People's Army of Sonoma

very very cool.

KD

whenever I hear the song "Save yourself" by Stabbing Westward, I think of mining in fel near hq1 in the first year of UO.

Nothing special about that song, but it was very popular when I started mining, so I would just put that CD on and repeat that song while I mined and dodged red pks.



KD

LOL

So the song in the link is called Stones, and it came originally from Ultima V, and was the song on the title screen of the old 2d UO from its inception until probably UO:SE or so. It was written by Iolo, and the lyrics were written by Gwenno (though the lyrics are often not used), who were based on real life people (friends of Richard Garriott, who was the producer of Ultima). In the game lore, Iolo and Gwenno are husband and wife. Iolo is based on David R. Watson, and Gwenno is based on Kathleen Jones (who, unfortunately, passed away many years ago and was immortalized in UO with a gravestone in memory of Gwenno that has stood in Ilshenar since it was first opened in 2002).

So, I've been reading on some of the "original cast" for the Ultima series, and I came across this on wikipedia:

David R. Watson is a bowyer currently living in Austin, Texas. He has composed music for the Ultima series, including "Stones". Watson is a fencing master, a composer, lutenist, and musician; and has a varied career of video game support including level designer in X-COM: Apocalypse, lead mission analyst in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and music composer in Ultima.

Watson is also known by his Ultima alter ego, Iolo.

So my question, KD, is have you ever met him? He lives in your hometown.

nope, out of the 2.5 million people living in the Austin area, amazingly I have not met him (yet). *smirks*

I'll have to ask my friend if he knows him though, because my friend has a friend that does a lot with Richard Garriott for charity.

I'm still hoping to meet Lord British in RL, and anyone else that was part of Ultima/Origin Systems.

Cool information, Malachai, thanks!

KD

KDSonoma wrote:nope, out of the 2.5 million people living in the Austin area, amazingly I have not met him (yet). *smirks*

I was asking mainly because you have done a number of get-togethers and meet-and-greets, and thought maybe you had pursued a meetup in the past. It was a question worth asking.

I know, goober, was just giving you a hard time.

Unfortunately, most of the UO folks I have met here moved to California when EA moved away from Austin about 10 years ago. The founders that still live in Austin don't get out and "mingle" much either.

Plus the 2.5 million people here surprised me, since Austin has about 940k people living there. I ran across an article that defined the Austin "area" as Austin and 6 or 7 other towns very near it (like Round Rock, where I live). I was surprised how large we all have grown over the years.

KD

love that song

long time i thought to have it playing on this site but then decide not to drive you people crazy lol

yeah having mining in UO flashbacks while reading and posting here would probably mess me up (even more than I already am).



KD

LOL

and yeah, Stones has always been my favorite Ultima song. Honestly when doing something like crafting it'd be nice to be able to play it on loop.

It's not even in the UO game files anymore. At least not for EC.