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Produced by: Ryan “Zerker” Armstrong
Website: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss @ Zerk Zone
Releases:
* The Stygian Abyss for Unreal (2.6 MiB, 136 hits)

This is a re-creation of “the entire first floor of Ultima Underworld for Unreal.” The level fully supports all of Unreal‘s default gaming modes, including co-operative play and botmatches.

It also implements some of the conditions present in the Abyss in Ultima Underworld. Zerker warns: “[d]on’t kill everything you see. Most of the humanoids are in fact, not hostile in this map, to be true to the original. There are still a few hostile Skaarj away from the settlements, but inside the settlements, they’re friendly. The secret door by the silver sapling must be shot to be opened, the one by the fountain of strength only opens from inside, and the one in the Grey Goblin settlement is unopenable. Oh, and if you get sick of trying to jump up the steps in the jumping puzzle, I sympathise with you, but there is some worthwhile stuff up there, if you can spare the minute needed to get it right.”

Naturally, the maps also require Unreal to play. Copies of the game for Windows and Mac can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

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Produced by: Ryan “Zerker” Armstrong
Website: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss @ Zerk Zone
Releases:
* Ultima Underworld for UT (16.9 MiB, 194 hits)

A remake of the maps of all eight levels of Ultima Underworld for Unreal Tournament. Each map has been “enhanced,” according to the producer, over the original version, so expect your favourite areas from the classic game to have a great new feel to them. All of the maps support the Deathmatch play mode; a few of the maps also support other game modes. (Check the project’s website for a complete listing. And for a pretty concise summary of the game itself and the nuances of every level thereof.)

Of course, the maps also require Unreal Tournament to play. Copies of the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it, for the same price, at GOG (of course!).

Note: this is not a complete remake, in that it does not implement the various races or plot of Ultima Underworld. That said, having a complete set of high quality maps to begin with would serve to cut down on the time it would take to develop a complete remake of the game.

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Produced by: Julien Langer
Website: Abysmal Engine
Releases:
* Abysmal for Ubuntu (off-site)
* Abysmal for Windows (Installer) (1.2 MiB, 493 hits)
* Abysmal for Windows (ZIP) (1.3 MiB, 405 hits)
* Abysmal for Linux (AMD64) (1.1 MiB, 334 hits)
* Abysmal for Linux (x86) (1.1 MiB, 349 hits)
* Abysmal Source (1.1 MiB, 372 hits)

The Abysmal Engine is an attempt to create an Ultima Underworld 1/2 and System Shock engine for modern operating systems. It will still require the original Ultima Underworld or System Shock data files to run.

Abysmal is a successor to previous such attempts at creating an engine for the Underworld games, and builds on the work done by The System Shock Hack Project, Underworld Adventures and Underworld 2 Revival projects.

It is still at a very early developmental stage (the author warns that none of the games are actually playable), but seems to be making decent progress. An iPhone 3GS version even appears to be in the works!

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Produced by: ZIO Interactive Inc.
Website (for Purchase): PocketGear
Releases:
* Slide Show Demo (2.5 MiB, 343 hits)

This remake of Ultima Underworld for the PocketPC seems to work fairly well on most main-line PocketPC models. While the developer, ZIO Interactive, doesn’t seem to feature the game for purchase or download anymore (that I can tell — the site is in Chinese), the game itself is still available for purchase from PocketGear.

A “demo” of sorts is available, although it is little more than a slide-show of in-game screenshots and graphics.

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Produced by: Zen
Downloads:
* Ultima Underworld for Dungeon Keeper (27.7 KiB, 311 hits)

This is a multiplayer Dungeon Keeper level based on the first level of Ultima Underworld. While Dungeon Keeper doesn’t do sloped surfaces the layout is otherwise very close.

Since much of the level is impenitrable rock much of the challenge in designing this level (and, presumably, subsequent levels also based on Underworld) came from managing the space for rooms well.

The map replaces level 61 (multiplayer map 7) in the game, and is for 3 players (but it can be played by one player against the computer). The developer doesn’t have a website at which to host it, so this offering is more or less exclusive to Aiera at present.

To play the level:

1. extract the file into the Dungeon Keeper ‘level’ directory
2. Start Dungeon Keeper with the 1-player option
3. choose multiplayer, then 1 player, and finally level 61

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Produced by: Vividos
Website: Underworld Adventures
Releases:
* Release 0.9 Mojito (Win) (794.0 KiB, 268 hits)
* Release 0.9 Mojito (Linux) (571.9 KiB, 220 hits)
* Release 0.9 Mojito (Debian) (733.4 KiB, 213 hits)
* Release 0.9 Mojito (Source) (1.5 MiB, 222 hits)
* Release 0.9 Mojito (Linux Src.) (1.5 MiB, 191 hits)
* Release 0.9 Mojito Music (6.9 MiB, 253 hits)

Much like Exult and Nuvie, this project aimed to re-create an engine for an Ultima game that ran on modern operating systems without the use of patches. In this case, the game was Ultima Underworld. and the results looked promising. This engine, like Exult and Nuvie, used the original game data files.

Sadly, as of February 2007, Vividos has stopped development on Underworld Adventures.

I contemplated for a while the idea of moving this remake to the Orphanage, but decided against it for the moment; with Mojito, the remake had come fairly far along, enough so that I’m content to leave it in UW Remakes section for the time being.