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Ultima: Aiera

an Ultima Project archive site

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UW in Portuguese; Exult and Pentagram snapshots; EUO 3D; Project Britannia update

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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 to 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 1.4 build for 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 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 client for 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 ?).

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 . 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.

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Pentagram

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pyros.png

Produced by: Pentagram Team
Website: Pentagram
Releases:
* Windows Binary
* OS X Universal Binary
* Mac libPNG Libraries
* Source Code
* Nokia 770/M800 - Program
* Nokia 770/M800 - libSDL
* Nokia 770/M800 - INI file

Pentagram Map Viewer
* Pentagram Map Viewer
* Source Code

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

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

 
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Ultima Legacy

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Produced by: Darkheart Dragon, Avatus Kingsman (formerly), and many others

legacy_britbank.jpg

Website: Ultima Legacy
Releases:
* Custom Data Files

is a modified version of (which can be played for free) set in a post- . Its premise includes the assumption that : Ascension did not happen, and out of that it has spawned a complex and involved storyline that included the n invasion of Britannia. Legacy doesn’t exactly form the backstory for the project entitled , 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 , and if possible it is recommended that you have 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 -based tale. They are also switching from the freeshard system to . Follow all the latest developments at the project website.

 
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Attention, Pentagram Developers!

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

Do you think it will be possible to port to the ? 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 DS programming call heres a link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libnds

Theres another one which uses libnds called 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 assembler and a /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?

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Ultima Ports for Nokia 770/M800

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nokia.jpg

Produced by: Arnim Sauerbier
Website: Arnim Sauerbier
Releases:
* Akalabeth (33.59 KB)

* Ultima 4 - xu4 (1.85 MB)

* Ultima 7 - Exult - Program (1.01 MB)
* Ultima 7 - Exult - Data (14.01 MB)
* Ultima 7 - Music (low-quality mono) (12.5 MB)
* Ultima 7 - Music (higher-quality stereo) (28.71 MB)

* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - Program (766.23 KB)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - libSDL (16.17 KB)
* Ultima 8 - Pentagram - INI file (998 bytes)

These are actually just ports of other 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 .

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

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 (, 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!

 
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