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他（Richard Garriott）想创造一个生机盎然的不列颠尼亚。我们力图实现这一构想——鸟儿在林间振翅翱翔，找到地方筑巢，而后安静地栖息于此；我们竭尽所能，让这片天地焕发生机。不过正因为如此，我们无暇顾及其他更具 RPG 风格的元素。比方说，我们舍弃了团队机制、舍弃了 NPC 轨迹机制、舍弃了 NPC 背包机制、舍弃了锻造机制……
He [Richard Garriott] wanted Britannia to come alive. And we did our best to do that. We had birds that actually flew out of trees and went and had a place for their nest, and they sat back in their nest. We had all kinds of cool features to just make the world come alive. And the amount of effort that took robbed us of the ability to put in a lot of the more traditional RPG elements, like a party, like NPC schedules, like who owns what object, like crafting...
Bill Randolph,
《创世纪 9》主程序员Bill Randolph,
Ultima IX's lead programmer
游戏剧情围绕守卫者（The Guardian）腐化美德之力的阴谋而展开，他在整个不列颠尼亚大陆竖起一根根神秘的黑色巨柱，图谋不轨。
The game's plot revolves around the corruption of the Virtues by the Guardian, who raised mysterious black columns all over Britannia.
通常，写好一幕剧情后，开发者会将第一手剧本直接交给音响工程师，后者把配音演员们组织起来，开展录制工作。但在当时，由于游戏本身的技术问题频出，再加上文本量太大，团队需要大量时间才能够好好打磨，但 Origin 最缺的恰恰就是时间。
虽然有种种不足，但这部作品也有值得称道之处。按当时来看，它的技术水准令人拍案叫绝，有些设计哪怕放到现在，也让人惊叹不已。该作打造了一个完全开放的 3D 世界，有些地下城的关卡设计堪称系列最佳。许多物品的互动性极强，某些容器（如木桶）甚至有浮力，扔进水里都不会下沉。《创世纪 9》诞生后，足足过了十年，市面上的 3DRPG 游戏方能实现上述技术的广泛应用。
《创世纪 9》标志着圣者与守护者之间宿命对决的圆满落幕，一言以蔽之——“到头来，让不列颠尼亚陷入水深火热的始作俑者正是圣者本人”。
《创世纪 9》战斗手段单一，大多数情况下，玩家只需要疯狂点击鼠标左键即可。
Designers would often write a scene and hand their first-draft script directly to the audio producer, who would get the actor(s) involved to record it that day. The game's technology and scripting were very complex for their day, and more polish was required than Origin had time to apply.
And yet, Ultima IX was – and in some ways remains – a technical marvel. It features a fully open 3D world, and offers some of the best dungeons to be found in the Ultima series. Many objects in the world can be freely manipulated, and container objects (e.g. barrels) even have buoyancy. These are features that largely disappeared from 3D RPG design for about a decade after Ultima IX's release.
Ultima IX also brings the story of the Avatar and the Guardian to a satisfying end, and drives home the now commonly accepted point that, ultimately, it was the Avatar who was the cause of many of the misfortunes that befell Britannia.
Combat in Ultima IX is simplistic; most of the time you'll just hit the left-mouse button as fast as you can.
虽然《创世纪 9》口碑不佳，但它依然对后世产生了深远影响。德国 RPG 游戏公司 Piranha Bytes 从这款游戏里获得灵感，开发出两款经典大作——2001 年的《哥特王朝》（Gothic），2009 年的《崛起》（Risen）。Origin 通过《创世纪 9》打造出一个神作的雏形，却拿不出时间为其添砖加瓦。而这家德国公司捡起这根接力棒，花大把时间和精力，最终将其打磨成两部经典之作。
对我而言，《创世纪 9》还有一个特别的意义。要知道，我是玩创世纪系列游戏长大的。我为这个系列着迷，也为其设定着迷。不列颠尼亚就是我的纳尼亚王国[5] ，一个与世隔绝的奇幻秘境。而在《创世纪 9》，我终于看见了这片秘境的天空。
模组：
对话大修（Dialogue Patch）：重新设计游戏的对话内容，使其更符合原系列世界观，更重视前作设定。
被遗忘的世界（Forgotten World）：提供多个补丁包与更新包，以提升游戏性能，解决游戏漏洞，增添开发后期时惨遭删减的一部分内容。
美丽的不列颠尼亚（Beautiful Britannia）：优化游戏纹理，增添一部分遭删减的地图区域。
《创世纪 9》添加模组后，画质有所提升，支持宽屏显示，还增添了先前删减的内容。
Despite its reception, Ultima IX is not without a legacy. German RPG developers Piranha Bytes drew significant inspiration from the game whilst developing Gothic (2001) and, later, Risen (2009); both games improve upon the formula that Origin Systems never had the time to fully develop, and are classics in their own right.
For me, personally, there was one other thing that Ultima IX offered. You see, I grew up playing Ultima. I love the series and its setting; Britannia was my Narnia, my magical land hidden just out of view. And in Ultima IX, finally, I could see its sky.
Mods:
Dialogue patch: A re-writing of the game's dialogue, to better fit the lore and continuity of the Ultima series.
Forgotten World: Provides several patches and updates for Ultima IX, improving its performance, fixing some of the remaining bugs and restoring some of the content cut late in the game's production.
Beautiful Britannia: improves the game's textures and adds several areas that were cut from the game.
A screenshot of a modded Ultima IX, with enhanced graphics, wide-screen support and restored content.
__________
5 译者注：纳尼亚，Narnia，出自经典童话《纳尼亚王国编年史》，后改编为电影《纳尼亚传奇》，讲述四个小孩意外发现家里的大衣橱实际上是通向魔法王国纳尼亚的神秘入口，一段冒险就此展开。此处，纳尼亚代指不为人知与世隔绝的神秘国度。
《电脑 RPG 游戏史（The CRPG Book Project）》原书信息
英文原版主编：Felipe Pepe
原项目网址：https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
授权协议：知识共享 署名-非商业性使用 4.0 国际许可协议 (CC BY-NC 4.0)
这本书历时四年，由 119 名志愿者共同完成。
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