Okay, granted, the update to the project website is just a quick note from Zephyr stating that the Project Britannia team have taken over some of the website administration duties, and have resurrected the Lazarus Forums at the Project Britannia website, but hey…project news is project news.

(hat tip)

I’ve finally gotten around to restoring the downloads for the engine — I’m calling it that — that served as the basis for two other well-known Ultima remakes: Project Britannia.

I’ve also updated the downloads to be what are, to the best of my ability to determine it, the latest versions of each file. (Principally, this means that the art, logic, and sound resource files are newer and larger.)

First, let me just remark that all the Online Remakes are once again available for download, and in fact have been so available since last Friday. The reason for the delay was the fact that I had mis-categorized Dransik as a remake, which it is not (though it is an online game).

From here, there are three main categories to restore: Spin Offs, General Utilities, and Joke Remakes. There’s also the Orphanage and Cemetery…but I’m (understandably, I hope) not in as much of a rush to get those categories up and running again.

Broadly, my plan is that the General Utilities section will be pared back, somewhat, because some of the downloads in there (DOSBox, for example) are hopelessly out of date and not particularly Ultima-specific anyhow. I’ll replace the actual downloads with links to the project’s downloads page, where appropriate. The Joke Remakes section will remain much the same as it is, though I believe there is one addition I need to make to it. And come to think of it, neither the Orphanage or the Cemetery will change all that much, if at all.

However, the Spin Offs section will be completely overhauled.

For example, I think the Inspired Works section needs to be expanded and given a little more of its own visibility. I also need to start tracking those projects better.

Moreover, I want to start looking for other projects that, if they aren’t directly inspired by Ultima, are at least inheritors of Ultima traditions in some way. These won’t be categorized as Inspired Works, but will fall under a new and somewhat related category. I’ve already begun looking at a handful of iPhone games, some of which will probably be featured. Sergorn Dragon has put me on to a couple of mainline PC titles that will probably also qualify. The Exult Total Conversions category will probably disappear, since two of its three entrants are remakes, and the third is basically an Inspired Work.

And to be fair, the Spin Offs category will not disappear entirely; there are a few projects which fit that label and will keep it as a result.

The area of the site that will see a lot of change, however, is the Engines section. For starters, it will be expanded to include discussion about 2D and 3D engines which are not tied to any specific game (e.g. Unity, Torque) and are available for free. It will also expand to include discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of using each platform, the pros and cons of each.

More than that, however, I want to expand Aiera into something akin to a “developer connection”, which exists as a place where past project developers can share created media content — 2D art, 3D models, music, and suchlike — with the Ultima community, so that other developers can make use of these things in their projects. Because really, it’s daunting at the best of times to take on the task of creating an Ultima-like game, and the sheer volume of stuff that a development team needs to create for its project can be overwhelming…and thus the death of an otherwise promising effort.

I’d like to position Aiera in such a way as to help aspiring devs get past those pitfalls.

Fundamentally, I think there’s more stories that could be told by the fan community. In part, that’s why I signed on to work on Return to the Serpent Isle…because it isn’t a remake, but is in fact a new story set in the Ultima universe, and which will strive to remain faithful to the universe that Origin built for our minds to play in. And I think there’s an argument to be made that indie devs can turn out amazing work given time and enthusiastic support from an engaged community.

And I don’t believe that Ultima is dead. My site traffic logs would seem to support that belief, as would the overwhelming response to the release of the Ultima 6 Project just recently, and to Lazarus before it.

So in the weeks to come, expect to see this all getting built. And hopefully, once it’s built, we can get a little Field of Dreams action going on here.

May I also offer an extra-special huge-frigging-big “thank you” to Aletys from the Ultima 6 Project for her supportive donation to the site. I will be adding a Sponsorship page to Aiera once I finalize the new design; expect that she will be right at the top of it.

Aletys, you might have made my wife cry, just a little bit. It was that stunning, and I am duly humbled by it.

Has anyone tried running Lazarus under Windows 7? If so, did it work? If it didn’t, did you get it working…and, if so, how?

First, it was Ultima 7. Then, it was Lazarus.

Now, the “Let’s Play Ultima” craze, which has slowly been making its way across YouTube and across the series, has reached my personal favourite amongst the Ultima titles. That’s right, Dragons…a young lady who goes by the handle enirya is playing — and broadcasting — her way through Ultima 6.

And what’s more, she’s playing the FM Towns version.

She’s only three episodes in at this point in time, but expect that number to grow.

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

Reader galway brought to my attention another YouTube-based effort to play through an Ultima game. Or, in this case, an Ultima remake: Ultima V: Lazarus.

Ladies and Luke, I give you: Let’s Play Ultima V Lazarus: Warriors of Destiny!

This undertaking is only a few days old, and only about 20 episodes in. I’m not sure how far he’s gotten in the game proper, so if someone could enlighten me, that’d be great!

Almost a section unto itself, the downloads for Ultima V: Lazarus are working again, so check thou them out!

The rest of the Ultima 5 downloads will hopefully be uploaded soon.

Produced by: Team Lazarus
Website: Lazarus
Releases:
* Lazarus 1.2 (Windows) (521.0 MiB, 365 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 (Mac) (528.3 MiB, 169 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 French Patch (Windows) (8.2 MiB, 132 hits)
* Lazarus German Patch v1.0 (12.6 MiB, 130 hits)
* Blink Activation Patch (4.3 KiB, 198 hits)
* Difficulty Override (16.1 KiB, 187 hits)
* Font Patch (11.5 KiB, 184 hits)
* Portrait Patch (615.4 KiB, 231 hits)
* Lazarus Editing Environment (Windows) (3.3 MiB, 180 hits)
* Chronicle of Lord British's Expedition (1.0 MiB, 163 hits)
* Lazarus Game Manual (10.3 MiB, 195 hits)
* Map of Britannia (638.6 KiB, 207 hits)
* Lazarus Soundtrack (142.2 MiB, 151 hits)

Patches and Upgrades:
* Enhanced Graphics (11.5 MiB, 463 hits) – (pictured) from 3DWorx
* Looking Up Camera Mod (40.8 KiB, 270 hits)
* Grail Quest's Mods (622.9 KiB, 215 hits) – see this text file (12.7 KiB, 325 hits) for details

* Bugfixes and Modifications (599.5 KiB, 309 hits) – see the Lazarus forums for details
* Project Britannia Compatibility Mod (22.4 KiB, 222 hits)
* Comfortability Mod 1 (3.6 KiB, 199 hits) – start with a bedroll
* Comfortability Mod 2 (3.6 KiB, 157 hits) – start with a bedroll and the sextant (may break a later quest)
* Comfortability Mod 3 (7.5 KiB, 222 hits) – reduced daily food consumption rate
* Comfortability Mod 4 (3.2 KiB, 194 hits) – adds hotkey support for the pocketwatch (if the party has it)
* Regeneration Ring Health Loss Bugfix (3.2 KiB, 222 hits)

Spell-related Mods:
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod (51.9 KiB, 260 hits) – (pictured) replaces the default icons for spell scrolls with graphics that make it easier to identify which spell is on which scroll. Only works on new scrolls added to inventory, not scrolls already held
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod with Chuckles Scroll Changer (61.7 KiB, 166 hits) – adds to the above mod the ability to talk to Chuckles the Jester and have him “exchange” all your current spell scrolls for new ones, thus updating their icons

Weapon Mods:
* Magic Weapon Fix (25.7 KiB, 232 hits) – fixes an issue with weapon enhancement damage not being applied.
* Magic Axe Redux v1.1 (12.6 KiB, 184 hits) – uses spell damage to cause the magic axe’s bonus damage
* Magic Axe Redux v2 (14.5 KiB, 201 hits) – addresses balance issues with the previous version of the mod
* Cheerful's weaponfixes (20.2 KiB, 180 hits) – fixes some scripting and bug issues with weapon-based spells
* Flint Item Changer (9.9 KiB, 128 hits) – talk to Flint to “upgrade” your magic weapons to bug-fixed, modded versions

Cheerful Dragon’s Weapon Addons:
* Undead-slaying Silver sword and Stronger glass sword (10.6 KiB, 182 hits)
* Ranged Throwing Aze (4.7 KiB, 162 hits)

One of the most high-profile remakes during its development, Ultima V: Lazarus is a Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 led by Tiberius Moongazer. It was completed and released in the early part of 2006.

Lazarus features an enhanced and expanded musical score, additional plot elements, many new and exciting characters and side quests, and fully rendered cut scenes.

The project is available for download in its entirety here, and in addition there are available for download several mods, patches, and bug-fixes; Lazarus has spawned a modding community of its own.

Produced by: Team Lazarus & Team Archon
Website: Project Britannia
Releases:
* Milestone 2 (169.4 MiB, 12 hits)

Updates (may be unstable):
* Britannia Art (132.7 MiB, 10 hits)
* Britannia Logic (2.4 MiB, 12 hits)
* Britannia Sound (4.9 MiB, 9 hits)
* Britannia Map (86.8 MiB, 13 hits)

Utilities
* Development Environment (463.8 KiB, 12 hits)
* Container Override Example (1.5 KiB, 8 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Font Builder (619.0 KiB, 11 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Skrit API (1.2 MiB, 12 hits)
* Skrit/Template Cross Reference (6.1 MiB, 13 hits)
* Dungeon Siege Toolkit (22.7 MiB, 11 hits)
* Lazarus Lorebook Editor (288.7 KiB, 11 hits)
* Rapid Tank Creator (246.0 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Full) (56.5 MiB, 12 hits)
* Siege Tools for Eclipse (Plugin) (864.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Siege University Compilation (9.8 MiB, 12 hits)
* Tank Viewer (382.1 KiB, 12 hits)
* User Interface Designer (1.2 MiB, 11 hits)
* Conversation Generator (227.3 KiB, 12 hits)
* Conversation Editor for Siege Tools (100.4 KiB, 11 hits)
* Book Editor for Siege Tools (37.6 KiB, 11 hits)
* NPC/Schedule/Chest Generator (1.0 MiB, 11 hits)

Milestone 1 Release:
* Milestone 1 (Part 1/3) (85.3 MiB, 12 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 2/3) (71.8 MiB, 11 hits)
* Milestone 1 (Part 3/3) (5.6 MiB, 11 hits)

This ambitious project, a joint venture arising from the copperative developments of Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project — both Dungeon Siege-based remakes of their respective Ultima titles — aims to create a platform for the easier creation of Ultima remakes (and, one would assume, spinoffs).

It’s “short list” of features is really too long to name here, but includes dynamic weather, ship navigation (a feature lost in many modern RPGs), complete day/night cycle, NPC scheduling, reagent-based spellcasting, moongates, dynamic factions, and a custom-build branching conversation system.

It has been classified as an engine, alongside the likes of Unity 3D and Torque, because it is not so much a game or a remake in and of itself, but is rather a framework which can be used by other developers to build a game set in Britannia.

Note: the development team for Project Britannia is pretty active, and they are constantly putting out updates. The ones hosted here are current to the best of my knowledge, but they may be a few days stale. To that end, the most current versions of the update files can always be found at the Project Britannia Change Log. Please note that these updates are likely unstable at present.

Despite the lack of new news, I’ve been busy.

A discussion unfolded last month about Ultima-related art, with one commentator, Hexxer, noting:

I have had a very hard time trying to find decent resolution Ultima art. It would be nice if someone perhaps made a post requesting this stuff…

Ergonpandilus Dragon dug up a handful of very nice examples thereof, drawing on content from Ultima 9, Ultima V: Lazarus, and other projects as well. One hopes that his findings were but a sampling of content that is available “out there” however. Whether this is the case or not, I cannot say for certain. Regardless, Hexxer had one more observation which is worth repeating here:

I am sure there must be some community members willing to scan some classic stuff at high res, if its not done at some point this stuff is going to fade away!

I think that he’s right. The Ultima games had some great art associated with them — game boxes, manual illustrations, in-game and cut-scene graphics, and promotional material — and have also inspired the creation of a lot of really high-quality art as well in the years since their release. And I think it would be a good idea to have an archive of high-resolution copies of that art, in order to preserve it.

To that end, I’ve made a few changes here at Aiera.

As the Reader should know, images are integrated into many project entries here on the site; these images are stored and called up from a gallery, powered by the Coppermine gallery system, which until now I have kept “out of sight” of the casual visitor. This was due primarily to the fact that I couldn’t find a template for Coppermine which matched the template I am using for the visual layout of Aiera.

That has since changed, in that I have ported Aiera’s template to Coppermine, more or less (a first for me, and quite the learning experience if I do say so myself!). And so the user is now both able and invited to visit the Aiera gallery. What is more, I have opened user registration on the gallery, so that those who wish to submit content for consideration may do so.

Using the gallery is simple, if the Reader but follows the steps below:

1. Register as a user in the gallery
2. Wait for me to confirm the registration
3. Log in to the gallery
4. On the sidebar, click on Create/Order my albums
5. Create an album — this is necessary in order to save uploaded pictures
6. On the sidebar, click on Upload file
7. Upload as many as ten files from a hard drive, or five files from online sources
8. Save the files to the album previously created
9. Wait for me to review and approve the images — those images that meet the criteria outlined below will be ported over to the Ultima Art section of the gallery
10. If I don’t approve the images within three days, let me know and I’ll get my act together
11. Enjoy!

Guidelines for image submissions are as follows:

• Images must be Ultima-related (obviously)
• Images must be of fairly high resolution. Printable resolutions are preferable.
• Images smaller than 800×600 pixels will be rejected unless it can be demonstrated that they are the only extant representation of that particular piece of artwork
• Images must not already be in the gallery

Due to the fact that most of the images we are talking about here likely fall under a copyright of some kind, their being archived here will be assumed to be covered under fair use provisions in copyright law; they will be stored for posterity only, and not out of any intent to use them for profit generation or money-making ventures.

Update: Registration should work now. There was a problem with the Captcha security image plugin, and this has now been corrected. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

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