Very cool: while the doctor didn’t do a full-on ultrasound, she did use a little portable unit, and we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat, which was a healthy 148 beats/minute.

It’s one of the most incredible sounds you can hear, believe me. And to think that there’s a little one slowly but inexorably forming and growing there just below my wife’s stomach is…just wow. To say that I am so in awe of Grace, and to say that I am more than just grateful for her and this incredible thing that is taking place, would be a staggering understatement.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the news!

PT-BR Underworld Translation

This translation of Ultima Underworld to Portuguese is now 100% complete, with all text strings in the game fully translated.

They are seeking testers to look for errors in grammar and spelling. So if you, O Reader, are conversant in both Portuguese and English, and wouldn’t mind playing through Ultima Underworld again, be sure to visit the project website and drop them a line.

The patch can be downloaded from that same website, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Exult

I noticed that the unstable Exult 1.4 build for Windows had been updated on May 3rd. The notable correction in this release deals with a crash that could be caused by a trap’s projectile effect.

As usual, the snapshot can be downloaded from the Exult website or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Pentagram

There hasn’t been any news from the Pentagram team since December of last year, but they are obviously still working on the project itself; the Windows snapshot that is available for download was updated on April 23rd, and can be downloaded either from the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

EUO

As of May 5th, the 3D client for EUO has been updated, and can be downloaded either the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Notable changes in this release are the addition of “popups” (I assume this is in reference to either in-game dialogues or message windows?), a help screen, the ability to re-map keys, and a few other odds and ends.

Project Britannia

The britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres files have been updated. Changes this go-round include the addition of GUI elements for several throwable weapons, shoes(!!), and a bunch of new textures and meshes. Also, a Yew tree for Ben to chop has been added (methinks this is derived from the Ultima 6 Project?).

The updated files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia wiki or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Though not specifically an update to the actual remake project, the folks at the Ultima 6 Project would like to draw our attention to a charity group that they would like to encourage would-be donors to the project to support instead:

As many of you know, the U6 Project has been going strong for several years now, and it’s cost us a fair amount of cash to keep it going. Every once in a while we’ll get someone asking us if they can donate some money to the project. Well, since it’s an all-volunteer project and not a commercial venture, we can’t accept money. However - we’ve recently realized that there’s no reason in the world we can’t suggest a charity to which you could donate instead. While gaming is certainly a worthy cause, we think that it would be even better to give the gift of life and donate to the Susan G Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

http://www.komen.org/

Please note: The U6 Project is not affiliated with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in any way, shape or form. We’d just like to recommend that you give your money to them instead of offering it to us. Thank you.

So maybe, just maybe, O Reader, go forth and make a bit of a donation in the names of the folks of Team Archon. I’m sure they’d appreciate it!

One last note: someone by the name of Chris (with an email address at grimmstudios.com) contacted me in regard to Ultima 3. Chris, if you’re reading this, I just sent my reply to you again; the last few attempts have resulted in the message bouncing back to me. I apologize for the delay, and would encourage you — if this latest attempt doesn’t get through — to contact me again and provide an alternative email address.

Case in point:

…guys like Epic games president Mike Capps are out there making stupid-ass statements about how they would never lower themselves to develop for the [Nintendo Wii] because that would be “going backward.”

This is epidemic in an industry that defines “innovation” purely by graphical horsepower and nothing else. Guys like him are utterly baffled that anyone could ever want a Wii, just because it, you know, offers a completely new playing experience.

Somehow these guys have gotten it in their heads that nothing counts for innovation except bump mapping and pixel shaders. “However can any human enjoy these outdated graphics without literally vomiting with disgust?”

Well, if these people would bother having a conversation with someone outside their own offices, they’d realize that the entire concept of “outdated” graphics is meaningless to 80 percent of gamers.

Want proof? Nintendo DS games look like this:

(blocky screenshot from Mario Kart)

They’ve sold more than 60 million of them. Tell you what, Mike. The next time you see some casual gamer tapping away at their Nintendo DS, show them a screenshot of Gears of War…Don’t be shocked if they point out your game seems made up of three colors (brown, gray, and muzzle flash). Sure, hard-core gamers know the difference, they know the game is a marvel of technology. The rest of us just want to have fun, or be told a good story.

It gets hard, some days, not to punch people right in the mind who complain that the Ultima games are “outdated” and that they have “terrible graphics.”

Whoops…

EUO

This Ultima-like project reached its fifth year just recently, and to celebrate the occasion they threw a number of bonuses and extra stuff into the game — experience bonuses, prizes & giveaways, DM-hosted events, special in-game drinks (eggnog, for example), and even a few new bosses.

Also, a “Newbie Island” tutorial map has been added to the game to help new players ease in.

Ultima 6 Project

A new press release from this promising-looking remake of Ultima 6 has been released at RPGWatch. It has some details about new cities and places in the pending fifth milestone release (Nicodemus’ keep, for example), and also informs us that the team is always in need of world builders, 3D modelers, artists, and musicians.

So, O Reader, if you fall into any of those categories, you might want to swing by the Ultima 6 Project website and drop someone a line.

Additionally, project developer Nicodemus has posted another update to his worldbuilding Dev Diary with some cool new screenshots of his work (Jhelom and Skara Brae).

Ultima: Iris

A new build — build 2010 — of this 3D client for Ultima Online has been released. It can be downloaded from the project’s homepage, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

xu4

A new snapshot of the Mac version of this Ultima 4 remake is available for download either through the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera. A new Windows snapshot is also available.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman has posted additional news about his project that has ported Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator. He lets us know, firstly, about some special item capabilities that he as implemented. Secondly, he talks about killing NPCs, lock picking, and guard behaviour — rather a “law and order” sort of post.

The project is still in beta testing.

I also took a bit of a wander around the Ultima community myself, and noticed a few other odds and ends that the Reader might be interested in.

Savage Empire for Exult

Scythifuge is always looking for people to help out with his ambitious goal of porting the Savage Empire storyline into Exult.

Exult

Speaking of Exult, I notice that the Windows snapshot of Exult 1.4 has been updated recently (April 14th), as have the snapshots for Exult Tools and Exult Studio. These can be downloaded from the project website, and I have added them to the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

I noticed that the britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres resource files for this Ultima world framework were updated at the beginning of April. Changes since the previous revision include the addition of a new lockpick texture, a ferry, and two new light textures, as well as changes to melee attack logic, the lockpick’s shape, and a bunch of other things.

The updated files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia site, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Also, I’ve made a few minor changes to the site here. For starters, I have added a module to the site sidebar to track the ten most downloaded files in the last 30 days. Initially, I wasn’t going to clear the statistics for the download manager with any sort of frequency, but after a bunch of Ultima 9-related downloads surged ahead (in some cases, to over 3,000 downloads!), it seemed reasonable to give some of the other files a chance to make the top spot.

So it’s there, and I won’t be putting a “top five” list onto news posts anymore.

And of course, there’s the gallery and Ultima art repository. I do encourage any interested users to register a user account there and begin uploading any Ultima-related art they can find so that it can be preserved for posterity. This includes scans of art from the manuals, which won’t be around forever.

Oh, and I’ve added another countdown to the sidebar. Only 190 days (roughly — could change in either direction) until Grace and I welcome our little one into the world!

A discussion unfolded last month about Ultima-related art, with one commentator, Hexxer, noting:

I have had a very hard time trying to find decent resolution Ultima art. It would be nice if someone perhaps made a post requesting this stuff…

Ergonpandilus Dragon dug up a handful of very nice examples thereof, drawing on content from Ultima 9, Ultima V: Lazarus, and other projects as well. One hopes that his findings were but a sampling of content that is available “out there” however. Whether this is the case or not, I cannot say for certain. Regardless, Hexxer had one more observation which is worth repeating here:

I am sure there must be some community members willing to scan some classic stuff at high res, if its not done at some point this stuff is going to fade away!

I think that he’s right. The Ultima games had some great art associated with them — game boxes, manual illustrations, in-game and cut-scene graphics, and promotional material — and have also inspired the creation of a lot of really high-quality art as well in the years since their release. And I think it would be a good idea to have an archive of high-resolution copies of that art, in order to preserve it.

To that end, I’ve made a few changes here at Aiera.

As the Reader should know, images are integrated into many project entries here on the site; these images are stored and called up from a gallery, powered by the Coppermine gallery system, which until now I have kept “out of sight” of the casual visitor. This was due primarily to the fact that I couldn’t find a template for Coppermine which matched the template I am using for the visual layout of Aiera.

That has since changed, in that I have ported Aiera’s template to Coppermine, more or less (a first for me, and quite the learning experience if I do say so myself!). And so the user is now both able and invited to visit the Aiera gallery. What is more, I have opened user registration on the gallery, so that those who wish to submit content for consideration may do so.

Using the gallery is simple, if the Reader but follows the steps below:

1. Register as a user in the gallery
2. Wait for me to confirm the registration
3. Log in to the gallery
4. On the sidebar, click on Create/Order my albums
5. Create an album — this is necessary in order to save uploaded pictures
6. On the sidebar, click on Upload file
7. Upload as many as ten files from a hard drive, or five files from online sources
8. Save the files to the album previously created
9. Wait for me to review and approve the images — those images that meet the criteria outlined below will be ported over to the Ultima Art section of the gallery
10. If I don’t approve the images within three days, let me know and I’ll get my act together
11. Enjoy!

Guidelines for image submissions are as follows:

• Images must be Ultima-related (obviously)
• Images must be of fairly high resolution. Printable resolutions are preferable.
• Images smaller than 800×600 pixels will be rejected unless it can be demonstrated that they are the only extant representation of that particular piece of artwork
• Images must not already be in the gallery

Due to the fact that most of the images we are talking about here likely fall under a copyright of some kind, their being archived here will be assumed to be covered under fair use provisions in copyright law; they will be stored for posterity only, and not out of any intent to use them for profit generation or money-making ventures.

Update: Registration should work now. There was a problem with the Captcha security image plugin, and this has now been corrected. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Oh, yeah: far less awesomely, let me just apologize if the site is wonky tomorrow. I’m upgrading Wordpress again, as well as the image-handler.

If you are Catholic: Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Hopefully this is a season of renewal and grace for you and your family, and if you are not able to attend Vigil Mass this evening may you have a holy and blessed Easter Sunday and find time in the hectic pace of visiting family and preparing large dinners to partake of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Be thankful that God does not see the world as we — being merely human — do, and praise Him for His love.

If you are Christian, but not Catholic: Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! May this weekend be a time of spiritual growth and a season of renewal and grace for you and your family. Be thankful that God does not see the world as we — being merely human — do, and praise Him for His love.

If you are religious but not Christian: May this weekend be a time of rest and of spiritual growth for you, and may you continue securely in your journey of faith. If you are spending the long weekend with family, may you have an enjoyable time with them, and grow closer to all your loved ones.

If you are agnostic/atheist/secular: Have a safe and happy long weekend, and may your heart and mind remain unclosed to the meaning that so many people around the world attach to this blessed week. If you are spending the long weekend with family, may you have an enjoyable time with them, and grow closer to all your loved ones.

WtFD

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman has announced that his remake of Ultima 5 has reached its last major milestone, with only the end message and the addition of some weapons and special abilities left to be implemented. Beta testing of the project will begin on Palm Sunday — March 16th, 2008.

Update: Beta testing has begun. If you were one of the people that signed up to test this project, the relevant forum topic is here.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Although no new updates have been made to the main website of this Ultima 9 remake, one of the developers — Sage — has posted new entries to his development diary, while project leader Corv has leaked some screenshots of Paws and New Magincia to a members-only area of the project’s discussion forums.

Ultima 6 Project

There has been lots of news from this exciting project (Ultima 6 was always my favourite Ultima). Firstly, project leader Zephyr gave an outline of the next milestone release over at the Project Britannia website:

The U6 team is very much hard at work putting together their next release, which in terms of content will likely dwarf anything you have yet seen. No promises, but the intention is to get the entire overworld more or less completed, with most of it playable and accessible.

They are also looking for world-builders with experience crafting dungeons in Dungeon Siege.

Additionally, world-builder Nicodemus has posted a development diary in which he discusses the work he’s been doing. And just for fun, he’s thrown in five screenshots of Paws and Skara Brae.

Finally, over at the main project website, it has been announced that Alex Gonzales has joined the team as a portrait/concept artist, and he’s released a new wallpaper for your desktop enjoyment.

Now, what other news is out there?

Lost Sosaria

I have overhauled the appearance of the Lost Sosaria website. That’s the beauty of Wordpress — it’s very easy to switch site templates and configure them to meet your needs.

Project Britannia

The britannia_art.dsres file has been updated to include thread as an item, in four different colours for variety, and to include a special “connector” node useful for connecting basements to the main world map without the use of a doorway. The britannia_logic.dsres file has been updated as well to allow for these changes, along with a host of other modifications.

The files can be downloaded either via the Project Britannia development wiki or through the project entry here at Aiera.

Ultima Legacy

This Ultima Online-based project was, at least in part, the inspiration behind Ultima IX: Redemption, at least initially. Darkheart Dragon founded the project in 2000 and set it up as a private Ultima Online freeshard with an eye towards telling a story that simultaneously remained faithful to the Ultima tradition and yet advanced the world of Britannia in a different direction from where Ultima 9 took it.

And now, Ultima Legacy is getting a massive update, as developer Alexandra informed me this morning:

Ultima Legacy has recently decided to switch engines from Sphere to RunUO,
and as such is undergoing a lot of revision, including a new map dedicated
to Serpent Isle.

We also have a new website up devoted solely to the revisions we’re
undertaking at ultimalegacy.net.

They’ve already released some screenshots and art samples, O Reader, and I encourage you to go and check it out. It’s not every day that a project gets a full-scale revamping like this!

That last item reminds me: about a week ago, someone by the pseudonym of Bikki contacted me about a Serpent Isle/UO project he (?) was revisiting. I sent a reply to him with a couple of follow-up questions.

Bikki, if you’re reading this, check your email! Or, alternatively, send me a better email address to contact you at. I’m very curious about your project!

There have been over 8,000 downloads from the site since February 26th, 2008. Just…wow.

Here’s the top 5. I think at least two of these will occupy the top slots for quite a while.

Most Downloaded Files

• Ultima 9 Unofficial Patch 1.19 (1.86 MB) - 3322 downloads
• Ultima 9 Power Tools (646.88 KB) - 3108 downloads
• Ultima 9 Official Patch 1.18 (6.17 MB) - 146 downloads
• Ultima 9 Combined Patch (495.54 KB) - 78 downloads
• Ultima V: Lazarus v1.2 (Windows) (520.95 MB) - 42 downloads

Man, some people out there love them some Ultima 9 patches, don’t they? Of particular interest is the Ultima 9 Power Tools, a useful configuration utility for optimizing the game’s performance and configuration settings.

Do you think it will be possible to port Pentagram to the Nintendo DS? There is a 4Mb ram limit. It would be nice to use this engine with the touch screen of the DS.

There is a library for Nintendo DS programming call libnds heres a link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libnds

Theres another one which uses libnds called PaLib it makes somethings easier. We would need to scale or crop the resolution down to 256 x 192 if we are using just one screen. Theres a top and bottom one but I think it would be cool to use the bottom screen since thats the touchpad.

Libnds comes with DevKitPro which includes an ARM assembler and a C/C++ compiler basically everything you need to program for the NDS.

So…can anyone on the Pentagram team throw an answer my way? Would it be possible to port Pentagram to the Nintendo DS?