Making a search on the internet for purple llama today yields many, many results: the purple llama is no longer just a UO easter egg. The llama is all over the place, ubiquitous across many streams. Well, I got to thinking: just what are the origins of the purple llama? And, did UO have anything to do with either initiating and/ or popularizing the idea of the purple llama? Below is my outlined investigation.
As it happens, when the Magery spell, Energy Vortex, is cast, it is at times expressed as a purple llama graphic: it has the same abilities, limitations and behaviors of any other cast EV, but it appears as a purple llama. This is considered as a bug which has been allowed to continue in the game, dating to likely the very beginning of Ultima Online. With this information, I have a reference point and possible beginning (late nineties) for the purple llama, but is there more?
I did come across an interesting game developer out of the UK named Jeff Minter. Founder of the video games company Llamasoft, Minter has shown an affinity for having ruminant themed games as far back as 1982, with titles showcasing mutant camels, mega camels and mama llamas running around and even in outer space, though none of them purple.
Where does this leave things? It would seem, per internet searches, that UO has the earliest example of a purple llama. That said, this answer isn't definitive: it could be that the purple llama was an ongoing matter/ meme across media which the internet didn't capture and that persons involved never related in an internet capture-able way: it could be a number of things.
Anything you can add to this?
As it happens, when the Magery spell, Energy Vortex, is cast, it is at times expressed as a purple llama graphic: it has the same abilities, limitations and behaviors of any other cast EV, but it appears as a purple llama. This is considered as a bug which has been allowed to continue in the game, dating to likely the very beginning of Ultima Online. With this information, I have a reference point and possible beginning (late nineties) for the purple llama, but is there more?
I did come across an interesting game developer out of the UK named Jeff Minter. Founder of the video games company Llamasoft, Minter has shown an affinity for having ruminant themed games as far back as 1982, with titles showcasing mutant camels, mega camels and mama llamas running around and even in outer space, though none of them purple.
Where does this leave things? It would seem, per internet searches, that UO has the earliest example of a purple llama. That said, this answer isn't definitive: it could be that the purple llama was an ongoing matter/ meme across media which the internet didn't capture and that persons involved never related in an internet capture-able way: it could be a number of things.
Anything you can add to this?