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: David Randall
Website: Ultima 5 for TI Calculators
Releases:
* Ultima 5 for TI-89 and TI-89 Titanium (852.0 KiB, 100 hits)
* Ultima 5 for TI-92 Beta 0.99 (898.4 KiB, 88 hits)

An ambitious project to port Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments 68K programmable calculators, this remake took a little over a year to reach completion, but as of June 2008 it is done and in open release.

This remake has many features, some new to Ultima 5 (e.g. not a part of the original title), which include:

• 512 tiles, 11×11 pixels and 4 colors. The original tiles were 16×16 pixels and 16 colors.
• 2 world maps (each with a size of 256×256 tiles)
• 32 multi level towns (each level size 32×32 tiles)
• 8 multi level dungeons
• about 150 NPC (non-playable characters) each NPC has a unique daily schedule and conversation script.
• 400 hours of game play(!!)

That’s right, folks — Ranman has finished his port of the classic Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments TI-89 calculator!

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

Original by Lord British (Richard Garriott), Origin Systems, 1988
Remake by Ranman (David Randall) May 2008

Prepare thyself for thy destiny:

After a century of relative peace, the Avatar of Virtue is summoned back to the medieval kingdom of Britannia to deal with a new threat: the usurper Lord Blackthorn, a formerly honorable nobleman who has been corrupted by strange new creatures called the Shadowlords. After the recent disappearance of the true king, Lord British, the realm has fallen under martial law. Blackthorn now rules the land by brutally enforcing the eight Virtues upon the people of Britannia – corrupting their meaning in the process. The Avatar must gather together his former companions, now made outlaws by Blackthorn’s regime, and venture forth to defeat the vile Shadowlords and recover the true king from the shadowy depths of the Underworld. (Synopsis written by Ian Scott Frazier, Ultima V: Lazarus)

Ultima V – Highlights:

- 400 hours of game play
- classic turn based RPG
- 26 menu driven commands
- user commands up to 6 party members
- 175 NPC (non-playable characters)
- NPCs have detailed conversations scripts
- NPCs have a unique daily schedules.
- 512 tiles (11×11 pixel, 4 level grayscale)
- 2 world maps (each with a size of 256×256 tiles)
- 32 multi level towns (each level size 32×32 tiles)
- 8 dungeons each with 8 levels
- 31 types of weapons
- 7 types of armor
- 5 types of shields
- 5 types of helmets
- 5 magic amulets
- 3 magic rings
- 8 magic potions
- 8 magic scrolls
- 8 reagents (reagents are used to mix magic spells)
- 48 magic spells
- food, keys, torches, & gems
- 24 additional items
- Day and night algorithm
- Light point source algorithm
- Clear line of site algorithm

Ultima V – Memory requirements:

- RAM 160Kb required for game play
- FLASH 270Kb required for game storage

Ultima V – Download:

- TI-89 and TI-89 Titanium version
- TI-92+ and V200 version coming soon

I’ll be sure to add a download for this project to Aiera as soon as possible, O Reader. For now, go thou and play!

Update: I have added the download to the project entry here at Aiera.

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.

It has been another busy week for Ultima-related news, O Reader, and on the site as well. Full implementation of the download manager is progressing apace, and I think I’m going to add a new feature to the news postings — the top five most downloaded files. But we’ll get to that in a bit. In the meantime…here’s what’s news. And a couple of shout-outs go to Petrell at Dino’s Ultima Page for spotting some things that I missed in assembling the list below.

Project Britannia

I see that the folks over at Project Britannia have switched servers due to speed problems with their old hosting company. The site has been configured at the new host, so there shouldn’t be any interruptions in accessing it.

EUO

I see that EUO 3D has been updated to version 0.14, fixing a bug with window minimization. Updated versions of the download are available through the project entry here at Aiera.

Realms of Ultima

Development proceeds apace on this promising Ultima-themed prefab for Neverwinter Nights 2, although news posting to the project website has been a little bit light of late owing to the fact that team leader MokahTGS is presently moving to California to take on a new job.

Savage Empire for Exult

Scythifuge has started a new discussion thread at the Exult forums to keep us all up to date on the latest developments he is making in his adaptation of Savage Empire using Exult and the Ultima 7 engine. At present, he seems to be working very heavily on graphics and tiles for in-game use. He has even posted a few screenshots for us to feast our eyes on.

Seven Towers Exult Mods

Marzo Junior has put his Seven Towers website back online at a new host, and has released updates of all three of his Exult mods — Black Gate Keyring, SI Fixes, and the Avatar Pak. All of the latest versions can be downloaded from the respective project entries here at Aiera.

Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands

Wizardry Dragon has put his project’s website back online at a new host.

Ultima for the Civilization Series

Frilly Wumpus alerted me to these. General Maximus has produced an Ultima-derived scenario (in two forms) for Civilization III. Both are set in Britannia after the events of Ultima 9. The forms of the scenario are as follows (one appearing to be a more difficult version of the scenario than the other):

Ultima X Conquest:

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by deviant warlords. Play as British under civilization group Bards. Forces and castles still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar; the rebelion states begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his heroic companions, reclaim your entire kingdom!

Ultima X: Medieval Deity Challenge

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British(LB) lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by independent warlords who were once friends of Lord British(LB) himself. Play as LB under civilisation group Bards. Forces or cities still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar, the rebelions states has begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his companion Iolo, reclaim your entire kingdom!

The second form of the scenario seems to be more combat-oriented, and provides fewer allies/companions for the player. Either way, this seems like a neat idea, and I have created a project entry complete with downloads here at Aiera for it.

General Maximus also has an Ultima-inspired scenario for Civilization IV in the works, although as yet he has not released any downloads for it.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that his project — porting Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator — is nearing completion. He pegs the current project status at 98%, and his latest revisions to it include:

• “Acknowledgments” menu option is now working
• “Introduction” menu option is now working
• “Create New Character” menu option is partially working

He’s getting close, O Reader! Very close!

Ultima IX: Redemption

Sage has added a couple of new entries to his development diary. As usual, the would-be reader must be registered at the Titans of Ether forums.

Most Downloaded Files

1. Ultima 9 Official Patch 1.18 (0 bytes)
2. Ultima 9 Unofficial Patch 1.19 (0 bytes)
3. Ultima 9 Combined Patch (0 bytes)
4. Ultima V: Lazarus v1.2 (Windows) (0 bytes)
5. Alter U9 (RPG-Maker 2000 version) (0 bytes)

Let’s see if any of the above changes in the coming weeks!

It’s been another good week for news — things are busy. It seems to be a busy time in general, actually…even I’m embroiled in a project — redesigning the website of the company that I work for (I cannot stress enough the utter need for such a redesign), which has certainly been eating up a goodly chunk of my time.

But let’s see what’s going on in the community. First, some submissions by email.

Ultima 1 Reverse Engineering

Tim Carlsen pointed out (just before Christmas) — sorry, again, for the delay, Tim! — to me that Dino the Dark Dragon has had the files from his reverse-engineering of the Ultima 1 engine online for a while now. While he hasn’t worked on it (or, at least, hasn’t updated it) all that much in the last few months, I’ve decided to give Dino’s project its own entry here at Aiera

Adventure Creation Kit

Joshua Lawrence got in touch with me regarding the release of ACK 3.0, the latest version of one of the original “build your own Ultima-like game” utilities. It features a host of improvements, including:

• experience levels
• bitmap skinning of main play screen and dialogs
• improved day/night cycle with event triggering
• a new Launcher allows for the use of ACK “right out of the box” in Windows and Mac OS X
• a new ‘Ultima Kit’ with tiles, objects, and moongates from Ultima 5

I have updated the project entry with the latest downloads, and have also removed the commands reference (it’s outdated as of this version of the Kit) and the registration code (which is unnecessary). It can also be downloaded from the project website.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman dropped a comment on this news post to inform us that he has completed implementation of the special abilities associated with each of the Crown Jewels in his remake of Ultima 5. Very cool!

I also noticed a few updates while cruising around the various Ultima-related websites that I check on a regular basis.

Lost Sosaria

A downloads page has been put up at the Lost Sosaria website. I have also added download links to the project entry here at Aiera.

Savage Empire Total Conversion

We haven’t heard from this project in a while, but Scythifuge has recently posted some updates to a discussion thread in the Exult forums detailing his progress on the module. Currently, he’s working on bits and pieces of art to insert into the game, to increase its immersiveness and improve the feel.

He has also started a “sample art” discussion thread.

Ultima 7 (Exult) for Nokia Phones

Arnim Sauerbier released, at some point this month, updated mp3 versions of the Ultima 7 music files for his port of Exult to the Nokia 770, correcting a volume-control issue that had cropped up in the previous version of the files.

I have updated the download at the project entry here at Aiera.

And finally, some additional news courtesy of Dino’s Ultima Page.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Corv has posted a huge update to the website of his remake of Ultima 9. Among other things, the team has released twenty-seven new screenshots (showing off some amazing scenery and architecture) and five new music tracks. Additionally, the project status bars have been updated, and a few changes have been made to the team roster.

EUO

An updated version (0.13) of the beta-stage 3D for EUO, the Ultima-like online RPG, has been released. The look and playability are still rudimentary, but this is certainly an interesting development for this fun little project.

Downloads and installation instructions are available at the EUO forums, and the downloads are mirrored through the project entry here at Aiera.

Seven Towers Exult Mods

In the latest posting at Dino’s Ultima Page, Petrell makes a note that updated versions of the various Exult Mods that can be found at Seven Towers have been released. However, I notice this morning that the project website has been replaced by a subdomain placeholder page — most troubling. Let’s hope this is only temporary.

Well, isn’t this just a banner week for news posting? Two updates in the span of three days. I should be careful, lest I set some manner of record.

Anyhow, the first two updates come to us courtesy of Petrell, who is guest-posting news at Dino’s Ultima Page.

Ultima IX: Redemption

In addition to the previously mentioned updates, there is also a new development diary to be found at the website of this remake of Ultima 9. This one is by Sage, one of the dialogue writers.

As usual, you must be registered at the Redemption forums to check the diary out.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman has uploaded new screenshots demonstrating Lord Blackthorn and the results of the entire party dying in his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator. I don’t have a current percentage-completeness for his project, but a later post in the forum indicates that he’s finished the final cutscene with Lord British, which sounds promising!

Update: In the comments below, Ranman lets us know that:

Ultima V for TI calcs is 96% complete.

I was reaching critical mass again — the 64Kb barrier. I had to work in some more size optimizations. I managed to knock off another 2.3Kb.

The light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel.

Worlds of Ultima: Lost Sosaria

Over at the website for Lost Sosaria, I’ve posted news that within the next week, I hope to have uploaded the work-in-progress module for the project, along with hak files. Pace Project Britannia, it is my hope that updates to the project can be tracked in a very transparent way, giving interested parties a chance to download the “latest and greatest” in the module’s development, and to give feedback and report problems.

Dino’s Ultima Page beat me to the scoop on these developments, but the news is big enough to be worth repeating. Ultima 6 was always my favourite Ultima title, and that particular remake is a project that I’ve been watching with anxious anticipation.

And as if that wasn’t good enough, there is yet more news from other projects as well; that’s what I call a good week, Dragons and Dragonesses.

Ultima 6 Project

Frilly Wumpus dropped me a line to let me know that Ultima 6 Project Milestone #4 has been released. This latest update to the Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 6 features:

• New areas to explore ( Buccaneer’s Cave, Wrong, Empath Abbey and Minoc )
• New game intro which draws from the original classic game
• Enhancements to existing areas
• New plot details and other subtle refinements
• Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:
  • A prototype of a customizable journal system so you can take notes on
    your journey
  • The “;” key now gives you extra information, such as reagent counts,
    projectile counts, etc.
  • New “Gameplay Settings” from the Options menu
  • Many more tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems

Exciting? Definitely. The latest milestone can be downloaded from the Ultima 6 Project Website, or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind wrote me to let me know that this ambitious, in-engine remake of Ultima 9 has released a sample of soundtrack music written and recorded by composer “Sounddreamer”.

“Time Travel”, the new music, can be listened to at the Forgotten Worlds website, or via the music player below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A few more project updates come to us by way of Petrell at Dino’s:

Ultima IX: Infinity Eternal

Thepal has posted the first news update in about nine months to his project’s website to let us know that things are still alive and kicking (and just to keep us salivating, he’s thrown in a new screenshot).

The reason for the relative silence of the project, incidentally, stems from a couple of major developments in the real lives of the people working on it. Thepal himself got married (as a recent husband myself, Thepal, I offer my heartfelt congratulations!), and team member MartinLoki became a father (congratulations there, as well!).

It’s good to see that this promising-looking project is still being worked on!

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman is continuing his breakneck pace of work on his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator — in his latest update, he puts development at over 95% completeness.

Latest improvements include:

• A “new look” for Ultima 5
• Leveling up & down now works.
• Magic points are reduced when casting a spell and are slowly restored over time. Fighters have no magic capabilities.
• Enemies can now cast spells too.
• Frigate sails are now working.
• The final quest of the Shrine of the Codex has been implemented.
• Pit traps are now working. If you step upon a hidden pit trap, you are dead — plain and simple — so be careful.

Apparently, Ranman has been told by his wife that the project will be done in February.

Nazghul

According to this schedule, Gordon McNutt plans to release version 1.0 of his Ultima-like game engine, Nazghul, on the fifth anniversary of its registration at Sourceforge — May 26th.

Also, in wandering through other project websites, I noticed the following updates:

Realms of Ultima

With Jason White joining the team, the RoU project has begun implementing an Ultima-style gameplay system for Neverwinter Nights 2. They are changing the character classes to the 8 core classes commonly seen in Ultima, and associating each class with a city and virtue. They have also begun work on custom critters for the game, and have even implemented a wine press.

Project Britannia

With the release of Ultima 6 Project Milestone #4, numerous updates have also been made to the britannia_art.dsres, britannia_logic.dsres, and pb_laz_comp_layer.dsres project core files. These can be downloaded either from the Project Britannia Wiki or through the project entry here at Aiera.

Okay, it’s been a while since the last update, and I trust that those Readers who are likewise recently married, or who were once recently married, can understand the heady intensity of the first few months post-wedding. Especially when there are “thank you” cards and Christmas cards to send out all at once!

Especially because some of my family members are getting a bit impatient over the arrival date of their “thank you”. We’ll leave the discussion about the lack of humility inherent in such a stance for another time, and possibly another place.

At any rate, it’s time for what will likely be Aiera‘s last posting prior to Christmas, so enough is enough — let’s get to the news.

Ultima V: Lazarus

Toltec Dragon dropped me a line to let me know that a German translation of this Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 is expected to be released very soon. So all you German Ultima fans out there keep watch; this exceptional remake of one of the best Ultima titles is about to arrive in your native language.

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ultima 5 seems to be generating all the good buzz lately. Ranman let us know in a comments thread that development on his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator platform is at 93.7% (probably closer to 94% now) completion.

And he’s managed to shrink the size of the game engine a bit as well, thanks to some compiler optimizations.

Lost Sosaria

My own Ultima project, Lost Sosaria now has a discussion forum. Come on by and drop us a line!

(and yes, O Reader, I’m looking at forum solutions for Aiera as well)

Exult 3D

Sam Matthews has been quiet on the status of his project for a while. However, Gunnar brings news in the Exult forums that this project to create a 3D engine out of the original Ultima 7 engine has progressed somewhat since the last time we saw it here on Aiera.

He includes links to a “slightly more official” patch than is currently available on Aiera. I have updated the project entry here with the new material. Please note that the new releases appear to require Exult 1.4 to run.

Pentagram

The Pentagram team bring news that work is progressing despite the lack of site updates. Specifically, they have implemented correct combat music, improved the Avatar’s attack speed, fixed some issues with rendering, falling and throwing, and improved the main menu to include support for direct loading of savegames.

Quite the busy few months it’s been!

They have also released new Windows and Mac snapshots, both of which can be downloaded through the project entry here at Aiera.

Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands

I spoke with Marzo and Wizardry Dragon, and they both confirmed to me that while development is definitely low-key, work is continuing on The Feudal Lands, a sidequel to Ultima 7 set in the old Sosarian continent called the Lands of the Feudal Lords.

Project Britannia

The britannia_logic.dsres and britannia_art.dsres core files for this Ultima spinoff/remake engine system have been updated. Changes are as follows:

britannia_art.dsres – the Lazarus ‘Mario mesh’ has been added, as well as more graphics for the Journal system. A new Spartan helmet has also been added, as have some textures and icons for various equipment associated with Chuckles the Jester.

britannia_logic.dsres – party banters have been updated to allow for a lone Avatar, and an issue with non-breaking breakable objects has been corrected. Rain moods have been tuned, and some UI changes have also been made, among many other things.

Serpent Isle for NWN2

Although development on this promising-looking project seems to have slowed ever so slightly, developer Jaesun has nevertheless managed to finish the Moonshade Catacombs, and has uploaded some sample music (note: ALPHA version, very rough) for your enjoyment, O Reader.

Adventure Creation Kit

Chris Hopkins dropped me a note to let me know that his top-down 2D game creation tool has just been updated to version 2.3. This neat little utility is an MS-DOS program that can be run both under DOSBox or in Windows proper (although DOSBox is required for sound), and allows for the creation of RPG-type games in the graphical spirit of Ultima 4 or Uitlma 5.

The updated version can be downloaded through the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind dropped me a note to let me know that the Forgotten World team have released another screenshot of their re-working of the Ultima 9 engine. About a month ago, they switched to using the OGRE engine for graphics, and true to their claim that it would speed development along they are now able to present us with a screenshot of Britain from the air.

Click on over and have a look, O Reader — it is impressive, to say the least. So impressive, in fact, that I decided to use it as the project image for its entry here at Aiera.

Also, the reader may note that I have added Amazon content to the sidebar. This is intended to be a mostly passive way that any users who a) feel they would like to support the effort made here at Aiera, and b) do some of their shopping through Amazon.com, can ‘donate’ to Aiera. Any purchases made through the links here will garner a small revenue percentage for your humble administrator.

Finally, I have overhauled the tagging system on Aiera, so it should be a lot more stable. Instead of creating links directly to Technorati topics, though, they link to a list of all other similarly-tagged articles on the site here. This is mostly a convenience feature for users looking to quickly browse a particular topic.

A ‘tag cloud’ can be found most of the way down the sidebar, with text colour and size of each tag listed there determined by the number of times is has appeared.

Hey, didn’t I use that title once before already?

Having already mentioned the domain name change, I can just jump in today and start reporting the news. Many thanks to all the people who continue to pass along well-wishing over the wedding; it is much appreciated and received warmly.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Developer Kultan has a new development diary entry up at the Titans of Ether website, in which he remarks on his progress in developing characters and dialogues:

Paws is mostly done. Several characters are complete and the rest that are planned have at least their basic dialogue written if not more. It’s just a matter of polishing them off before the core dialogue is finished for the village. Anything after that will just be additional material added if we need to use an NPC for something else on down the line, or if I just feel like tweaking. Paws has two major local side quests that are closely connected, and will have a few minor ones as well. I’ll look into posting more info about it on the board.

Minoc is coming along as well. As the industrial center of Britannia (per the timeline), I’m looking to give it a distinct feel. I have an outline of industries and businesses located there as well as an overview for the major local quest: a murder mystery in a gloomy, industrial revolution type town. A little of the dialogue has been written, but I’ve got a lot of work to do fleshing the characters out.

Be sure, O Reader, to read the whole thing. As always, the dev-diary section of the Titans of Ether forums is only open to registered users.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that his project has advanced again, and the most recent update I have from him pegs the completeness of the project at 92% now. As usual, he provides some new screenshots to illustrate this.

Pentagram

The Pentagram team have released a new Windows snapshot of their project this month. I’ve made it available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind dropped me a line to let me know that this in-engine remake of Ultima 9 has adapted their world-editing software to make use of the OGRE graphics engine, moving away from the OpenGL-based version they had been using previously. This allows them to more easily incorporate modern graphics tricks and techniques (like shader-driven water, which they demonstrate with a new screenshot).

Nazghul

Gordon has released a Windows setup file for the latest release (version 0.6.0) of his Ultima-inspired engine and game. There is a copy available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

Several updates have been made to the core files of the project. britannia_art.dsres has seen the addition of textures and inventory icons for the clothing and equipment of Chuckles the Jester, while britannia_logic.dsres has been revised to give the conversation system the ability to launch conversations that are not attached to an NPC. Combat calculation has also been tweaked a bit, although this may have introduced new bugs.

These updated files have been copied to Aiera and can be downloaded at the project entry on the site.

NWN2 Ultima VII Part 2

The fast-paced development of this project continues with the news that the Mountains of Freedom have been completed (maps, NPCs, and dialogues all), as has the trial in Moonshade.

Lost Sosaria

My own Ultima project, in addition to having been moved to a subdomain of Aiera, has another new team member in the form of Helgraf Dragon, who will be taking on the role of dialogue writer/editor and lore advisor. No new screenshots yet, though.

Ultima 7 Babylon

A member of the team putting together the Italian translation of Ultima 7 informs me that the project (see its entry at Aiera here) has been completed. It can be downloaded from the developer’s home page.

Okay, so at least a few people contacted me while I was away with news of Ultima-related news, either via the contact form, direct email, or the comments for this post. Once again, it’s good — no, great — to see the community pitching in to help the site move along. Thanks go out to everyone who submitted information.

So…what’s news?

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman dropped us a line about the status of his port of this classic Ultima title to the TI calculator. He pegs the development status as being 90.5% complete, and offers a new screenshot of Orcs in the game.

SI BG Merge

This was an interesting little tidbit that I tripped over in the Exult forums. It’s a patch that imports the shapes from The Black Gate into Serpent Isle, fabricated by Malignant Manor.

I’ve created an entry here at Aiera for the project, and uploaded the latest version of the patch (6.7) for download. It looks like this is a pretty active project at the moment, so I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

Project Britannia

Frilly Wumpus posted news at the Project Britannia website concerning an update to Siege Tools. This is definitely a developer-oriented update, and he notes that the improvements include things such as:

• DS1, DS2, LOA, and BW code completion
• Built-in API explorer and the ability to add additional documentation to core GPG classes
• Basic Syntax checking
• Code completion for Gas templates

The latest version of Siege Tools (1.0.29) is available for download either from the PB website, or through the project entry here at Aiera.

A forum for posting information and comments about Siege Tools has also been set up, which developers using this engine will hopefully find useful.

Ashes

The project website for this Ultima-like game has been changed a bit, and now features an updated note from project lead Andrea concerning what the game is and what its inspirations are. No new news is present, however.

Nazghul/Haxima

Gordon has released version 0.6.0 (only the source at present, though) of his Ultima-like engine Nazghul, and the associated game he is making with it, Haxima. You can download the updated version from the project’s SourceForge page, or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Hopefully there will be Windows and Mac OS X binaries available soon.

Notable improvements in this version of Nazghul include:

• Detailed speed handling
• Better support for diagonal movement
• Partial opacity support has been added to the terrains
• Improvements to the map editor
• New spells
• Improved dungeon randomization code
• …and a whole lot more

Serpent Isle for NWN2

Continuing with his tendency to move with alarming speed, Jaesun has made several updates to his remake of Serpent Isle. Notably, he has finished the Arrival Area, dialogue for Moonshade, the Northern Isle quest, the Mad Mage Isle, and Monk Isle. And all this in the last couple of weeks.

There are a few nice screenshots to see at the project site, so be sure to give them a look!

Also, there seems to be a bit of an interesting debate going on in the Exult forums over the practical and technical implications of making an “online” version of Ultima 7. We’ll see if that turns into any sort of project in the future. It wouldn’t be the only one to come along, of course.

Personally, I count myself as being in the camp of people who would like to see Ultima 7 go online, as has been done with Ultima 6, although I admit that I lack the necessary technical skill to put any sort of meaningful work into the code necessary to realize that dream.

There have been a few minor updates in the community in the last week-and-change, O Reader, including a few updates for download.

Redemption

Corv informs us, on the Redemption main page, that team member Spyder has posted a dev-diary concerning the development of Moonglow, including a look at some concept sketches and 3D models of a typical house in that magical city.

You need to be a registered user of the Titans of Ether forums to view the dev-diary.

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that there are some new screenshots of this port of Ultima 5 to the TI calculator available at the project’s home forum.

Pentagram

A new snapshot of Pentagram was released on September 21st. It can now be downloaded through the project’s entry here at Aiera.

Infinity Eternal

I’m hoping that Thepal’s project’s website is just having some technical difficulties, but it was offline when I checked this morning. I’ll keep checking back.

EUO

Not really an update, but Cat left a comment to correct a few errors in the EUO entry here at Aiera. For starters, although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Also, the game now incorporates the LUA scripting language, meaning that the player can influence the dungeons to a greater degree through certain key actions. Leveling is done at shrines, with stats being upgraded along the same lines as happened in Ultima 6.

The game features over 100 NPCs and over 50 quests, with more being added all the time.

Now you know, O Reader! I’ll be updating the EUO entry with this information as soon as possible.

Project Britannia

A few updates have been made to a couple of the Project Britannia project files. The britannia_art.dsres file now includes the honey jars from the Ultima 6 Project, as well as some new textures for flaming oil, a new Spartan helm (requires the updated logic file as well), and a few new articles of clothing.

The britannia_logic.dsres file corrects some spelling errors on the character screen, and adds support for many of the additions detailed above. Some bugs with health regeneration and lorebooks have also been implemented, along with a host of other minor changes.

The project entry here at Aiera now features these updated files for download.