I noticed several tweets over the weekend which linked to the various articles and podcasts posted here, on the MIT GAMBIT Game Lab website. The podcasts are interviews with various key people from Looking Glass Studios, the game development studio responsible for Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2 (among many other fine titles).

GAMBIT describes the podcast series thusly:

The Looking Glass Studios Podcast is a special audio series which features discussions with makers of some of the most influential video games of the last 20 years.

…

In this podcast series we hear from them, in their own words, how many of these titles were created, and what lessons they can still teach game designers today.

The podcast series currently has nine episodes:

1. Austin Grossman, with Andrew Grant and Sara Verrilli (podcast | transcript)
2. Dan Schmidt (podcast | transcript)
3. Tim Stellmach and Laura Baldwin, with Sara Verrilli (podcast)
4. Randy Smith (podcast)
5. Ken Levine (podcast)
6. Greg LoPiccolo (podcast)
7. Eric Brosius (podcast)
8. Marc “Mahk” LeBlanc (podcast)
9. Terri Brosius and Dan Thron (podcast)

The most recent entry in the series was posted just last week, so I’m assuming that the ninth episode won’t be the last. Be that as it may: if you want some good inside skinny on what went into the design of games like System Shock, Thief, and Ultima Underworld, don’t miss these podcasts! Download them, have a listen, find out where the person or people who brought you these classic games have ended up, and learn how their time at Looking Glass influences what they’re doing now.

Akalaupdate: The patches discussed below for Ultima 1-7 are all covered by and automatically applied (along with necessary fixes — e.g. DPMI) by Pix’s Ultima Patcher (Windows-only). Xarton Dragon’s Portable Ultima Patches are also compatible with the GOG versions of the games.

Original Post: So, you’ve gone and bought and/or downloaded yourself a copy of some Ultima titles from Good Old Games, and you’re wondering: are there any updates for these? Any patches? Anything else I should know?

Well, as it happens, the answer might well be “yes”.

Good Old Games (GOG) is admirably committed to releasing games in as close to their original form as possible; they tend to eschew reworked versions of games which the publishers may have shipped at a later time with graphics updates and whatnot. And to be fair, that’s an entirely commendable position; these games were classics in their unmodified form, and people should understand that and enjoy the games in their original state.

But over the years, Ultima fans and developers alike have taken it upon themselves to publish little improvements to the games, in the form of patches, graphics updates, and suchlike. This article will attempt to outline what can be done to improve, enhance, or in some ways modify your Ultima-playing experience with your newly purchased copies from GOG.

Ultima 1

There isn’t much you need to do — or can do — for Ultima 1; there is only a single graphics patch available for the game, which is recommended as it corrects a known glitch in the original display driver executable.

Ultima 2

There are two updates for Ultima 2 that you should consider applying. The first of these is a maps patch, which corrects for a bug in the original version of the game caused by a file which was overwritten multiple times during the installation process.

Note: It is possible that the Good Old Games version of Ultima 2 has this patch applied already; this has not been verified.

The other thing you may want to consider doing is applying the Ultima 2 Upgrade in whole or in part. This comprehensive update applies some speed tweaks to the game and also improves the graphics.

Note: the upgrade patch requires DPMI, which is not supported natively in DOSbox (which the Good Old Games version of the game uses as a wrapper/launcher). To get DPMI working, extract this file to the root folder of the game.

Ultima 3

There are two updates for Ultima 3, both of which update the graphics of the game. As a result, you can apply one or the other, but not both at the same time.

The first update is the EGA graphics patch, a modified SHAPES.EGA file that incorporates a number of graphics from an enhanced graphics patch for Ultima 4. The second is the Ultima 3 Upgrade, which adds more colourful graphics and improved MIDI music to the game.

Note: the upgrade patch requires DPMI, which is not supported natively in DOSbox (which the Good Old Games version of the game uses as a wrapper/launcher). To get DPMI working, extract this file to the root folder of the game.

Ultima 4

There are a few different updates that can be applied to Ultima 4.

The EGA graphics patch improves the look of the game somewhat, although the more dramatic improvement comes from the Ultima 4 Upgrade package, which adds VGA graphics and the original (and better) musical score from the Apple and Commodore versions of the game.

Note: the upgrade patch requires DPMI, which is not supported natively in DOSbox (which the Good Old Games version of the game uses as a wrapper/launcher). To get DPMI working, extract this file to the root folder of the game.

Additionally, the upgrade can’t be installed under DOS, as one of its files, “avpatch.exe”, is a Windows console application. A patched, DOS-friendly version is available here.

Also, it is critically important that, in Good Old Games’ version of Ultima 4, you create and save a character before applying the upgrade; failure to do so will render the game unplayable.

Patches you may want to apply include this fix for the dungeon of Hythloth, and the runic font replacement patch if you are feeling particularly brave and want all the English-language signage in the game to be presented in a runic font instead.

Finally, if you feel like cheating, there is a character editor for Ultima 4, a cheat program for Ultima 1, Ultima 3, Ultima 4, and Ultima 5, and a savegame editor for the first five Ultima titles.

Ultima 5

There are a number of patches available for Ultima 5, including the comprehensive Ultima 5 Upgrade , a music patch, a patch that lets you use the numeric keypad properly, and (of course) a patch to remove the runic font used at various points in the game.

Note: the upgrade patch presumably requires DPMI, which is not supported natively in DOSbox (which the Good Old Games version of the game uses as a wrapper/launcher). To get DPMI working, extract this file to the root folder of the game.

Ultima 6

There isn’t much in the way of patching needed to play Ultima 6. If you configure it to use the PC speaker, this timing patch might be of use if you are noticing odd sound errors, and there are also patches for MTU-32 and Soundblaster sound, and for AdLib sound.

Use as necessary.

Ultima Underworld & Ultima Underworld 2

The Good Old Games version of Ultima Underworld should already incorporate the official patch for the game, and their version of Ultima Underworld 2 should include the official patch for the second game.

If you want a bit of mood music in the first game, there is a patch which adds a MIDI soundtrack, which I can only assume works with the GOG version of the game as well.

There are also Spanish and Portuguese translation patches available for Ultima Underworld.

As well, the GOG versions of the Underworld games are configured, by default, to use Roland MT-32 sound. If this causes issues for you (and it may), see this forum post at GOG.com for a workaround.

Finally, if you feel like cheating, there is a character editor for Ultima Underworld 2, and a general editor for both games.

That is the sum total of what can be done for the Ultima titles currently available on Good Old Games. If they release the rest of the series or the World of Ultima spinoffs at some point, this post will be updated with information about any other titles that come out.

Ultima 7 & Serpent Isle

A good and easy way to play Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle is with Exult, which is a mature cross-platform engine for the original game data files that incorporates a number of graphical scalers (so you can run the game at higher resolutions), bug fixes, and enhancements. If you use Exult, there’s no need to install any other patches.

If, however, you want to play the games in their pure form, they are well-supported by DOSBox, and the Good Old Games versions of the games come with DOSBox included as the “launcher”.

As far as patching the games goes, you shouldn’t need much in the way of patches to run the game under DOSBox. If, however, you want a bit of additional atmosphere in the game, there is a patch that adds support for MIDI music in Ultima 7 (and a similar patch for Serpent Isle). There is also an official patch from Origin Systems for Ultima 7, which might help if you find that Ultima 7 crashes.

The First Age of Update: Suggestions for Ultima 5 and Ultima 6 have been added. But as Pix’s Ultima Patcher (link above) has been updated as well, it is still recommended that you use it instead. Or Xarton Dragon’s Portable Ultima Patches (link above); those will also work.

Revenge of the Update: Suggestions for Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle have been added. But, again, as Pix’s Ultima Patcher (link above) has been updated as well, it is still recommended that you use it instead. Or, again, Xarton Dragon’s Portable Ultima Patches (link above); those will also work.

[flickr size="thumbnail" float="left"]3925275457[/flickr]

Produced by: Panzer Dragon
Website: The Other Codex
Releases:
* General MIDI Patch (64.3 KiB, 115 hits)

This patch adds MIDI music to Ultima Underworld 2, to give the game a bit of additional atmosphere.

Feed the Gamer looks at this very question and comes away with the conclusion that Looking Glass — the studio that developed both Ultima Underworld games — was very, very awesome indeed.

Founded in 1990, Looking Glass was not only responsible for some of that decade’s most innovative and memorable games, but was also a place where people like Ken Levine (BioShock), Warren Spector (Deus Ex) and Seamus Blackley (Xbox) all worked under the one roof.

The product of a merger between two companies, Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research, Looking Glass Studios was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Developing mostly for the PC, Looking Glass’ first few games were published by PC gaming giant Origin (Wing Commander, Ultima), but by 1995 the studio was developing and publishing its own titles.

…

Looking Glass’ first game (well, while its development side was still known as Blue Sky) was 1992′s Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, a first-person role-playing game that not only broke from the traditions of conventional Ultima games, but in many ways blew right past them, its immersive setting and (for the time) amazing 3D graphics making it a critical success.

The games which came next read like a “greatest hits collection” of PC gaming in the 1990s…

Eidos — massively in debt at the time — shut Looking Glass down in the year 2000, a rather ignoble end for such a talented development house. One could almost argue that such was the curse that afflicted all developers who published Ultima titles, I suppose. But in their short span, the did produce some genre-defining — and genre-shattering — games, which frankly still hold up very well today.

Ever since the Underworld games arrived on Good Old Games, one of the more commonly-asked questions has been when System Shock and System Shock 2 will show up for sale. Indeed, the people at GOG rather pointedly referenced this series — the other two-part game series built with the 3D engine that also powered both Underworld titles — in a Q&A session, confirming that for now, there was no possibility of seeing either game arrive on GOG.

And in a lengthy retrospective, G4TV’s The Feed blog explains why that is.

For those who haven’t time to read the whole thing, here’s the basic summary (which I admit I did not entirely know, myself):

But even if EA wanted to publish another System Shock, the company didn’t have the rights to do so. Back when the original game was made, producer Warren Spector negotiated a deal in which EA got the trademark to the series, while the developers at Looking Glass Studios kept the rights. To create another System Shock game, you need both. “My thinking was it would force us to be married so it never would be that either party should be able to say we own that, we’re making the next game, screw you,” Spector told the San Jose Mercury News last November.

In hindsight, the deal only jeopardized System Shock’s future. Looking Glass Studios closed in 2000, a year after System Shock 2′s release, and the copyright to the series went into the hands of an insurance company. That left EA with only the System Shock name, but no actual development rights.

Since that time, EA’s trademark on the System Shock name has expired, mind you, and the article goes on to explain why that fact is as much an additional hurdle to the development of a new game in the series as it is an advantage. The legal issues surrounding both the name and development rights for the series are vexingly complicated.

Still: if you were wondering, you can now say you know what the issue with the creation of a new System Shock game is…and you can also quite safely infer that these same issues prevent the games from becoming available for sale through a digital distribution service like Good Old Games.

[Insert Paul Harvey joke here.]

The Wing Commander CIC is reporting that a custom build of DOSBox has been released, which incorporates the MUNT emulation patch to add true Roland MT-32 support to the DOS emulation environment.

Though it was intended as a prosumer-grade MIDI synthesizer, the MT-32 quickly became an effective standard for high-end sound in computer games, and several games were built which to this day offer the best possible sound experience to users with either an actual MT-32 setup or a decent emulator. Several Origin games — Wing Commander, Wing Commander Academy, Wing Commander 2, Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld 2, Ultima 6, Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle — were released with support for the MT-32, and arguably sound their best when they are able to take advantage of that system.

Anyhow…some lion of technology who goes by the moniker Taewoong is responsible for the custom DOSBox build, and you can download it from his site. He has also uploaded a video of the first mission in Wing Commander to show off just what the custom build is capable of.

For you Wing Commander and Ultima fans who want the best possible sound experience when playing your favourite games in DOSBox, this is now officially your best available option; be sure to check it out.

You’ve all been waiting anxiously to know what the countdown to the “biggest announcement ever” at Good Old Games (GOG) is, and now it can be told: the Origin Systems catalogue of games (among many other Electronic Arts titles) are coming to GOG, beginning with Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2, Dungeon Keeper, and Wing Commander: Privateer!

Yeah, really.

You can get the games at these links: Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Wing Commander: Privateer, and Dungeon Keeper.

And as the summer progresses, Good Old Games will release still more classic Origin titles, including the rest of the Ultima series, the Wing Commander series, and even the Crusader games. Even if you own the games, I’d recommend taking a look at what the plucky Polish retailers have on offer as the weeks roll on by; they have worked hard to make sure the games play nice with Windows, after all, eliminating the need (hopefully) for jumping through all kinds of configuration hoops.

One thing: I would assume that the various patches and enhancements available here on Aiera for various titles in the Ultima series will work with GOG’s versions of the games, but I don’t know that for certain. I’ll be picking the games up over the course of the next few weeks/months, and as I have time I’ll test the various patches and updates against them.

But if any of you want to have a stab at doing that before I get around to it…please do, and report back!

Update: The Wing Commander CIC is carrying the news and offers a few other bonus posts as well, including: the introdiction of the Trilkhai in Ultima Underworld 2, a look at the Ultima Underworld/Wing Commander 2 retail box set, and a retrospective of GameTap’s abortive attempt to do in 2006 what GOG has just done.

Revenge of the Update: And the next titles coming up after these? Crusader: No Remorse, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Magic Carpet!

He wasn’t sure he was going to do it, and wasn’t sure he could secure a copy of the game, but Spoony evidently managed to overcome both doubts. Here is his (just shy of) ten minute review of Looking Glass Studios’ classic, Ultima Underworld:

Of course, it’s the first of a two-part series, meaning that at some point Spoony will get around to reviewing Ultima Underworld 2. I suspect that’ll be another lengthy review, akin to his summary of Ultima 7.

Just in brief, I don’t completely agree with his criticisms of the game (although the voice acting is rather awful…and something I don’t remember being present in the diskette version of the game), and I wish he’d spent more time on just what a technical marvel the game was in its day (as compared to its closest competitor in the first person realm, the first Wolfenstein game).

That said, the bit where he’s protesting in full medieval garb is rather funny.

Update: And just like that, a day later, he’s posted his review of Ultima Underworld 2:

A bunch of you have commented below — correctly, I think — that he really doesn’t get the game, and could should have had a nice warm mug of RTFM before he undertook his attempt to play it. In fairness, I can somewhat sympathize with how he struggled with the sewers, because I find them quite difficult as well. Still, it’s not like the fact that you’re supposed to circumvent the headlesses is any kind of arcane knowledge. Ditto the reaper guarding the armoury key. Both of these things are there for the truly hardcore gamers to try and beat — and good on them if they can. For the rest of us, there’s a side route.

Infinitron commented that after the glowing review Spoony gave Ultima 5, there might have been a reasonable expectation that his review of later games would have been similarly positive. I would argue that it became apparent with Spoony’s review of Ultima 6 that no such even-handedness was to be expected. Ultima 5 got a pass because it occupies a special place in Spoony’s heart and history as a gamer, but almost every other review he’s turned in has been of a decidedly modernist bent. He doesn’t review these games in their historical context; he reviews them (essentially) as though they were new releases in this day and age, and lambastes them accordingly. Game mechanics have changed, evolved, and improved since the halcyon days of Looking Glass Studios’ epic series and John Carmack’s raycast pseudo-3D imitations thereof.

A big thanks to Cody “Ceearrbee” Baxter for bringing this to my attention via Twitter.

I remember a friend telling me, just before the first Narnia movie came out, that Narnia was his fantasy world as a kid; he had often dreamed of walking the shores of that fantastic land, of having his breath stolen at seeing Cair Paravel’s beauty, of speaking with Aslan^[1].

For Dan Griliopoulos, at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Ultima Underworld 2 is much the same thing. And his essay on both the incredible game (for its time and in general) that Underworld 2 was and how he turned Lord British’s castle into his own personal method of loci — in which he stored every memory of past good times and lost loves — is…simply awesome.

Seriously, read the whole thing. I defy you to remain unmoved.

[1] For me, Britannia circa Ultima 6 filled this role. Hell, I used to set up “my” house in every playthrough of the game…usually in Minoc, for some reason.

One last awesome find made via Twitter (does anyone still wonder why I see such value in that social networking platform?) is this podcast of GAMBIT’s interview with Austin Grossman, a former designer and writer for Looking Glass Studios who worked on System Shock and Underworld games.

Enjoy! As a bonus, Grossman is joined on the podcast by two GAMBIT employees who used to work for Looking Glass as well; the reminiscing alone is worth the listen!

Not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as Spoony’s work, but also lacking in Spoony’s customary profanity:

I didn’t have a chance to watch the whole thing, but the snippets I sampled seemed pretty even-handed. The reviewer doesn’t seem to betray much of a modernist bias, and is willing to evaluate the game in a frame of mind that accounts for the extant technology at the time of Ultima Underworld 2′s release. He notes, for example, that the music is evocative and may even inspire the player to hum along, despite the fact that it won’t sound all that polished to the ears of modern gamers. His evaluation of the game’s engine seems similarly fair.

This project — the last of Ryan Armstrong’s Ultima-themed maps I had to add to the site — is a detailed re-creation of the second floor of the Ice Caverns from Ultima Underworld 2 as a map for Unreal Tournament. According to Zerker, “[t]his map was made at the request of Daniel Todd, aka Digital Nightfall. This map also includes a mod conversion of the original midi music from Ultima Underworld 2, as well as snow/ice texture set from Rune.” The map is evidently playable in most of the game’s modes, including Domination.

Naturally, the map also requires Unreal Tournament to play. Copies of the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

[flickr size="small" float="left"]5264120449[/flickr]
Produced by: Ryan “Zerker” Armstrong
Website: Ice Caverns @ Zerk Zone
Releases:
* The Ice Caverns for UT (2.9 MiB, 174 hits)

A detailed re-creation of the second floor of the Ice Caverns from Ultima Underworld 2 as a map for Unreal Tournament. According to Zerker, “[t]his map was made at the request of Daniel Todd, aka Digital Nightfall. This map also includes a mod conversion of the original midi music from Ultima Underworld 2, as well as snow/ice texture set from Rune.” The map is evidently playable in most of the game’s modes, including Domination.

And yes, it apparently does include the Redeemer (though it’s not easy to find or reach).

Naturally, the map also requires Unreal Tournament to play. Copies of the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

This project, meanwhile, is also a detailed re-creation of the four arenas — Fire, Water, Air and Earth — in the Pits of Carnage from Ultima Underworld 2…but using Unreal Tournament instead.

In UW2, the Pits of Carnage were a place from which no escape was possible, and in which the only passtime was selecting enemies to duel with. If that isn’t the ideal context for a set of multiplayer maps for a top-rate first-person shooter, I don’t know what is.

Naturally, the maps also require Unreal Tournament to play. Copies of the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

[flickr size="small" float="left"]5245157900[/flickr]
Produced by: Ryan “Zerker” Armstrong
Website: Pits of Carnage @ Zerk Zone
Releases:
* The Pits of Carnage (4 maps) (266.4 KiB, 165 hits)
* The Pits of Carnage (combined map) (169.3 KiB, 156 hits)

A detailed re-creation of the four arenas — Fire, Water, Air and Earth — in the Pits of Carnage from Ultima Underworld 2 using Unreal Tournament. In UW2, the Pits of Carnage were a place from which no escape was possible, and in which the only passtime was selecting enemies to duel with. If that isn’t the ideal context for a set of multiplayer maps for a top-rate first-person shooter, I don’t know what is.

All four arenas, according to Zerker, fully support the game’s botmatch mode. For added multiplayer fun, he has also created a special “combined” map that incorporates and joins all four arenas.

Naturally, the maps also require Unreal Tournament to play. Copies of the game for Windows, Mac, and Linux can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

This project is a detailed re-creation of the four arenas — Fire, Water, Air and Earth — in the Pits of Carnage from Ultima Underworld 2 using Unreal. In UW2, the Pits of Carnage were a place from which no escape was possible, and in which the only passtime was selecting enemies to duel with. If that isn’t the ideal context for a set of multiplayer maps for a top-rate first-person shooter, I don’t know what is.

Naturally, the maps also require Unreal to play. Copies of the game for Windows and Mac can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

[flickr size="small" float="left"]5245107562[/flickr]
Produced by: Ryan “Zerker” Armstrong
Website: Pits of Carnage @ Zerk Zone
Releases:
* The Pits of Carnage (139.2 KiB, 163 hits)

A detailed re-creation of the four arenas — Fire, Water, Air and Earth — in the Pits of Carnage from Ultima Underworld 2 using Unreal. In UW2, the Pits of Carnage were a place from which no escape was possible, and in which the only passtime was selecting enemies to duel with. If that isn’t the ideal context for a set of multiplayer maps for a top-rate first-person shooter, I don’t know what is.

The Arenas of Earth and Water, according to Zerker, fully support the game’s botmatch mode, while the Arena of Fire technically supports it (the bots are evidently not smart enough to avoid the lava pits). The Arena of Air, however, doesn’t support Botmatch due to limitations in the game’s engine.

Naturally, the maps also require Unreal to play. Copies of the game for Windows and Mac can still be found online, though they won’t necessarily be cheap or in stock in large quantities. You can also find the game for direct download on Steam or Impulse/Stardock. (If you want to support Aiera a little bit, buy it through Stardock.) You can also get it at GOG (of course!).

Support my Movember campaign!

Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum alerted me to the existence of GMZ, a gaming blog that aggregates news about games (“mostly indie retro rock ‘n roll type”) with “interesting design and visuals.” They have a few posts about some of the Ultima games, including:

• The Ultima 6 Special Edition Cassette
• Some comments on The Lost Vale
• …and some Ultima Underworld II Designers’ Notes

I observe that one of the authors there goes by the handle Dominus. I wonder if this is the same Dominus that frequents this joint? (Update: Nope!)

Support my Movember campaign!

Check thou them out!

There really isn’t much that can be said about this particular orphan, apart from the fact that it was a Windows-based remake of Ultima Underworld 2 (“remake” in the Exult sense of the word, mind you; it used the original game data).

Still, the project is a SourceForge project, which means all of its code and assets are available online. As such, it merits inclusion in the Orphanage, and has been restored to a downloadable state therein.