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Ultima: Aiera

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A little heartbeat!

Last updated: May 9th, 2008

Filed under Site News

Grace is about 15 weeks along now, and last Wednesday she had her monthly appointment with the doctor.

Very cool: while the doctor didn’t do a full-on , she did use a little portable unit, and we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat, which was a healthy 148 beats/minute.

It’s one of the most incredible sounds you can hear, believe me. And to think that there’s a little one slowly but inexorably forming and growing there just below my wife’s stomach is…just wow. To say that I am so in awe of , and to say that I am more than just grateful for her and this incredible thing that is taking place, would be a staggering understatement.

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UW in Portuguese; Exult and Pentagram snapshots; EUO 3D; Project Britannia update

Last updated: May 8th, 2008

Filed under Site News

I apologize for the gap in news updating; both my job and my home life have been rather busy these last few weeks, and I’ve had precious little time to stroll through “the Ultimasphere” to see what has transpired in terms of project developments and file updates.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the news!

PT-BR Underworld Translation

This translation of to is now 100% complete, with all text strings in the game fully translated.

They are seeking testers to look for errors in grammar and spelling. So if you, O Reader, are conversant in both Portuguese and English, and wouldn’t mind playing through Ultima Underworld again, be sure to visit the project website and drop them a line.

The patch can be downloaded from that same website, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Exult

I noticed that the unstable 1.4 build for had been updated on May 3rd. The notable correction in this release deals with a crash that could be caused by a trap’s projectile effect.

As usual, the snapshot can be downloaded from the Exult website or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Pentagram

There hasn’t been any news from the team since December of last year, but they are obviously still working on the project itself; the Windows snapshot that is available for download was updated on April 23rd, and can be downloaded either from the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

EUO

As of May 5th, the client for has been updated, and can be downloaded either the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Notable changes in this release are the addition of “popups” (I assume this is in reference to either in-game dialogues or message windows?), a help screen, the ability to re-map keys, and a few other odds and ends.

Project Britannia

The britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres files have been updated. Changes this go-round include the addition of GUI elements for several throwable weapons, shoes(!!), and a bunch of new textures and meshes. Also, a Yew tree for Ben to chop has been added (methinks this is derived from the ?).

The updated files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia wiki or via the project entry here at Aiera.

* * *

Though not specifically an update to the actual remake project, the folks at the Ultima 6 Project would like to draw our attention to a charity group that they would like to encourage would-be donors to the project to support instead:

As many of you know, the U6 Project has been going strong for several years now, and it’s cost us a fair amount of cash to keep it going. Every once in a while we’ll get someone asking us if they can donate some money to the project. Well, since it’s an all-volunteer project and not a commercial venture, we can’t accept money. However - we’ve recently realized that there’s no reason in the world we can’t suggest a charity to which you could donate instead. While gaming is certainly a worthy cause, we think that it would be even better to give the gift of life and donate to the Susan G Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

http://www.komen.org/

Please note: The U6 Project is not affiliated with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in any way, shape or form. We’d just like to recommend that you give your money to them instead of offering it to us. Thank you.

So maybe, just maybe, O Reader, go forth and make a bit of a donation in the names of the folks of Team Archon. I’m sure they’d appreciate it!

* * *

One last note: someone by the name of Chris (with an email address at grimmstudios.com) contacted me in regard to . Chris, if you’re reading this, I just sent my reply to you again; the last few attempts have resulted in the message bouncing back to me. I apologize for the delay, and would encourage you — if this latest attempt doesn’t get through — to contact me again and provide an alternative email address.

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Too true — graphics vs. story

Last updated: April 30th, 2008

Filed under Site News

I like the guys at Cracked.com. While I’m not a fan of some of the gross-out, overtly sexual humour, I do generally appreciate the insight they often display in their articles. Yes, they’re intended to be funny…but often, the underlying truth is quite compelling.

Case in point:

The Seven Commandments All Video Games Should Obey- #1 - Better graphics do not equal innovation and/or creativity.

…guys like Epic games president are out there making stupid-ass statements about how they would never lower themselves to develop for the [] because that would be “going backward.”

This is epidemic in an industry that defines “innovation” purely by graphical horsepower and nothing else. Guys like him are utterly baffled that anyone could ever want a Wii, just because it, you know, offers a completely new playing experience.

Somehow these guys have gotten it in their heads that nothing counts for innovation except ping and s. “However can any human enjoy these outdated graphics without literally vomiting with disgust?”

Well, if these people would bother having a conversation with someone outside their own offices, they’d realize that the entire concept of “outdated” graphics is meaningless to 80 percent of gamers.

Want proof? games look like this:

(blocky screenshot from Mario Kart)

They’ve sold more than 60 million of them. Tell you what, Mike. The next time you see some casual gamer tapping away at their Nintendo DS, show them a screenshot of …Don’t be shocked if they point out your game seems made up of three colors (brown, gray, and muzzle flash). Sure, hard-core gamers know the difference, they know the game is a marvel of technology. The rest of us just want to have fun, or be told a good story.

It gets hard, some days, not to punch people right in the mind who complain that the games are “outdated” and that they have “terrible graphics.”

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Oh, how the mighty have fallen

Last updated: April 18th, 2008

Filed under Site News

Serves me right for not posting anything about remakes for almost a month:

mighty-fallen.jpg

Whoops…

 
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EUO turns five; Iris releases a new build; numerous project snapshot updates

Last updated: April 18th, 2008

Filed under Site News

Well, it’s been a little while since I posted an update pertaining to projects, and I see that Petrell and Dino over at Dino’s Ultima Page have uncovered several juicy morsels of news. To wit:

EUO

This Ultima-like project reached its fifth year just recently, and to celebrate the occasion they threw a number of bonuses and extra stuff into the game — experience bonuses, prizes & giveaways, DM-hosted events, special in-game drinks (eggnog, for example), and even a few new bosses.

Also, a “Newbie Island” tutorial map has been added to the game to help new players ease in.

Ultima 6 Project

A new press release from this promising-looking remake of Ultima 6 has been released at RPGWatch. It has some details about new cities and places in the pending fifth milestone release (Nicodemus’ keep, for example), and also informs us that the team is always in need of world builders, 3D modelers, artists, and musicians.

So, O Reader, if you fall into any of those categories, you might want to swing by the website and drop someone a line.

Additionally, project developer Nicodemus has posted another update to his worldbuilding Dev Diary with some cool new screenshots of his work ( and ).

Ultima: Iris

A new build — build 2010 — of this 3D client for has been released. It can be downloaded from the project’s homepage, or via the project entry here at .

xu4

A new snapshot of the version of this Ultima 4 remake is available for download either through the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera. A new snapshot is also available.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman has posted additional news about his project that has ported to the calculator. He lets us know, firstly, about some special item capabilities that he as implemented. Secondly, he talks about killing NPCs, lock picking, and guard behaviour — rather a “law and order” sort of post.

The project is still in beta testing.

* * *

I also took a bit of a wander around the Ultima community myself, and noticed a few other odds and ends that the Reader might be interested in.

Savage Empire for Exult

Scythifuge is always looking for people to help out with his ambitious goal of porting the storyline into .

Exult

Speaking of Exult, I notice that the Windows snapshot of Exult 1.4 has been updated recently (April 14th), as have the snapshots for and . These can be downloaded from the project website, and I have added them to the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

I noticed that the britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres resource files for this Ultima world framework were updated at the beginning of April. Changes since the previous revision include the addition of a new lockpick texture, a ferry, and two new light textures, as well as changes to melee attack logic, the lockpick’s shape, and a bunch of other things.

The updated files can be downloaded from the site, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

* * *

Also, I’ve made a few minor changes to the site here. For starters, I have added a module to the site sidebar to track the ten most downloaded files in the last 30 days. Initially, I wasn’t going to clear the statistics for the download manager with any sort of frequency, but after a bunch of -related downloads surged ahead (in some cases, to over 3,000 downloads!), it seemed reasonable to give some of the other files a chance to make the top spot.

So it’s there, and I won’t be putting a “top five” list onto news posts anymore.

And of course, there’s the gallery and Ultima art repository. I do encourage any interested users to register a user account there and begin uploading any Ultima-related art they can find so that it can be preserved for posterity. This includes scans of art from the manuals, which won’t be around forever.

Oh, and I’ve added another countdown to the sidebar. Only 190 days (roughly — could change in either direction) until Grace and I welcome our little one into the world!

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