In 1983, Chuck Bueche, along with Richard Garriott, Robert Garriott, and Owen Garriott, founded the software company Origin Systems Inc. Origin became the publisher of Richard's Ultima series; Bueche ported many of the original Apple II games to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit family. He was also responsible for the design and programming of many of Origin's other hits, including Autoduel and 2400 A.D.

Origin Systems Inc.
340 Harvey Road
Manchester, NH 03103
USA

Year Founded: 1983
Year Defunct: 2004


Origin Systems, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated as OSI) was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004. It is most famous for the Ultima, Wing Commander, and Crusader game franchises.

The company was founded in 1983 by brothers Robert and Richard Garriott, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche after Richard had terminated his contract with Sierra On-Line to publish the third part in Richard's Ultima series, Ultima III: Exodus.

In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company.

In 1997, they released one of the earliest and most successful graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999. However, within a year's time, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2, Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000.

In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on the Ultima franchise such as Ultima X: Odyssey, originally to be released in 2004 but later canceled. In February of 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts.