MMO Memory Box: Ultima Online ~ Blaugust Day 10
This is part of the Blaugust series!
Preface
A few weeks back, I was rummaging around in a box I had stashed away on a shelf in the closet. This box was full of spare PC parts, cords, wires and old PC games. I’m not sure what I was looking for, but I didn’t find it, and I left the box sitting in some disarray.
Not long after, I heard a loud sound from my bedroom. I guess I’d left the box somewhat off balance, because it had fallen off the shelf and dumped everything on my bedroom floor. At first I grumbled about it, but as I started picking stuff up, I realized what all was inside.
All of my old MMO game boxes. Some of them well over 10 years old, mostly in original condition with all the stuff that once came inside.
This, I thought, would make a fun Blaugust series!
So, the MMO Memory Box series was born. I’m going to be taking photos of all the old MMO boxes I still own and their contents so you can see what stuff looked like way back when. 🙂
Ultima Online
Ultima Online was not my first exploration into online interactive worlds. I’d played MUDs before, and my first graphical MUD was Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. I can’t remember if my sister and I also played Dark Ages before picking up Ultima Online. But UO was our first serious MMO with skill-based progression and the danger of free-for-all PKing.
I’m not really clear the exact date of when I started playing UO, but it was before the release of the PVE facet, Trammel. Seeing that the second expansion, Renaissance, introduced Trammel in 2000, I can date my experiences back that far at least.
I must have bought the expansion because it’s the only jewel case copy of the game I could find. I don’t have screenshots or any other tangible items from this time. But I do have this one disc that dates back to 2000.
Click for larger images!
I know the key on the back of the box is long since used, but I still don’t take any account risks.
I doubt my old account still exists and my characters are probably long gone. I wonder if I could find out.
I remember Moonglow island was a favorite hangout for my sister and I. It was a great little place, usually pretty safe to roam around, craft, tame animals and work up battle skills in the old graveyard. Good memories. 🙂
Even today, the original Moonglow theme music = UO to me.