am, Parcival, Editor for UltimaDot.

I am sure I am not the only one with some sort of an Ultima addiction. We had several positive comments on the idea of a Ultima site in the RPGdot Network. One of our guests wrote 'there is a large enough niche of us' and we thought that to be true. So here it is: ultima.rpgdot.com. We will cover news on the Ultima series and Ultima remake projects.

Though positive, not all reactions were optimistic. 'The sites themselves that are doing the remakes rarely update, so getting news is difficult' and that's also true, for some sites at least. At the moment at least eight Ultima projects seem to be alive and kicking; which means that they updated their site last month. Other project sites seem to be abandoned or have disappeared at all, leaving no trace to contact the original team members. And this is only where the Labyrinth of broken links start. To get ready for my job as an Editor I roamed the web one more time, searching for Ultima related content. With Ultima related projects, you will sometimes find a broken link, but when looking for Utima 'fan' sites in general, it is almost normal to stumble upon Microsoft's 'cant find it' page.

This situation probably depict the status on the Ultima games in general. Origin has been a part of Electronic Arts for about 10 years now: they seem to have abandoned Ultima as a single player label and have put no effort in keeping this part of the community alive. Despite its lack of consistency and continuity, the 'Ultima community' is alive. This counts of course for the over 23000 players of Ultima online, but also for the small but hardworking teams from 'upgrade' projects like Exult or the Ultima Ascension Speech pack. Those are the things that let you keep on playing Ultima. And certainly credit goes to fan sites that are up and running, like Dino's Ultima page and the French La Legende d' Ultima. Over the last two years we witnessed the rise (and to some extent the fall) of the Ultima community based remake projects, almost to the point where EA was not expected to ever do a serious and notable contribution to the Ultima phenomenon again. With UO The Age of Shadows, the hiring of Andy Hollis and the rumours of an Ultima X, EA is back in the picture again.

Though rumours might be false and Ultima projects can be cancelled, there are also still new projects announced and existing ones are steadily progressing towards completion.

We are confident there will be at several newsposts at UltimaDot a week. If not, this leaves us more time to do interviews, write FAQ's, Editorials, walkthroughs and what ever we may think of, as long as it is Ultima related.