Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[Bumvelcrow]

I'll crosspost this from the KS thread. This project looks pretty Ultima, so it may be relevant to your interests. Its a pretty solid pitch too. Price is a bit steep but the pitch relies heavily on 'feelies':

That breath of wind stirring the leaves you felt were the ripples caused by the ghost of Richard Garriott summoning his army of spectral lawyers.

Instead of spending 80% of your time grinding away in combat and only 20% of your time doing what we consider the fun stuff about RPGs, we have flipped that around so there won't be any 10 minute monster battles going on here.

So, a 2D hiking simulator? My, how my standards have risen since the '80s.

 

[Infinitron]

http://ultimacodex.com/2016/12/ultima-4-decomplied/

Ultima 4 Decomplied

ergonomy_joe sent in an email to let us know that a project he has been working on has finally been completed:

I finally uploaded the results of the work I did on Ultima IV: reverse compilation of the executable files.

The result can be found at https://github.com/ergonomy-joe/u4-decompiled

This is definitely for programmers. Nothing fancy, no pictures, no maps…Just code and algorithms, the closest possible to the originals.​

Clicking through to his GitHub page gives us a bit more detail about the decompliation process joe employed:

Lots of information/tools/remakes about “Ultima IV – Quest Of The Avatar” have been made, but so far, no one really gave an insight of the binary itself. To be more precise, of the executables of the PC version of the game (ported by James Van Artsdalen). There are two of them: AVATAR.EXE and TITLE.EXE

Basically, what I did is reverse engineer them to obtain a list of source files, that, when compiled and linked, produce new executables very close to the original ones (there are maybe 10 bytes difference for each executable).

Some of the source files are in assembly code. The biggest chunk is in C language, which means that it should be easier to read it. Of course, since this is a reverse-engineered from binary, files|variables|functions names were lost and I had to come up with new naming. I hope you like it.

Concerning the compiler, I used “Microsoft C Compiler 4.00”. Which is certainly the version that was used to build the original game.​

At present, I don’t think I’m going to host a download of these files here at the Codex. Still, this is an interesting effort, as it gives us a bit of a peek at the logic and code behind one of the most influential RPGs of all time.

Cool. The game logic code is pretty readable.

 

[Infinitron]

So, years ago a project was announced called "Forgotten World" that was going to create a modded up Enhanced Edition of Ultima IX. They seemed to be making progress with several enhancement patches released, but then it fell off my radar. Years later, this is what's happened to it: http://www.forgottenworld.de/index....185-2016-12-25-merry-christmas-we-re-not-dead

2016-12-25 Merry Christmas! We're not dead.
For those of you who are regularly on UDIC Facebook, you will probably have seen me comment on Forgotten World's status. For those who haven't seen my comments, the gist is that I've been pre-occupied with my Dissertation over the past 18 months and this effort involved a significant portion of my attention including periods of 10 hour days spanning into the weekend. Since I've graduated, I am now able to devote some decent amount of time per week to Forgotten World.

In other news, there is a major change with regards to the project. Last year, it was finally decided that there was no way that Forgotten World could be feasibly implemented without programmer(s) with the interest and skill to develop significant DLL hacks into the engine. The introduction of Project Britannia 2.0 with Unity has offered a significant possibility for progress without requiring specialized skills.

There are two possible directions for the Forgotten World moving forward. The first to create a Pseudo-Exult of Ultima IX using Unity. This would create a more stable version of Ultima IX less prone to scripting bugs and AI issues, better combat implementation from the code side, and fewer pathfinding issues. The second path is just to import/read-in select portions of Ultima IX's external files and focus the development exclusively on systems for Forgotten World. The largest difference between the two would be a reduced emphasis on recreating all of U9's hardcoded features and ignoring some or all of U9's map files. Either plan would require a copy of Ultima IX to function.}

In the end, though, time saved by not implementing U9 in every way is eaten up by starting from scratch on portions that aren't imported. Also we already have developed tools to convert many of U9's external files into other formats, so it would mostly be a matter of adjusting the output of these algorithms for structures that will be used with Project Britannia 2.0. (So not a large expense in time)

In addition, it has been decided that a full final patch for Ultima IX (the original one) will be produced using all of the work completed thus far with this engine. As part of this effort, I will be giving the game a bit of polish. Based on the results of a recent poll; however, it is clear that most everyone falls in two camps. One camp wants to see just the last couple of significant bugs fixed with Ultima IX and call it done. The other camp wants the full polish including a illusory version of npc schedules.

This fake version is essentially where I set up a series of teleport triggers and activities within each npc's activity schedule that would result in them teleporting from location to location for them to work (or stand around), eat, and sleep. Part of this effort would entail adding in a few additional structures and some beds of course. The part that makes this so fake is that you would rarely ever see them outside of their designated work/eat/sleep zones, and at transition times, you would see them appear or disappear. Finally, there is no way for me to add dialog based on location, so if you talk to them (even while they are "asleep"), they will stop what they are doing and talk as if they are at work. While this is decent amount of work, the effort wouldn't be completely without value if U9 is implemented over Unity as I would be able to reuse some of the script work as a base for schedules for Forgotten World. Additionally, you might see a simple but complete npc schedule suite for Pseudo-Ultima 9.

To reconcile this split, I will be releasing two patches for U9 rather than one. First will be a slightly polished patch with all significant bugs fixed. The second will be a patch that includes all of the polish and the fake npc schedules.

Finally, during my patching efforts, I will have a tendency to randomly comment on some of the bugs and scripting aspects I encounter. In order to avoid these comments from overly intruding on Facebook or being missed by those interested in them, I have set up a blog here titled Bug Correction Updates (the name is tentative).

You will probably see a lot more activity out of that blog than the main news, since the purpose is more brief commentary and random comments than project updates, which require significant news to warrant an update.

- Iceblade

"Project Britannia 1.0" was the basis for the two Dungeon Siege engine Ultima remakes. First time I'm hearing of 2.0.

Details on the final patch: http://www.forgottenworld.de/index.php/home/archived-news/60-2016/186-2016-12-27-next-patch-details

2016-12-27/28 Next Patch Details

As I have previously mentioned, I will be providing two "Final Ultimate Patches" for Ultima IX. I have just drafted the list of 52 items for development for the first of these patches. It will cover all of the remaining correctable Serious Faults and Major Bugs in Ultima IX.

This list contains 8 Serious Problems, 12 Major Bugs, 13 Minor Issues, 14 Aspects for Polish, and 5 Parts that will have additions made. While this seems like a large list in and of itself, it is board in scope and difficulty, which can be broken down into 5 categories. There are 20 issues that involve heavy scripting changes/examination and 13 issues that require only minor scripting work. For the remaining issues, they are primarily fixed via worldbuilding (adding/changing objects and their properties), of which, only 6 involve major work of this kind with 12 that only require adding or adjusting a couple of objects. The last issue is where I changed the type name for an incorrectly named object.

I will point out that this list includes cleaner implementations of features already corrected in previous patches, so portions of this work have already been partially or fully completed.

I will be focusing on these issues over the coming months spending at least an hour on them everyday to ensure the patch is completed within a reasonable timeframe. I plan on attempting to complete the full, final, npc-scheduled patch by around this time next year.

I have also added a segment under Information > Status that I will update often with my current progress for this next patch. In addition, I talk more about this new status page and the patch details in the second Patch update.

Finally, the news module I have been using is no longer functional from the backend, probably due to an incompatibility introduced by recent update to the site software. I have obtained a new news scroll module that I hope is more functional. Please let me know what you think about the presentation of the latest news.

- Iceblade

More info here: http://www.forgottenworld.de/index.php/faq/general-faq

It goes back even further than I thought.

 

[Walden]

Where should I start with the series? I was planning to start with the NES version of Ultima 4, then Ultima V Lazarus and U6P. Are these versions any good?

 

[pippin]

The NES versions are, from what I remember, different, more akin to early jrpgs than the western versions. I know for a fact that the japanese port of U3 had more in common with early FF and DQ than with aything made in the western Ultimas. If you want to experience True Ultima (tm) I'd suggest to start with 4 and use the Ultima Patching tool.

 

[Infinitron]

Forgot to post this: http://ultimacodex.com/2016/12/ultima-3-upgrade-version-3-2-released-now-with-better-sound-effects/

Ultima 3 Upgrade: Version 3.2 Released (Now With Better Sound Effects!)
BY WTF DRAGON · DECEMBER 19, 2016

Voyager Dragon has, after a hiatus of about eighteen months, released a new update for the Ultima 3 Upgrade. Details, as per the Exodus Project website, are thus:

One of the most common requests I’ve received over the years has been for improved PC-speaker sound effects. I’ve now published Release 3.2 which contains this update. You can also check out the release notes or read more about the technical details of how it works.

For transparency, I started this project shortly after releasing v3.1 and had a working and tested driver, but hadn’t yet integrated it with the game. I had to put some extra crunch time in at work shortly after, and of course by the time I had the availabilty again my focus was elsewhere, thus the 2+ year gap. But I’ve had some renewed interest recently in getting this going again and wanted to get this wrapped up. I have a few ideas of other improvements to make, so I’m hoping I can put some time into them.​

One wonders what other improvements Voyager will bring to Ultima 3 in the months (years?) to come. For now, though, the addition of enhanced sound effects is a welcome thing indeed.

For now, you’ll need to hit up the Exodus Project download page to grab the upgrade; I’ll update the project entry here this evening.

Amazing that the guy is still working on these: http://exodus.voyd.net/u3vga-story.html

 

[octavius]

Where should I start with the series? I was planning to start with the NES version of Ultima 4, then Ultima V Lazarus and U6P. Are these versions any good?

Ultima 6 Project is far superior to the original IMO.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Where should I start with the series? I was planning to start with the NES version of Ultima 4, then Ultima V Lazarus and U6P. Are these versions any good?

Ultima 6 Project is far superior to the original IMO.

Ultima III is where the series took on its modern form. Full parties, cities, dungeons, battle maps, lots of spells, multi-step main quest, many npcs. I'd start there.

 

[BlackGoat]

Starting with the series by not actually playing the series is not a good way to start the series. If you're playing Lazarus you're not playing Ultima V

 

[pippin]

Ultima III is a fine game for its age.

You can even be a tranny

 

[Comte]

Ultima III is where the series took on its modern form. Full parties, cities, dungeons, battle maps, lots of spells, multi-step main quest, many npcs. I'd start there.

Ultima III: EXODUS (1983):
-- Find the hidden way to the magic land.
-- Undergo four rituals of scarification, becoming branded with the Marks of Fire, Kings, Snake, and Force.
-- Compel the Earth Serpent to do your bidding.
-- Receive the benediction of the Lord of Time.
-- Exorcise the magical construct EXODUS using the cards of Love, Sol, Moons, and Death.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Spoilers man, spoilers.

 

[Walden]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I'll start with the DOS version of Ultima IV, though I'm still a bit undecided about the remakes in DS engine. VI's loot in particular seems unconfortable to the highest degree, and in the remake there are some expanded dialogues, quests et similia, which it could be shit or a step up to awesomeness.

 

[LESS T_T]

An excerpt from Garriott's new autobiography: http://www.glixel.com/news/read-excerpt-from-rpg-legend-richard-garriotts-memoir-w458807

It's about his thought behind Ultima IV, but excerpt is too short and nothing revealing about it.

A sample provided by its publisher has more meat and seems interesting to read: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062286673/explorecreate

(Well, skip the Titanic tour part if you just want to read about his creator ego.)

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I just learned that Lord British thinks its forgivable to shoot an unarmed man in the back with an Uzi. Wow!

Seems like good stuff, maybe its worth a news post even, we don't get autobiographies of famous developers everyday.

 

[Infinitron]

http://ultimacodex.com/2017/01/ultima-1-revenge-open-sourced-now-on-bitbucket/

Ultima 1 Revenge: Open-Sourced, Now On BitBucket
BY WTF DRAGON · PUBLISHED JANUARY 5, 2017 · UPDATED JANUARY 5, 2017

Dino the Dark Dragon has resumed working on Ultima 1 Revenge.

This project began as an effort to reverse engineer Ultima 1, but has since evolved into an effort to produce a standalone engine. Think of it as Exult for Ultima 1, albeit still in a very fledgling state.

This is a heavily work-in-progress screenshot of the U1Revenge Engine reboot. Still very early days, but I’m not trying to change the world – it’s just for fun and learning. If anyone wants to join in, it’s open source.

The source code for the engine is available on BitBucket.

 

[CryptRat]

Last time I checked Ultima Codex I didn't find any news about Epikos nor about Lurking RPG.

 

[Infinitron]

Another ancient Ultima project turns out to be still alive: http://ultimacodex.com/2017/01/morgaelin-the-ultima-8-demake-still-alive/

Morgaelin (The Ultima 8 Demake): Still Alive!
BY WTF DRAGON · JANUARY 9, 2017

Slashing Dragon has dusted off his demake — that is: taking a more modern game and remaking it using retro, tile-based graphics of the sort that characterized the first five Ultima games — of Ultima 8, Morgaelin, and has put some work into it:

Been done some small work in Morgaelin, mainly in the design side of things reverse engineering the plot based on different walkthroughs, but also worked a bit on adding support for cutscenes.

Exodus Destiny Dragon (a.k.a jucarave) also started taking a look at enabling the HTML5 version of the engine so it can be played in the browser.

We are planning to create a first version of the game going all the way to obtaining the Skull of Quakes​

And, indeed, an early HTML5 version of Morgaelin has been released for you to check out:

Thanks to the efforts of Exodus Destiny, and after some always needed tweaking, Morgaelin has been updated to libgdx 1.9.5 from a veeery old version from around 2013.

One of the thing this allows is having a working HTML5 version, you can check the current, very early version HERE. (GIANT WARNING: DON’T BUMP INTO PEOPLE.. leaving the combat area may cause the process to hang!)​

Click on through to check out Morgaelin in all its retro, tile-based glory.

 

[Melan]

BY WTF DRAGON

UDIC are really letting themselves go.

 

[Infinitron]

BY WTF DRAGON

UDIC are really letting themselves go.

It's short for "Withstand The Fury".

 

[Infinitron]

http://ultimacodex.com/2017/01/morgaelin-cutscene-support-added/

Morgaelin: Cutscene Support Added
BY WTF DRAGON · JANUARY 23, 2017

Slashing Dragon has added support for cutscenes to Morgaelin, his demake of Ultima 8:

Work in progress, added support for camera movement, dialog, character movement and removal on cutscenes.

Here’s a little preview from the execution scene (original one, for reference)​

That’s a pretty significant addition to the engine, really.

Jaesun, you're famous.

 

[Infinitron]

Cool: http://ultimacodex.com/2017/01/ultima-resurrection-returns-downloads-available-again/

 

[Max Stats]

The NES versions are, from what I remember, different, more akin to early jrpgs than the western versions. I know for a fact that the japanese port of U3 had more in common with early FF and DQ than with aything made in the western Ultimas. If you want to experience True Ultima (tm) I'd suggest to start with 4 and use the Ultima Patching tool.

NES 4 isn't bad, but no, it's not completely authentic to the computer versions. The graphics are really the biggest FF/DQ like changes, you're still working the virtues and all, not just following a linear quest, grinding up levels, to face the boss.

SMS 4 on the other hand is about as close as you could get, only real changes involve those necessitated by playing with a controller instead of a keyboard.

NES 5, oh wow, stay away from that. They tried to remake it in the style of the U6 engine, which the NES just cannot handle at all.

SNES 7, more of a bad Zelda ripoff than a conversion of the PC game.

 

[pippin]

Don't we have a LP of Ultima 7 SNES? I saw it once and it was atrocious. Even as a Zelda game it was bad.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

True, a Codexer sacrificed his sanity to give us an idea of how bad Ultima 7 SNES is, to the point that I don't think any other Ultima port compares on that scale.

U3 NES is also pretty bad.