Ultima 6 Project Milestone #4 Released; Forgotten World music sample

Last updated: January 21st, 2008

Filed under Site News

Dino’s Ultima Page beat me to the scoop on these developments, but the news is big enough to be worth repeating. Ultima 6 was always my favourite Ultima title, and that particular remake is a project that I’ve been watching with anxious anticipation.

And as if that wasn’t good enough, there is yet more news from other projects as well; that’s what I call a good week, Dragons and Dragonesses.

Ultima 6 Project

Frilly Wumpus dropped me a line to let me know that Ultima 6 Project Milestone #4 has been released. This latest update to the Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 6 features:

• New areas to explore ( Buccaneer’s Cave, Wrong, Empath Abbey and Minoc )
• New game intro which draws from the original classic game
• Enhancements to existing areas
• New plot details and other subtle refinements
• Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:
  • A prototype of a customizable journal system so you can take notes on
    your journey
  • The “;” key now gives you extra information, such as reagent counts,
    projectile counts, etc.
  • New “Gameplay Settings” from the Options menu
  • Many more tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems

Exciting? Definitely. The latest milestone can be downloaded from the Ultima 6 Project Website, or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind wrote me to let me know that this ambitious, in-engine remake of Ultima 9 has released a sample of soundtrack music written and recorded by composer “Sounddreamer”.

“Time Travel”, the new music, can be listened to at the Forgotten Worlds website, or via the music player below:

A few more project updates come to us by way of Petrell at Dino’s:

Ultima IX: Infinity Eternal

Thepal has posted the first news update in about nine months to his project’s website to let us know that things are still alive and kicking (and just to keep us salivating, he’s thrown in a new screenshot).

The reason for the relative silence of the project, incidentally, stems from a couple of major developments in the real lives of the people working on it. Thepal himself got married (as a recent husband myself, Thepal, I offer my heartfelt congratulations!), and team member MartinLoki became a father (congratulations there, as well!).

It’s good to see that this promising-looking project is still being worked on!

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman is continuing his breakneck pace of work on his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator — in his latest update, he puts development at over 95% completeness.

Latest improvements include:

• A “new look” for Ultima 5
• Leveling up & down now works.
• Magic points are reduced when casting a spell and are slowly restored over time. Fighters have no magic capabilities.
• Enemies can now cast spells too.
• Frigate sails are now working.
• The final quest of the Shrine of the Codex has been implemented.
• Pit traps are now working. If you step upon a hidden pit trap, you are dead — plain and simple — so be careful.

Apparently, Ranman has been told by his wife that the project will be done in February.

Nazghul

According to this schedule, Gordon McNutt plans to release version 1.0 of his Ultima-like game engine, Nazghul, on the fifth anniversary of its registration at Sourceforge — May 26th.

Also, in wandering through other project websites, I noticed the following updates:

Realms of Ultima

With Jason White joining the team, the RoU project has begun implementing an Ultima-style gameplay system for Neverwinter Nights 2. They are changing the character classes to the 8 core classes commonly seen in Ultima, and associating each class with a city and virtue. They have also begun work on custom critters for the game, and have even implemented a wine press.

Project Britannia

With the release of Ultima 6 Project Milestone #4, numerous updates have also been made to the britannia_art.dsres, britannia_logic.dsres, and pb_laz_comp_layer.dsres project core files. These can be downloaded either from the Project Britannia Wiki or through the project entry here at Aiera.

Tags >> Aiera | Dino's Ultima Page | Dungeon Siege | Forgotten World | Nazghul | Neverwinter Nights 2 | Project Britannia | Texas Instruments | Ultima | Ultima 5 | Ultima 6 | Ultima 6 Project | Ultima 9 | Ultima IX: Infinity Eternal

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Ultima IX - Infinity Eternal

Last updated: January 20th, 2008

Filed under U9 Remakes, Ultima 9

Produced by: Thepal
Website: Ethereal Software
Releases:
* Buccaneer’s Den Demo (requires the official plugins, Bloodmoon and Tribunal)

This remake is the only Ultima remake, at present, that is being made with the Oblivion engine. Unlike Redemption, Infinity Eternal is being made to be more faithful to the plot of the original Ultima 9 while adjusting those things which irritated many Ultima fans. The most interesting thing about this remake seems to be that it will feature travelling to other worlds, including Serpent Isle and other familiar worlds.

The above demo is from the days when the project was being built with the Morrowind engine, and so will not be reflective of the final product. It is being kept online for the moment pending the release of a new demo from the team.

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Forgotten World

Last updated: January 20th, 2008

Filed under U9 Remakes, Ultima 9

Produced by: Hawkwing, Iceblade, and Nimdraug
Website: Forgotten World
Releases:
* Freedom Mod 1.0

Forgotten World started as a ‘Freedom Mod‘ for Ascension, assembled by Michael Menapace in response to the rather absurdly linear feel to the plot of this last Ultima title. The mod didn’t do much to alter the order of events in the game, or to change at all the inconsistencies encountered in Ultima 9’s plot. What it does do, however, is alter some aspects of the structure of Britannia, eliminating obstacles that previously prevented you from roaming the land of Britannia freely.

Eventually, the project grew and a team joined FIrstkniGHT, who eventually left the project as he could no longer work on it. The project got its own website and grew more ambitious, decoding Ascension game files to provide players with a better experience. Currently, they are in the process of implementing a world-editor, a first step on the road to turning Ultima 9 — using its original, promising engine (albeit assisted, now, with a little help from the OGRE 3D engine as well) — into a canonical, consistent-with-its-predecessors Ultima game.

Tags >> Britannia | Forgotten World | Freedom Mod | OGRE | Ultima 9 | Ultima title

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Nazghul and Haxima

Last updated: January 20th, 2008

Filed under Engines, Inspired Works, Spin-offs

Produced by: Gordon McNutt
Website: Nazghul CRPG
Releases:
* Windows Binary v0.6.0
* Mac OS X Universal Binary v0.5.6
* Source Code v0.6.0
* Nokia 770/M800

Still in development (although you can download and compile the source, which is currently at version 0.6.0), Nazghul is a 2D single-player computer role-playing game (CRPG) engine in the grand tradition of Ultimas 1 through 5. Much as with EUO, the developer proudly states that if you are looking for gorgeous graphics and squad-based combat, you should look elsewhere.

Haxima is the game being developed concurrently with the Nazghul engine, and features an Ultima-inspired tale of adventure.

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Ultima 7 Wizard

Last updated: January 10th, 2008

Filed under SI Utilities, Serpent Isle, U7 Utilities, Ultima 7

Produced by: Olivier Marcoux
Website: U7-Wizard
Releases:
* Ultima 7 Wizard v1.9 (with source code) (213.52 KB)
* Technical Documentation (41.46 KB)

Before there was Exult Studio, there was the Ultima 7 Wizard. This program allows for the editing of maps, scenery, and objects of Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle. As well, it allows you to browse the characters and portraits, and listen to the sounds and music in the game (including dialogues).

Tags >> Exult Studio | Serpent Isle | Ultima 7 | Ultima 7 Wizard

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