Origin Systems

Origin Systems was a video-game developer based in Austin, Texas, active between 1983 and 2004. It is best known for the Ultima and Wing Commander series.

History
Brothers Richard and Robert Garriott, their astronaut-engineer father Owen, and programmer Chuck Bueche founded Origin Systems in 1983 because of the trouble they had collecting money owed to Richard for his games released by other companies. Origin was initially based in the Garriotts' garage in Houston, Texas. The company's first game was Ultima III: Exodus; because of Ultima's established reputation, Origin survived the video-game crash of 1983. It published many non-Ultima games, and Richard Garriott claimed that he received the same royalty rate as other developers.

By 1988 Origin had 15 developers in Austin, Texas, and another 35 employees in New Hampshire. In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company for $35 million in stock, despite a dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord. Origin, with about $13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an IPO before agreeing to the deal.

By 1996, Origin had expanded to more than 300 employees, most of whom were divided among small, largely autonomous development teams. In 1997, Origin released one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999. However, within a year's time, in part due to Ultima IX's poor reception, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2, Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000.

In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on the Ultima franchise such as Ultima X: Odyssey, originally to be released in 2004 but later canceled. In February 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts. The Longbow series of simulation games was developed at Origin and published under the "Jane's Combat Simulations" brand of Electronic Arts. A follow-on project, Jane's A-10, was under development when the project was canceled in late 1998 and the team moved to other projects.

Notable employees


Origin employed many young game developers over its tenure who have since gone on to leading roles in numerous game development companies, especially in Austin.

Among its prominent employees were (alphabetically by surname):


 * Raymond Benson – Writer, Audio (1992–1993)
 * Was head writer on Ultima VII: The Black Gate, contributed some writing to Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle, and went on to work as a game designer for MicroProse and Viacom New Media, then later became an official continuation author of the James Bond novels.
 * Tom Chilton – Lead Designer (2001–2003)
 * Was lead designer on Ultima Online: Age of Shadows and went on to be a lead designer for Blizzard Entertainment.
 * Britt Daniel – Sound Designer, Composer (1994)
 * Was a composer for numerous titles and went on to found the rock band Spoon.
 * Ken Demarest – Game Designer, Programmer (1990–1995)
 * Created the technical prototype for Ultima Online, directed BioForge, led programming on Ultima VII: The Black Gate and coded on Wing Commander.
 * Martin Galway – Sound Designer/Composer, Audio Technician (1991–1994)
 * Went on to work at Digital Anvil.
 * Richard Garriott – Co-Founder, Game Designer, Programmer (1989–2000)
 * Aka "Lord British", creator of Ultima; later co-founded Destination Games, acquired by NCsoft. Co-founded and now works at Portalarium.
 * Robert Garriott – Co-Founder, Business (1989–2000)
 * Brother of Richard Garriott, co-founded Origin Systems and Destination Games.
 * Raph Koster – Lead Designer (1995–2003)
 * Later joined Sony Online Entertainment in Austin developing Everquest II and Star Wars Galaxies.
 * Scott Kreuser – Supported the entire software roadmap
 * Went on to work for Dell Computer as a Worldwide New Product Project Manager.
 * Starr Long – QA Lead, Designer (1992–2000)
 * Director of Ultima Online, and co-founder of Destination Games.
 * Denis Loubet – Artist (1989–2002)
 * Was the first artist Origin hired. He did many box cover paintings, manual illustrations, in-game art and animation, and cinematics.
 * Mike McShaffry – Lead Developer (1990–1997)
 * Later co-founded the other Austin studios and has written and taught on game development theory.
 * Sheri Graner Ray – Writer, Designer (1993–1994)
 * Went on to work with several major companies including Sony Online Entertainment and Cartoon Network. Also founder of Women in Games International.
 * Chris Roberts – Game Designer, Creative Director (1989–1996)
 * Creator of the Wing Commander series, Strike Commander and later the Starlancer, Freelancer, and Star Citizen space simulator games. Co-founder of Digital Anvil, later acquired by Microsoft. Co-founded and now works at Cloud Imperium Games.
 * John Romero – Programmer (1987–1988)
 * Worked at Origin before co-founding id Software.
 * Andrew Sega – Music Composer (1995–1998)
 * Aka Necros; was a Software Engineer/Composer who went on to work for Digital Anvil.
 * Warren Spector – Producer (1989–1996)
 * Producer of Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss which was developed by Doug Church and Looking Glass Studios, as well as its sequel, System Shock, Wings of Glory and numerous other titles. He later joined Ion Storm and managed its Austin office, creating Deus Ex. Later co-founded the now-defunct Junction Point Studios and now works at OtherSide Entertainment as its Studio Director.
 * Paul Steed – Artist (1991–1995)
 * Was a leading artist on the Wing Commander series and went on to serve as an art lead for id Software on the Quake series.

Ultima (series)

 * Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1981)
 * Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (1982)
 * Ultima III: Exodus (1983)
 * Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)
 * Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)
 * Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)
 * Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (1990)
 * Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991)
 * Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
 * Forge of Virtue (1992)
 * Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993)
 * The Silver Seed (1993)
 * Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994)
 * Ultima Online (1997)
 * Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)

Wing Commander (series)

 * Wing Commander I (1990)
 * The Secret Missions (1990)
 * The Secret Missions 2: Crusade (1991)
 * Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991)
 * Speech Accessory Pack (1991)
 * Special Operations 1 (1991)
 * Special Operations 2 (1992)
 * Wing Commander: Privateer (1993)
 * Righteous Fire (1994)
 * Wing Commander Academy (1993)
 * Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994)
 * Wing Commander: Armada (1994)
 * Proving Grounds (1994)
 * Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1996)
 * Privateer 2: The Darkening (1996)
 * Wing Commander: Prophecy (1997)
 * Secret Ops (1998)
 * Spin-offs:
 * Strike Commander (1993)
 * Strike Commander Speech Accessory Pack(1993)
 * Pacific Strike (1994)
 * Wings of Glory (1994)

Games with one sequel:
 * Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony (1985)
 * Ring Quest (1986; sequel to The Quest)
 * Windwalker (1989; sequel to Moebius)
 * Crusader: No Remorse (1995)
 * Crusader: No Regret (1996)
 * Jane's AH-64D Longbow (1996)
 * Jane's Longbow 2 (1997)

Games with no sequels

 * Caverns of Callisto (1983)
 * Autoduel (1985)
 * Ogre (1986)
 * 2400 A.D. (1987)
 * Omega (1989)
 * Tangled Tales: The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice (1989)
 * Space Rogue (1989)
 * Bad Blood (1990)
 * CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995)
 * BioForge (1995)
 * Transland (1996)

Published

 * Times of Lore (1988)
 * Knights of Legend (1989)
 * Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992)
 * Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993)
 * Shadowcaster (1993)
 * System Shock (1994)
 * Abuse (1996)

Canceled

 * Crusader: No Survivors (cancelled multiplayer expansion for Crusader: No Regret)
 * Crusader 3: No Escape / Crusader: No Mercy / Crusader II
 * Worlds of Ultima: Arthurian Legends
 * Ultima Worlds Online: Origin
 * Harry Potter Online
 * Jane's A-10
 * Privateer 3
 * Strike Team
 * Wing Commander VII
 * Ultima X: Odyssey (2004)