Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (ERA: The Arken Throne)
Produced by: Peroxide
Website: Peroxide
The first tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne).
The second tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne).
The final tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne). This is the Windows version; a Linux version is also available.
The final tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne). This is the Linux version; a Windows version is also available.
This project began as an ambitious remake of Ultima 1. However, due to the fact that Peroxide couldn’t get formal permission from Electronic Arts to make an actual Ultima game (not that this should have ever been a condition that Peroxide imposed on its development), the project ceased to be a formal Ultima remake in January 2003.
However, Peroxide kept their stunning custom-made 3D engine alive a bit longer for a new, somewhat Ultima-inspired project: ERA: The Arken Throne. This was supposed to be a published game, inspired by (but not actually) Ultima 1.
Sadly, Peroxide has shut development on ERA down. The team’s website contained, for a time, a message that seemed to promise that they would reappear, with the ERA engine still in development and ERA under yet another new name. Nothing seems to have come of that promise over the last few years, sadly.
Fortunately, Voyager Dragon managed to grab copies of the Ultima 1 remake’s tech demos. Thanks also goes to Dino the Dark Dragon, who found a copy of the 2.0 version of the game’s tech demo.
This looked really promising when I first played the tech demo, it was clear that these guys had the talent to make a good indie game. But I also know how these things go. New jobs, moving away, starting families… groups of friends who work on such projects tend to gradually dissolve, fact of life.
It would have been nice to see what they’d made out of it. Back when they announced it, the independent PC game scene was much smaller and more underground than it is today. Seeing how nice their self-made engine looked certainly changed my opinion about what a bunch of amateur developers would be able to do.
By the way, I do have the music they released for ERA. Not sure what the song names are though.
Both Kasper Fauerby and Søren Seeberg, two of the main members of Peroxide, are now working at IO Interactive of Hitman series fame. So their plans to break into the games development business definitely worked out.