Some of you may recall that Aiera did in fact play host to a demo version of Arkane Studios‘ epic, Ultima Underworld-inspired RPG Arx Fatalis. Also to be found were a handful of update patches in various languages.

I rather doubt that the collection of files was ever all that complete; the demo was available in English, German, and French, while the update patches were available in English, Italian, and French (so I’m missing, at minimum, one demo version and one patch). Be that as it may: what files I did have are once again available for download.

Some of you may recognize Arkane Studios as the developer of Arx Fatalis, the game that many considered to be, unofficially of course, Ultima Underworld 3.

Well, they’ve just been purchased by Zenimax, who are also the parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

Here’s the interesting part:

Arkane Studios is already working on a project with Bethesda Softworks, though no specific information about the game is available, yet.

The most optimistic appraisal of this news is that it hints at a return, by Arkane, to the RPG genre, which would be nice to see. Not that their proposed shooter, The Crossing, didn’t sound interesting, of course. But Arx Fatalis was pretty amazing, and very clearly Ultima-inspired, and it’s really pretty to think that they might be returning to those roots…with help from the Bethesda powerhouse, no less.

First, Sergorn Dragon’s Return to the Serpent Isle has posted its June update, which makes mention of the magic system that the project team is in the process of developing. Work is also proceeding with the development of classes and skills (along the lines of Ultima Underworld), a character creation system, and the introductory sequence.

He also announces a new team member, offers his assurances that in spite of the D&D-based engine, the final game mechanics will not feel too alien to Ultima fans, and even makes mention of the Ultima 6 Project release.

Second, the Titans of Ether have also posted their June update. Most notably, they are looking for a new writer to handle a handful of dungeons and one “very specific overall quest.”

The team also reports on the creation and implementation of a minotaur model and the implementation of a goodly portion of the necessary equipment models, the completion of Skara Brae’s writing, the completion of various tutorials, and the progress of work on Destard.

(hat tip)

I ask, because I just got this message, from reader Rodrigo, by email:

I am a fan of Ultima games and I have followed this site for a long time.

Maybe you know about this, but there is a recent new mod for System Shock 1:
www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=1719.0

This mod allows better resolution and mouselook. These things totally change the game play for better.

Anyway, I was wondering why can’t this happen to Ultima Underworld since both titles are very similar to System Shock. But I am no programmer.

Maybe you can make a post asking if someone can adapt the mod for UW.

First, let me just note that I was in fact totally unaware of this mod for System Shock; I don’t follow that community all that closely, even though two Ultima titles use its excellent (for the day) engine.

As to whether or not this mod would work, or could be made to work, with the Underworld titles…I suppose my reply would be that there’s no reason that I could see that it couldn’t be, though of course it doesn’t necessarily follow that the mod will work with either Underworld title without modification. Mass Effect is built on the Unreal engine, but I doubt I could get a mod for Unreal to work with BioWare‘s sci-fi epic. The same general principle applies here.

I can’t explicitly ask anyone to do anything, of course, but I can put up this news post and bring this mod to the attention of other Ultima fans, some of whom may even be interested in picking up this idea and running with it. There are still a few Underworld remakes and ports being worked on out there, after all.

Bumped again for my own purposes: there’s a few things left undone here.

This is mostly for my benefit, O Reader, as my memory is not what it once was (not that it was ever amounted to much to begin with) and a list of bases to cover will be highly beneficial at this stage of Aiera‘s re-development. A lot of the projects have advanced in their development arcs since the last update to the site, and I need to update the site files to reflect that.

So, at a glance, here’s what needs to get done:

• Finish restoring old file categories and content – DONE!
• Update the files for Akalabeth Mobile – DONE!
• Update files for Lazarus to v1.2. See if it’s possible to upload the mod in one chunk instead of 7 RAR segments – DONE!
• Get local copies of Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 of Archon online – DONE!
• Nodling Dragon’s website seems to have a number of useful downloads and utilities; get these onto Aiera if they are not already – DONE!
• ZIO Interactive’s UW1 for PocketPC seems to have a downloadable demo now; get this – FALSE ALARM!
• Make sure the latest version of Exult is available for download – DONE!
• Check to make sure that I have the latest downloadable files for UW2 Revival on the site – DONE!
• Get the Eriadain files back online – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest files for LOW – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest files for SI French – DONE!
• Get the latest downloads for Pentagram, especially now that they have a Mac OS X Universal binary – DONE!
• Get the latest Project Britannia files – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest version of EUO – DONE!
• Arx Fatalis seems to have a fair bit of downloadable media; see about getting hold of this – DONE!
• Get the latest version of U6O – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest version of U4 Multiplayer – DONE!

That ought to keep my busy until the end of the week.

As I said, this is mostly for my benefit. However, O Reader, you are certainly welcome to look over the above list and take notice of anything in it which strikes you as being “news”; perhaps you, like myself, haven’t got the latest version of something yet. You can still make use of the old version of the site to find links to projects if they haven’t yet been ported to this new version of the site…go and do a little exploring!

Update: I thought of more to do:

• Investigate the various Ultima Online mods and remakes (Legacy, Iris, etc.) – DONE!
• Check out the UO for NWN module
• Investigate the Lands of Ultima hak paks on the NWVault – NOT WORTH THE EFFORT!
• Investigate the UO Britannia map module on the NWVault

These are somewhat longer-term goals, and the immediate goals of getting Aiera back up to the level of its previous iteration remains the priority. But I think it would be neat to expand the site a bit, and these seem good avenues to approach to do that with.

Upper-date:

• Download Dark Core “offline” versions. – DONE!
• Update IRE files (Sourceforge seems to be having issues at the moment) to version 0.93 – DONE!
• Get Nazghul 0.5.5 and Haxima‘s latest files – DONE!
• BGKeyring for Exult – DONE!
• Enhanced Graphics Mod for Lazarus – DONE!
• Looking Up camera Mod for Lazarus – DONE!
• Grail Quest’s Mods for Lazarus – DONE!
• Bugfix & Mod collection for Lazarus – DONE!
• Get newest Dransik installers
• Check all links!
• Check for updates to the utilities!
• Identify dead projects – DONE!
• Add Lost Sosaria again

Dominus (who should be known to anyone who frequents the Exult) brought to my attention, by email, an exciting new project that has emerged which is attempting to create a modern engine for the Underworld series of games.

That’s right! The Abysmal Engine is an attempt to create an Ultima Underworld 1/2 and System Shock engine for modern operating systems. (It will still require the original Ultima Underworld or System Shock data files to run.)

Abysmal is a successor to previous such attempts at creating an engine for the Underworld games, and builds on the work done by The System Shock Hack Project, Underworld Adventures and Underworld 2 Revival projects.

It is still at a very early developmental stage (the author warns that none of the games are actually playable), but seems to be making decent progress. And most excitingly, iPhone 3GS version even appears to be in the works!

And yes, I’ve created a project entry for Abysmal here at Aiera.

Produced by: Julien Langer
Website: Abysmal Engine
Releases:
* Abysmal for Ubuntu (off-site)
* Abysmal for Windows (Installer) (1.2 MiB, 154 hits)
* Abysmal for Windows (ZIP) (1.3 MiB, 118 hits)
* Abysmal for Linux (AMD64) (1.1 MiB, 90 hits)
* Abysmal for Linux (x86) (1.1 MiB, 97 hits)
* Abysmal Source (1.1 MiB, 110 hits)

The Abysmal Engine is an attempt to create an Ultima Underworld 1/2 and System Shock engine for modern operating systems. It will still require the original Ultima Underworld or System Shock data files to run.

Abysmal is a successor to previous such attempts at creating an engine for the Underworld games, and builds on the work done by The System Shock Hack Project, Underworld Adventures and Underworld 2 Revival projects.

It is still at a very early developmental stage (the author warns that none of the games are actually playable), but seems to be making decent progress. An iPhone 3GS version even appears to be in the works!

If anyone out there has a copy of the Ultima Underworld for Dungeon Keeper ZIP file, please let me know. I don’t seem to have a working copy in my backups, and so cannot restore that particular download to its proper place and functionality at present.

This is also true, unfortunately, of version 0.3 of the Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld. If anyone has a copy of THAT kicking around, please let me know, as the project’s official website no longer seems to carry the file.

That said, it should be noted that the rest of the Ultima Underworld downloads have been restored to working order.

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!

Produced by: Iolo
Website: Traducción Ultima
Releases:
* Traducción de Ultima Underworld (512.4 KiB, 95 hits)

This is a full translation of Ultima Underworld into Spanish, one of a series of Spanish Ultima translations that appeared within the last couple of years.

Produced by: ZIO Interactive Inc.
Website (Developer): clubzio.com
Website (for Purchase): PocketGear
Releases:
* Slide Show Demo (2.5 MiB, 100 hits)

This remake of Ultima Underworld for the PocketPC seems to work fairly well on most main-line PocketPC models. While the developer, ZIO Interactive, doesn’t seem to feature the game for purchase or download anymore (that I can tell — the site is in Chinese), the game itself is still available for purchase from PocketGear.

A “demo” of sorts is available, although it is little more than a slide-show of in-game screenshots and graphics.

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.

Produced by: Zen
Downloads:
* Ultima Underworld for Dungeon Keeper (27.7 KiB, 70 hits)

This is a multiplayer Dungeon Keeper level based on the first level of Ultima Underworld. While Dungeon Keeper doesn’t do sloped surfaces the layout is otherwise very close.

Since much of the level is impenitrable rock much of the challenge in designing this level (and, presumably, subsequent levels also based on Underworld) came from managing the space for rooms well.

The map replaces level 61 (multiplayer map 7) in the game, and is for 3 players (but it can be played by one player against the computer). The developer doesn’t have a website at which to host it, so this offering is more or less exclusive to Aiera at present.

To play the level:

1. extract the file into the Dungeon Keeper ‘level’ directory
2. Start Dungeon Keeper with the 1-player option
3. choose multiplayer, then 1 player, and finally level 61

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: Azarael
Website: Tradução Ultima Underworld
Releases:
* Patch v0.2 (95% translated) (146.9 KiB, 88 hits)

This is a not-quite-complete Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld. A full translation does (or did) exist, but I seem to have misplaced the relevant file, and it is no longer available for download from the developer.

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)