Produced by: Team Exalted Crown
Website: Gaming @TP

This is (was?) a promising-looking remake of at least the first part of Ultima 7: The Black Gate, produced as part of a game design course offered at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore.

The challenge of porting a 2D game of Ultima 7′s caliber — including its interactivity and living, breathing world — into a 3D engine (Neverwinter Nights 2, in this case) with a much more static world (at least by default) would make for an excellent primer in game design, and it’s just a pity that as yet the team has not released its work into the wild.

Produced by: SiENcE
Website: Crank Gaming

There’s not much information about this project that is presently available. 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.

Presently, there’s little more than a YouTube video demonstrating the port in action, but expect to see a release fairly soon.

Produced by: Team Exult
Website: Exult at Sourceforge
Releases:
* Windows Binary (2.0 MiB, 152 hits)
* Mac OS X 10.3 (1.4 MiB, 121 hits)
* Sharp Zaurus (1.4 MiB, 88 hits)
* PocketPC (ARM) (246 bytes, 97 hits)
* PSP (2.0 MiB, 103 hits)
* Fedora - Game (1.0 MiB, 95 hits)
* Fedora - Tools (274.0 KiB, 86 hits)
* Fedora - Studio (254.6 KiB, 80 hits)
* Source Code (RPM) (1.6 MiB, 85 hits)
* Source Code (.tar.gz) (1.6 MiB, 79 hits)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Program (0 bytes)

Additional Files
* Black Gate Sound Files (4.6 MiB, 119 hits)
* Black Gate Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (6.2 MiB, 100 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (1 of 2) (12.0 MiB, 117 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (2 of 2) (10.9 MiB, 111 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (5.9 MiB, 126 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (7.7 MiB, 105 hits)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Data (0 bytes)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Music (mono, low quality) (0 bytes)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Music (stereo, higher quality) (0 bytes)

Exult 1.4 (unstable)
* Exult 1.4 (Windows) (2.2 MiB, 131 hits)
* Exult 1.4 (PocketPC - ARM4) (1.3 MiB, 76 hits)
* Exult 1.4 (PocketPC - ARM5) (1.3 MiB, 91 hits)
* Exult Studio (Windows) (3.5 MiB, 90 hits)
* Exult Tools (Windows) (1.3 MiB, 91 hits)
* Exult 1.4 Source (4.3 MiB, 82 hits)
* Shapes Plugin for Photoshop (87.7 KiB, 88 hits)
* GIMP Plugin (50.4 KiB, 84 hits)
* GIMP Plugin 2.0 (47.0 KiB, 90 hits)
* SDL 1.2 Libraries

An amazing remake, 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 1.2 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.

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, 212 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: 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: Arnim Sauerbier
Website: Arnim Sauerbier
Releases:
* Aklabeth for Nokia Smartphones (33.6 KiB, 247 hits)

* 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:

• Akalabeth – a port of Paul Robson’s SDL version of the game
• Ultima 4 – a port of xu4
• 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!

Produced by: Sam Matthews
Releases:
* Exult 3D (19.2 KiB, 170 hits)
* Exult 3D Models (3.9 MiB, 117 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.