Ultima 4 remakes
Written by a self-described “out of work programmer” who “spent [a] couple of months (while looking for a job) building Ultima 4 to showcase [his] online programming skills,” this is a really neat-looking Flash-based, apparently faithful remake of Ultima 4.
You can play the game at the Website link, above.
This is a flash-based, online-playable version of the Sega Master System version of Ultima 4, which Ergonpandilus Dragon (who informed me of its existence) asserts is “the best version of U4 to play.”
I was never a console gamer myself, but if you were and if you enjoyed/treasured this version of Ultima 4, then by all means do check it out. The controls seem fairly simple, and the game itself seems fairly responsive.
Sadly, the game seems to be quite buggy, and crashes often.
* xu4 for Nokia Smartphones (1.9 MiB, 238 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Exult - Program (1.0 MiB, 68 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Exult - Data (14.0 MiB, 58 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Music (mono) (12.5 MiB, 55 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Music (stereo) (28.7 MiB, 66 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Program (766.2 KiB, 35 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - libSDL (16.2 KiB, 34 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Configuration (998 bytes, 27 hits)
These are actually just ports of other Ultima projects (linked below), but as I’ve never seen so many in one place at one time (and from one person!), they are classified not only as ports but as their own separate entry on Aiera.
The following projects have been ported to the Nokia 770/N800 internet tablets:
It serves to note that these ports are ongoing works, and it further serves to note that some of the projects that have been ported (Pentagram, for an easy example) are themselves incomplete. However, O Reader, if you use a Nokia 770/N800 internet tablet, and would like to be able to play some classic Ultima titles whilst on the go, this is likely a project for you!
Produced by: MagerValp
Website: Ultima IV Gold
Releases:
* Ultima 4 Gold (1.0 MiB, 250 hits)
This project is an improved version of Ultima 4 for the Commodore 64. Notably, it features optimized code and no disk swapping (1541 users will have to flip the disk once only), and the save system has been revamped (saving is now possible in dungeons). Trainers have been improved, and even little fixes have found their way in — the music, for example, no longer interrupts when you are walking around in Britannia.
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: Andrew Taylor
Website: xu4- Ultima IV
Releases:
* xu4 - Windows v1.0b3 (1.1 MiB, 228 hits)
* xu4 - Mac OS X v1.0b3 (3.1 MiB, 155 hits)
* xu4 - Linux v1.0b3 (2.4 MiB, 137 hits)
* xu4 - Source v1.0b3 (410.3 KiB, 154 hits)
* xu4 - Zaurus v0.9 (1.9 MiB, 106 hits)
* xu4 - BeOS v0.5 (88.3 KiB, 127 hits)
* xu4 - Dreamcast (5.1 MiB, 130 hits)
Snapshots – May be unstable
* xu4 - Windows Snapshot (1.4 MiB, 150 hits)
* xu4 - Mac OS X Snapshot (3.3 MiB, 136 hits)
Andrew Taylor’s SDL-based re-creation of Ultima 4 is intended to be a cross-platform version of the game much as Exult is for Ultima 7.
And, since Ultima 4 is freeware, he (like many others) has also made available for download the original version (0 bytes) of the game. As well, there is a graphics update (0 bytes) available. The original game is now included with non-PC versions of xu4, but is required for Windows.
This remake of Ultima 4 appeared on the Neverwinter Vault back in July 2003, although it only came to my attention some years later.
While not completely faithful to the original, this remake does do a good job of re-telling the story, and it seems that what few omissions/changes are present are a result of the choice of engine. For example, the moongates do not appear/disappear according to the moon phases of Britannia. While this can be implemented in Neverwinter Nights, it does require a good deal of tedious and time-consuming event-scripting.
More recently, this remake has seen a few bug fixes and updates made to it courtesy of Glanestel Dragon, mostly based on feedback from people who’ve played the mod.
Produced by: Lyrac
Website: www.lyrac.net (currently down)
Releases:
* Avatarship v1.3 (Module) (2.7 MiB, 161 hits)
* Avatarship v1.3 non-SoU (Module) (1.6 MiB, 128 hits)
* Avatarship v1.3 (Hak Pak) (48.0 MiB, 153 hits)
* Avatarship Music (18.8 MiB, 139 hits)
Zonker’s Neverwinter Nights-based remake of Ultima 4 is the first of the remakes to have reached completion. It should be compatible with most versions of NWN patched to at least version 1.32. There are two versions of the module, one that requires the Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack and one that does not.
Produced by: George Stephan
Website: Optima IV
Releases:
* Virtue of Humility v7.0401 (6.9 MiB, 209 hits)
* VoH World Editor (754.3 KiB, 112 hits) (probably out of date)
* VoH Readme (43.0 KiB, 143 hits)
Using Dark Basic, George Stephan has created a faithful remake of Ultima 4. Although initially he made the game available using either an Ultima 4 tileset or a higher-resolution Ultima 5 tileset, his current iterations of the game blend the two tilesets together.
