Thursday, August 21, 2008

Five Years Ago Today : The EA-X Event

On August 21, 2003, game maker Electronic Arts invited over a hundred people from the gaming community to San Francisco, all expenses paid, to unveil Ultima X : Odyssey to the world. I've written about that day extensively, so rather than rehash every little detail about it, I have decided to commemorate that day five years ago with embedded movies.

First, there was the email inviting us to go to the event. It contained a link to this flash movie, after which a registration page would appear. That page is long gone, but the movie lives on.

At the event, when we walked into the great hall at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, were were greeted with this movie:


Later, EA released a movie highlighting the event itself:


And, a video was released of a fly-through of the game's environments, accompanied by that epic music score:


Finally, here's the movie I made a few years back as a tribute to that game and event:


And if you're looking to find out even more about what an incredible game Ultima X: Odyssey could have been, look no further than the extensive UXO Stratics Archive, which they've been kind enough to keep alive on the net all these years.

On this day, all Ultima fans should look back with fond rememberance for Ultima X : Odyssey and all that it could have been.

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