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: Nytegard
Website: Nytegard’s Ultima 5 editor @ Nodling’s
Releases:
* Editor & Conversation Decoder (1.9 KiB, 215 hits)
* Graphics Extractor (3.7 KiB, 206 hits)
* Improved Conversation Decoder (3.0 KiB, 210 hits)

Several years ago, Nytegard undertook a project to crack into the data files for Ultima 5, and proceeded to extensively reverse-engineer the game. Along the way, he built himself several tools to assist in decoding elements of the game’s data, most notably its graphics and conversation files.

Nodling Dragon made his source code available for download, and I have added this entry — with the same files — to Aiera to serve as a second mirror for Nytegard’s work. All of the above downloads are source code archives, and must be compiled with (at minimum) Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 and the DirectX SDK.

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Produced by: ultimavforipad
Website: ultimavforipad at Tumblr

Just like the name of the project suggests, this is an attempt to get Ultima 5 running on the Apple iPad. At present, the project is on hold pending the release of iOS 4.2.

Once active again, the project will involve running DOSpad (a port of DOSBox) to serve as a wrapper for the game; this will necessarily involve jailbreaking the iPad. Of course, if he succeeds in getting the port up and running, he might just find a willing publisher for his work.

Note: the image accompanying this post is just something I threw together in five minutes from a couple of images I found online. It is not an actual picture of Ultima 5 running on an iPad in real life.

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Produced by: Team Lazarus
Website: Lazarus
Releases:
* Lazarus 1.2 (Windows) (521.0 MiB, 803 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 (Mac) (528.3 MiB, 471 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 French Patch (Windows) (8.2 MiB, 369 hits)
* Lazarus German Patch v1.0 (12.6 MiB, 359 hits)
* Blink Activation Patch (4.3 KiB, 490 hits)
* Difficulty Override (16.1 KiB, 481 hits)
* Font Patch (11.5 KiB, 474 hits)
* Portrait Patch (615.4 KiB, 533 hits)
* Lazarus Editing Environment (Windows) (3.3 MiB, 467 hits)
* Chronicle of Lord British's Expedition (1.0 MiB, 449 hits)
* Lazarus Game Manual (10.3 MiB, 494 hits)
* Map of Britannia (638.6 KiB, 562 hits)
* Lazarus Soundtrack (142.2 MiB, 458 hits)

Patches and Upgrades:
* Enhanced Graphics (11.5 MiB, 1,053 hits) – from 3DWorx
* Looking Up Camera Mod (40.8 KiB, 619 hits)
* Grail Quest's Mods (622.9 KiB, 500 hits) – see this text file (12.7 KiB, 713 hits) for details
* Bugfixes and Modifications (599.5 KiB, 695 hits)
* Project Britannia Compatibility Mod (22.4 KiB, 554 hits)
* Comfortability Mod 1 (3.6 KiB, 484 hits) – start with a bedroll
* Comfortability Mod 2 (3.6 KiB, 408 hits) – start with a bedroll and the sextant (may break a later quest)
* Comfortability Mod 3 (7.5 KiB, 520 hits) – reduced daily food consumption rate
* Comfortability Mod 4 (3.2 KiB, 477 hits) – adds hotkey support for the pocketwatch (if the party has it)
* Regeneration Ring Health Loss Bugfix (3.2 KiB, 531 hits)

Spell-related Mods:
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod (51.9 KiB, 564 hits) – replaces the default icons for spell scrolls with graphics that make it easier to identify which spell is on which scroll. Only works on new scrolls added to inventory, not scrolls already held
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod with Chuckles Scroll Changer (61.7 KiB, 425 hits) – adds to the above mod the ability to talk to Chuckles the Jester and have him “exchange” all your current spell scrolls for new ones, thus updating their icons

Weapon Mods:
* Magic Weapon Fix (25.7 KiB, 548 hits) – fixes an issue with weapon enhancement damage not being applied.
* Magic Axe Redux v1.1 (12.6 KiB, 442 hits) – uses spell damage to cause the magic axe’s bonus damage
* Magic Axe Redux v2 (14.5 KiB, 487 hits) – addresses balance issues with the previous version of the mod
* Cheerful's weaponfixes (20.2 KiB, 442 hits) – fixes some scripting and bug issues with weapon-based spells
* Flint Item Changer (9.9 KiB, 397 hits) – talk to Flint to “upgrade” your magic weapons to bug-fixed, modded versions

Cheerful Dragon’s Weapon Addons:
* Undead-slaying Silver sword and Stronger glass sword (10.6 KiB, 452 hits)
* Ranged Throwing Aze (4.7 KiB, 422 hits)

One of the most high-profile remakes during its development, Ultima V: Lazarus is a Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 led by Ian “Tiberius” Fraizer. It was completed and released in the early part of 2006.

Lazarus features an enhanced and expanded musical score, additional plot elements, many new and exciting characters and side quests, and fully rendered cut scenes.

The project is available for download in its entirety here, and in addition there are available for download several mods, patches, and bug-fixes; Lazarus has spawned a modding community of its own.

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Produced by: David Randall
Website: Ultima 5 for TI Calculators
Releases:
* Ultima 5 for TI-89 and TI-89 Titanium (852.0 KiB, 338 hits)
* Ultima 5 for TI-92 Beta 0.99 (898.4 KiB, 315 hits)

An ambitious project to port Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments 68K programmable calculators, this remake took a little over a year to reach completion, but as of June 2008 it is done and in open release.

This remake has many features, some new to Ultima 5 (e.g. not a part of the original title), which include:

• 512 tiles, 11×11 pixels and 4 colors. The original tiles were 16×16 pixels and 16 colors.
• 2 world maps (each with a size of 256×256 tiles)
• 32 multi level towns (each level size 32×32 tiles)
• 8 multi level dungeons
• about 150 NPC (non-playable characters) each NPC has a unique daily schedule and conversation script.
• 400 hours of game play(!!)

Akalabeth on a Nokia

Produced by: Arnim Sauerbier
Website: Arnim Sauerbier
Releases:
* Aklabeth for Nokia Smartphones (33.6 KiB, 556 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Exult - Program (1.0 MiB, 373 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Exult - Data (14.0 MiB, 330 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Music (mono) (12.5 MiB, 322 hits)
* Ultima 7 - Music (stereo) (28.7 MiB, 377 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Program (766.2 KiB, 354 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - libSDL (16.2 KiB, 303 hits)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Configuration (998 bytes, 290 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:

• Akalabeth – a port of Paul Robson’s SDL version of the game
• Ultima 5 – a port of Nazghul/Haxima
• Ultima 6 – a port of Nuvie
• Ultima 7 – a port of Exult
• Ultima 8 – a port of Pentagram

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!

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Releases:
* Ultima 1, 3, 4 & 5 Cheat (19.2 KiB, 712 hits)

A cheat program that can be used for Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5 (but not, according to its name, for Ultima 2).

Note: this update may not work with Ultima 3, and may also be missing the strength attribute. This has been found to be the case in DOSBox, at any rate, although at present it is not known whether the error is within the program proper, or whether it is in some way related to DOSbox.

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Produced by: Michael C. Maggio
Website: Mike Maggio’s Digital Portfolio
Releases:
* U5 Assembly (1.4 MiB, 486 hits)

A dump of the assembly language for Ultima 5‘s main executable file.

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Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* U5 Game File Formats (16.2 KiB, 441 hits)
* U5 C64 Game File Formats (9.9 KiB, 268 hits)
* U5 Sharp x86000 Game File Formats (4.6 KiB, 225 hits)
* U5 Savegame File Format (33.1 KiB, 372 hits)
* U5 EGA Driver Information (1.9 KiB, 226 hits)

A comprehensive collection of technical information from Nodling Dragon concerning the Ultima 5 game data files. It includes a description of the PC version of the game’s file formats, and a description of the file formats from the Commodore 64 version as well. It also includes a description of the file formats from the Sharp X86000, an incomplete description of the EGA driver that the game uses, and a description of the PC version’s savegame format.

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Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* Runeless Font Patch (1.8 KiB, 388 hits)

A simple patch to remove the runic font used in Ultima 5 (it is replaced with Latin characters instead).

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Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* Num Lock Patch (2.2 KiB, 338 hits)

Nodling explains thusly: “If you play Ultima 5 with Numlock enabled, the game won’t respond to most of the number keys.

Solution: either add “numlock=off” to your config.sys, or use this patch.”

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Produced by: Xenerkes Dragon
Releases:
* Ultima Savegame Editor v1.3 (204.7 KiB, 1,091 hits)

Another utility from Xenerkes Dragon, this program allows you to edit your savegames from Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5. It allows you to change everything, including character location, and also makes it possible to get horses and boats in Ultima 3 (which is otherwise more than difficult).

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Produced by: Xenerkes Dragon
Releases:
* LZW Decompressor v1.0 (11.1 KiB, 224 hits)

Some files of Ultima 5 and Ultima 6 are compressed using the no-longer-patented LZW algorithm. This program uses the decompression scheme for the algorithm.

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Produced By: Minstrel Dragon
Releases:
* Music Patch (8.2 KiB, 464 hits)

This patch adds the ability to play the Commodore 128 music on the PC64 version of the game.

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Releases:
* Transfer Program (11.5 KiB, 312 hits)

Fixes a bug encountered when transferring characters from Ultima 4 to Ultima 5.

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Produced by: Exodus Project
Website: Exodus Project
Releases:
* MIDI Upgrade (30.7 KiB, 497 hits)
* Upgrade 1.0 (340.8 KiB, 540 hits)

Yet another brilliant Exodus Project upgrade, this time for Ultima 5, these updates add MIDI music files to the PC version of the game that had previously only appeared on the versions for Commodore and Apple.