One such blog is The Spearhead, and I was struck by a post there recently in which the author spoke about his desire to cater to his international visitors by blogging not only in English going forward, but in other languages as well.

Now, I’ve tried before to learn other languages (Ukrainian & French, specifically) and the result has always been the same: I get praise from my teachers for my ability to properly inflect the words I’m reciting, but I’m never able to actually internalize the language in my memory so as to be able to draw upon it outside of the classroom context. In short: I can mimic a language well enough if I have something to read in front of me, but I seem to be completely unable to learn new languages.

Now, in looking at my site reports in StatCounter, I observe that traffic to Aiera comes from many countries. The United States ranks highest, not surprisingly, and is followed immediately by Canada (my home country)…but the remaining eight countries in the top ten are all European:

1. 32.60% United States
2. 12.40% Canada
3. 11.60% Germany
4. 8.40% United Kingdom
5. 4.00% Finland
6. 3.40% Portugal
7. 3.20% Italy
8. 3.00% France
9. 2.80% Ireland
10. 2.80% Australia

Some of these countries are also English-speaking countries…indeed, running the blog in just English, I cater to the national language of 59% of my visitors.

However, I’m thinking it might be nice if I could bring on board two or three (or more) additional editors who would be willing to transcribe — occasionally, if not frequently/consistently — site news from English into German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, or maybe even Finnish. I realize that this would technically result it some duplication of posts and content (given Aiera’s integration with e.g. Twitter, I don’t want to go the route of using the translation plugin that Team Return uses)…but I think it would be a nice feature to offer, even if only on occasion, to some of my visitors from countries not situated on the North American continent.

If you’d be interested in assisting with this endeavour, good reader, either drop a comment below or drop me a line privately.

This is also true, unfortunately, of version 0.3 of the Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld. If anyone has a copy of THAT kicking around, please let me know, as the project’s official website no longer seems to carry the file.

That said, it should be noted that the rest of the Ultima Underworld downloads have been restored to working order.

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!

This is a full translation of Ultima Underworld into Spanish, one of a series of Spanish Ultima translations that appeared within the last couple of years.

This is a full translation of Serpent Isle and The Silver Seed into Spanish. It may require Exult in order to work.

This is a full translation of Ultima 9 into Spanish.

This is a full translation of The Black Gate and Forge of Virtue into Spanish. It does not require Exult in order to work, although it can use all of Exult’s features.

This is a not-quite-complete Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld. A full translation does (or did) exist, but I seem to have misplaced the relevant file, and it is no longer available for download from the developer.

Ultima IX: Redemption

There is a lot of news from this promising, Morrowind-based remake of Ultima 9 this week. Firstly, “de facto” project spokesperson Direhaggis writes in to inform us all of the following:

Our team has stayed consistently productive for the last year, especially making gains in exterior cell worldbuilding (which is nearly done) and 3D models. I myself write the main quest and it’s 80% complete, with a word count of approximately 180,000 (where U7:BG had ~175,000). Overall, production is 75% done. With our current team roster, the game itself will definitely be completed–it’s just a question of time.

On that note, we are right now looking for more worldbuilders for interior cells, as well as dialogue writers. There’s also a position for a 2D artist to help create more cutscenes for the game.

Our director, Corv, is going to update the status page fairly soon. He has recently become a new father, though, so I am acting in his stead to spread the news far and wide.

I would dearly appreciate your sharing this news with your readership. Thank you for your time, thought, and especially your dedication to keeping Ultima alive and well.

And to Direhaggis, I can only say: no problem at all, good Ultima fan and true!

It is indeed the case that the Redemption team are looking for worldbuilders to help with interiors, as well as dialogue writers and (possibly) even a 2D artist. If, O Reader, you feel you could fit into one or any of those categories, pop on over to the Ultima IX: Redemption website and drop Direhaggis a private message in the forums there.

PT-BR Translation for Ultima Underworld

I was informed via the contact form that a Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld is available for download as well:

We have a small group with a project, its about 90%, but we have a lot of work like font editing and replay the game to check any flaw.
There is alreadly a patch avaliable.

I have created a project entry for this translation here at Aiera, and have uploaded the current version of the patch (v0.2) for download. If, O Reader, you would be interested in helping this small team with font editing and playtesting, you can contact then through their website/forum.

Exult 3D

From his comments at the end of this discussion at the Exult forums, it appears that Sam Matthews has stopped work on his 3D re-interpretation of the Ultima 7 engine. If so, that’s a pity.

For the moment, the project entry here at Aiera won’t be changed, as the project had come a fairly long way and could conceivably be used to play through Ultima 7. It won’t look terribly pretty in places, but that’s an aesthetic concern as opposed to a technical one.

EUO

Speaking of 3D, it appears that a beta-stage 3D engine has become available for EUO, the Ultima-like online RPG. 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.

Realms of Ultima

This promising, Neverwinter Nights 2-based set of “prefabs” has just released its latest content — New Magincia. It’s not a completed release just yet, and will soon see the addition of caves, house interiors, and the Gargoyles that live there, but it’s enough to wander around in…and it’s spectacular.

(My wife bought me NWN2 a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve had a bit of a look at the town…it’s top-notch work)

The prefab can be downloaded either from its entry at the Neverwinter Vault, or via the project entry here at Aiera.