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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.

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Produced by: SiENcE
Website: Crank Gaming
Releases:
* Exult for Dingux (Beta 2) (12.0 MiB, 108 hits)
* Dingux Virtual Mouse (161.5 KiB, 102 hits)

The 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.

At present, the port is still in beta, but SiENcE reports that it works with both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle. He cautions, however, that to work properly, it requires the Dingux Virtual Mouse utility to be installed; a download has been provided here.

Exult

Produced by: Team Exult
Website: Exult @ Sourceforge
Current Releases:
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (Windows) (2.2 MiB, 667 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (OS X) (5.8 MiB, 421 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 (Haiku) (15.6 MiB, 57 hits)
* Exult 1.4.9 RC1 Source (5.2 MiB, 359 hits)
* Sharp Zaurus (1.4 MiB, 341 hits)
* PocketPC (ARM) (246 bytes, 376 hits)
* PSP (2.0 MiB, 442 hits)
* Fedora - Game (1.0 MiB, 397 hits)

Unstable Development Snapshots:
* Exult 1.5 (Windows) (2.1 MiB, 56 hits)
* Exult 1.5 (OS X) (6.1 MiB, 46 hits)
* Exult 1.5 Source (4.5 MiB, 47 hits)
* Exult (Android) (321.9 KiB, 58 hits)

Additional Files
* Audio Installer (Windows) (42.5 MiB, 261 hits)
* Audio Installer (Mac) (47.5 MiB, 205 hits)
* Audio Files (Manual Install) (46.2 MiB, 211 hits)
* Black Gate Sound Files (4.6 MiB, 423 hits)
* Black Gate Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (6.2 MiB, 361 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (1 of 2) (12.0 MiB, 410 hits)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (2 of 2) (10.9 MiB, 381 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (5.9 MiB, 419 hits)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (7.7 MiB, 384 hits)
* Shapes Plugin for Photoshop (87.7 KiB, 355 hits)
* GIMP Plugin (50.4 KiB, 339 hits)
* GIMP Plugin 2.0 (47.0 KiB, 344 hits)
* SDL 1.2 Libraries

Exult Editors
* Exult Studio (Windows) (3.6 MiB, 381 hits)
* Exult Tools (Windows) (1.4 MiB, 376 hits)
* Fedora - Tools (274.0 KiB, 337 hits)
* Fedora - Studio (254.6 KiB, 339 hits)

An amazing project, 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 1.49 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.

It also requires the original game data files from The Black Gate or Serpent Isle; you have to own a copy of either game in order to play it with Exult.

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Produced by: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* Ultima Potions (hak pak) (376.6 KiB, 598 hits)
* Ultima Potions (demo module) (37.0 KiB, 449 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (hak pak) (375.8 KiB, 437 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (demo module) (41.3 KiB, 418 hits)
* Venom Dagger (erf import file) (2.4 KiB, 436 hits)
* Venom Dagger (hak pak) (36.3 KiB, 446 hits)
* Venom Dagger (icons) (700 bytes, 445 hits)
* Venom Dagger (source files) (11.9 KiB, 445 hits)
* NPC Schedules (erf import file) (64.7 KiB, 412 hits)
* NPC Schedules (demo module) (455.6 KiB, 403 hits)
* NPC Schedules (readme) (4.2 KiB, 467 hits)
* Moongates (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 440 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 432 hits)
* Moongates (demo module) (198.5 KiB, 434 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (demo module) (565.3 KiB, 472 hits)
* Savage Empire Female Portraits (3.2 MiB, 585 hits)
* Savage Empire Male Portraits (1.6 MiB, 520 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (files) (287.7 KiB, 465 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (demo) (685.6 KiB, 427 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (18.3 KiB, 482 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (readme) (216 bytes, 478 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits (93.4 KiB, 508 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Soundsets (31.6 KiB, 517 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.

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Produced by: Wizardry Dragon, Marzo Sette Torres Jr., Crysta the Elf
Website: Ultima 7: The Feudal Lands
Releases:
* v0.1 Alpha Release (Windows) (4.0 MiB, 250 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (SFX) (5.7 MiB, 165 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (RAR) (3.8 MiB, 169 hits)
* v0.1 Alpha Release (TAR.GZ) (6.2 MiB, 168 hits)

Old Releases:
* Oct. 29 2006 Snapshot (2.7 MiB, 398 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.

The alpha release of The Feudal Lands is now available, and can be obtained by downloading one of the four files listed above. There is a Windows installer file, which provides a standard wizard-based installation method for the mod (as long as you have Exult installed, it should work just fine).

Also available is a compressed archive of the entire TFL file repository available as either an SFX, RAR, or GZIPped TAR file. Grab the one appropriate to your OS and unzip into the ‘mods’ folder in the install directory for The Black Gate.

Akalabeth on a Nokia

Produced by: Arnim Sauerbier
Website: Arnim Sauerbier
Releases:
* Aklabeth for Nokia Smartphones (33.6 KiB, 555 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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Produced by: Sam Matthews
Releases:
* Exult 3D (19.2 KiB, 881 hits)
* Exult 3D Models (3.9 MiB, 619 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.