Ultima II
"The Revenge of the Enchantress". First released in 1982.
Ultima I was a bit... odd due to Schizo-Tech and Time Travel. Ultima II was even more so. The Big Bad from the previous game had a student. A young girl named Minax, and she's ticked that some Stranger from Another Dimension killed her master and lover (hey, they were Evil).
So... she doubled up on her studies: figured out the secrets of time and space, created a vast network of monsters and conquered Sosaria Earth. Yes! Contrary to what all of the later Ultima games say: it wasn't Sosaria/Britannia/Whatever she took over, it was Earth.
But not just modern day Earth. No, no. She took over The Time Of Legends via Time Travel, and from there manipulated time so that the nations of Earth engaged in World War III in the late 20th century.
Fortunately, Lord British came along to Earth too and took over became the King of Britain. Time to muck around with Time Travel again and kill the evil magic-user.
- Avenging the Villain: Minax's motivation.
- Cool Starship: No Tie Fighters this time: you have to search the Solar System for a Blessing from a Priest who lives on Planet X (you have to search the other planets to get the coordinates) that gives you permission to get the Ring that lets you survive the Deflector Shields in Minax's castle.
- Crapsack World: 2112 A.D. The sole surviving city is a Soviet outpost, with everyone else nuked.
- Canon Discontinuity: The fact that this game takes place on Earth is never mentioned in any of the later games, and they all speak of Minax conquering Sosaria/Britannia instead. Could be a Cosmic Retcon, but even the writers don't talk about it.
- If Minax had access to the Time of Legends, why couldn't she just take over both Earth and Sosaria? The ultimate revenge, both on the Stranger that killed her master and the people that brought him in to the fight!
- Guide Dang It: In order to get the quicksword, you need to bribe a random man in a prison cell without any hints telling you to do so. In order to get the Ring, you have to travel to Planet X, get a message from a priest, and then bribe an old man under a sign that says "ATREE". And all he says is "I'm an old man" (there's a hint that he has it in the pub messages, but not that you have to go to Planet X).
- Locked in the Dungeon: Now they have towers too. There's even less reason to go into different ones than in Ultima I. Pick a dungeon and farm it for rocket fuel and Level Grinding.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Minax means "threatening" in Latin.
- Shout-Out: The Hotel California.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: One of the goals of the game is to find the "Quicksword Enilno", which is the only weapon that can kill Minax, and which you get by bribing a random guy in prison who has it.
- Time Travel: Via Time Portal, to different eras. Time Of Legends, Pangea, 1423 B.C., 1990 A.D. and Aftermath 2112 A.D. Garriott was a big fan of the movie Time Bandits, and it was the inspiration for the Time Portals (which in later games were the seed for Moongates).
- Twenty Minutes Into the Future: 1990 A.D.