Utilities!

Produced by: Jason “Xarton Dragon” Penney
Website: JCZorkmid
Releases:
* Portable Ultima 1-6 Patches (PDAR) (1.8 MiB, 234 hits)
* Portable Ultima 7 Patches (PDAR) (21.7 KiB, 108 hits)
* Portable Serpent Isle Patches (PDAR) (51.2 KiB, 80 hits)
* PDAR for Windows (2.4 MiB, 142 hits)
* PDAR Source Code (ZIP) (24.3 KiB, 69 hits)
* PDAR Source Code (TAR.GZ) (17.1 KiB, 62 hits)

A set of patches for Ultima 1 through Ultima 6, developed by Xarton Dragon, which should theoretically be applicable to most installations of the games, inside or outside of DOSBox. The patches are distributed in the PDAR (Portable Delta ARchive) format, and contain only the differences between the patched files and the unpatched files. This should streamline and speed the process of patch application, and also removes much of the hassle of the actual installation process that other patching utilities utilize.

Most of the major patches for each game are included, and a complete listing (as well as installation instructions) can be found in the main download. Also available for download are a Windows PDAR application and the PDAR source code.

These have been tested against the GOG versions of the games and are confirmed to work thereupon. The newly released the Ultima 7 box set is also supported. Xarton will soon be testing them against the Ultima Collection CD installations, and it is expected that the patches will prove effective for those versions of the games as well.

Note: the Ultima 7 patches are supplied as ZIP files, and each archive contains a pair of files: a General MIDI patch and a “GOG Extra” patch. Here are his instructions for applying these patches:

Ultima7.General_MIDI-1.1.pdar or Ultima7p2.General_MIDI-1.0.pdar

Modifies necessary files in place. No need to run batch installer. After applying simply run INSTALL.EXE to change your music device to MT-32 to activate.

Ultima7.General_MIDI-1.1-GOG_Extra.pdar or Ultima7p2.General_MIDI-1.0-GOG_Extra.pdar

Run the General MIDI patch first. This patch modifies the U7.CFG supplied with the GOG distribution to activate the GM/GS patch without the need to run INSTALL.EXE.

Utilities!

Produced by: Pix
Website: Pix’s Origin Adventures
Releases:
* Pix's Ultima Patcher (5.4 MiB, 676 hits)

With the release of Ultimas 1-3 and Ultima 4 on Good Old Games, Ultima Aiera published an article containing information about patching and updating those Ultima titles that have been re-released for sale thus far. Ultima fan Pix (whose repositories of scans of Ultima documentation are really worth checking out, by the way) took it upon himself to collect all of the various patches and updates discussed in that article into a single, easier-to-use application.

The utility should now cover all Ultima titles available on GOG, including the Underworld games and the Ultima 7 box set.

Pix cautions that while the Patcher should work on clean installations from Good Old Games, installations that have been modified in any way already could cause strange results. It includes DPMI and other necessary files as well, so that the graphical upgrade patches for each game work properly.

Presumably, this utility will continue to be expanded to cover additional Ultima titles should they be released on Good Old Games.

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Produced by: Ken C
Website: Native Android Port @ the Exult Forums
Releases:
* Exult for Android (2.1 MiB, 999 hits)
* Patch Series (8.3 KiB, 551 hits)
* Shapes Size Patch (290.6 KiB, 459 hits)

This is a preliminary port of Exult to Google’s Android mobile OS using the Crystax NDK toolchain and the Pelya SDL port. In its current state, it apparently runs “fairly well” (according to the producer), but is still in need of some work to make it playable. Savegames are also implemented.

The files above (the Android binary and patch series) include all the data files that build with Exult on any other OS; optional download of the sound and music packs is also implemented. The original game data, of course, is not included, and has to be added to the game manually. Most Android phones have an SD card slot, however, so all you need to do is copy the needed files from your regular Ultima 7 install and run a couple of push commands within Android.

Also available, courtesy of Exult developer Malignant Manor, is a size patch that increases the size of many of the shapes in the game, which should make many in-game elements look better on a small screen. The patch supports The Black Gate, Serpent Isle, and the Keyring Mod.

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Produced by: Thepal
Website: Ethereal Software
Releases:
* Serpent Isle Announcement Demo (95.4 MiB, 306 hits)

The announcement of this module also serves, in a way, as the cancellation notice for Thepal’s previous Ultima remake attempt, Infinity Eternal. Serpent Isle is, as the name would imply, a more-or-less straight-up remake of Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle, and uses the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion engine. Thepal has chosen to remake Serpent Isle and bring its magic into a 3D world in an attempt to bring the many memorable moments and elements of the original game to life in a way Ultima fans have never seen before.

Thepal has elected to create Serpent Isle as “an almost 1:1 remake of the original game. The original dialogue, quests, locations, furniture…pretty much everything [will be] identical.” He notes that this will work well for two reasons in particular:

• Elder Scrolls Oblivion’s engine is strangely almost identical to the Serpent Isle one… apart from being in 3D. It contains everything I need, including an advanced scheduling system, to make Serpent Isle come to life.
• Serpent Isle was a piece of art that really does not need to be changed.

A direct remake also means — or hopefully means — that he can create the mod faster than a more innovative retelling would require. He notes that “[d]ialogue for a town takes a week instead of…well… closer to a year for previous remakes. Of course, dialogue still seems to be the most time consuming part of the mod, but has been made easier due to a scripted Ultima-like dialogue system that has been incorporated into the original Oblivion dialogue system.”

His expected release date is still the obligatory “when it’s done”, although he rang in the end of 2010 with a release of a 100 MB demo, available here for download, and expects to have much more to show within 2011. And if the project’s rudimentary blog is any indication, he’s making excellent progress. Be sure to also keep an eye on Thepal’s YouTube channel, which features test and gameplay footage from the project.

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Produced by: SiENcE
Website: Crank Gaming
Releases:
* Exult for Dingux (Beta 2) (12.0 MiB, 109 hits)
* Dingux Virtual Mouse (161.5 KiB, 102 hits)

The Dingoo is a portable media player device, and Dingux is a custom Linux kernel for it that comes bundled with SDL and other media-friendly libraries. Exult has been ported to the system by SiENceE, whom some of you may also know as one of the developers of Iris2.

At present, the port is still in beta, but SiENcE reports that it works with both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle. He cautions, however, that to work properly, it requires the Dingux Virtual Mouse utility to be installed; a download has been provided here.

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Produced by: Malignant Manor
Website: SI BG Merge @ the Exult Forums
Releases:
* SI BG Merge v6.8.7 (1.8 MiB, 303 hits)
* SI BG Merge Patch (449.2 KiB, 304 hits)

This interesting mod for Exult imports the shapes from The Black Gate into Serpent Isle, adding hundreds of new shapes, with a few being repeated for use with The Black Gate‘s usecode.

It is still in development, and still buggy (some in-game functionality may be lost by use of the patch), but for users of Exult Studio this may well be an exciting development indeed, as it vastly expands the versatility of available shapes when modifying or creating maps.

Exult

Produced by: Team Exult
Website: Exult @ Sourceforge
Current Releases:
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (Windows) (2.2 MiB, 667 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (OS X) (5.8 MiB, 421 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (Haiku) (15.6 MiB, 57 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 Source (5.2 MiB, 359 hits)
* Sharp Zaurus (1.4 MiB, 341 hits)
* PocketPC (ARM) (246 bytes, 377 hits)
* PSP (2.0 MiB, 442 hits)
* Fedora - Game (1.0 MiB, 397 hits)

Unstable Development Snapshots:
* Exult 1.5 (Windows) (2.1 MiB, 56 hits)
* Exult 1.5 (OS X) (6.1 MiB, 46 hits)
* Exult 1.5 Source (4.5 MiB, 47 hits)
* Exult (Android) (321.9 KiB, 58 hits)

Additional Files
* Audio Installer (Windows) (42.5 MiB, 261 hits)
* Audio Installer (Mac) (47.5 MiB, 205 hits)
* Audio Files (Manual Install) (46.2 MiB, 211 hits)
* Black Gate Sound Files (4.6 MiB, 423 hits)
* Black Gate Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (6.2 MiB, 361 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (1 of 2) (12.0 MiB, 410 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (2 of 2) (10.9 MiB, 381 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (5.9 MiB, 419 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (7.7 MiB, 384 hits)
* Shapes Plugin for Photoshop (87.7 KiB, 355 hits)
* GIMP Plugin (50.4 KiB, 339 hits)
* GIMP Plugin 2.0 (47.0 KiB, 344 hits)
* SDL 1.2 Libraries

Exult Editors
* Exult Studio (Windows) (3.6 MiB, 381 hits)
* Exult Tools (Windows) (1.4 MiB, 376 hits)
* Fedora - Tools (274.0 KiB, 337 hits)
* Fedora - Studio (254.6 KiB, 339 hits)

An amazing project, Exult is a cross-platform reworking of the Ultima 7/Serpent Isle engine that allows the game to be run on modern operating systems with expanded memory environments. This is not the same as a Voodoo memory-manager wrapper program, and it works on many systems apart from Windows.

Exult 1.49 is the latest “stable” release — Team Exult is making massive engine changes, and subsequent releases are expected to have instabilities as a result. It has Windows, Mac OS X, Sharp Zaurus, and Fedora builds available. Also avaliable is the source code, so that people running other systems can compile and build Exult.

It also requires the original game data files from The Black Gate or Serpent Isle; you have to own a copy of either game in order to play it with Exult.

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Produced by: L@Zar0
Website: Traducción Ultima
Releases:
* Traducción de Serpent Isle (5.2 MiB, 281 hits)

This is a full translation of Serpent Isle and The Silver Seed into Spanish. It may require Exult in order to work.

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Produced by: Marzo Sette Torres Jr.
Website: Seven Towers
Releases:
* Serpent Isle Fixes (255.7 KiB, 371 hits)

This interesting collection of Serpent Isle modifications enables you to, among other things, actually cure Cantra of her post-resurrection insanity.

The developer notes that these mods are only workable using the Exult engine, and will not function with only a base install of Serpent Isle.

Additionally, he cautions that the mods might not function properly without The Silver Seed expansion installed, although he has attempted to design them so that this shouldn’t matter.

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Produced by: Wizardry Dragon, Marzo Sette Torres Jr., Crysta the Elf
Website: Ultima 7: The Feudal Lands
Releases:
* v0.1 Alpha Release (Windows) (4.0 MiB, 250 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (SFX) (5.7 MiB, 165 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (RAR) (3.8 MiB, 169 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (TAR.GZ) (6.2 MiB, 168 hits)

Old Releases:
* Oct. 29 2006 Snapshot (2.7 MiB, 398 hits)

This is a mod for Exult (with the release of Exult Studio, expect these to become more and more common) that seeks to merge The Black Gate and Serpent Isle into one seamless narrative. Additionally, it will feature a third continent — the Lands of the Feudal Lords — and a series of quests that the Avatar and his/her party must complete there.

This is an ambitious remake (and also a spin-off, within the technical definition of the term), to be sure! In addition to the expanded narrative, the developers plan to re-introduce the Virtues to the lands of Ultima (i.e. the Avatar will once again be able to interact with the Shrines). As well, they plan to overhaul the spellcasting system and to enable party members to wield spellbooks.

The alpha release of The Feudal Lands is now available, and can be obtained by downloading one of the four files listed above. There is a Windows installer file, which provides a standard wizard-based installation method for the mod (as long as you have Exult installed, it should work just fine).

Also available is a compressed archive of the entire TFL file repository available as either an SFX, RAR, or GZIPped TAR file. Grab the one appropriate to your OS and unzip into the ‘mods’ folder in the install directory for The Black Gate.

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Produced by: Marzo Sette Torres Jr.
Website: Seven Towers
* Avatar Pack (278.5 KiB, 382 hits)

Another Seven Towers mod, joining the likes of Black Gate Keyring and Serpent Isle Fixes, this package completely re-does the portraits for the Avatars in both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle. It not only provides new portrait graphics, but updated gump and paperdoll graphics for each Avatar as well.

Now you can even play a redheaded Avatar!

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Produced by: Sam Matthews
Releases:
* Exult 3D (19.2 KiB, 881 hits)
* Exult 3D Models (3.9 MiB, 619 hits)

A project that surged onto the Exult forums over a year ago and which subsequently stopped development in a half-complete state. Currently, Exult 1.4 is required to run it.

That said, the numerous screenshots that the developer made available were amazing, to say the least, and offered a “never-before-seen” perspective on the world of Ultima 7.

As this program uses the original data for Ultima 7 (being, essentially, Exult with a different graphics engine) you will need the original game files to run it. And yes, like Exult, it will run both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle.

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Produced by: Olivier Marcoux
Website: U7-Wizard
Releases:
* Ultima 7 Wizard v1.9 (213.5 KiB, 319 hits)
* Ultima 7 Wizard Documentation (40.5 KiB, 323 hits)

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).

The Wizard download also includes the program’s source code.

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Produced by:Babylon Team
Releases:
* Black Gate Preview (3.1 MiB, 220 hits)

An effort to translate The Black Gate and Serpent Isle into Italian, which was complete (as well, the Keyring Mod has also been translated) at the time this entry was posted, but which has disappeared from the Internet in the interim (at least as far as I can tell). No local copy of the download was ever made, per a request from the Babylon Team.

C’est la vie. I was able to salvage a preview installer for the Black Gate, however. Please note that this project requires Exult 1.4 in order to work.

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Produced by: Dr. Cat
Website: Dr. Cat’s Lair
Releases:
* The Black Gate v1.0 (2.1 MiB, 220 hits)
* Serpent Isle v1.0 (685.1 KiB, 208 hits)

This project, which the developers have completed as of late 2006, translates both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle into Russian. Both patches require Exult in order to work.

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Releases:
* Generic Mouse Driver - 7 K of memory (38.0 KiB, 212 hits)
* Microsoft Mouse Driver - 11 K of memory (401 bytes, 209 hits)

A pair of mouse drivers that consume a fairly small amount of memory. Useful if you are attempting to run the original version of The Black Gate or Serpent Isle on an older system.

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Releases:
* RDOSUMB (55.1 KiB, 188 hits)

A utility to free up memory when attempting to run an original DOS install of Serpent Isle. Rendered somewhat moot because of the existence of Exult, this utility may nevertheless be useful on older systems.

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Produced by: Marzo Sette Torres Jr, Curiousis0Gruck, and Alun Bestor
Releases:
* Redhead Patch (175.7 KiB, 233 hits)
* Rankin Patch (3.8 KiB, 221 hits)
* Quests & Interactions Patch (294.6 KiB, 264 hits)
* Interactions Patch ONLY (63.4 KiB, 209 hits)

There were a series of four small update patches released for Exult by a consortium of folks through the Wired Entertainment website (which is currently down).

The female redhead Avatar patch is pretty self-explanatory: it adds a female, red-headed Avatar to the character creation menu, and provides the necessary graphics in-game as well, in both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle.

The Rankin patch corrects a small bug in The Black Gate in which the conversation with Rankin could sometimes loop infinitely. This patch requires Exult 1.2 or later.

Finally, the Quests and Interactions patches add a massive amount of world interactivity to the game (more than already exists, which is a fair bit) — you can grind wheat, milk cows, churn butter, shear sheep, and weave cloth. It also provides a few bugfixes to the pocketwatch and to how fishing is handled. The quest patch also adds a side-plot wherein you can return the Rune of Honor to Trinsic. These patches require Exult 1.2 or later.

Please note that you can download the interactions patch bundled with the quest patch, or as a standalone.

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Produced by: Klown Killer and Artaxerxes
Website: Serpent Isle in French
Downloads:
* Serpent Isle in French 1.031 (Windows) (15.5 KiB, 162 hits)
* Serpent Isle in French 1.031 (Linux) (15.2 KiB, 143 hits)

An offshoot of the Exult project, SI French is an effort to translate one of the greatest of the Ultima games from English to French. For Windows, the program has been released as a standalone executeable, while for Linux it has been released as a game patch.

The project did complete and released a couple of versions of its modifications, so while it appears to have died, it won’t be put in the Orphanage for the time being. Its website is still up, but seems to be suffering SQL errors.

This project requires Exult.

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Releases:
* Music Patch (212.9 KiB, 175 hits)

An MPU-401 General MIDI patch for Serpent Isle.