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1[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ultima_1_box.jpg]]
2->''"Thou hast saved the princess. She giveth thee 500 hit points, pence and experience points. She informs thee that thou art now ready for time travel, and that there is a time machine far to the northwest!"''
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4The first game in the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' series, later subtitled ''The First Age of Darkness''. Released in 1981, it is largely a VideoGameRemake of ''Akalabeth'', a simplistic DungeonCrawler game generally considered to be "Ultima 0". The evil wizard Mondain, using the aptly-named Gem of Immortality, has terrorized the land of Sosaria for over 1000 years. His monsters roam the lands freely, and none, not even the mighty Lord British, can hope to oppose him. It seems as if [[TheBadGuyWins the bad guy has already won]].
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6In desperation, a lone hero, known as "The Stranger", is summoned from another world. He must gain favor with the kings and princesses of the land, defeat Mondain's hordes, and travel from darkest dungeons [[SchizoTech to deepest space]], and even through time itself, to defeat a seemingly unstoppable threat. Will he succeed?
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8Though the game is [[OnceOriginalNowCommon simplistic by modern standards]], it's an important stepping stone not only in the development of the ([[SequelDisplacement better-known]]) later games in the series, but for western [=RPGs=] in general.
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10----
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12!!This game has examples of:
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14* AnachronismStew: Even for a fantasy world.
15* TheBard: Iolo, found in towns, sings "Ho eyo he hum". That's about it. Don't let Iolo get next to you, or "something" may get stolen and you'll need a pretty good memory to see what.
16* BanditMook: The thief in the dungeon will randomly steal something from inventory, and gremlins will steal from food. Stolen items are gone forever.
17* {{Cap}}: Attributes to 99, and HP, Food, Gold to 9999. Some of the attributes don't need to be increased past 50 for most cases. The Dos version also has a minor glitch if the player reaches the gold cap because it doesn't print number of copper obtained.
18* CompleteImmortality: Mondain's Gem of Immortality means he cannot be killed. You can go back in time to keep the Gem from being completed in the first place, though.
19* CharacterClassSystem: The character class chosen affects initial attributes. Also, fighters get a higher attribute bonus, Clerics can cast spells without fail, Wizards get access to more spells, and Thiefs can steal and disarm traps more reliably.
20* [[DamselInDistress Damsels in Distress]]: The princesses found in each castle, which are implied to be kept as leverage over rulers of other lands. Rescuing one will make the time machine available.
21* DeathIsNotPermanent: It's often better to reload a saved game, but the player is still revived with 99 hit points and food.
22* DungeonBypass: There are fairly easily acquired spells that let you descend or ascend 1 dungeon level without needing to find the stairs, allowing you to skip straight to the level of whatever monster you're hunting, kill it, and ascend back to the surface immediately without having to do any of that maze navigation a dungeon typically requires.
23* DungeonCrawling: Interestingly, there's no such thing as completing a dungeon; all you're required to do is to kill specific monsters that can be only be found on certain levels of a dungeon. And any dungeon will do: they're all the same save for the placement of some walls and tunnels. It's the clearest legacy of ''Akalabeth'', with many enemy graphics and some of the mechanics left intact.
24* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: There is SchizoTech, TimeTravel and space flight. Completing the game requires a hostile action within a castle (rescuing a princess requires murder). Race was also present but wasn't relevant outside of stats. Iolo stole from the main player. Overall, most of these concepts and other oddities in this game were kept for one sequel at the most (aside from a musket and earth books leaking into the setting in ''VII''.)
25* EasilyForgiven: The player. Steal something or kill someone in a town or castle? Death penalty. Leave and come back right immediately? Suddenly nobody cares.
26* {{Expy}}: A ''lot'' of the names and monsters were lifted wholesale from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.
27* FauxFirstPerson3D: The dungeons, and perhaps the space shooting segments count as well.
28* FasterThanLightTravel: Hyperjump lets you travel between sectors in space.
29* GameBreakingBug: The original Apple version used "illegal" opcodes to help render the space flight scene. This makes the game incompatible with later versions of the Apple II because it used a compatible microprocessor that behaved differently with those opcodes.
30* GratuitousLatin: Numerous signs have arbitrary Latin phrases on them that sound cool but are [[{{Pun}} Ultima]]tely useless, such as "ultima thule" and "omnia mutantur".
31* HitPoints: These are purchased from a king by giving money, or obtained by finishing a visit to the dungeon where you killed a large number of monsters.
32* ImmortalityInducer: The problem with Mondain. In fact, when you finally do fight Mondain; you have to destroy his partially created Gem of Immortality ''first''. Otherwise he'll keep coming BackFromTheDead. Pity you don't think of destroying [[VideoGame/UltimaV the Shards]].
33* LawOfCartographicalElegance: There's four islands, all which fit in one of four sections in the map. These four sections appear in an east-west loop, while going north or south goes two sections.
34* LevelGrinding: Averted. Levels only really determine how many enemies are on the overworld and what shops will have in stock. The bulk of the time it takes to win the game practically is spent on raising your stats. But it's not quite StatGrinding, either, as using a skill doesn't do anything to improve it directly; the conventional method of stat raising will require you to travel continental distances over and over to collect quest rewards and visit signposts [[PowerUp that cast spells on you]]. (The unconventional method is to [[MakeAWish throw lots of money into certain ponds]].)
35* MarketBasedTitle: Richard Garriot originally intended the title of the game to be ''Ultimatum'', but the publisher wanted something that could be trademarked.
36* MooksAteMyEquipment: The Gelatinous cube will eat the player's armor.
37* PercentDamageAttack: Mondain's psyonic shock spell inflicts 1/32 of the player's current hit points, but if it would inflict more than 255 damage, it gets reduced by 254.
38* RandomEffectSpell: The prayer randomly duplicates another spell. It's the only spell that is always available and doesn't need to be purchased.
39* RandomEventsPlot: You got to kill an evil wizard, find his immortality gem that does exactly what it's supposed to do and makes him immortal, and so you have to travel back in time to kill him ''before'' he's immortal. Doing so, among other things, involves flying a space shuttle into space and become a Space Ace by shooting TIE Fighters. [[SincerityMode No joke.]]
40* RepeatableQuest: Just talk to a king again after receiving your reward.
41* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The ultimate goal of the player is to travel back through time and smash the Gem of Immortality before it can be completed, thus preventing Mondain's millennium-long reign.
42* SchizoTech: Although most of the world is medieval fantasy, it includes futuristic weapons up to the Laser blaster, futuristic armor as the reflect suit, and space stations.
43* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: As is noted in ''The Official Book of Ultima'', the pistol can kill every enemy except Mondain in one hit, therefore there is no point in wasting time or money to get a more powerful weapon.
44* TimeTravel: The goal of the game is [[CharacterLevel level up]] and do enough quests to show the local rulers that you are tough enough to go back in time and kill Mondain ''before'' he becomes immortal.
45* UnendingEndCard: After beating the game, you get a few paragraphs of congratulatory text from Lord British thanking you for ending the reign of Mondain, and then the game stops there, helpfully telling you to "Press CONTROL-ALT-DEL to Restart".
46* UnexpectedGameplayChange: In order to prove your worthiness, you have to buy a ''space shuttle''; fly into space, rent a fighter, and shoot down enough... [[Franchise/StarWars TIE Fighters]]... to gain the title "Space Ace." No, really. AllThereInTheManual.
47* VideoGameGeography: ''Ultima I'' is... weird with how its overworld map works. There are four large continents separated by oceans each occupying their own square-shaped map. If you travel in a straight line in any cardinal direction, you will pass through each continent and then end up where you started. You will ''also'' pass through each continent if you make a 90 degree turn at each. It's probably just best to say [[AWizardDidIt it's magic]].
48* VideoGameStealing: To steal, walk behind a counter and use the "S"teal command. You either succeed or fail based on a random chance. If you get caught, the guards will start to attack, but will forget about you if you leave and re-enter town.

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