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Produced by: Jim Ursetto
Website: pu6e @ 3e8.org
Releases:
* PU6E v0.6.0 (Windows) (2.8 MiB, 208 hits)
* PU6E v0.6.0 (Source) (82.7 KiB, 140 hits)
* PU6E v0.6.0 ReadMe (12.5 KiB, 145 hits)
* U6Edit v0.5 (52.7 KiB, 130 hits)
* U6Edit v0.5.0 ReadMe (8.0 KiB, 132 hits)
* Ultima 6 Notes (10.9 KiB, 130 hits)

PU6E, which is pronounced “puce“, probably stands for Python Ultima 6 Editor, since that is the language it was written in. It uses OpenGL and wxWindows on top of that, and is an editing environment for Ultima 6: The False Prophet.

Using PU6E, one can create, modify, and delete objects in Ultima 6, manipulate containers (via a tree view), edit terrain and map chunks, view all map and object tiles, view tile and palette animation, view and move NPCs, view book contents, save map/object/NPC data, and (most importantly) play new worlds of your creation. In other words, it is primarily a world editor; it cannot be used to edit the game’s plot, book texts, or character dialogues.

That said, the editor works with all the members of what the producer calls “the Ultima 6 family”: Ultima 6, Martian Dreams, and Savage Empire.

An older version of the editor, called U6Edit, is also available; it was built with Perl and GTK.

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Produced by: Origin Systems (presumably)
Downloads:
* Ultima 6 Design Document (164.1 KiB, 500 hits)

Courtesy of Lost Dragon, Aiera is pleased to host for download this design document for Ultima 6. It is mostly focused on game mechanics, covering everything from monster stats to pathfinding, and as such affords an interesting glimpse under the hood of my personal favourite Ultima title. What it doesn’t cover, however, is plot points, dialogues, or other in-game text.

This document was obtained a few years ago, in an Ultima discussion forum. It is apparently an older document, and so some of the information recorded in it may not reflect the final values and functions that went into the game.

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Produced by: Troy Forrest
Releases:
* Chunk Editor (17.9 KiB, 273 hits)

A simple editing utility for modifying the graphics ‘chunks’ in Ultima 6.

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Produced by: Paul Gilbert
Website: U6Edit @ Sourceforge
Releases:
* U6Edit (523.5 KiB, 328 hits)

This powerful editing suite for Ultima 6 allows for the modification of the original game’s maps and graphics, and also includes a complete editing suite for conversations, with opcode highlighting. Currently, the program seems to support both Ultima 6 and Martian Dreams (but not, apparently, Savage Empire).

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Produced by: DOUG the Eagle Dragon
Website: IT-HE Software
Releases:
* The Unoffical Ultima VI Developer's Kit v1.0 (128.9 KiB, 359 hits)
* Ultima 6 Items List (24.9 KiB, 301 hits)
* Ultima 6 Savegame Manager (100.0 KiB, 314 hits)
* Book Editor (17.6 KiB, 261 hits)
* Finder (20.6 KiB, 292 hits)
* IT-HE Utilities Source Code (1.4 MiB, 278 hits)
* Ultima 6 Editing Information (132.7 KiB, 300 hits)

The always amusing, always inventive DOUG the Eagle Dragon has produced an incredible wealth of software for editing many different aspects of Ultima 6, so much so that a “brief” description is rather difficult to give.

The Unofficial Developer’s Kit is a comprehensive utilities package that includes four programs that can be used to edit Ultima 6:

• Tweak – a party roster editor (add people to your party, even if in the game they won’t respond to the join command!) with a few other bonus features
• Map – world editor, edit the chunks and map
• RedSetter – affix ‘temporary’ objects to the ground, making static scenery
• Undead – repairs characters who have been rendered “brain-dead” by violent death and subsequent resurrection

DOUG has also released some useful subsidiary programs to this utility:

• Savage Empire Patch (96.0 KiB, 278 hits) – a patch that enables the editor to work with Savage Empire
• Martian Dreams Patch (69.2 KiB, 270 hits) – a patch that enables the editor to work with Martian Dreams
• Party Fix Utility (11.4 KiB, 260 hits) – a small program that corrects an occasional error in Tweak that causes ‘solid’ characters

Conversely, the Items List is more of a cheat than a utility (since you can only use the ‘item creation’ feature of Ultima 6 if you use the ‘spam’ cheat); this is a list of many of the items you can get Iolo to create in the game.

The Savegame Manager is a useful program that allows for more than one save-game in Ultima 6, even when using ‘hacked’ versions of the game.

The Book Editor will allow you to UNBIND all the books and signs in Ultima 6 into a text file, and then REBIND them into the game format after you edit their contents.

The Finder utility has two components, both of which will assist in the use of the RedSetter program that is a part of the Ultima 6 Developer’s Kit:

• Stamp – affixes a ‘homing device’ to the Avatar (the location of the Avatar is critical to proper use of RedSetter)
• Finder – tracks the Avatar using the ‘homing device’

Finally, the Editor source code: written mostly in Borland C, this is the code for all of the utilities from IT-HE software, as well as some information documentation to assist in its usage. Note that the source code has been RARed first, and then ZIPped, to make it smaller.

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Produced by: Rescue Raider
Releases:
* Ultima 6 Character Editor (29.0 KiB, 377 hits)

Another character-editing utility for Ultima 6.

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Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Release:
* Ultima 6 File Formats (20.6 KiB, 330 hits)

Nodling Dragon’s incomplete reference file for some of the Ultima 6 file formats. Useful for editors.

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Produced by: Nodling Dragon, Glanestel Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* u6encode Source (1.8 KiB, 200 hits)
* u6decode Source (3.7 KiB, 210 hits)
* u6decode v2.1 (16.5 KiB, 117 hits)

Much as with Nodling’s equivalent utilities for Ultima 4, these files let you decode (decompress) LZW-compressed data files that Ultima 6 uses, and then re-encode them in a way that Ultima 6 can read (although not with the LZW algorithm, which was patented at the time these utilities were written). Nodling Dragon points out that when one uses the encoder, the resultant file will be a bit larger than the equivalent “original” file, for this reason.

Glanestel Dragon has since produced an updated version of u6decode which will work on Ultima 6‘s conversation files as well. The files are, apparently, not entirely encoded with LZW, but do have LZW-compressed data blocks within them. Nodling Dragon’s original version can’t handle these files.

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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.