Produced by: Max Breedon
Website: EUO
Releases:
* [drain file 77 url EUO Installer] ([drain file 77 size])
* [drain file 76 url Patcher Update (use only if needed)] ([drain file 76 size])
* [drain file 16 url Launcher (Client Configurator)] ([drain file 16 size])
* [drain file 75 url Map Editor] ([drain file 75 size])
* [drain file 103 url 3D Client] ([drain file 103 size])

Borrowing a fair bit from other RPGs, EUO is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5. The project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.

EUO uses a Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (and with more Ultima Online influences, apparently). Although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Also, the game now incorporates the LUA scripting language, meaning that the player can influence the dungeons to a greater degree through certain key actions. Leveling is done at shrines, with stats being upgraded along the same lines as happened in Ultima 6.

The game features over 100 NPCs and over 50 quests, with more being added all the time. And now, a 3D client is even available!

I’ve switched the focus of my development efforts a little bit, and am (for the time being) working on implementing interior areas and furniture in Black Dragon City, the capital city of Sosaria in Lost Sosaria. And there’s 8 new screenshots over on the project website demonstrating the fruits of those efforts.

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.

Ultima Restoration developer Saduj contacted me to let me know that another utility has been added to his team’s collection of Neverwinter Nights modifications — an Ultima-style conversation system to replace the default system in NWN.

By default, the conversation system in NWN is a bit too primitive to support the sort of conversations one has come to expect from an Ultima game — achieving Ultima-style conversations using it requires a lot of node repetition.

At any rate, I’ve added the new conversation system files to the project entry here at Aiera, so please do check them out if you’ve been using any of the other utilities that this team has released…and I have it on good authority that a few people are doing just that.

Produced by: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* [drain file 525 url Ultima Potions (hak pak)] ([drain file 525 size])
* [drain file 513 url Ultima Potions (demo module)] ([drain file 513 size])
* [drain file 526 url Ultima Potions v2 (hak pak)] ([drain file 526 size])
* [drain file 514 url Ultima Potions v2 (demo module)] ([drain file 514 size])
* [drain file 521 url Venom Dagger (erf import file)] ([drain file 521 size])
* [drain file 522 url Venom Dagger (hak pak)] ([drain file 522 size])
* [drain file 524 url Venom Dagger icons] ([drain file 524 size])
* [drain file 523 url Venom Dagger source] ([drain file 523 size])
* [drain file 527 url NPC Schedules (erf import file)] ([drain file 527 size])
* [drain file 517 url NPC Schedules (demo module)] ([drain file 517 size])
* [drain file 518 url NPC Schedules (readme)] ([drain file 518 size])
* [drain file 520 url Moongates (erf import file)] ([drain file 520 size])
* [drain file 519 url Moongates (demo module)] ([drain file 519 size])
* [drain file 515 url Savage Empire Female Portrait Pack] ([drain file 515 size])
* [drain file 516 url Savage Empire Male Portrait Pack] ([drain file 516 size])
* [drain file 528 url Conversation System Demo] ([drain file 528 size])
* [drain file 529 url Conversation System Files] ([drain file 529 size])

This is actually a comprehensive collection of utilities and in-progress remakes of Ultima titles, all done in the Neverwinter Nights engine. The list of utilities is pretty comprehensive, including functional moongates (with Orb of the Moons!), NPC scheduling, animated potions, a conversation system to replace the default NWN system, and a very good reproduction of the venomous dagger of Ultima 7 fame.

But even more promising is the list of remakes that are being put together by this team and others. Currently in progress are remakes of Ultima 1, Ultima 7 (which provides the screenshot here), Ultima 8, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams. Most of these seem still to be in the early stages of development, but the Ultima 7 remake — which deals, it seems, only with the events of The Black Gate at present — looks to have progressed somewhat further.

Here is hoping, then, that this collective set of efforts bears much fruit in the future! As the projects progress, I’ll probably break off each remake into its own standalone entry. For now, this one omnibus entry will suffice.

I just got this in my inbox this morning. It’s a notice from NWN developer and Ultima fan Saduj that a new Ultima website — a combination of links to other Ultima projects and a series of Ultima-related projects all its own — has come online.

After 5 years of NWN developmen