Courtesy of Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum, the Ultima Codex is pleased to present the following songs from the Ultima 7 soundtrack:
Download the songs:
As Joe tells it, there have been a few different tales about these CDs. One story has it that the first one was put out in the UK; another is that it was put out privately by someone inside Origin, either as a joke or just a present to some of the staffers. Either way, it was never sold commercially in the US.
This was probably what prompted Origin to put a gag in the end of the Black Gate credits, saying “Soundtrack available from Origin!” (see here). Unfortunately for them, the gag backfired, and they had so many requests from people thinking it was a real product that in the next game, Serpent Isle, they had to put in a retraction: “Soundtrack NOT available – so DON’T ASK!”
Nonwithstanding the history of the CDs themselves, one thing that can’t be denied is the audio quality of the pieces from Ultima 7, recorded in full Roland audio glory — the best possible sound for the hardware of the day. Joe has taken the liberty of converting the pieces to MP3, but they will sound as glorious as 1992 when you pull them down and listen to them.
