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.

Produced by:
Website: Tradução Ultima Underworld
Releases:
* Patch v0.3 (100% translated) (161.35 KB)

This is a Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld.

It hasn’t been a tremendously busy couple of weeks, but several projects have posted significant updates.

Ultima IX: Redemption

There is a lot of news from this promising, Morrowind-based remake of Ultima 9 this week. Firstly, “de facto” project spokesperson Direhaggis writes in to inform us all of the following:

Our team has stayed consistently productive for the last year, especially making gains in exterior cell worldbuilding (which is nearly done) and 3D models. I myself write the main quest and it’s 80% complete, with a word count of approximately 180,000 (where U7:BG had ~175,000). Overall, production is 75% done. With our current team roster, the game itself will definitely be completed–it’s just a question of time.

On that note, we are right now looking for more worldbuilders for interior cells, as well as dialogue writers. There’s also a position for a 2D artist to help create more cutscenes for the game.

Our director, Corv, is going to update the status page fairly soon. He has recently become a new father, though, so I am acting in his stead to spread the news far and wide.

I would dearly appreciate your sharing this news with your readership. Thank you for your time, thought, and especially your dedication to keeping Ultima alive and well.

And to Direhaggis, I can only say: no problem at all, good Ultima fan and true!

It is indeed the case that the Redemption team are looking for worldbuilders to help with interiors, as well as dialogue writers and (possibly) even a 2D artist. If, O Reader, you feel you could fit into one or any of those categories, pop on over to the Ultima IX: Redemption website and drop Direhaggis a private message in the forums there.

PT-BR Translation for Ultima Underworld

I was informed via the contact form that a Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld is available for download as well:

We have a small group with a project, its about 90%, but we have a lot of work like font editing and replay the game to check any flaw.
There is alreadly a patch avaliable.

I have created a project entry for this translation here at Aiera, and have uploaded the current version of the patch (v0.2) for download. If, O Reader, you would be interested in helping this small team with font editing and playtesting, you can contact then through their website/forum.

Exult 3D

From his comments at the end of this discussion at the Exult forums, it appears that Sam Matthews has stopped work on his 3D re-interpretation of the Ultima 7 engine. If so, that’s a pity.

For the moment, the project entry here at Aiera won’t be changed, as the project had come a fairly long way and could conceivably be used to play through Ultima 7. It won’t look terribly pretty in places, but that’s an aesthetic concern as opposed to a technical one.

EUO

Speaking of 3D, it appears that a beta-stage 3D engine has become available for EUO, the Ultima-like online RPG. The look and playability are still rudimentary, but this is certainly an interesting development for this fun little project.

Downloads and installation instructions are available at the EUO forums, and the downloads are mirrored through the project entry here at Aiera.

Realms of Ultima

This promising, Neverwinter Nights 2-based set of “prefabs” has just released its latest content — New Magincia. It’s not a completed release just yet, and will soon see the addition of caves, house interiors, and the Gargoyles that live there, but it’s enough to wander around in…and it’s spectacular.

(My wife bought me NWN2 a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve had a bit of a look at the town…it’s top-notch work)

The prefab can be downloaded either from its entry at the Neverwinter Vault, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

It’s good to be back, even if it does mean there’s a bit of work ahead of me.

But I’ve covered the whole “yes, I am in fact back now” bit in the previous post — there’s serious news business to get to here, so let’s get to it! I see that in the month-and-change in which nothing has been posted to the site, quite a few things have happened in the remake community.

First off, new and resurrected projects!

Ultima 3 Online

This project still resides in the Cemetery, as there are no available project files for it. However, former developer Carl “Darkshard” Hamilton informs us that the maps for the project were completed, and can be purchased from his website.

Blackrock Undead

This is Razimus’ proposed continuation of the Blackrock Engine, an early attempt at making Ultima 7 playable online.

As of this moment, I’m not going to pull the Blackrock Engine out of the Orphanage…but I encourage anyone who has experience coding online applications and a passionate love of Ultima 7 (and a bit of free time) to visit Razimus’ website and offer to assist.

And now, updates to existing projects.

UCR

This project, which I moved to the Orphanage some time ago, seems to well and truly have kicked the bucket now. Its website has been decommissioned and replaced by the hosting company with a generic advertising front page.

Redemption

Direhaggis brings news of this remake of Ultima 9, in which he highlights a few developments currently underway:

*Spyder has been working for weeks on the Scintillus Academy. It is sweet. The new textures alone are quite good looking. There are features you will not believe until you see them.

* Worldbuilding continues to go well. The Serpent Spine Mountains are being worked on, as well as outlying areas of the globe (or the square smack in the middle of star-specked nothingess if you take U6 literally). Skara Brae has been re-done, for example. This is one of my cities, so at first I felt odd about it. But the new look is quite nice, with rich green glows all around at night.

*I’ve been working on the main plot: equal parts dialogue and multiple quest completion options. There’s something like 14 more chapters or so that need to be written. I confess that certain parts have gotten larger and more elaborate than I expect. There’s one new area in particular where you’ll see this.

Sounds interesting…and long. This has all the makings of a spectacular world and story.

U3 Project

There have been numerous news updates to the U3 Project website that I failed to notice in June, mostly concerning technical details (the latest one talks at length about the scalers being used). Not much in the way of news of project progress, but the coders out there might find it an interesting discussion.

Nuvie

The developers have posted their yearly update, discussing the long, long list of changes made to this “Exultification” (do you like the new word?) of Ultima 6. Notably, the project is now powered by a Lua scripting engine, which apparently speeds implementation of magic spells specifically, and perhaps most of what would otherwise have been done with Usecode.

Other updates include:

• New magic spells
• Working torches and powder kegs
• The game can now look “inside” containers
• Random blood is added to an actor’s position upon death
• Tweaks to Avatar respawning
• Desks can be searched now
• Lots of work on in-engine object management
• Dithered EGA and CGA graphics mode simulations are now available

There are also a number of other things still being worked on:

• Blue Moongates
• Timing the moongates to the moon cycles
• Fine-tuning moongate Usecode
• Tangle vines
• Sleep fields now make the actor fall asleep
• Minor interface upgrades
• Musical instruments can be played with the keyboard
• Numerous code bugs are being corrected
• Support has been added for Savage Empire and Martian Dreams dialogue and portraits

A new Windows snapshot has been uploaded to the Nuvie site, and this has been posted to Nuvie’s entry at Aiera.

Underworld for Pocket PC

It appears that this port of Ultima Underworld to the PocketPC is no longer available online. Pity.

As this was a payware project, I’ve decided to bump it into the Cemetery, since obviously I have no playable demos or game downloads available for it.

Eriadain

Continuing with the theme of dying websites, Eriadain’s old website no longer exists.

EUO

This project’s website has been completely redone, and looks much swankier. Also, the program itself has been updated to version 1.2, which has been uploaded to the project entry here at Aiera.

Black Gate Keyring

This is an older update, from back in July, but I missed then so it’s getting posted now. Marzo has updated his Keyring mod for Ultima 7, in which he corrects a bug that caused some actors to develop a purple outline.

The project entry here at Aiera has the updated version available for download.

Iris

The 3D client for Ultima Online has been updated to build version 1286 (Windows installer) and 1305 (Windows source). The project entry here at Aiera has been updated accordingly.

Project Britannia

Several project files have been updated. To britannia_art.dsres, a new blue robe texture has been added. As well, a “Britannian Fashion Collection” has been added, including robes for older persons, some other clothing types, and a colour pattern based on Inquisitor’s robes.

To britannia_logic.dsres, the gypsy faction has been added, and some usecode tweaks have also been done. Numerous other updates have been made, including some tweaks to the lorebook and some clothing updates.

Meanwhile, to the Lazarus/PB compatibility layer, an issue with picking up and resurrecting dead party members has been corrected. All of these updated diles are available at the project’s entry at Aiera.

Exult

There is now a port of Exult for the PSP. A download has been added to the Exult entry at Aiera.

And in closing, let me just add a belated “Happy Fifth Birthday!” wish sent out to Dino’s Ultima Page, and also a belated “Happy Twentieth Birthday” to Daniel D’Agostino, a.k.a. Dino. A frothy mug of ale I do now hoist in the direction of Dino the Dark Dragon!

And one more frothy mug of ale for Corv of the Redemption project (linked above), and congratulations as he embarks on the journey of fatherhood!

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)