Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the 12th century to their abolition in the 1870s. They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo. They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords. They cultivated the bushido codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. During the peaceful Edo era they became the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, gaining managerial experience and education. In the 1870s samurai families comprised 5% of the population. The Meiji Revolution ended their feudal roles, and they moved into professional and entrepreneurial roles. Their memory and weaponry remain prominent in Japanese popular culture.
Ultima is a series of open world fantasy role-playing video games from Origin Systems, Inc. Ultima was created by Richard Garriott. The series is one of the most significant in computer game history and is considered, alongside Wizardry and Might and Magic, to be one of the establishers of the CRPG genre. Several games of the series are considered seminal entries in their genre, and each installment introduced new innovations which then were widely copied by other games. Electronic Arts owns the brand.
Ultima Online (UO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released on September 24, 1997 by Origin Systems.
Dynasty Warriors is a series of hack and slash action video games created by Omega Force and Koei. The series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, based loosely around the Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms, from which it derives its name in Japanese.
Origin Systems was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games, such as the Ultima and Wing Commander series. The company was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1992.
Ultima X: Odyssey was to be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based in the Ultima universe, developed by Origin Systems for Electronic Arts.
Jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular setting. Jidaigeki show the lives of the samurai, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time. Jidaigeki films are sometimes referred to as chambara movies, a word meaning "sword fight", though chambara is more accurately a subgenre of jidaigeki. Jidaigeki rely on an established set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines.
Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (UWO:O) — originally titled Ultima Online 2 (UO2) — was to be the first sequel to the popular 1997 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Ultima Online. Origin Systems revealed that they were developing UO2 in September 1999 for release within a year or two, but development was cancelled on March 21, 2001.
Raphael "Raph" Koster is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies. From 2006 until 2013 he worked as the founder and president of Metaplace producing a Facebook game platform.
Ultima Online: Third Dawn, released in 2001, introduced 3D models to the Ultima Online MMORPG franchise. While the game still maintained its scaled, overhead view, the character animation was much smoother. With the introduction of the Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn client, the Third Dawn client is obsolete, and no longer usable on official shards.
Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge (2002) was the first of the two "darker" Ultima Online MMORPG expansions. The game featured creatures designed by Todd McFarlane.
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire is a role-playing video game set in the Ultima series, published in 1990. It is considered a Worlds of Ultima game, as it is not set in Britannia. It uses the same engine as Ultima VI. In June 18, 2012, Electronic Arts released the game as freeware through GOG.com.
Samurai Warriors 2 is a sequel to the original Samurai Warriors, created by Koei and Omega Force. The game was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, and ported to Microsoft Windows in 2008. Like the Dynasty Warriors series, an Empires expansion was released as well, and an Xtreme Legends expansion followed on August 23, 2007 in Japan. The game, alongside its two expansions, Xtreme Legends and Empires also receive a HD-enhanced port for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita under the name Sengoku Musou 2 with Moushouden & Empires: HD Version.
Samurai Warriors 3 is the third installment in the Samurai Warriors series, created by Tecmo Koei and Omega Force. The game was released in Japan on December 3, 2009, in Europe on May 28, 2010, in Australia on June 10, 2010, and in North America on September 28, 2010, for the Wii.
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar was a free-to-play, cross-platform, online, action role-playing game developed by Mythic Entertainment and Escalation Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It was formally a part of the Ultima series. Information was previously released by BioWare in mid-2011 and more information was released on July 11, 2011. It was officially announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 12, 2012 and it was fully released for iOS on August 7, 2013. The game was shut down on August 29, 2014.
Denis Loubet is an artist who has worked on several pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games, including the MMORPG Ashen Empires.
