Produced by: Max Breedon
Website: EUO
Releases:
* EUO Installer (0 bytes)
* Patcher Update (use only if needed) (0 bytes)
* Launcher (Client Configurator) (0 bytes)
* Map Editor (0 bytes)
* 3D Client (0 bytes)

Borrowing a fair bit from other RPGs, EUO is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5. The project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.

EUO uses a Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (and with more Ultima Online influences, apparently). 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. And now, a 3D client is even available!

Tags: D&D, Diablo 3, EUO, LUA, Neverwinter Nights, RPG, Ultima, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima Online

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!

Tags: Aiera, Akalabeth, Aklabeth, Dino's Ultima Page, Dungeon Siege, Exult, Exult Studio, Linux, Pocket PC, PocketPC, Project Britannia, Serpent Isle, Texas Instruments, The Black Gate, translation, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima 7, Ultima 9, Ultima Online, Ultima Underworld, Ultima: Iris, Windows

Produced by: Alcibiade
Website: Alcibiade’s e-Den
Releases:
* Ultima Songbook (PDF) (0 bytes)

This is a neat little “utility” (sorry — couldn’t think of a better way to categorize it) for the budding musician out there to make use of. It is a compilation of guitar arrangements for the various tunes that make up the score of Ultima 6, with a few tunes from Ultima 4 and Ultima 5 also included. They have been compiled into a single e-book, and dressed up with artwork and quotes from the games as well.

Tags: guitar, music, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, Ultima 6

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.

Tags: Aiera, Dino's Ultima Page, Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Siege, EUO, Exult, Exult Studio, Frankfurt, Germany, Neverwinter Nights, Serpent Isle, Texas Instruments, The Black Gate, Ultima 1, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima 7, Ultima Online, Ultima Underworld, Wing Commander

Produced by: Exodus Project
Website: Archon
Releases:
* Milestone 1 (0 bytes)
* Milestone 2 (0 bytes)
* Milestone 3 (0 bytes)
* Milestone 4 (0 bytes)
* Milestone 5 (0 bytes)

Tools:
* Font Builder (0 bytes)
* Interface Designer (0 bytes)
* Dev Tools (0 bytes)

Tech Demo:
* Tech Demo (0 bytes)

Another Dungeon Siege remake, this high-profile (and high-tech) project aims to re-create Ultima 6, adding many of the same features to that game as Lazarus promises for Ultima 5: enhanced music, expanded storyline, new characters and additional side quests.

Tags: Dungeon Siege, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima 6 Project

Produced by: Team Lazarus
Website: Lazarus
Releases:
* Lazarus 1.2 (Windows) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus 1.2 (Mac) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus 1.2 French Patch (Windows) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus German Patch v1.0 (0 bytes)
* Blink Activation Patch (0 bytes)
* Difficulty Override (0 bytes)
* Font Patch (0 bytes)
* Portrait Patch (0 bytes)
* Lazarus Editing Environment (Windows) (0 bytes)
* Chronicle of Lord British's Expedition (0 bytes)
* Lazarus Game Manual (0 bytes)
* Map of Britannia (0 bytes)
* Lazarus Soundtrack (0 bytes)

Patches and Upgrades
* Enhanced Graphics (0 bytes) – (pictured) from 3DWorx
* Looking Up Camera Mod (0 bytes)
* Grail Quest's Mods (0 bytes) – see this text file (0 bytes) for details
* Bugfixes and Modifications (0 bytes) – see the Lazarus forums for details
* Project Britannia Compatibility Mod (0 bytes)
* Comfortability Mod 1 (0 bytes) – start with a bedroll
* Comfortability Mod 2 (0 bytes) – start with a bedroll and the sextant (may break a later quest)
* Comfortability Mod 3 (0 bytes) – reduced daily food consumption rate
* Comfortability Mod 4 (0 bytes) – adds hotkey support for the pocketwatch (if the party has it)
* Regeneration Ring Health Loss bugfix (0 bytes)

Spell-related Mods
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod (0 bytes) – (pictured) replaces the default icons for spell scrolls with graphics that make it easier to identify which spell is on which scroll. Only works on new scrolls added to inventory, not scrolls already held
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod with Chuckles Scroll Changer (0 bytes) – adds to the above mod the ability to talk to Chuckles the Jester and have him “exchange” all your current spell scrolls for new ones, thus updating their icons

Weapon Mods
* Magic Weapon Fix (0 bytes) – fixes an issue with weapon enhancement damage not being applied. See this post on the Lazarus forums
* Magic Axe Redux v1.1 (0 bytes) – uses spell damage to cause the magic axe’s bonus damage
* Magic Axe Redux v2 (0 bytes) – addresses balance issues with the previous version of the mod
* Cheerful's weaponfixes (0 bytes) – fixes some scripting and bug issues with weapon-based spells
* Flint Item Changer (0 bytes) – talk to Flint to “upgrade” your magic weapons to bug-fixed, modded versions

Cheerful Dragon’s Weapon Addons
* Undead-slaying Silver sword and Stronger glass sword (0 bytes)
* Ranged throwing axe (0 bytes)

Lazarus 1.0
* Lazarus (Part 1) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 2) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 3) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 4) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 5) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 6) (0 bytes)
* Lazarus (Part 7) (0 bytes)

Demos:
* Alpha Demo 1.0 (Win/Mac) (0 bytes)
* Alpha Demo 2.0 (Win) (0 bytes)
* Alpha Demo 2.0 (Mac OSX) (0 bytes)
* French Patch 2.0 (Win) (0 bytes)
* German Patch 2.0 (Win) (0 bytes)

One of the most high-profile remakes during its development, Ultima V: Lazarus is a Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 led by Tiberius Moongazer. It was completed and released in the early part of 2006.

Lazarus features an enhanced and expanded musical score, additional plot elements, many new and exciting characters and side quests, and fully rendered cut scenes.

The project is available for download in its entirety here, and in addition there are available for download several mods, patches, and bug-fixes; Lazarus has spawned a modding community of its own.

Tags: Dungeon Siege, Ultima 5, Ultima V: Lazarus

Produced by: David Randall
Website: Ultima 5 for TI Calculators
Releases:
* Ultima 5 for TI-89 and TI-89 Titanium (0 bytes)
* Ultima 5 for TI-92 Beta 0.99 (0 bytes)

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(!!)

Tags: Texas Instruments, Ultima 5