Beautiful Britannia started as a ‘Freedom Mod‘ for Ascension, assembled by Michael Menapace in response to the rather absurdly linear feel to the plot of this last Ultima title. The mod didn’t do much to alter the order of events in the game, or to change at all the inconsistencies encountered in Ultima 9‘s plot. What it does do, however, is alter some aspects of the structure of Britannia, eliminating obstacles that previously prevented you from roaming the land of Britannia freely.

Eventually, the project grew into what became known as Forgotten World, and a team joined FIrstkniGHT. FIrstkniGHT himself left the team for a while, though the project moved on; it gained a website and grew more ambitious, evolving into an attempt to decode the Ascension game files with an eye toward building a world and game editor, in order to provide players with a better experience.

Firstknight (slight spelling change) then rejoined the team, and the project split into two separate projects as a result: Beautiful Britannia (a more “lush” version of the original Ultima 9) and its “Unlimited” spinoff (a more lush Ultima 9 with a few additions and revisions), and Forgotten World proper (the in-engine remake, which will feature many corrections and updates). Firstknight subsequently departed the team again, this time apparently for good; in the process, Beautiful Britannia became this standalone project.

Ultima IX: Redemption is being developed with the Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls engine, and will feature a totally original plot and original gameplay. This re-imagining of Ultima 9 aspires to live up to the Ultima greatness that the original game, in the opinion of the Titans of Ether, failed to achieve. It will feature total freedom in moral decision-making (which the original didn’t grant), as well as multiple endings.

Since Sept. 18, 2004, this project and The New King have been one unified effort under the direction of Corv. The New King will be the direct sequel to Redemption.

Produced by: Thepal
Website: Ethereal Software
Releases:
* Buccaneer's Den Demo (4.3 MiB, 39 hits)

This remake is the only Ultima remake, at present, that is being made with the Oblivion engine. Unlike Redemption, Infinity Eternal is being made to be more faithful to the plot of the original Ultima 9 while adjusting those things which irritated many Ultima fans. The most interesting thing about this remake seems to be that it will feature traveling to other worlds, including the Serpent Isle.

The above demo is from the days when the project was being built with the Morrowind engine, and so will not be reflective of the final product. It is being kept online for the moment pending the release of a new demo from the team.

Note: this module requires both Morrowind expansions, Bloodmoon and Tribunal.

Forgotten World started as a ‘Freedom Mod‘ for Ascension, assembled by Michael Menapace in response to the rather absurdly linear feel to the plot of this last Ultima title. The mod didn’t do much to alter the order of events in the game, or to change at all the inconsistencies encountered in Ultima 9‘s plot. What it does do, however, is alter some aspects of the structure of Britannia, eliminating obstacles that previously prevented you from roaming the land of Britannia freely.

Eventually, the project grew and a team joined FIrstkniGHT. FIrstkniGHT himself left the team for a while, though the project moved on; it gained a website and grew more ambitious, evolving into an attempt to decode the Ascension game files with an eye toward building a world and game editor, in order to provide players with a better experience.

Firstknight (slight spelling change) has since rejoined the team, and the project has been split into two separate projects: Beautiful Britannia (a more “lush” version of the original Ultima 9) and its “Unlimited” spinoff (a more lush Ultima 9 with a few additions and revisions), and Forgotten World proper (the in-engine remake, which will feature many corrections and updates). Firstknight subsequently departed the team again, this time apparently for good; in the process, Beautiful Britannia became a standalone project.

The project focus has also shifted in terms of the content the team is aiming to produce; Firstknight’s principal aim is to produce a series of well-crafted Ascension mods, rather than become lost chasing something which may not be deliverable in the first place.

The ultimate goal of Forgotten World hasn’t changed, however: they are still intent on turning Ultima 9 — using its original, promising engine (albeit with a little help from the OGRE 3D engine as well) — into a canonical, consistent-with-its-predecessors Ultima game.