Produced by: Team Iris
Website: Iris2
Releases:
Iris (Discontinued)
* Development Repository

Iris2 (Iris-Ogre)
* Iris2 Installer (Windows)
* Iris2 Binary (Windows)
* Iris2 (SUSE) (RPM)
* Iris2 Latest Source Code

Also required (for Windows)
* Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redist. (x86)
* DirectX9 End-User Runtimes

Ultima: Iris is a 3D game client for Ultima Online, which gives the game a more modern feel in keeping with the evolution of 3D MMORPGs while still retaining the Ultima “feel” of UO (such as it is). Iris is only compatible with a number of different “freeshard” server types. See the project website (actually a wiki) for full details.

Iris requires a legal copy of Ultima Online, preferably one of the later-edition versions of the game, but it serves to note that trial versions of UO can be used for play on freeshards without suffering limitations. Trial versions of the game can be obtained from the links given on the Iris2 forums.

Produced by: Max Breedon
Website: EUO
Releases:
* EUO Installer (3.5 MiB, 20 hits)
* EUO Patching Utility (99.7 KiB, 17 hits)
* Launcher Client (24.7 KiB, 17 hits)
* EUO Map Editor (158.8 KiB, 17 hits)
* EUO 3D Client (253.3 KiB, 15 hits)

Borrowing a fair bit from other RPGs, EUO is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5.

The project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.

EUO uses an Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on D&D dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (with additional Ultima Online influences, apparently). Although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Also, the game now incorporates the LUA scripting language, meaning that the player can influence the dungeons to a greater degree through certain key actions. Leveling is done at shrines, with stats being upgraded along the same lines as happened in Ultima 6.

The game features over 100 NPCs and over 50 quests, with more being added all the time. And now, a 3D client is even available!

Produced by: Darkheart Dragon, Avatus Kingsman (formerly), and many others
Website: Ultima Legacy
Releases:
* Custom Data Files (516.2 KiB, 24 hits)

Ultima Legacy was a modified version of Ultima Online which could be played for free, set in a post-Ultima 8 Britannia. Its premise includes the assumption that Ultima 9: Ascension did not happen, and out of that it has spawned a complex and involved storyline that included the Atarkan invasion of Britannia. Legacy doesn’t exactly form the backstory for the Titans of Ether project entitled Ultima IX: Redemption, although there is a relation there as both projects were founded, in part, by Avatus Kingsman (although where he has gone to, none now know).

Joining Legacy was a bit of an involved process — the modified data files that were necessary for game play are provided here for download, but there was more to it than just that. For starters, you needed to own a copy of Ultima Online: The Second Age, and it was actually recommended that you have Ultima Online: Renaissance instead. Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge may also have worked.

The rest of the joining process was explained at the Legacy website. However, as of 2008, Legacy was being revised to tell a Serpent Isle-based tale, and was also switching from the Sphere freeshard system to RunUO. The project website is now little more than a placeholder page.

Produced by: Shattered Moon
Website: Classic Ultima Online
Releases:
* U4 Multiplayer Client (2.6 MiB, 248 hits)

This promising reworking of the Ultima 4 engine does what U6 Online did for Ultima 6 – launches the classic single-player RPG into the realm of online gaming! It has become part of a larger project called Classic Ultima Online, which sounds as though its aim is to port several different Ultima titles into an online framework.

The project is currently in an alpha stage, and there is a client available. You can download the client from Aiera, or through Dennis DeMarco’s website.

To play: launch the client, specify u4m.demarco.com as the game server, and then create a player.

This project was formerly known as “Ultima 4 Multiplayer“.

Produced by: Galleon Dragon
Website: Galleon Dragon
Releases:
* U6O Client (3.4 MiB, 162 hits)

Galleon Dragon’s ambitious re-creation of Ultima 6 — which has been brought back online by mose — takes the game into the online realm, allowing you to play against other Ultima 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.