Saturday, January 8, 2011

Ultima V: The T-Shirt

This in-box promotional flyer from Richard Garriott's Origin Systems offered one of those bits of gaming ephemera that tend to fade away much faster than the games themselves -- the Ultima V T-Shirt.  On the back, it says The wait is over... but the excitement has just begun.  And it's sported here by a couple of vintage 1980s models:



Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny came out in 1988; a discount on the t-shirt was made available to buyers of Ultima I, recently remade in 1986, or the 1987 sci-fi RPG 2400 A.D., which didn't sell well.

Anybody out there still have one of these?  Any Avatar could buy one of these in 1988 for $8.95, $4.95 with the discount.

Why aren't Microsoft and Richard Garriott teaming up to sell us virtual Ultima gear for our XBox Avatars?  They could probably get $3.00 apiece, without having to do anything outdated like print actual t-shirts.
Posted by StillGaming at 1:00 PM
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2011 at 5:23 AM

    I still have mine!
    - Richard Garriott

    ReplyDelete
  2. zoom909January 9, 2011 at 5:41 PM

    I still have my Ultima V map. I wonder if I can get someone to make a custom T-shirt from that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJanuary 10, 2011 at 2:15 AM

    I saw a kid at my elementary school wearing one of those in early 1989, asked him where he'd gotten it, but he snapped, "none of your f***ing business!" The catalog with my copy of Ultima V didn't have it (and there was no VI for Apple), so I didn't find out where it came from until I saw the Collectible Ultima site several years later. I do still have all of my other Ultima games/items plus things I acquired online, though...

    zoom909: I don't think any company will do it for fear of a lawsuit from Electronic Arts, since Ultima knockoff games are still being created/produced.

    StillGaming: I just found your blog while looking up info on Curse of Crowley Manor, and had to comment on the shirt. If you don't know him, you might check out CRPGAddict.Blogspot.com -- it's a similar project by another fellow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2012 at 4:15 PM

    I got one with my pre-order (yes, in 89) from the local software store. Forgot the name. It has long since been outgrown and fallen apart.

    ReplyDelete

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