That’s right…it’s been nearly a decade in the making, and it comes out today!

On this, the 20th anniversary year of the release of Origin Systems Ultima 6, it is with much pleasure that we announce the 1.0 release of Team Archon‘s Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Players will find a huge and exciting world waiting to be discovered:

• Travel throughout the lands of Britannia, exploring dark forests with bandits lying in wait, deserts and swamps teeming with monsters, and peaceful towns and villages filled with shops, old friends, and interesting people just waiting to give the player numerous and exciting quests to solve.
• Explore deep and dangerous caves and caverns full of treasure and hidden surprises. Bring your breadcrumbs to mark your trail, or be prepared to be thoroughly and completely lost, with your remains left to be found by future explorers.
• Sail the savage seas to explore remote islands, but be vigilant for there are sea monsters lying in wait for the careless traveler.
• Discover a hidden new world, far from Britannia.
• Encounter strange and exotic races, including the mysterious Gargoyles.
• Fight fearsome monsters, find pirate loot, solve a murder, and discover the truth behind the numerous attacks on Britannia’s towns.
• Learn the commerce of the land for fun and profit.
• Learn magical spells, search for magic reagents, and join guilds to gain special benefits.
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can follow an “evil path”.
• And, last, but not least, ferret out the hidden Easter eggs.

Click on through to continue reading the press release. If you just can’t wait and have to start downloading the project package, click here for the project entry at Aiera, or visit the project website for additional download links.

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Produced by: Team Archon
Website: The Ultima 6 Project
Releases:
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (1,015.3 MiB, 2,684 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (1/10) (105.0 MiB, 12 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (2/10) (105.0 MiB, 13 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (3/10) (105.0 MiB, 15 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (4/10) (105.0 MiB, 13 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (5/10) (105.0 MiB, 12 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (6/10) (105.0 MiB, 13 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (7/10) (105.0 MiB, 12 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (8/10) (105.0 MiB, 12 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (9/10) (105.0 MiB, 12 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project v1.0 (10/10) (69.2 MiB, 15 hits)

Milestones:
* Milestone 1 (147.9 MiB, 105 hits)
* Milestone 2 (225.6 MiB, 100 hits)
* Milestone 3 (270.9 MiB, 109 hits)
* Milestone 4 (356.8 MiB, 107 hits)
* Milestone 5 (442.5 MiB, 96 hits)
* Milestone 6 (140.0 MiB, 107 hits)
* Milestone 6 Patch (3.2 MiB, 94 hits)
* Milestone 7 (713.7 MiB, 113 hits)
* Milestone 8 (Beta Release) (808.9 MiB, 112 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project Beta 2 (834.0 MiB, 313 hits)
* Ultima 6 Project Beta 3 (994.9 MiB, 192 hits)

Tools:
* Font Builder (619.0 KiB, 114 hits)
* Interface Designer (1.2 MiB, 117 hits)

Tech Demo:
* Tech Demo (36.8 MiB, 108 hits)

Another Dungeon Siege-based remake, this high-profile (and high-tech) project aims to re-create Ultima 6, adding many of the same features to the game that Lazarus added into Ultima 5: enhanced music, expanded storyline, new characters and additional side quests.

The project has been in the works for a number of years, but their development pace has seemed to surge ahead in the last year or so; they’ve achieved several milestone releases since first being posted to Aiera, each one adding vast amounts of additional functionality to the game.

Has anyone tried running Lazarus under Windows 7? If so, did it work? If it didn’t, did you get it working…and, if so, how?

Well, today is an exciting Monday, isn’t it? That’s right…the newest Beta release of the Ultima 6 Project is available for download:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the Beta 3 Release of Team Archon’s Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Many bug fixes have been implemented since the Beta 2 release.
• All NPC’s are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can now follow an “evil path”.
• Additional enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now complete.
• Performance improvements have been implemented

It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the Beta 3 Release, and start a new game,

While this is not the final release of the game, we feel that it is reasonably polished, enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). We still expect that there will be some bugs, and are soliciting your help in finding them.

If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums.We have set up a special forum for the Beta 3 Release on the Project Britannia forums.

To download the Beta 3 Release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site.

You’re still here, good reader? Get thee to the project website and download that Beta! Or, if you like, you can get it from the project entry here; Aiera is pleased to serve as a download mirror for the U6P team.

Just got this via email:

Went to Microsoft web site and got to the down load area. they have several downloads. I can download everything except the one for 1.0 to 1.1 dungeon seige. For some reason it will not work. I know this is going to be probably useless to ask but has anybody know any other location you can down load it from there may be more people who would look at what you have done but cant get the 1.0 to 1.1 download.

Any help in solving this gentleman’s problem would be appreciated. I was able to find a few download locations for what was ostensibly the Dungeon Siege v1.0 to v1.11.blahblahblah updater, but they all seemed to require registration (e.g. FilePlanet), and I didn’t have time to waste on going through that process.

Drop ‘em in the comments if you have suggestions.

That’s right: hot on the heels of their Milestone 8 (Beta 1) release, the U6 Project team have released their second beta, which features:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the Beta 2 Release of Team Archon’s Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Many bug fixes have been implemented since the Milestone 8 (Beta 1) release.
• Weapon and armor restrictions have now been applied, by class.
• The entire world is complete, and ready for players to explore.
• All NPC’s are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can now follow an “evil path”.
• Hydras are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.
• Additional enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now nearly complete.
• Minor performance improvements have been implemented
• It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the Beta 2 Release, and start a new game.

While this is not the final release of the game, we feel that it is reasonably polished, enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). We still expect that there will be some bugs, and are soliciting your help in finding them.

If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the Beta 2 Release on the Project Britannia forums (http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php).

To download the Beta 2 Release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at: http://www.u6project.com/ where you can also check out profiles of the Project team members.

If you like what you see, and would like to contribute to this great game (and help us get it out faster), the team is looking for additional 2D artists to help with completing the portraits. And, of course, we’re always looking for play-testers to help us find and eliminate any remaining bugs. Contact any of the team members on the forums if you’d like to join the team.

You’re still here, good reader? Get thee to the Ultima 6 Project website and grab that download.

Or, you can grab it from the project entry here at Aiera.

From the U6P team:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon’s next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 8 (M8) for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This is the beta release for the project, which will be followed shortly by the 1.0 release. Some things to look forward to in this release:

• The entire world is now complete, and ready for players to explore.
• All NPC’s are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.
• New weapons are available for the player to discover.
• Tangle Vines are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.
• Enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now available as part of the Journal.

This is not the final release of the game, but we feel that they are reasonably polished enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the Milestone 8 Release on the Project Britannia forums.

To download the M8 release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at: http://www.u6project.com/ where you can also check out profiles of the Project team members.

If you like what you see, and would like to contribute to this great game (and help us get it out faster), the team is looking for additional 2D artists to help with completing the portraits. And, of course, we’re always looking for play-testers to help us find and eliminate any bugs. Contact any of the team members on the forums if you’d like to join the team.

About The U6 Project

The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin’s Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old.

I haven’t added the download to the project entry yet (that will happen tonight), but Team Archon were gracious enough to release the Milestone 8 download to me a bit early.

Sadly, something seems to have gone wrong with my upload of the project file. I’m working on getting a new download in place right now!

Apologies!

Update: Okay, I think the file DOWNLOADED successfully this time, which is good. But as I am currently in a hotel in Rock Springs, Wyoming, sharing an internet connection with God knows how many other people, the process of getting it UPLOADED has crossed from being a mere annoyance to a full-on pain in the ass. By which I mean: 5:35:22 remaining on the counter, with 1:55:29 elapsed already.

Painfully slow!

Anyhow, with nothing better to do on the site at the moment, I think I might take a stab at cleaning up the timeline. Which, I remind myself, still needs to have all the various remake projects included in it. Or at least the ones that make it to final release!

From Aletys:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon’s next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 7 (M7) for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This is the alpha release for the project, which will be followed shortly by the beta and 1.0 releases. Some things to look forward to in this release:

• The entire world is now available for players to explore, and players will be able to complete the game, though some elements will be further enhanced in the beta and 1.0 releases.
• New NPCs have been added, including a certain Cyclops family and a two-headed llama.
• Additional enhancements have been made to existing areas.
• More quests have been implemented, including the entire main quest.
• The Journal system has been greatly enhanced, and players will be able to track their progress with it.

This is not a final release of these sections of the game, but we feel that they are reasonably polished enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the Milestone 7 Release on the Project Britannia forums.

To download the M7 release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site, where you can also check out profiles of the Project team members.

You’re still here, good reader? Get thee to the project website!

Update: A download is now available via the project entry here.

From the project website:

It’s been brought to our attention that there is a bug present in the M6 Milestone that makes the game unplayable at a certain point in the plot. We have posted a patch for this here:

http://www.u6project.com/download/m6patch/u6p_npc.dsres

Just copy this file into your Resources folder of the U6 installation. You will not have to restart your game.

If you have not encountered this problem, then you don’t need the patch. I can’t tell you what the problem IS because that would be a spoiler. Sorry!

Don’t play your copy of this Ultima 6 remake for Dungeon Siege without it!

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Just got this in my inbox last night, and I see it has gone live over at the Ultima 6 Project website:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon’s next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 6 for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Nearly the entire world is now available for players to explore:
  • Brand new dungeons have been added and existing dungeons have been expanded or improved. This includes Pirate Cave, Covetous/Wrong, Shame, Crypts, Cyclops Cave, Destard, Heroes’ Hole, Ant Mound, Hythloth, and Stonegate
  • Gargoyle lands are in place, including the Gargoyle Shrines and Tomb of Kings
• Many new NPCs have been added, including all the Gargoyle NPCs, a favorite talking horse and an exiled Gargoyle
• More quests have been implemented, and one quest which players were unable to finish in the original game can now be completed. Many more quest related items are now available to the player
• Numerous enhancements to the core game play have been made, including improved animations and textures for the Gargoyles, and many small tweaks and improvements
• Additional enhancements to existing areas

You can find the download links on the Official Website:

http://www.u6project.com

You can post comments, suggestions, and request help on the Milestone 6
board on our forums at the PB Britannia site:

http://www.projectbritannia.com

I’m obviously still working on getting the downloads back in order, so there won’t be downloads of M6 mirrored here for a while yet. But all the same, good reader: check thou it out! This is a very exciting, long-anticipated project (especially for me, being that Ultima 6 was my favourite Ultima title), and this latest example of the progress the team has made is just staggering.

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I see that Dino’s Ultima Page has posted some news concerning a couple of new file releases from different projects. Notably, Ranman’s Ultima V for TI Calculators has released a beta version of that port for the TI-92 and V200 calculators. This download has already been added to the project entry here at Aiera.

Also, the full version of a patch translating Ultima 7 to Spanish has been released. Following up on this lead led me to translation patches for Serpent Isle, Ultima 9, and Ultima Underworld about which I had previously been unaware, and these have all been added to Aiera.

• Ultima 7 Spanish translation
• Serpent Isle Spanish translation
• Ultima Underworld Spanish translation
• Ultima 9 Spanish translation

Additionally, the Ultima 6 Project Development Tools Package has been released, which enables the user to edit and compile conversations, edit game objects, edit game logic, and provides a host of other functions as well. It can be downloaded from the Project Britannia website, or from the Ultima 6 Project entry here at Aiera.

Other Ultima-related news I found whilst wandering through the Internet today includes:

Aklabeth

The web home of this remake of Akalabeth seems to be offline. I hope it’s just a temporary thing.

Ultima Underworld for Pocket PC

Conversely, this port of Ultima Underworld to the PocketPC seems to be back online again. Nice to see. That means that I get to move this project out of the cemetery!

Exult

This port of The Black Gate and Serpent Isle to…well…pretty much every operating system one could dare to think of…doesn’t look as though it’s been updated, by its website. But I noticed that the Windows and PocketPC snapshots were updated earlier this month, as was the snapshot for Exult Studio. All of these can be downloaded through the project entry here. The chief modification seems to concern a bug with multiracial Avatars.

Ultima: Iris

This 3D frontend for Ultima Online has been updated recently, to build version 2365. Linux and Windows source, and the Windows installer, can all be downloaded via the project entry here, or at the project website.

Finally, I was contacted by Yannick “Alcibiade” Kirschhoffer regarding a new piece of Ultima-related material he has produced. I’ll let him explain it in his own words:

I’ve been huge fan of the second Ultima trilogy. In 2003, I began work on writing guitar arrangements of most of this era’s music. I did the Ultima 6 score almost entirely, and some of U4 and U5 too. Then I compiled these in a songbook that I illustrated with artwork and quotes from the games.

It is available for download in PDF format at www.alcibiade.org

This is a handy little creation, beautifully arranged and attractively compiled into one volume. I’ve added a project entry for it under the category of “General Utility”, and it can be downloaded from there as well.

Well done, Yannick!

I was contacted a while back (an inexcusably long while back, as it happens — my apologies!) by Zen, who passed along a bit of an addon module for Dungeon Keeper based on the first level of the Abyss in Ultima Underworld.

As Zen doesn’t have a website to host the project at for himself, he has made it available to the world via Aiera, and I have (finally!!) created a project entry for it. Check thou it out, O Reader, if you’ve still got those Dungeon Keeper discs tucked away in a drawer or closet!

Also, I have added a download for the Ultima 6 Project‘s Milestone 5 release to that project’s entry, so if you haven’t grabbed it from somewhere else already, you can now get it here as well.

Also, other news, courtesy of Dino’s Ultima Page:

Ultima V: Lazarus

Cheerful Dragon has released version 1.29 of his various mods and bugfixes for this remake of Ultima 5. These can be downloaded either at the previous forum link, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Seven Towers Exult Mods

Marzo has released updates to his mods for Exult, for both The Black Gate (Keyring) and Serpent Isle (Fixes). The latest revisions of both can be downloaded through their respective project entries here at Aiera:

• Black Gate Keyring
• Serpent Isle Fixes

Ultima: Iris

Apparently, the project’s developers took home first prize at the Dusmania 10 hobby game development meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. Congrats!

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman has released version 1.01 of his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator. The up-to-date download can be found via the project entry here.

Exult

This Ultima 7 remake has been updated recently — or, rather, the unstable 1.4 version has been updated, as has Exult Studio and its accompanying tools. The Exult team‘s plugins for GiMP have also been updated this month, and the whole mess of things can be downloaded via the project entry here.

EUO

This Ultima-inspired game has seen the release of version 0.16 of its rudimentary 3D client, which can be downloaded via the project entry here at Aiera.

Ultima Restoration

This comprehensive multi-project has released screenshots of the Kilrathi space station from their remake of Ultima 1. With this completed, they now have all the cities, dungeons, and space stations fully mapped in the game — which, if I do say so myself, is damn good progress!

They’ve also added links to a good couple-dozen Neverwinter Nights modules that I’m going to have to sort through in short order, so…well, it’s nice to know in advance what I’ll be up to for at least part of next week.

Also, the Wing Commander CIC team are attempting to back up what remains of the Origin Systems data library. They are looking for people with experience with this sort of thing, so if you’re one of those people who lives and breathes in backup tapes, you might want to check their project out.

Produced by: Team Lazarus
Website: Lazarus
Releases:
* Lazarus 1.2 (Windows) (521.0 MiB, 365 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 (Mac) (528.3 MiB, 169 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 French Patch (Windows) (8.2 MiB, 132 hits)
* Lazarus German Patch v1.0 (12.6 MiB, 130 hits)
* Blink Activation Patch (4.3 KiB, 198 hits)
* Difficulty Override (16.1 KiB, 187 hits)
* Font Patch (11.5 KiB, 184 hits)
* Portrait Patch (615.4 KiB, 231 hits)
* Lazarus Editing Environment (Windows) (3.3 MiB, 180 hits)
* Chronicle of Lord British's Expedition (1.0 MiB, 163 hits)
* Lazarus Game Manual (10.3 MiB, 195 hits)
* Map of Britannia (638.6 KiB, 207 hits)
* Lazarus Soundtrack (142.2 MiB, 151 hits)

Patches and Upgrades:
* Enhanced Graphics (11.5 MiB, 463 hits) – (pictured) from 3DWorx
* Looking Up Camera Mod (40.8 KiB, 270 hits)
* Grail Quest's Mods (622.9 KiB, 215 hits) – see this text file (12.7 KiB, 325 hits) for details

* Bugfixes and Modifications (599.5 KiB, 309 hits) – see the Lazarus forums for details
* Project Britannia Compatibility Mod (22.4 KiB, 222 hits)
* Comfortability Mod 1 (3.6 KiB, 199 hits) – start with a bedroll
* Comfortability Mod 2 (3.6 KiB, 157 hits) – start with a bedroll and the sextant (may break a later quest)
* Comfortability Mod 3 (7.5 KiB, 222 hits) – reduced daily food consumption rate
* Comfortability Mod 4 (3.2 KiB, 194 hits) – adds hotkey support for the pocketwatch (if the party has it)
* Regeneration Ring Health Loss Bugfix (3.2 KiB, 222 hits)

Spell-related Mods:
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod (51.9 KiB, 260 hits) – (pictured) replaces the default icons for spell scrolls with graphics that make it easier to identify which spell is on which scroll. Only works on new scrolls added to inventory, not scrolls already held
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod with Chuckles Scroll Changer (61.7 KiB, 166 hits) – adds to the above mod the ability to talk to Chuckles the Jester and have him “exchange” all your current spell scrolls for new ones, thus updating their icons

Weapon Mods:
* Magic Weapon Fix (25.7 KiB, 232 hits) – fixes an issue with weapon enhancement damage not being applied.
* Magic Axe Redux v1.1 (12.6 KiB, 184 hits) – uses spell damage to cause the magic axe’s bonus damage
* Magic Axe Redux v2 (14.5 KiB, 201 hits) – addresses balance issues with the previous version of the mod
* Cheerful's weaponfixes (20.2 KiB, 180 hits) – fixes some scripting and bug issues with weapon-based spells
* Flint Item Changer (9.9 KiB, 128 hits) – talk to Flint to “upgrade” your magic weapons to bug-fixed, modded versions

Cheerful Dragon’s Weapon Addons:
* Undead-slaying Silver sword and Stronger glass sword (10.6 KiB, 182 hits)
* Ranged Throwing Aze (4.7 KiB, 162 hits)

One of the most high-profile remakes during its development, Ultima V: Lazarus is a Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 led by Tiberius Moongazer. It was completed and released in the early part of 2006.

Lazarus features an enhanced and expanded musical score, additional plot elements, many new and exciting characters and side quests, and fully rendered cut scenes.

The project is available for download in its entirety here, and in addition there are available for download several mods, patches, and bug-fixes; Lazarus has spawned a modding community of its own.

I just got this notice in my email inbox, and it’s a hute announcement indeed: Milestone 5 of the Ultima 6 Project has been released!

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon’s next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 5 for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• New areas to explore (Trinsic, Jhelom, Moonglow, New Magincia, Serpent’s Hold, Skara Brae, Sutek’s Castle, Trinsic)
• Enhancements to existing areas
• New plot details and quests and other subtle refinements
• Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:
  • The Journal system now records may quest details automatically, but still allows the player to make their own notes
  • A new “Event Console”, which can be toggled on and off, and which will help you keep track of what’s happening during play
  • Many more tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems ( for the nitty gritty details, check the change log )

You can find the download links on the Official Website:

www.u6project.com

I will be sure to add a download for this to Aiera just as soon as I am able. In the meantime, O Reader…check thou it out!

I apologize for the gap in news updating; both my job and my home life have been rather busy these last few weeks, and I’ve had precious little time to stroll through “the Ultimasphere” to see what has transpired in terms of project developments and file updates.

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.

Produced by: Team Lazarus & Team Archon
Website: Project Britannia
Releases:
* Milestone 2 (169.4 MiB, 12 hits)

Updates (may be unstable):
* Britannia Art (132.7 MiB, 10 hits)
* Britannia Logic (2.4 MiB, 12 hits)
* Britannia Sound (4.9 MiB, 9 hits)
* Britannia Map (86.8 MiB, 13 hits)

Utilities
* Development Environment (463.8 KiB, 12 hits)
* Container Override Example (1.5 KiB, 8 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Font Builder (619.0 KiB, 11 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Skrit API (1.2 MiB, 12 hits)
* Skrit/Template Cross Reference (6.1 MiB, 13 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Toolkit (22.7 MiB, 11 hits)
* Lazarus Lorebook Editor (288.7 KiB, 11 hits)
* Rapid Tank Creator (246.0 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Full) (56.5 MiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Plugin) (864.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege University Compilation (9.8 MiB, 12 hits)
* Tank Viewer (382.1 KiB, 12 hits)
* User Interface Designer (1.2 MiB, 11 hits)
* Conversation Generator (227.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Conversation Editor for Siege Tools (100.4 KiB, 11 hits)
* Book Editor for Siege Tools (37.6 KiB, 11 hits)
* NPC/Schedule/Chest Generator (1.0 MiB, 11 hits)

Milestone 1 Release:
* Milestone 1 (Part 1/3) (85.3 MiB, 12 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 2/3) (71.8 MiB, 11 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 3/3) (5.6 MiB, 11 hits)

This ambitious project, a joint venture arising from the copperative developments of Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project — both Dungeon Siege-based remakes of their respective Ultima titles — aims to create a platform for the easier creation of Ultima remakes (and, one would assume, spinoffs).

It’s “short list” of features is really too long to name here, but includes dynamic weather, ship navigation (a feature lost in many modern RPGs), complete day/night cycle, NPC scheduling, reagent-based spellcasting, moongates, dynamic factions, and a custom-build branching conversation system.

It has been classified as an engine, alongside the likes of Unity 3D and Torque, because it is not so much a game or a remake in and of itself, but is rather a framework which can be used by other developers to build a game set in Britannia.

Note: the development team for Project Britannia is pretty active, and they are constantly putting out updates. The ones hosted here are current to the best of my knowledge, but they may be a few days stale. To that end, the most current versions of the update files can always be found at the Project Britannia Change Log. Please note that these updates are likely unstable at present.

Well, it’s been a little while since I posted an update pertaining to Ultima projects, and I see that Petrell and Dino over at Dino’s Ultima Page have uncovered several juicy morsels of news. To wit:

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!

There’s been a fair bit of news in the Ultima community these last few days, and Petrell over at Dino’s Ultima Page has gotten the scoop on much of it.

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 (0 bytes) – 3322 downloads
• Ultima 9 Power Tools (0 bytes) – 3108 downloads
• Ultima 9 Official Patch 1.18 (0 bytes) – 146 downloads
• Ultima 9 Combined Patch (0 bytes) – 78 downloads
• Ultima V: Lazarus v1.2 (Windows) (0 bytes) – 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.