Ultima 6 Cloth Map Templates

These photographs were found in the Mythic Archives; they were taken by Chris Reid of the Wing Commander CIC. The first three pictures are of various templates of artwork for the Ultima 6 cloth map.

Those of you who were following the Advent Calendar that ran on the front page of the Ultima Codex in the run up to Christmas in 2014 will remember the third picture of this set — the complete map drawn on a transparent sheet, with about half of the coastline surrounded in blue shading. The last photo is, of course, of the finished product.

It’s obvious, from the first two images, that there are additional pieces of art that were created which did not make it into Mythic’s hands, and that’s a pity. It would have been interesting to see just how many separate drawings were layered together to create the final version of the map, and it would have been interesting to note any differences between work-in-progress artwork and the final version of the map.

Even so, this is an interesting glimpse of the effort that was put into creating an important part of the experience of Ultima 6, and it’s good that at least some of it was preserved.