Produced by: Fahed “Foody” Al Daye
Website: Foody’s Blog at Indie DB

Though it has yet to produce any releases, this interesting-looking RPG maker software, presently under development, was announced on a short-lived thread in the Exult forums, and is obviously quite heavily influenced by Ultima 7 (indeed, it would appear to be using a colour-shifted version of the golden doors from Serpent Isle as its door graphics in the screenshot above).

Foody’s desire is to create an RPG maker that requires no programming knowledge on the part of the user, which suggests (to me, at least) that he will be coding all manner of wizards to assist with scripting events, encounters, and what-have-you.

Produced by: Team Return
Website: Return to the Serpent Isle
Forum: Return Forums

Led by Sergorn Dragon, Return to the Serpent Isle is a “fan-made game based upon the legendary Ultima series and…crafted with the use of the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine.” It intends “to follow in and uphold the tradition of the Ultima series, it will lead the players to revisit the Serpent Isle which first had been introduced in Ultima VII Part Two,” Serpent Isle.

This ambitious effort isn’t a remake, but is in fact a completely new story set in the Ultima universe, and will tell a completely new tale set in a post-holocaust Serpent Isle. Several familiar faces from the second part of Ultima 7 will be making a return in the game, though many new characters will also feature in it.

Produced by: Kevin Fishburne
Website: Eight Virtues

Some may remember Kevin Fishburne from the Ultima V TES III mod that was announced a few years ago, which saw a lot of progress but ultimately ceased development due to the sheer number of 3D assets that needed to be created for it.

Mr. Fishburne is back with a new project called Sanctimonia, which borrows elements from Ultima IV, V, Online and arcade titles such as Gauntlet. It’s a 2D game with faux 3D effects and is not a mod; it’s a standalone MMO-type game that he’s coding himself. Other than landscape textures and building tiles, all the objects (trees, furniture, people, animals, etc.) will be photographed from real models from 16 directions to create the faux 3D effect when the screen is rotated.

Produced by: Mark Mitchell
Website: Forum posting at the Cartographer’s Guild

This is an ambitious project to create a realistic heightmap of Britannia using such tools as Photoshop, Terragen, and L3DT.

This in turn would be useful for some Ultima project developers, since I know for a fact that tools exist for some game engines (Neverwinter Nights 2 especially) that allow for the automatic creation of terrain based on imported heightmaps.

But that’s not the reason Mark has undertaken this project for himself. As he creates this work, he also wants to consider: “size and scaling of the continent, political and demographic issues, economy and trade routes, [and] geology and land formation.” In that regard, it’s as much an anthropological study as it is a really cool piece of artwork. You can see just how cool by clicking on the project’s image there on the left; that’s a sample/preview image he sent me a couple months back. It can be viewed in somewhat better detail at Aiera’s Flickr page.

Produced by: Andrew Brozyna
Website: Ferrous Lands

Andrew’s intriguing project involves taking various 28mm metal figurines and repainting them (with physical modifications if necessary) in order to reimagine Ultima as a tabletop wargame.

Thus far, he’s added a number of monsterforms to his collection — ettins, orcs, goblins, and headlesses to name but a few — and has fashioned a model of the female Avatar and a few of the companions as well (Dupre is pictured here). He has even begun work on a to-scale tavern model, inspired by The Modest Damsel (New Magincia’s tavern in Ultima 7.)

Produced by: Enrico Ricciardi
Website: Enrico Ricciardi

Mystik is a calendar of photographs of European models posed with props and backdrops that represent the virtues and principles of the Ultima universe, as well as the associated character classes.

Ricciardi put a fair bit of thought into understanding and conveying these aspects of Ultima’s backstory, and is offering the calendar in support of Village for All (V4A), which appears (I cannot read Italian) to be a charity devoted to helping those with disabilities travel.

This effort even has the support of Richard Garrriott, which is pretty darn cool.

Produced by: Chgowiz
Website: Chgowiz’s Old Guy RPG Blog
Releases:
* Rulebook (390.2 KiB, 125 hits)
* Game Referee's Guide (378.3 KiB, 109 hits)
* Hawkwind's Gazeteer: Perinia (470.1 KiB, 117 hits)

A pen-and-paper RPG inspired by the first three Ultima titles, Siege Perilous is not (according to its author) a faithful representation of the canonical timeline — it is instead a “hybrid” game that can represent any point within the Ultima timeline, or serve as the foundation for a completely new, “off the cuff” Ultima adventure.

It was developed from an adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry White Box, in addition to several other sources.

The game is complete to the point that it can be playtested; Chgowiz has additions to make to the list of magic items (including potions and spells), character creation rules, and game setting information. Reviews of the game are welcome.

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, 18 hits)
* EUO Map Editor (158.8 KiB, 17 hits)
* EUO 3D Client (253.3 KiB, 16 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: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* Ultima Potions (hak pak) (376.6 KiB, 214 hits)
* Ultima Potions (demo module) (37.0 KiB, 149 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (hak pak) (375.8 KiB, 137 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (demo module) (41.3 KiB, 146 hits)
* Venom Dagger (erf import file) (2.4 KiB, 144 hits)
* Venom Dagger (hak pak) (36.3 KiB, 143 hits)
* Venom Dagger (icons) (700 bytes, 152 hits)
* Venom Dagger (source files) (11.9 KiB, 145 hits)
* NPC Schedules (erf import file) (64.7 KiB, 141 hits)
* NPC Schedules (demo module) (455.6 KiB, 139 hits)
* NPC Schedules (readme) (4.2 KiB, 151 hits)
* Moongates (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 136 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 139 hits)
* Moongates (demo module) (198.5 KiB, 133 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (demo module) (565.3 KiB, 138 hits)
* Savage Empire Female Portraits (3.2 MiB, 213 hits)
* Savage Empire Male Portraits (1.6 MiB, 187 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (files) (287.7 KiB, 147 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (demo) (685.6 KiB, 137 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (18.3 KiB, 164 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (readme) (216 bytes, 159 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits (93.4 KiB, 171 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Soundsets (31.6 KiB, 196 hits)

This is actually a comprehensive collection of utilities and in-progress remakes of Ultima titles, all done in the Neverwinter Nights engine. The list of utilities is pretty comprehensive, including functional moongates (with Orb of the Moons!), NPC scheduling, animated potions, a conversation system to replace the default NWN system, and a very good reproduction of the venomous dagger of Ultima 7 fame.

But even more promising is the list of remakes that are being put together by this team and others. Currently in progress are remakes of Ultima 1, Ultima 7 (which provides the screenshot here), Ultima 8, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams. Most of these seem still to be in the early stages of development, but the Ultima 7 remake — which deals, it seems, only with the events of The Black Gate at present — looks to have progressed somewhat further.

Here is hoping, then, that this collective set of efforts bears much fruit in the future! As the projects progress, I’ll probably break off each remake into its own standalone entry. For now, this one omnibus entry will suffice.

Produced by: Team Lazarus & Team Archon
Website: Project Britannia
Releases:
* Milestone 2 (169.4 MiB, 12 hits)

Updates (may be unstable):
* Britannia Art (132.7 MiB, 10 hits)
* Britannia Logic (2.4 MiB, 12 hits)
* Britannia Sound (4.9 MiB, 10 hits)
* Britannia Map (86.8 MiB, 13 hits)

Utilities
* Development Environment (463.8 KiB, 12 hits)
* Container Override Example (1.5 KiB, 8 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Font Builder (619.0 KiB, 11 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Skrit API (1.2 MiB, 12 hits)
* Skrit/Template Cross Reference (6.1 MiB, 13 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Toolkit (22.7 MiB, 11 hits)
* Lazarus Lorebook Editor (288.7 KiB, 11 hits)
* Rapid Tank Creator (246.0 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Full) (56.5 MiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Plugin) (864.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege University Compilation (9.8 MiB, 12 hits)
* Tank Viewer (382.1 KiB, 12 hits)
* User Interface Designer (1.2 MiB, 11 hits)
* Conversation Generator (227.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Conversation Editor for Siege Tools (100.4 KiB, 11 hits)
* Book Editor for Siege Tools (37.6 KiB, 11 hits)
* NPC/Schedule/Chest Generator (1.0 MiB, 11 hits)

Milestone 1 Release:
* Milestone 1 (Part 1/3) (85.3 MiB, 12 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 2/3) (71.8 MiB, 11 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 3/3) (5.6 MiB, 11 hits)

This ambitious project, a joint venture arising from the copperative developments of Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project — both Dungeon Siege-based remakes of their respective Ultima titles — aims to create a platform for the easier creation of Ultima remakes (and, one would assume, spinoffs).

It’s “short list” of features is really too long to name here, but includes dynamic weather, ship navigation (a feature lost in many modern RPGs), complete day/night cycle, NPC scheduling, reagent-based spellcasting, moongates, dynamic factions, and a custom-build branching conversation system.

It has been classified as an engine, alongside the likes of Unity 3D and Torque, because it is not so much a game or a remake in and of itself, but is rather a framework which can be used by other developers to build a game set in Britannia.

Note: the development team for Project Britannia is pretty active, and they are constantly putting out updates. The ones hosted here are current to the best of my knowledge, but they may be a few days stale. To that end, the most current versions of the update files can always be found at the Project Britannia Change Log. Please note that these updates are likely unstable at present.

Produced by: Scythifuge
Website: Exult Form Thread

A project to recreate Savage Empire using Exult. This relatively new project (announced June 16, 2006) seems to be developing at a reasonable pace. Scythifuge has been experimenting with the Gimp and PaintShop Pro, and has begun to add custom graphics to this promising work. He has also begun to experiment with high-resolution tiles, and has posted some sample roof tiles to the forum thread linked above.

As yet, however, no demo or project snapshot has been released.

Produced by: Withstand the Fury Dragon
Website: Worlds of Ultima: Lost Sosaria
Downloads:
* Lost Sosaria (module) (0 bytes)
* Castle Expanded v4 (hak pak) (0 bytes)
* CEP2 No Tilesets (hak pak) (0 bytes)
* No Cobble CRF (hak pak) (0 bytes)
* Rocky Mountains v11.1 (hak pak) (0 bytes)
* Seasonal Forest v9 (hak pak) (0 bytes)
* Ultima Music (hak pak, music) (0 bytes)
* ERF files (erf) (0 bytes)
* CEP2 TLK file (tlk) (0 bytes)

Worlds of Ultima: Lost Sosaria is a Neverwinter Nights module that tells the story of those companions of the Avatar who were missing without explanation after Ultima 7, as well as several other key characters from The Black Gate.

Pursuing Fellowship agents deep into the bowels of Britannia and the ruins of the Great Stygian Abyss, the companion Sentri leads his party of former friends and companions of the Avatar into an unknown part of the world: Lost Sosaria, one of the continents of Old Sosaria left missing after the death of the Wizard Mondain.

This project suspended development for a goodly while between 2005 and the present, and in fact Withstand the Fury Dragon has had to restart the module from scratch. However, he has revised his development plan, and feels confident that he can still deliver a good game with a large game world, this time using much more elegant tilesets.

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: General Maximus
Website: Ultima for Civ IV
Releases:
* Ultima X Conquest (Civ III) (59.4 KiB, 15 hits)
* Ultima X: Medieval Deity Challenge (Civ III) (104.6 KiB, 14 hits)
* Ultima X: Battle for Britannia (Civ 4) (1.3 MiB, 17 hits)

General Maximus has produced an Ultima-derived scenario (in two forms) for Civilization III, as well as an updated version of the Conquest scenario for Civilization 4 Warlords. All are set in Britannia after the events of Ultima 9. The forms of the scenario are as follows (one appearing to be a more difficult version of the scenario than the other two):

Ultima X: Conquest

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by deviant warlords. Play as British under civilization group Bards. Forces and castles still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar; the rebelion states begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his heroic companions, reclaim your entire kingdom!

Ultima X: Medieval Deity Challenge

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British (LB) lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by independent warlords who were once friends of Lord British (LB) himself. Play as LB under civilisation group Bards. Forces or cities still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar, the rebelions states has begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his companion Iolo, reclaim your entire kingdom!

Ultima X: Battle for Britannia

Battlecrys are once again heard in the ancient kingdom of Britannia. Lord British has lost hold of his kingdom with the breakaway of seven city-states. Lord British who preaches the Way of the Avatar and its Eight Virtues is now under siege in the city Britain that is being attacked from all sides. The renegade states are under the influences of a rising movement known as The Fellowship and Britannia is not big enough for both. The mutinuos city states are some lead by warlords who were once companion of the Avatar who have turned against him. Once again, the Avatar, champion of Britannia is called upon to fight off the hostile forces against Lord British.

The second form of the scenario seems to be more combat-oriented, and provides fewer allies/companions for the player.

Produced by: Wizardry Dragon, Marzo Sette Torres Jr., Crysta the Elf,
Website: Ultima 7: The Feudal Lands
Releases:
* Oct. 29 2006 Snapshot (2.7 MiB, 76 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.

Produced by: MokahTGS
Website: Realms of Ultima Blog
Releases:
* Realms of Ultima Demo (13.7 MiB, 8 hits)
* Realms of Ultima 2DAs v1.11 (69.4 KiB, 9 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Icons v1.11 (44.7 KiB, 8 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Moongates Prefab (1.6 MiB, 9 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Moongates Demo (1.6 MiB, 9 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Extras & Fixes (20.2 MiB, 9 hits)
* Realms of Ultima New Magincia Prefab (24.5 MiB, 11 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Land & Sea Hak Pak (1.7 MiB, 8 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Land & Sea ERF (152.3 KiB, 9 hits)
* Realms of Ultima Land & Sea Demo (18.8 MiB, 10 hits)

This project also requires the Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Content Compilation and the Armor in Progress Compilation. Additional information about the Land & Sea system can be found here.

Intending to do for Neverwinter Nights 2 what Project Britannia did for Dungeon Siege, this project aimed to create a complete “prefab” of Britannia — with a fully-implemented world map, all the historical Ultima quest objects, and pre-implemented scripts — for NWN2 builders to use as the base for Ultima-themed modules.

Unfortunately, development on the project stalled about a year ago, and no further updates have been made to its website since then.

Produced by: Chris Hopkins
Website: 80s Gaming
Releases:
* ACK v3.2 (Windows) (20.5 MiB, 110 hits)
* ACK v3.2 (Mac) (23.1 MiB, 81 hits)
* ACK v3.2 (other systems) (18.4 MiB, 87 hits)

This is a comprehensive top-down 2D game development tool that allows for the creation of tiled RPG-type games, similar to Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5. It is now fully operable under both Windows and Mac OS X without need for emulation of any kind.

The Kit was completed in 1995, and was intended as Mr. Hopkins’ update to the classic Adventure Construction Kit of the 1980s. In about 2000, the Kit was released as freeware, and Joshua Lawrence has taken it upon himself to maintain a web presence for the Kit. The ‘v3′ update was released in early 2008.

Produced by: Gordon McNutt
Website: Nazghul CRPG
Releases:
* Nazghul 0.7.0 Setup (Windows) (7.4 MiB, 20 hits)
* Nazghul 0.7.0 Setup (Mac) (9.9 MiB, 12 hits)
* Nazghul 0.7.0 Source (7.5 MiB, 12 hits)

Still in development (although you can download and compile the source, which is currently at version 0.7.0), 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.