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Archive for the ‘…And Beyond’ Category

Posted by WtF Dragon On January - 20 - 2008

[flickr size="small" float="left"]4865800315[/flickr]

Produced by: Gordon McNutt
Website: Nazghul CRPG
Releases:
* Nazghul 0.7.1 Setup (Windows) (7.7 MiB, 251 hits)
* Nazghul 0.7.0 Setup (Mac) (9.9 MiB, 313 hits)
* Nazghul 0.7.1 Source (7.6 MiB, 254 hits)
* Nazghul 0.7.0 Source (7.5 MiB, 276 hits)

Still in development (although you can download and compile the source, which is currently at version 0.7.1), is a single-player computer role-playing game (CRPG) engine in the grand tradition of s 1 through 5. Much as with , the developer proudly states that if you are looking for gorgeous graphics and squad-based combat, you should look elsewhere.

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

Posted by On January - 8 - 2008

[flickr size="small" float="left"]4875989403[/flickr]
Produced by: Matthew Johnston
Website: Ultima VII Mod
Releases:
* Ultima VII Mod (8.0 MiB, 345 hits)

This total conversion for tells the tale of the war-ravaged land of Norstadt, once a thriving kingdom and now overrun by Goblins and other monsters. The besieged city of Nordgarde is all that remains of this once-mighty human kingdom, and many refugees have fled south from the land.

Matthew Johnston’s ambitious mod is still in its infancy, but the screenshots he has released thus far boast a good deal of promise. He really seems to be stretching the engine to the limits of its performance.

Posted by WtF Dragon On June - 20 - 2007

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Produced by: Arkane Studios
Website: Arx Fatalis Online (English site)
Releases:
* English Demo (Updated) (153.1 MiB, 397 hits)
* English Demo (Old) (154.2 MiB, 233 hits)
* German Demo (156.4 MiB, 231 hits)
* French Demo (154.4 MiB, 239 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (English) (7.9 MiB, 299 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Spanish) (7.9 MiB, 186 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (French) (7.9 MiB, 188 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (German) (7.9 MiB, 201 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Italian) (7.9 MiB, 207 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Russian) (7.9 MiB, 195 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Multi-language) (8.6 MiB, 222 hits)
* Bonus CD Content (181.0 MiB, 441 hits)
* Arx Fatalis v1.2.1 Source Code (1.9 MiB, 1,094 hits)

developed this game in honor of the series, out of recognition of the superior gameplay style of those games.

The game, according to Wikipedia, “is set on a world whose sun has failed, forcing the above-ground creatures to take refuge in subterranean caverns. The action in Arx takes place in one of these large caves, where inhabitants from all races such as Trolls, Goblins, Dwarves, Humans, etc. have made their homes on various levels of the cave. The player awakens inside a prison cell and, after making his escape, eventually discovers his mission is to subvert and imprison the God of Destruction, Akbaa, who is trying to manifest itself in Arx.”

Featuring a strong plot with many subquests, multiple NPC races — each with different dialogue styles, character customization, exceptional world interactivity and even runic magic — this game could very well have been titled 3. And in fact, it was supposed to have exactly that title, but Arkane was unable to license the name.

Posted by On March - 23 - 2007

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Produced by: SantiagoZ
Website: Slashie.Net
Releases:
* DrashRL v0.32 (1.3 MiB, 161 hits)

Kidnapped by the evil Garrintrots just as he escapes Mondain’s Lair, the Stranger from Another World finds himself (or herself) trapped in the dungeons of .

A remake of the non-canon Ultima spinoff, SantiagoZ’s project features updated graphics with a clean, tiled feel.

Posted by On March - 10 - 2007

[image:29:l:s=0:l=x]Produced by: Titans of Ether
Website: Titans of Ether

Corv has been sparse on the details surrounding this new project, so there’s not much we can tell you about it. What is certain is that it is set after , and could perhaps be called , although Corv discourages the use of this name as he wants to distance this project as much as possible from the now defunct .

From the map, it looks like the game will feature the land of , circa roughly . However, in what is sure to be an interesting plot twist, the map screenshot on their site appears to imply that Britannia is not actually the from .

NOTE: As of Sept. 18, 2004, this project and Ultima IX: Redemption have become one unified effort under the direction of Corv. will be the direct sequel to Redemption.

Posted by On March - 10 - 2007

[image:14:r:s=0:l=x]Produced by: A New Breed of Dragon
Website: The Dark Core
Releases:
* Dark Core v1.02 for Netscape (6.3 MiB, 191 hits)
* Dark Core v1.0 for Internet Explorer (6.3 MiB, 182 hits)
* Internet Explorer 4.0 (13.3 MiB, 171 hits)
* Netscape Navigator 4.08 (9.7 MiB, 178 hits)
* Dark Core v1.0 for Internet Explorer 8 (6.3 MiB, 317 hits)

Mere seconds after the Avatar arrives back in , freshly escaped from , he finds himself standing before a huge statue of the Guardian. Suddenly, he is granted a vision of the of , and finds that he is being drawn into the core. Complicating matters, it seems that the Guardian is also being drawn in…

…or is he using this vision to deceive the Avatar?

An interactive game in the style of , this web-based remake is a truly amazing spin-off!

Note: You must have a version of less than 4.3 in order to play this game! It will also work with 4.0 or 5.0. It is known that the game will NOT work with more recent versions of Netscape, and I have no idea how well it will behave in later versions of Explorer. I have provided downloads of Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape Navigator 4.08 (both for only) above in order to help people get this thing running on their home system.

One further note: Given the tight integration of Internet Explorer with Windows, it might be best to try installing Netscape first. Most extant Windows installations likely sport at least version 5 of Internet Explorer, and rolling said program back to an earlier version is a trying task.

And a warning: Both and 4.08 are at least 13 years old, and were built for an era of computing and browsing that was not nearly so perilous as is the case today. Both browsers contain numerous vulnerabilities which modern can and will exploit almost as a matter of course. If you install one of these browsers on your system, make sure you never run it while your connection to the Internet is live. Better still: create a (or whichever version is your preference) VirtualBox with networking specifically disabled, and install and run The Dark Core therein.

Or: you could just try out Infinitron Dragon’s -compatible update for the game. Whether or not said update will work with other browsers (e.g. , ) is uncertain at present, nor is it known whether said update will work on non-Windows platforms.

See Also: A New Breed of Dragon’s System Optimization Guide.

Posted by On March - 10 - 2007

[image:27:l:s=0:l=x]Produced by: Telemachos
Website: Peroxide
Releases:
* Mount Drash (459.5 KiB, 152 hits)

: is not a canon Ultima, and bears only a passing relevance to the Ultima storyline. It was not a game, and it seems likely that, at the time, just slapped the Ultima label onto another game in order to boost its sales.

Telemachos, formerly of Peroxide, ported the game from the to the about a year ago, and Warwon Dragon graciously provided me with his copy of the port for inclusion on the site.

Posted by Deckard On March - 10 - 2007

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Produced by: Iron Will Games
Website: Dransik
Releases:
* Pixel Mine Installer (external file)

apparently began as an -like , as a project supposedly headed by former developer . At some point in its history, the game evolved somewhat, taking on a more isometric graphics set with some very beautiful special effects.

Dransik is no longer in development, of course, having morphed into a second online RPG called . Ashen Empires inherited its isometric engine, so Dransik now looks, again, like an Ultima 5 clone…though that’s not a bad thing, by any means. It is now available for free download and play.

At one point, there was limitation imposed on you by the developers: your backpack/inventory capacity was reduced if you did not play via an active Ashen Empires account. Since Ashen Empires is now itself free, this restriction may have been lifted.

Posted by On March - 9 - 2007

[image:12:l:s=0:l=x]Produced by: Odorous Rex
Releases:
* BritanniaMOD (5.9 MiB, 169 hits)

This is not so much an engine as it is a total conversion for that was intended to be the continent of Britannia (circa Ultimas 4 to 7), and was to serve as a possible base for -inspired mods for Morrowind.

To my knowledge, it is incomplete, and the developer’s web-page has ceased to be. That said, as a starting point for an Ultima mod, it may serve well, and so is hosted here.

categories: Engines, Spin-offs

IRE

Posted by On March - 9 - 2007

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Produced by: DOUG the Eagle Dragon
Website: IT-HE Sofware
Releases:
* Demo v0.93 Flat Datafiles (2.5 MiB, 183 hits)
* Game & Editor (Mandrake 8.1) (2.1 MiB, 188 hits)
* Game & Editor (Windows) (1.7 MiB, 177 hits)
* Game & Editor (DOS) (2.5 MiB, 180 hits)
* IRE Source (2.6 MiB, 188 hits)
* Allegro Source (needed) (3.3 MiB, 190 hits)
* Allegro OGG Library (58.9 KiB, 185 hits)
* JPEG Library Source (744.7 KiB, 182 hits)

DOUG the Eagle Dragon has developed an engine in the spirit and style of . The game and editing tools are cross-platform, currently available on , , and . The source is available to compile and build the software on other systems.

He has also made available downloads of , a game of his creation and the first to be produced using IRE.

Current Game Modules
* Reign of the Just (Windows) (30.2 MiB, 206 hits)
* Reign of the Just (Mandrake) (30.2 MiB, 187 hits)

IRE requires the Allegro libraries and the library (above) as well.

categories: Engines, Spin-offs
Posted by WtF Dragon On March - 9 - 2007
ultimavionline5

Ultima 6 Online

Produced by: Galleon Dragon, Mose, Cear Dragon
Website: Ultima 6 Online
Forum: Ultima 6 Online Forums
Releases:
* U6O Client (3.1 MiB, 523 hits)

Graphics Updates:
* Chin's Tileset (561.2 KiB, 287 hits)
* David's Tileset (2.2 MiB, 257 hits)
* Quentin's Tileset (463.9 KiB, 236 hits)
* Combo Tileset #1 (3.0 MiB, 299 hits)
* Combo Tileset #2 (666.5 KiB, 238 hits)

Galleon Dragon’s ambitious re-creation of — which has been brought back online by mose — takes the game into the realm, allowing you to play against other fans. It also implements many of the quest features of the game.

As with most remakes that use the original graphics for the game, this remake requires the original game data files to be installed on your hard drive. However, the game also features a number of graphical improvements which build off of the original game data, such as higher-resolution objects and transparent atmospheric effects.

More recently, there have been a series of high-quality (or higher-quality, at least) graphics mods released for the game; they can be downloaded above or from here, where instructions can also be found as to how to install them. The picture to the right demonstrates some of the improvements (click through to find a high-res version at ).

Posted by On March - 9 - 2007

[image:15:r:s=0:l=x]Produced by: Litmus Dragon
Releases:
* Dragon Engine Beta v1.0 (2.9 MiB, 188 hits)

This was to be a fairly straightforward game engine that looked very much like that of and 5.

Sadly, Litmus Dragon is no longer developing the project. A beta version of the engine was released, and it is hosted here.

categories: Engines, Spin-offs
Posted by On March - 5 - 2007

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Produced by: mikefictiti0us
Website: Exult Forum Discussion
Releases:
* Ultima 6 Patch (3.7 MiB, 491 hits)

This ambitious retooling of Exult aims to modify the game world and story into that of . Apparently being undertaken by a single person, the early screenshots look very promising. While Ultima 7′s tile graphics lack the vibrant colour that was seen in Ultima 6, the attention to detail that mikefictiti0us has put into areas like the Throne Room and Nystul’s Lab is very promising.

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