Spoony has continued his hilarious, if profane, reviews of the different games of the Ultima series, and has added reviews for Ultima 2 and Ultima 3 to his site.

Check thou them out!

(hat tip)

I almost forgot to mention that the downloads section for Ultima 2 has been made fully functional again as well. So if you have a moment or an inkling, good reader, check thou it out!

By the way: a few sundry things need to be mentioned.

1) In the comments below, please leave your thoughts as to whether I should convert the image-handling aspect of the site over to Flickr, as I have been doing with my other websites. There’s any number of WordPress plugins that make it easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to bring images over into articles here at Aiera, and using the external site also makes it easier to restore images to proper function in the event of my needing to switch ISPs again.

2) I’m in the process of building a redundant backup of all uploaded files using my Windows Live Skydrive account; I’ll start adding links to existing downloads next week.

3) I could really use some assistance with downloads, as they are restored; it would be swell if one or two people could, where possible, check the developer homepages for site content and make sure that Aiera has the most current copy of each remake, patch, and utility.

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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…

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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 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.

There have been a few minor updates made around the remake community in the past week or so.

Ultima III for Mac

I must have not noticed this before, but LairWare have a forum up for their port of Ultima 3.

Ultima 6 Project

Zephyr let slip in the project forum that the team are currently play-testing Milestone 3.

Exult

The latest build of Exult 1.4 was released last week, and features some minor bug corrections in monster usecode, and reading text. It also now allows setting a z-coordinate in teleport eggs. The Exult entry here at the site has this new build available for download.

Pentagram

A new Windows build of Pentagram was released two days ago. The Pentagram entry at Aiera has this available for download.

Project Britannia

Two of Project Britannia’s core files have been updated. “Hit feedback” textures have been added to britannia_art.dsres all the way down to -100 HP, and a number of updates and corrections have been made to the mob generator, maps, banter system, sextant, and combat system in britannia_logic.dsres. Both files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia entry here at the site.

Ultima Tileset viewer and Assembly Code

Tim Carlsen alerted me to online versions of Michael Maggio’s collection of assembly-language extracts for Ultima 2, Ultima 3, and Ultima 5. Mike has also put together a Linux-only tileset viewer for Ultima (presumably for the earlier games that used tiled graphics) which he has called Diligence.

Update: xu4

The Windows snapshot for xu4 was updated recently, and Gruck brought this to my attention in the comments for this posting. I have expanded and updated the versions of this remake available for download through Aiera, as I had previously not included Zaurus, BeOS, or Dreamcast ports of the game for download.

Also, I’m adjusting my update policy for project entries at the site here. Now when I update a file for a project entry, that project entry’s “post date” is going to get set to the current date, thus percolating active projects to the top of their respective categories. I think this will be a bit more convenient for most of Aiera‘s visitors.

WtFD

Produced by: Michael C. Maggio
Website: Mike Maggio’s Digital Portfolio
Releases:
* U2 Assembly (1.2 MiB, 169 hits)

A dump of the assembly language for Ultima 2‘s main executable file.

Produced by: Ultra-Mind Dragon
Releases:
* Ultima 2 Mapper (11.1 KiB, 150 hits)

A simple utility for Ultima 2, this program may prove valuable to you if you’re trying to economize on the amount of tri-lithium that you use in the game. It shows the maps of the three major towers, as well as the dungeons, in the game.

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: SoftwareByPaul
Website: SoftwareByPaul
Releases:
* Ultima 2 Demo (225.3 KiB, 159 hits)

This novel port of Ultima 2 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 enchantress Minax 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, find Enlino, or reach Planet X. The full-version can be purchased from the developer.

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: John Alderson
Website: Windows Native Ultima 2
Releases:
* Ultima 2 for Windows (152.2 KiB, 215 hits)

A port of Ultima 2 to the Windows environment that requires the original game data files to be installed on your hard drive. While it uses the four-color pallete that Ultima 2 originally used, it includes the option to select other color schemes as well.

Produced by: Mike Marcelais
Releases:
* Maps Patch (16.7 KiB, 182 hits)

A patch that corrects the maps in Ultima 2 and restores them to their originally intended format and appearence.

Produced by: Exodus Project
Website: The Exodus Project
Releases:
* Moonstone's Galactic Patch (21.2 KiB, 158 hits)
* Micro's Speed Fix (2.6 KiB, 181 hits)
* Upgrade Package (223.3 KiB, 196 hits)

A team effort to upgrade Ultima 2 by the Exodus Project team, it includes a number of improvements to the original game, including EGA graphics (an improvement over the 4 color original), full-color tiles, lower-case text, better save game support, and hotkey support.

Additional files included here are Moonstone Dragon’s Galactic Patch (which adds maps for some of the inner planets) and Micro Dragon’s Speed Patch (which corrects the all-too-familiar divide-by-zero error).