Pentagram, the remake that does for Ultima 8 what Exult did for Ultima 7, has posted news of their development progress for the first time since last December. The team, it seems, has been busy indeed!

In the last few months, interest in Pentagram seems to have picked up again. A number of bugs were fixed since the last update, including camera fixes, key handling, containers (backpack, barrels, etc.), and a fix for a problem in the German versions of the U8. The default key binding for stasis moved from ‘S’ to ‘F10′. The build should now properly support versions of autoconf greater than 2.60.

Mac OS X builds also received a lot of attention. They build system switched from XCode to a makefile-based system that builds Pentagram and dependencies using their traditional configure script and make methods. This allows us a greater amount of control over the builds and should help prevent changes to Pentagram for unix systems that break OS X builds and vice versa.

Just prior to this news update, I noticed that the Pentagram team had released updated snapshots of both their Windows and Mac builds of the game, and both of these updates have been added to the project entry. I’ve also updated the local copy of the Pentagram source code.

Produced by: Team Exult
Website: Exult at Sourceforge
Releases:
* Windows Binary (1.98 MB)
* Mac OSX 10.3 (1.39 MB)
* Sharp Zaurus (1.35 MB)
* PocketPC (ARM) (246 bytes)
* PSP (2.02 MB)
* Fedora - Game (1.01 MB)
* Fedora - Tools (273.96 KB)
* Fedora - Exult Studio (254.6 KB)
* Source (RPM) (1.64 MB)
* Source (.tar.gz) (1.64 MB)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Program (1.01 MB)

Additional Files
* Black Gate Sound Files (4.56 MB)
* Black Gate Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (6.18 MB)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (1 of 2) (12.03 MB)
* Black Gate OGG Music Files (2 of 2) (10.86 MB)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (5.91 MB)
* Serpent Isle Sound Files (Roland MT-32) (7.65 MB)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Data (14.01 MB)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Music (mono, low quality) (12.5 MB)
* Nokia 770/M800 - Music (stereo, higher quality) (28.71 MB)

Exult 1.4 (unstable)
* Exult 1.4 (Windows) (2.08 MB)
* Exult 1.4 (PocketPC - ARM4) (1.26 MB)
* Exult 1.4 (PocketPC - ARM5) (1.27 MB)
* Exult Studio (Windows) (3.48 MB)
* Exult Tools (Windows) (1.26 MB)
* Exult 1.4 Source (4.29 MB)
* Photoshop Shape Plugin (87.73 KB)
* GIMP Plugin (50.36 KB)
* Gimp Plugin 2.0 (46.96 KB)
* SDL 1.2 Libraries

An amazing remake, Exult is a cross-platform reworking of the Ultima 7/Serpent Isle engine that allows the game to be run on modern operating systems with expanded memory environments. This is not the same as a Voodoo memory-manager wrapper program, and it works on many systems apart from Windows.

Exult 1.2 is the latest “stable” release - Team Exult is making massive engine changes, and subsequent releases are expected to have instabilities as a result. It has Windows, Mac OS X, Sharp Zaurus, and Fedora builds available. Also avaliable is the source, so other systems can compile and build Exult.

Produced by: Eric Fry
Website: Nuvie at Sourceforge
Releases:
* Windows Snapshot (32-bit) (1.11 MB)
* Mac OSX 10.3 Snapshot (751.72 KB)
* Mac OSX 10.4 Snapshot (1.69 MB)

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 OSX, there are downloadable binaries for both Windows and Mac OS X 10.3 (the developer feels these snapshots might also work under earlier versions of OSX, however this is untested. It is the opinion of Aiera that they will not, simply because of some key API changes that exist between OSX 10.2 and 10.3).

The program source code is also available. Linux users will have to compile Nuvie from source.

Produced by: Michael Trent
Releases:
* Ultima 3 Map Editor (Mac) (325.8 KB)
* Ultima 3 Character Editor (Mac) (24.46 KB)

A pair of utilities - a map editor and character editor for the Macintosh port of Ultima 3. Keep in mind that the only available port of Exodus currently available for Mac is not freeware, and must be purchased from its vendor online (see the Ultima 3 page).

Also keep in mind that these editors are quite dated now, and may only work under the Classic environment on Mac OS X.

Produced by: Lair Ware
Website: LairWare Ultima III
Releases:
* Demo v1.4.2 (3.66 MB)
* Demo v1.3 (2.79 MB) - suitable for 68k Macs
* Ultima 3 for Mac OS X (4.51 MB)
* Ultima 3 for Mac OS X Cheater (123.03 KB)

This stunning port of Ultima 3 to the Macintosh features 32-bit graphics, 3D-rendered fountains and shrines, the friendly Macintosh interface, and a wonderful musical score. It is shareware, so you will need to buy the full version from Lair Ware (current price: $15 USD) in order to be able to complete the game.

For those of you who don’t have a Mac but want to give this one a try, the Basilisk Mac Emulator is your best bet.

There was also a Mac OS X beta version of the software that was released in March 2007. During its beta, LairWare asked that no external site host a copy of the beta for download, but since it has now gone to market release I have added a download to Aiera.

The game, as with the Mac version, cannot be completed without registering (specifically, it prevents you from reaching Ambrosia), which still costs only $15. For a professionally-done, classical graphics remake, that’s a reasonable fee indeed.