If you asked “what’s Dingux?”, you’re not alone: I wondered as much as well. Apparently it’s a custom Linux kernel for the Dingoo media player.
Now you know.
Anyhow, this being an Ultima website, this is the part where I tell you that someone has ported Exult (of course!) to Dingux. You can check out the project entry here; expect a release soon!
Produced by: SiENcE
Website: Crank Gaming
There’s not much information about this project that is presently available. 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.
Presently, there’s little more than a YouTube video demonstrating the port in action, but expect to see a release fairly soon.
Labyrinth of Worlds was intended to be a “from the ground up” remake of Ultima Underworld 2, complete with 3D character models. It never made it to completion (a fate shared by many projects of similar ambition, sadly), stopping development at version 0.4, but downloads for Windows and Linux were released…as was the complete source code.
All of which is once again available for download at the project entry here.
I just got word from Tim Carlsen: version 0.7.0 of the Ultima-inspired adventure game engine, Nazghul, has been released. Do check the project website for details and downloads for Windows and Linux. Haxima, the game being built in Nazghul, has likewise been updated.
I’ll get downloads for both up on the site as soon as I am able. Which might be today, or might be in a few days…I’m in Wyoming at present, so it’ll depend on my free time and the speed of the hotel wireless.
Update: as Tim informs us in the comments, Nazghul is not his project. He is only the messenger…and a fine messenger indeed.
This open-source 3D client for Ultima Online has been updated to version 2520, for both Windows and Linux. Updated installer files can be downloaded from the project website, or via the project entry here.
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.
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!
Eric Fry’s novel remake of the Ultima 6 engine is also going to be compatible with Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. Though currently being developed under Mac OS X, there are downloadable binaries for both Windows and OS X 10.3+ (the developer feels these snapshots might also work under earlier versions of OS X, however this is untested. It is the opinion of Aiera that they will not, simply because of some key API changes that exist between OS X 10.2 and 10.3).
The program source code is also available. Linux users will have to compile Nuvie from source.
Produced by: Andrew Taylor
Website: xu4- Ultima IV
Releases:
* xu4 - Windows v1.0b3 (1.1 MiB, 228 hits)
* xu4 - Mac OS X v1.0b3 (3.1 MiB, 155 hits)
* xu4 - Linux v1.0b3 (2.4 MiB, 137 hits)
* xu4 - Source v1.0b3 (410.3 KiB, 154 hits)
* xu4 - Zaurus v0.9 (1.9 MiB, 106 hits)
* xu4 - BeOS v0.5 (88.3 KiB, 127 hits)
* xu4 - Dreamcast (5.1 MiB, 130 hits)
Snapshots – May be unstable
* xu4 - Windows Snapshot (1.4 MiB, 150 hits)
* xu4 - Mac OS X Snapshot (3.3 MiB, 136 hits)
Andrew Taylor’s SDL-based re-creation of Ultima 4 is intended to be a cross-platform version of the game much as Exult is for Ultima 7.
And, since Ultima 4 is freeware, he (like many others) has also made available for download the original version (0 bytes) of the game. As well, there is a graphics update (0 bytes) available. The original game is now included with non-PC versions of xu4, but is required for Windows.
DOUG the Eagle Dragon has developed an RPG engine in the spirit and style of Ultima 6. The game and editing tools are cross-platform, currently available on Linux, DOS, and Windows. The source is available to compile and build the software on other systems.
He has also made available downloads of Reign of the Just, a game of his creation and the first to be produced using IRE.
Current Game Modules
* Reign of the Just (Windows) (30.2 MiB, 2 hits)
* Reign of the Just (Mandrake) (30.2 MiB, 1 hits)
IRE requires the Allegro libraries and the JPEG library (above) as well.
An offshoot of the Exult project, SI French is an effort to translate one of the greatest of the Ultima games from English to French. For Windows, the program has been released as a standalone executeable, while for Linux it has been released as a game patch.
The project did complete and released a couple of versions of its modifications, so while it appears to have died, it won’t be put in the Orphanage for the time being. Its website is still up, but seems to be suffering SQL errors.
This project requires Exult.
