Feel like rescuing a princess again? Or maybe taking a space shuttle mission to a distant world? Has it been too long since you journeyed into the Abyss?

Ultimoid appears to be a browser-based parody of the Ultima games, constructed with the GameBuilder service. As such, it’s not a particularly lengthy adventure, and its control set is pretty simple.

Its appearance draws heavily on the tiled graphics of Ultima 1 through Ultima 5. Timeline-wise, it claims to be set in a post-Ultima 9 Britannia.

Michael Shorten has released “Siege Perilous,” his Ultima-inspired tabletop RPG.

“Siege Perilous” is an RPG based on the Ultima Age of Darkness CRPG games – #1 through #3. It is developed from an adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry White Box (1st printing) and uses several other sources – Skathros’s S&W Companion Rules, a magic system developed by Arminath, the Minimal Space Combat system by Timoth Swenson and a lot of glue, rewriting, adaptation and content by myself. This game uses names, monsters, spells, settings and features from all 3 of the games.

…

It’s not a faithful representation of the “canon” timeline – I had to make a hybrid game that a Game Referee could use to represent any point in time with the established Ultima universe. It’s also adaptable enough that a Game Referee can make their own Ultima. Future settings information is going to assume the state of Sosaria in Ultima 1, based on my campaign world.

Released for download are the game’s rulebook, the game referee’s guide, and something called “Hawkwind’s Gazeteer: Perinia,” which is evidently just an outline of some kind at present.

If you’re a fan of pen-and-paper RPGs, good reader, do consider giving this one a try; it looks rather promising! At present, it must be downloaded from Michael’s site; I will add an entry for it to Aiera shortly.

And if there’s someone put there who’d be willing to review the game, please contact me and let me know!

Ergonpandilus Dragon alerted me to the existence of this one, conducted by the folks at CrispyGamer! The topic of discussion seems to be Ultima 7, for the most part:

Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?

Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.

Frankly, Ultima I, II and III weren’t related to each other at all, in the sense that their stories weren’t connected. Ultima IV, V and VI were only related to each other in that I kind of realized that the series was going to go on for awhile, so I tried to pick up where I left off with each game.

Ultima VII (for me, the most important moment for the series since Ultima IV) was the first time I really sat down and said, “OK, what am I really trying to accomplish with this game?” I was trying to do things like set up stories and characters that would survive for more than one product. I had seen how people were reading into the philosophy I had put together with Ultima IV, V and VI, and so I was trying to — what you describe as “tearing down” — open it up, and say there are lots of other forms of thought that are either just as good or positive, or that might also seem good or positive but are actually quite dark. So I was trying to drive what I call alternatives.

Ultima IV, Ultima VII and Ultima Online are my favorites. And for me, the reason why VII that was true for was because it was a game where I most completely realized the virtual world I was trying to create. In other words, the depth of interaction and responsiveness of the world it played in.

As the bloggers say, read the whole thing!

And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out another interesting Ultima-themed feature currently underway at CrispyGamer: The Black Gate Murders — an “alternative” play-through of Ultima 7 in which the object is to a) kill everyone apart from respawning characters, and to b) pass the game. At the very least, this implies a rather careful methodology in regard to the order in which NPCs are dispatched, and I for one would be curious as to whether the blogger can pull it off.

He’s already done Trinsic, the Road to Paws, and Paws proper…

Powered by ScribeFire.

Pace last week’s progress, the downloads for the Ultima 1 section of the site are now all functional again, and have even been updated in one case: the Ultima Restoration project released new files to bring content from Neverwinter Nights 1.69 into use.

Check thou it out!

Also: I’ve decided to adopt, as a trial for the moment, an informal convention in order to differentiate ‘tag’ links from ‘actual’ links. Links that are not ‘tag’ links will now appear in bold font.

Does anyone have any idea how to contact the developer of this collection of remakes — PalmOS-compatible versions of Ultima 1, Ultima 2, and Ultima 3?

I’ve been trying to figure out how to resolve a support question that a Reader came to me with some months ago, but all I seem to be hitting are brick walls.

Feel free to drop any helpful information into the comments form below.

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: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* Ultima Potions (hak pak) (376.6 KiB, 214 hits)
* Ultima Potions (demo module) (37.0 KiB, 149 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (hak pak) (375.8 KiB, 137 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (demo module) (41.3 KiB, 146 hits)
* Venom Dagger (erf import file) (2.4 KiB, 144 hits)
* Venom Dagger (hak pak) (36.3 KiB, 143 hits)
* Venom Dagger (icons) (700 bytes, 152 hits)
* Venom Dagger (source files) (11.9 KiB, 145 hits)
* NPC Schedules (erf import file) (64.7 KiB, 141 hits)
* NPC Schedules (demo module) (455.6 KiB, 138 hits)
* NPC Schedules (readme) (4.2 KiB, 151 hits)
* Moongates (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 136 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 139 hits)
* Moongates (demo module) (198.5 KiB, 133 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (demo module) (565.3 KiB, 138 hits)
* Savage Empire Female Portraits (3.2 MiB, 212 hits)
* Savage Empire Male Portraits (1.6 MiB, 187 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (files) (287.7 KiB, 147 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (demo) (685.6 KiB, 137 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (18.3 KiB, 164 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (readme) (216 bytes, 159 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits (93.4 KiB, 171 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Soundsets (31.6 KiB, 196 hits)

This is actually a comprehensive collection of utilities and in-progress remakes of Ultima titles, all done in the Neverwinter Nights engine. The list of utilities is pretty comprehensive, including functional moongates (with Orb of the Moons!), NPC scheduling, animated potions, a conversation system to replace the default NWN system, and a very good reproduction of the venomous dagger of Ultima 7 fame.

But even more promising is the list of remakes that are being put together by this team and others. Currently in progress are remakes of Ultima 1, Ultima 7 (which provides the screenshot here), Ultima 8, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams. Most of these seem still to be in the early stages of development, but the Ultima 7 remake — which deals, it seems, only with the events of The Black Gate at present — looks to have progressed somewhat further.

Here is hoping, then, that this collective set of efforts bears much fruit in the future! As the projects progress, I’ll probably break off each remake into its own standalone entry. For now, this one omnibus entry will suffice.

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.

Produced by: Dino the Dark Dragon
Website: Dino’s Google Group
Releases:
* Sites List (1.1 KiB, 127 hits)
* Files List (1.7 KiB, 137 hits)
* Ultima 1 Engine (67.5 KiB, 222 hits)

Dino the Dark Dragon began reverse-engineering the Ultima 1 engine as a spare-time project. Here is his work in progress.

This is a comprehensive top-down 2D game development tool that allows for the creation of tiled RPG-type games, similar to Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5. It is now fully operable under both Windows and Mac OS X without need for emulation of any kind.

The Kit was completed in 1995, and was intended as Mr. Hopkins’ update to the classic Adventure Construction Kit of the 1980s. In about 2000, the Kit was released as freeware, and Joshua Lawrence has taken it upon himself to maintain a web presence for the Kit. The ‘v3′ update was released in early 2008.

Still in development (although you can download and compile the source, which is currently at version 0.7.0), Nazghul is a 2D single-player computer role-playing game (CRPG) engine in the grand tradition of Ultimas 1 through 5. Much as with EUO, the developer proudly states that if you are looking for gorgeous graphics and squad-based combat, you should look elsewhere.

Haxima is the game being developed concurrently with the Nazghul engine, and features an Ultima-inspired tale of adventure.

Produced by: prmths
Releases:
* Version 0.1.0 (Windows) (0 bytes)
* Version 0.1.2 (*nix) (0 bytes)

This interesting collection of Ultima remakes offered a fully implemented engine for Akalabeth, and a partial engine for Ultima 1 as well. The current beta version is 0.1.2, and is hosted here for download. Akalabeth is fully playable now in UCR.

Featuring enhanced graphics and offering full compatibility with modern operating systems, this ambitious project aimed to re-create the first two Ultima trilogies, but has since disappeared from sight.

I was going through the Ultima FTP Archive and noticed that there were a few things there which had not been added to Aiera, but which probably should have been added a goodly while ago. They’re mostly minor utilities, some over a decade old, but for posterity’s sake they have been included on the site here.

• a Martian Dreams cheat hack*
• a cheat utility for Ultimas 1 through 5 (but not 2)
• another Ultima 4 map editor
• an Ultima 6 chunk editor
• a Linux-based utility for rendering maps of the Ultima 8 game world
• a character editor for Underworld
• a character editor for Underworld 2

Just a minor update, especially coming on the heels of some fairly major ones (below). But hey — I aim to please!

Also, a frothy mug of ale to Ole Petter Ingebrigsen for bringing it to my attention that the ZIP-archive download for the Ultima 4 character editor (a different one, not the one mentioned above) was apparently corrupted. This error has been corrected.

* this also works, apparently, for Savage Empire (thanks Paulon)

Releases:
* Ultima 1, 3, 4 & 5 Cheat (19.2 KiB, 353 hits)

A cheat program that can be used for Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5 (but not, according to its name, for Ultima 2).

Note: this update may not work with Ultima 3, and may also be missing the strength attribute. This has been found to be the case in DOSBox, at any rate, although at present it is not known whether the error is within the program proper, or whether it is in some way related to DOSbox.

Produced by: Xenerkes Dragon
Releases:
* Ultimatrx Installer (1.6 MiB, 92 hits)
* Ultimatrix GUI (57.6 KiB, 89 hits)

Ultimatrix is a unique utility that allows you to create maps of the worlds of Ultimas 1 to 6, as well as Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. Initially, the program begins in the overworlds of each game, but it is possible to wander into the dungeons and view the maps of those as well.

It is recommended that you also download the GUI for the program.

Produced by: Sage
Website: Titans of Ether

Much like Ultima 1: A Legend is Reborn (later ERA, now defunct), this project aimed, initially, to re-create an Ultima game using a custom-built 3D engine.

Sage and his team plan to re-tell the tale of Ultima 2 from the Sosarian perspective. While their game will feature Earth in the plot, it is set in the lands of Sosaria in the transitional time between Ultima 1 and Ultima 3, during the reign of Minax.

As of August 2005, Sage has joined with the Titans of Ether to bring Enilno to life with their help, using the Morrowind engine (or, more probably, Oblivion).

Produced by: SoftwareByPaul
Website: SoftwareByPaul
Releases:
* Ultima 1 Demo (220.6 KiB, 125 hits)

This novel port of Ultima 1 to the PalmOS offers a number of improvements over the original game, including the addition of a party-system – you can have up to a 4-person party. This version also features top-down dungeon navigation (instead of the forward-facing view of the originals) and battle sequences. Now you can battle monsters and overthrow the wizard Mondain on your PDA, as long as you have PalmOS 5 or better.

This development does come at a price, however, because this port is shareware. There is a demo available for download, but the noteable limitations in it are that you cannot purchase food, and you cannot reach Mondain. The full-version can be purchased from the developer.

Produced by: Arthur DiBianca
Releases:
* Graphics Patch (38.7 KiB, 174 hits)

Ultima 1 is an old game, and the routine it uses to display graphics (out.exe) occasionally encounters glitches with some graphics cards that cause the graphics to lose colour and eventually get garbled. This patch will correct most of those errors.