The monsters in Akalabeth: World of Doom—the precursor to the Ultima collection, typically known as “Ultima 0” by followers and collection creator Richard Garriott himself—look ridiculous. The thief is only a floating cloak, the mimic is a featureless dice, and the ultimate monster (straight-up known as a Balrog) appears to be like a bit like Firebrand if he was crushed beneath a cartoon steamroller. To be honest, it was 1979 and Garriott was a teen; the Apple 2 might solely draw a pittance of traces on display screen at a time, so he designed wireframe silhouettes for every enemy utilizing coordinates on graph paper.
Akalabeth’s world was a meager, primitive trick of the sunshine. However within the days of text-based multi-user dungeons and Zork it was a crumb of revelatory proof that the emergent worlds gamers imagined in freeform periods of Dungeons & Dragons—which was solely 5 years outdated at this level—might be forged in a digital mould, simulated with math, and explored by means of the phosphor glow of a CRT monitor.
YouTube documentarian Majuular, or Luke, was not at floor zero for this CRPG revolution. He grew up with the RPGs that dwell in Ultima’s lengthy shadow and had been making movies sifting by means of their complexities since age 14, knowledgeable by the zany YouTube stylings of the Indignant Video Sport Nerd and Basic Sport Room. However whereas he was researching the origins of his most beloved recreation style and studying the 450-page tome Dungeons and Desktops: The Historical past of Laptop Position-Taking part in Video games, he was singularly struck by Akalabeth’s futurism.
11 movies deep, the Majuular Ultima Retrospective embodies the fastidious, affectionate critique that’s gaming YouTube at its greatest
“One thing broke by means of in my head and I spotted how unimaginable it was that any person thought this up, made it, and put it out, and never solely Akalabeth,” he recalled, measuring out every phrase with the passion and readability of a routine storyteller. “It was like the basis of a tree that grew out and have become this extremely nuanced world of RPGs that I already had grown up with. I had all the time taken that seedling with no consideration.”
Galvanized by Barton’s e book, Luke was impressed not solely to play by means of the collection which he had solely dabbled in beforehand for himself, however to make use of his latest, comparatively younger YouTube channel to relay the wild story of its creation in his personal means. Charting the sparse corridors of the World of Doom to the countless eccentricities of creator Garriott (represented in every recreation because the preposterously named Lord British, ruler of Britannia) has been a two yr endeavor, however greater than 500,000 persons are displaying up for every new video.
Britannia makes the waves
Eleven movies deep as of late 2025, the Majuular Ultima Retrospective embodies the fastidious, affectionate critique that’s gaming YouTube at its greatest. Many are multi-hour options that hint Ultima’s burgeoning affect on each western and Japanese roleplaying video games, talk about the human tales and context round its creation, and truly contain the soiled work of taking part in the video games whereas analyzing Ultima’s lore by itself phrases.
When you would possibly affiliate gaming-centric video essays with long-winded synopses or provocative sizzling takes, Luke’s Ultima collection is the fruit of exhaustive analysis compiled from a long time of interview materials, elusive images, and particulars cataloged by communities just like the Ultima Dragons digital fan membership (with out whom Luke says he’d be “completely misplaced”).
That analysis may appear tiring given the tempo at which Luke has pumped out these movies whereas additionally making detours to the likes of William Shatner’s TekWar—he is coated 1979’s Akalabeth by means of 1993’s Ultima 7 Half Two in simply two years—however immersing himself in every recreation’s historical past is exactly what retains him going.
A single query stays his artistic north star: “What wouldn’t it have been wish to dream this up on the time?”
“There’s one thing actually intriguing about figuring out there’s only a group of younger guys with little or no expertise in the actual world who’re truly in a position to create one thing that could be a actual contender, one thing that may threaten these big videogame corporations which have infinitely extra workers and sources. It seems that simply a good suggestion and infinite drive and many Food plan Pepsi is fairly good gas for redefining total genres and even creating them, within the case of CRPGs or id with the FPS,” he mentioned.
“You nearly want you have been there. You want you could possibly hang around with these guys and spend the afternoon consuming leftover pizza in [early id Software’s] lake home … there’s one thing romantic about that sort of scrappy, newbie, just-doing-it-for-the-love-of-it and hoping one thing comes out of it, then not solely does one thing come out of it, however one thing that’s nonetheless very clearly prevalent to at the present time. You can not ignore the affect of those folks and the issues that they’ve created.”
Exodus
Luke has over 200,000 subscribers on YouTube and a wholesome following on Patreon as of late, however he is been making movies for so long as he is had the means. His earliest works have been “indignant critiques,” ripoffs of AVGN. He didn’t pull in lots of viewers then, however his was a wildfire enthusiasm for video games: crude, self-sustaining, and uncontainable.
“It seems that taking any person’s shtick and doing the identical factor however worse often does not bear fruit on YouTube,” he says, however these makes an attempt taught him find out how to write a script and lower collectively gameplay clips.
Earlier than Majuular, Luke labored for the higher a part of a decade as a pizza supply driver, a retail employee, and ultimately in guide labor to make hire as he moved together with his girlfriend “from basement to basement” as a school dropout. He observed YouTube video essays develop into an enormous a part of the web dialog as channels like Joseph Anderson, MandaloreGaming, and Matthewmatosis rose to prominence, nevertheless it all appeared like watching the again of a prepare he’d missed slowly develop into a pinhole on the horizon.
“What an important thought, to speak about videogames on this means,” he remembered considering. “Effectively, it is too late. Someone else has already cracked the code; again to the lumber yard with me.”
It was in a uncommon clump of obligation-free months between a second school exit and a deliberate return to hauling building materials that he determined “to go all-in” on a couple of highfalutin desires. A kind of desires was nonetheless YouTube, and so he pumped out prolonged retrospectives on the likes of Chrono Cross, The Legend of Dragoon, and ultimately, Ultima, on a brand new channel he named after a Devin Townsend music. Little by little Patreon members trickled in.
Now with 2,700 folks paying to see extra, Luke and his girlfriend have saved up sufficient cash to afford “a house, and daylight for our cats.” It is the primary time they’ve had a kitchen and home windows in years.
“It’s very modified my life,” he mentioned. “It is given us a level of safety and it is simply cool to have a bunch of people who find themselves all in favour of what you need to say and it is one thing I do not assume I am going to ever get used to. Seeing folks say ‘I am so excited for this video’ … it is nearly overwhelming.”
His work ethic has hardly modified since his days on the lumber yard. “Very a lot a creature of behavior,” Luke says—he places in his hours like clockwork every day, whether or not they’re spent researching, taking part in and note-taking, or trawling obscure archives for an era-appropriate image of Warren Spector. It is pure to spend a dozen hours or extra a day engaged on the subsequent video, cut up between script writing (which he “hardly ever” appears to be like ahead to, dreading the piercing gaze of a clean Phrase doc) and the “extra workmanlike,” if tedious, modifying course of.
Ultima Ceaselessly
Garriott’s CRPG collection might not declare the title of “first pc roleplaying recreation,” however its greatest entries are a number of the most influential within the medium’s historical past. Baldur’s Gate 3 creator Swen Vincke and Majuular agree that the one to strive right now is Ultima 7—its emphasis on participant company and interactivity was a marvel when it initially launched.
The routine is fueled by the sense that he owes no matter he can spare to his viewers, and a way behind his thoughts that YouTube, what with its fickle algorithm, is precarious. He made it this far by displaying up, so he is mimicking a twentieth century videogame designer to barrel ahead with as a lot drive and Food plan Pepsi because it takes.
You may see the results within the ensuing work—his Ultima collection alone has solely grown extra detailed and elaborate with every new video.
Take The Tyranny of Advantage, Luke’s retrospective on Ultima 5. By this level, the video games have grown right into a sprawling story about good and evil, acknowledging the participant character immediately because the Avatar; Ultima 4 had a remarkably sturdy morality system that rewarded virtuous in-character conduct, and Ultima 5 flips that on its head, utilizing the earlier recreation’s virtues as the idea for a tyrannical villain’s absolutist dogma.
It could have been simple to jot down these narratives off as cool for the time however pedestrian now, however Luke was as much as the duty of combing by means of the thematic implications totally: he honors the sport as a piece of fantasy fiction in its personal proper, evaluating its findings in regards to the which means of advantage to inspirations like Lord of the Rings and praising its willingness to interrogate its personal messaging and encourage gamers to do the identical.
Luke concedes that the narrative itself is a bit pedestrian in a post-Baldur’s Gate 3 world, however the best way the story leveraged the medium was wildly forward-thinking for its time. These moments the place the participant’s actions are introduced into the story and roleplay is rewarded are, to Luke, a few of “essentially the most intelligent implementations in an RPG that I’ve ever seen to at the present time.”
“The thought on the time of, like, ‘you beat the sport by performing virtuously,’ would have been so summary and such a tough promote for lots of people,” he mentioned. “The narrative actually reaches past the pc display screen and turns into meta in a means that I might describe, as a lot because the phrase will get thrown round very flippantly as of late, as genius.”
His life in some way now revolves round speaking about video games on this means.
“Even on these 14-hour modifying days, I am glad that, not less than for now, I haven’t got to get out into the automotive at -40 levels Celsius to go elevate drywall all day. That is a reasonably constructive change I might say,” he laughed. “I do know it will not final without end, so I am all the time making an attempt to make hay whereas the solar shines, and an enormous a part of that’s making an attempt to enhance my craft.”
By the ages
Akalabeth’s wireframe Balrogs could appear primitive, nevertheless it’s a vital piece of historical past for the nascent CRPG.
Ultima 5’s metafiction streak was remarkably forward-thinking for a recreation narrative on the time, and as Majuular put it, stays “genius.”
Underworld’s dazzling first-person perspective makes up essential DNA in collection like The Elder Scrolls and System Shock.
Some of the celebrated RPGs of all time, Majuular says Ultima 7 is on the “excellent crossroads” of accessibility, high quality, significance, and coziness.
Onto new worlds of journey
The Ultima retrospective is nearing its finish. Luke plans to get by means of the primary collection ending with Ultima 9 and, past that, not less than cowl Ultima On-line, which even taken alone was vastly influential on the earth of MMORPGs. After that, there are a couple of “lesser video games” to chew by means of: assorted money grabs, telephone video games, and a glitchy mess PC Gamer’s Rick Lane gave a 25. However whereas Luke’s channel has all the time coated quite a lot of roleplaying video games and accounted for a contingent of his viewers with little interest in the video games, ending a retrospective odyssey longer than a Ken Burns documentary will show bittersweet.
“Ultima isn’t for everyone, nevertheless it’s for me, as a result of after I pull the brakes on it and after I give myself an opportunity to sort of recalibrate, by the point I am diving into the subsequent recreation, I can not wait to get again to the analysis element and see how issues are altering in Britannia,” he mentioned.
“I’ve thought of Ultima just about every single day for the final—I do not even bear in mind after I began this collection—two-and-a-half years in the past at this level? It has been an enormous a part of my life, so I am in all probability all the time going to carry it up. It is all the time going to be a part of the id of the channel, it is all the time going to be one thing that pursuits me, even simply speaking about it. What it did: the way it modified the world of RPGs.”
