Pentagram, the remake that does for Ultima 8 what Exult did for Ultima 7, has posted news of their development progress for the first time since last December. The team, it seems, has been busy indeed!

In the last few months, interest in Pentagram seems to have picked up again. A number of bugs were fixed since the last update, including camera fixes, key handling, containers (backpack, barrels, etc.), and a fix for a problem in the German versions of the U8. The default key binding for stasis moved from ‘S’ to ‘F10′. The build should now properly support versions of autoconf greater than 2.60.

Mac OS X builds also received a lot of attention. They build system switched from XCode to a makefile-based system that builds Pentagram and dependencies using their traditional configure script and make methods. This allows us a greater amount of control over the builds and should help prevent changes to Pentagram for unix systems that break OS X builds and vice versa.

Just prior to this news update, I noticed that the Pentagram team had released updated snapshots of both their Windows and Mac builds of the game, and both of these updates have been added to the project entry. I’ve also updated the local copy of the Pentagram source code.

Tags: Exult, Mac, OS X, Pentagram, Ultima 7, Ultima 8, unix, Windows, XCode

Produced by: Pentagram Team
Website: Pentagram
Releases:
* [drain file 28 url Windows Binary] ([drain file 28 size])
* [drain file 24 url OS X Universal Binary] ([drain file 24 size])
* [drain file 91 url Mac libPNG Libraries] ([drain file 91 size])
* [drain file 109 url Source Code] ([drain file 109 size])
* [drain file 410 url Nokia 770/M800 - Program] ([drain file 410 size])
* [drain file 408 url Nokia 770/M800 - libSDL] ([drain file 408 size])
* [drain file 409 url Nokia 770/M800 - INI file] ([drain file 409 size])

Pentagram Map Viewer
* [drain file 27 url Pentagram Map Viewer] ([drain file 27 size])
* [drain file 26 url Source Code] ([drain file 26 size])

What initially began as a map viewer for Ultima 8 has evolved into a full-on cross-platform engine remake in the spirit of Exult. Although no official demo has yet been released, there are up-to-date releases of source code available, as well as Windows and Mac OS X Universal binaries.

The best aspect of this is that Pentagram runs very smoothly and without an intense CPU load, unlike when Ultima 8 is run under DOSBox.

Tags: DOSBox, Exult, Mac, Pentagram, Ultima 8, Windows

Produced by: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* Ultima Potions (hak pak) (376.6 KiB, 129 hits)
* Ultima Potions (demo module) (37.0 KiB, 85 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (hak pak) (375.8 KiB, 73 hits)
* Ultima Potions II (demo module) (41.3 KiB, 82 hits)
* Venom Dagger (erf import file) (2.4 KiB, 80 hits)
* Venom Dagger (hak pak) (36.3 KiB, 79 hits)
* Venom Dagger (icons) (700 bytes, 81 hits)
* Venom Dagger (source files) (11.9 KiB, 74 hits)
* NPC Schedules (erf import file) (64.7 KiB, 77 hits)
* NPC Schedules (demo module) (455.6 KiB, 74 hits)
* NPC Schedules (readme) (4.2 KiB, 87 hits)
* Moongates (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 71 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (erf import file) (23.7 KiB, 74 hits)
* Moongates (demo module) (198.5 KiB, 69 hits)
* Moongates for CEP (demo module) (565.3 KiB, 75 hits)
* Savage Empire Female Portraits (3.2 MiB, 124 hits)
* Savage Empire Male Portraits (1.6 MiB, 103 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (files) (287.7 KiB, 79 hits)
* Ultima Conversation System (demo) (685.6 KiB, 78 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (18.3 KiB, 96 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits & Soundsets Unlocker (readme) (216 bytes, 87 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Portraits (93.4 KiB, 101 hits)
* NWN 1.69 Soundsets (31.6 KiB, 123 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.

Tags: Martian Dreams, Neverwinter Nights, Orb of the Moons, Savage Empire, The Black Gate, Ultima, Ultima 1, Ultima 7, Ultima 8

I apologize for the gap in news updating; both my job and my home life have been rather busy these last few weeks, and I’ve had precious little time to stroll through “the Ultimasphere” to see what has transpired in terms of project developments and file updates.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the news!

PT-BR Underworld Translation

This translation of Ultima Underworld to Portuguese is now 100% complete, with all text strings in the game fully translated.

They are seeking testers to look for errors in grammar and spelling. So if you, O Reader, are conversant in both Portuguese and English, and wouldn’t mind playing through Ultima Underworld again, be sure to visit the project website and drop them a line.

The patch can be downloaded from that same website, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Exult

I noticed that the unstable Exult 1.4 build for Windows had been updated on May 3rd. The notable correction in this release deals with a crash that could be caused by a trap’s projectile effect.

As usual, the snapshot can be downloaded from the Exult website or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Pentagram

There hasn’t been any news from the Pentagram team since December of last year, but they are obviously still working on the project itself; the Windows snapshot that is available for download was updated on April 23rd, and can be downloaded either from the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

EUO

As of May 5th, the 3D client for EUO has been updated, and can be downloaded either the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Notable changes in this release are the addition of “popups” (I assume this is in reference to either in-game dialogues or message windows?), a help screen, the ability to re-map keys, and a few other odds and ends.

Project Britannia

The britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres files have been updated. Changes this go-round include the addition of GUI elements for several throwable weapons, shoes(!!), and a bunch of new textures and meshes. Also, a Yew tree for Ben to chop has been added (methinks this is derived from the Ultima 6 Project?).

The updated files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia wiki or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Though not specifically an update to the actual remake project, the folks at the Ultima 6 Project would like to draw our attention to a charity group that they would like to encourage would-be donors to the project to support instead:

As many of you know, the U6 Project has been going strong for several years now, and it’s cost us a fair amount of cash to keep it going. Every once in a while we’ll get someone asking us if they can donate some money to the project. Well, since it’s an all-volunteer project and not a commercial venture, we can’t accept money. However – we’ve recently realized that there’s no reason in the world we can’t suggest a charity to which you could donate instead. While gaming is certainly a worthy cause, we think that it would be even better to give the gift of life and donate to the Susan G Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

http://www.komen.org/

Please note: The U6 Project is not affiliated with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in any way, shape or form. We’d just like to recommend that you give your money to them instead of offering it to us. Thank you.

So maybe, just maybe, O Reader, go forth and make a bit of a donation in the names of the folks of Team Archon. I’m sure they’d appreciate it!

One last note: someone by the name of Chris (with an email address at grimmstudios.com) contacted me in regard to Ultima 3. Chris, if you’re reading this, I just sent my reply to you again; the last few attempts have resulted in the message bouncing back to me. I apologize for the delay, and would encourage you — if this latest attempt doesn’t get through — to contact me again and provide an alternative email address.

Tags: 3D, Dungeon Siege, EUO, Exult, Pentagram, Portuguese, Project Britannia, Ultima 3, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima 7, Ultima 8, Ultima Underworld, Windows

Produced by: Darkheart Dragon, Avatus Kingsman (formerly), and many others
Website: Ultima Legacy
Releases:
* Custom Data Files

Ultima Legacy is a modified version of Ultima Online (which can be played for free) set in a post-Ultima 8 Britannia. Its premise includes the assumption that Ultima 9: Ascension did not happen, and out of that it has spawned a complex and involved storyline that included the Atarkan invasion of Britannia. Legacy doesn’t exactly form the backstory for the Titans of Ether project entitled Ultima IX: Redemption, although there is a relation there as both projects were founded, in part, by Avatus Kingsman (although where he has gone to, none now know).

To join Legacy is a bit of an involved process — the modified data files that are necessary for game play are provided here for download, but there’s more to it than just that. For starters, you need to own a copy of Ultima Online: The Second Age, and if possible it is recommended that you have Ultima Online: Renaisance instead. may also work.

The rest of the joining process is explained at the Legacy website, and so I direct the interested reader to “journey onward” there.

As of 2008, Legacy is being revised to tell a Serpent Isle-based tale. They are also switching from the Sphere freeshard system to RunUO. Follow all the latest developments at the project website.

Tags: Atarka, Britannia, RunUO, Serpent Isle, Sphere, Titans of Ether, Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Ultima IX: Redemption, Ultima Legacy, Ultima Online, Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, Ultima Online: Renaisance, Ultima Online: The Second Age

To anyone reading this site who might be working — or who has, in the past, worked — on Pentagram, the Ultima 8 environment — I have a question on behalf of a reader.

Do you think it will be possible to port Pentagram to the Nintendo DS? There is a 4Mb ram limit. It would be nice to use this engine with the touch screen of the DS.

There is a library for Nintendo DS programming call libnds heres a link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libnds

Theres another one which uses libnds called PaLib it makes somethings easier. We would need to scale or crop the resolution down to 256 x 192 if we are using just one screen. Theres a top and bottom one but I think it would be cool to use the bottom screen since thats the touchpad.

Libnds comes with DevKitPro which includes an ARM assembler and a C/C++ compiler basically everything you need to program for the NDS.

So…can anyone on the Pentagram team throw an answer my way? Would it be possible to port Pentagram to the Nintendo DS?

Tags: ARM, C, libnds, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PaLib, Pentagram, Ultima 8

Produced by: Arnim Sauerbier
Website: Arnim Sauerbier
Releases:
* Aklabeth for Nokia Smartphones (33.6 KiB, 154 hits)

* xu4 for Nokia Smartphones (1.9 MiB, 149 hits)

* [drain file 406 url Ultima 7 - Exult - Program] ([drain file 406 size])
* [drain file 407 url Ultima 7 - Exult - Data] ([drain file 407 size])
* [drain file 403 url Ultima 7 - Music (low-quality mono)] ([drain file 403 size])
* [drain file 404 url Ultima 7 - Music (higher-quality stereo)] ([drain file 404 size])

* [drain file 410 url Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Program] ([drain file 410 size])
* [drain file 408 url Ultima 8 - Pentagram - libSDL] ([drain file 408 size])
* [drain file 409 url Ultima 8 - Pentagram - INI file] ([drain file 409 size])

These are actually just ports of other Ultima projects (linked below), but as I’ve never seen so many in one place at one time (and from one person!), they are classified not only as ports but as their own separate entry on Aiera.

The following projects have been ported to the Nokia 770/N800 internet tablets:

• Akalabeth – a port of Paul Robson’s SDL version of the game
• Ultima 4 – a port of xu4
• Ultima 5 – a port of Nazghul/Haxima
• Ultima 6 – a port of Nuvie
• Ultima 7 – a port of Exult
• Ultima 8 – a port of Pentagram

It serves to note that these ports are ongoing works, and it further serves to note that some of the projects that have been ported (Pentagram, for an easy example) are themselves incomplete. However, O Reader, if you use a Nokia 770/N800 internet tablet, and would like to be able to play some classic Ultima titles whilst on the go, this is likely a project for you!

Tags: Aiera, Akalabeth, Aklabeth, Exult, Haxima, Nazghul, Nokia, Nuvie, Pentagram, SDL, Ultima, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima 7, Ultima 8, xu4