The box art for 1985’s Ultima IV computer game from Origin Systems.

In what might turn out to be Video Game Month, I’m happy to welcome the video game streamer/content creator Majuular (@majuular) to the show for some classic video game chat.

I first found his channel because of his video essay series on Origin Systems’ Ultima game series from the 1980s and 1990s. Ultima IV was one of my favorite games as a teenager, so really enjoyed his video on that game and Ultima V (which I also played back in the day).

We discuss how young Richard Garriot (aka Lord British) created his first game Akalabeth while still in high school, which was the precursor to the Ultima series and how Origin Systems came to be as a company. Although we discuss many of the games, we mainly talk about Ultima IV and V and how atypical they were for role playing games at the time, be they video game or table top, and probably still are to this day. We also discuss some of the later games and spin-offs, other games published by Origin, what you could call the “coaching tree” of people who started there who went on to make landmark games in the industry. There’s also talk about their complicated publishing history and is there any future for the Ultima brand with it being owned currently by Electronic Arts?

There’s other game chat, including Majuular’s recommendations for classic JRPGs, the greatness of Thief and the not-so-greatness of the games based on William Shatner’s TekWar books and TV show. There’s also talk about the art of reviewing “bad” pop culture, MST3K, punching up vs punching down and when does “so bad it’s good” factor into the equation?

There’s LOTS of other fun tangents and divergences in this show, including chatting about John Ford/John Wayne movies, Gene Autry’s progressive for 1949 film The Cowboys and the Indians (which we discussed years ago on the Plot Podcast), Tim Horton’s fast food chain somehow having an outlet on the East Coast and lots of other random topics.

It was fun having Majuular on the show. He’s also a James Bond guy, so maybe we can have him back once the new “James Bond Jr.” game comes out later this year. You can find his You Tube video essays at Majuular and his streaming channel at Majuularcade.