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Ultima 1 Remade & Reborn
sheetsda writes "A company called Peroxide Entertainment(a freeware company) is remaking Ultima 1 under the title Ultima 1 - A Legend is Reborn. They're using their own engine, 'featuring most of the goodies you'd expect of a modern commercial 3d engine in the market' and recycling the overall plot but adding details."
i loved this game to death, it's too bad they aren't using a decent well-tested engine though, but then, maybe it will be better than the ones currently in use (mostly from id)...
Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
Do they have the rights to this?
Or is U One Public Domain?
If you buy too much food it will roll over to 0 and you'll die.
I'd actually consider finding spare time for THAT.
- Hubert
They'll likely put in details that were never meant to be revealed in the original (mainly because no sequels were planned, so the story was completely self-contained). Also, if they put in any kind of false information or take any artistic liberties with the story, then they're risking alienating the die-hard fans of the Ultima series.
It sounds like a good idea, but I'm concerned that adding in details would alter the original game too much and make for a less enjoyable experience. That having been said, sign me up; I can't wait to play the original all over again...
From about Ultima 4 on to maybe 7 or possibly 8. But before and after that, well.... spaceships?
Definately worth picking up. I never could stick it out on the earlier ones.
Does that mean I can re-write "Horace Goes Skiing" using some neato current day 3D engine?
;)
That'd be cool. 8-bit games transferred into 3D FPS types..
Not many people can argue that 8/16-bit days were the best for gaming
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."
I wonder if Im going to have to swap floppies like I used to on my C64....
Q: How does the project relates to Origin Systems, legal owner of copyright?
A: Origin Systems, affiliated to Eletronic Arts has no part on the development of the game, although Peroxide has informal allowance to develop the game and gain attention of the media, since there is no marketing and financing involved.
Donate free food here
I heard first about this project at 3dfiles.com (R.I.P.) and was tested the very early alpha. I was great and it's getting better and better with every version.
I never had problems reaching their site... until today...
Boycot? Blackout? Subscriptions?
I don't care!
DAMN I'm gonna miss the music!
Umm, there wasn't a real plot in Ultima I. You didn't really see games developing plots for some years after that.
-----------
100% pure freak
Actually this is old news.
The available demo is out to date. One of the guys at Peroxyde told me to forget the demo, the current engine being far better than the old one we can play with. For instance, the day cycle with light shifts etc is implemented in the current development version.
Julien.
Ultima I was extraordinary, and I loved playing it. I'm looking forward to seeing the remake.
But...
Are there so few new ideas in the world that we have to pick up the old ones? This reminds me of the horrific trend in the music scene of doing teeny-bopper remixes of 80's and early 90's tunes.
Fans of the ultima series might want to check out Exult which will allow you to play Ultima 7, Ultima 7 II, and their add ons without using a speed limiter in DOS.
It's still development, but you can apparently paly Ultima 7, and it's expansion "Forge of Virtue" in their entirety, and most of Ultima 7 II is playable.
It does require you to have the actual game, so it's not a complete game itself, just a re-written engine.
Ultima II is a game that most people seem to forget. It, like Ultima 1 is a GCA-graphics (read: 3 colour + black) game BUT unlike Ultima II, Ultima 1 was remade in the early 1990s for EGA so thus has the same graphics quality as Ultima III, leaving Ultima II to look the old, unexciting game of the lot. What's more, the current distributor (austensibly EA, though at one time it was Sierra "Online") can't even be bothered to fix an install bug in which the original version contained 2 floppy discs where some of the files had the same name. When this game is distributed now, those 2 discs are copied onto 1 CD and the files (map files) with the same name on disc 2 are erased. Thus, game play is incorrect for acts of the game because the maps are wrong.
Ultima II was an epic tale in which one visited Earth in the past, future and present as well as the planets of her solar system. The black sheep of the Umtima series, it has been much forgotten most likely because of its CGA Graphics.
In conclusion, much as a NEW NEW Ultima I would be nice, could we at LEAST have an EGA version of Ultima II FIRST?? I mean, a game series is only as strong as its weekest link...
Devo Andare,
Jeffrey.
Time Lord, Dark Horse: The Techno Mage of Gallifrey
Exult is an awesome reimplementation of the Ultima7 engine. They use the original graphics, so you need the original game, but it's GPL'd and SDL'd so you can play Ultima7, eh Exult under Windows, MacOS, BeOS and Linux :)
Michael
Over at the Fans for Ultima website they have quite a bit of information about the various Ultima remakes & patches in the works.
This is yanked from that page... some info on other remakes:
Monday, September 3, 2001: Remake Mania
Hello people,
This is my first news update for FfU. Maigo and I decided to share the work, so that the site sees changes more often. This one is just a news update, the subsections will be updated soon. We're glad you've stayed tuned over the past months.
A lot has happened in the fan community, with several new and interesting projects announced. Most of them try to recapture the magic of the earlier games with newer technology, so this is both for nostalgic fans and for those who never played the older Ultimas because of their dated graphics. So here are the new projects, in "chronological" order:
Ultima IV: The Dawn of Virtue: The Dawn of Virtue: Using a self-written engine similar to Bioware's Infinity engine (which powered games like "Baldur's Gate" and "Planescape: Torment"), project leader Jaako Peltonen plans to redo "Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar", released 1985. The website provides several concept renderings and drawings.
Ultima Underworld 1 and 2: Twister Software is currently working on a complete remake of the two Ultima Underworlds with a new 3D Engine. Surprising is the announcement of a multiplayer mode; up to 8 heroes will be able to explore the Abyss or shatter the Blackrock dome.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate and The Serpent Isle : Like Ultima V: Lazarus, this project is going to use the Dungeon Siege engine. Interesting are the "Expected Outcome Pictures", Dungeon Siege promotional shots showing what some Ultima locations could look like.
Ultima IX: Redemption: Another project using the Dungeon Siege engine. As a response to the plotwise disappointing Ultima IX: Ascension (Dialogue/Plot patch downloadable here), Ultima IX Redemption is not a remake, but a completely new attempt at finishing the trilogy of trilogies. Avatus, the project leader, promises a rich and compelling storyline with several endings, depending on your decisions.
A similar attempt is Ultima IX: Eriadain, which will make use of the upcoming Neverwinter Nights engine.
Ultima IV: Elijah: Elijah rocks. Plain and simple.
This means that teams are working on remakes for every Ultima except 2, 3, 8 and the Worlds of Ultima series. That's a lot. It's great to see that the community is that active. If even half of these projects get finished, we'll have a lot to play in the future.
All the announcements have inspired Evil_Freak Dragon to write a pretty hilarious story featuring all the major projects. "Lazarus' Redemption Prophecy: A Legend is Reborn with the Dawn of Elijah's Great Balls of Fire" features some insider humor, but it might still be a great read even if you aren't involved in any of the projects.
-Grandor Dragon
'Life is like a spoonful of Drain-O, it feels good on the way down but leaves you feeling hollow inside'
Some memories are better left alone. I played the first 3 Ultimas on a C64, and was enthralled. A couple of classmates (high school) and I went as far as to write a basic, in BASIC, 2D engine for displaying Ultima-like graphics and dealing with movement, collisions, etc. It seriously helped propel some of us into computers.
HOWEVER, thinking back on what was fond memories of hours, no WEEKS, lost to playing these games it is better left alone.
You can never go back. I fear all this project will do is demonstrate the reality isn't a match for my memory of the past.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I noticed the site is getting slow so I decided to mirror the Technology Demo. It's 3.9MB and available here:
http://shakti.tky.hut.fi/slashdot/u1_tech.zip
This just seems to be a marketing scheme to pimp their new 3d-engine... I don't see how it is of much intrest to anybody here... there is not even a linux port.. or even a mention of one on there website. We could probably wine the older version and be better off. oh well...
Jon Bardin
As I read about this same story in this month's issue of PC Gamer I thought the coolest part was that Peroxide got permission to re-create Ultima I by simply calling up Richard Garriot and asking his permission. The only stipulation he placed on it was that Peroxide couldn't sell it.
I'd love to see some of those classic games make come backs with updated technology. Many of the early computer games (especially RPGs) had to have depth and imagination to make up for the lack of presentation.
*sigh* Still waiting for a decent remake of Pirates.
My sigs always suck.
Ultima I was a great game, and I ground my Apple II+ floppy drives to dust playing it. I fondly remember outrageous playability bugs like stealing in town and then killing absolutely everyone in it with the sci-fi weapons that become available at one point. I also remember the cool downview graphics that looked like they were done with nothing fancier than a custom font. Remaking this game in 3D would rob of it of its charm.
I used to have a monk named Fried-Tuck!
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
What we really need is an up-to-date remake with a modern 3-d rendering engine of the classic Apple game 'Lemonade'.
remember the first time you heard the music from when you went down the whirlpool? (which happened to be the same as when you met the time lord)
or the wonderfully eerie dungeon crawl music?
... hi bingo
Thanks :) I have always wondered if there was any place keeping track of all these remakes. I keep meaning to start reading the Ultima Dragon's newsgroup again. It is great to see these being remade and to live again. The best thing about the older Ultima's is that they were made back when you had to rely more on story than good graphics.
IMO the absolute best story wise was Ultima V. I loved Ultima V to death and spent years playing it over and over. The whole intrigue of the resistance and the oppression and thwarting Blackthorn and the Shadowlords was just so thrilling!
That and I loved the fact you could murder people in their beds, steal torches, smash mirrors and push the cannons around and shoot people with them. *evil grin*
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Nothing new here. Lots of remakes of most of the popular ultimas (1, 4, 6) are being done. Look around and you'll find them all over the place. Some look pretty promising. Most are done with the Vampire or Neverwind nights engines.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
as a former art major (with mad skills) that is now a programmer... that is now working on a game - it is always funny to me when I go to these sites and see pretty impressive screen shots, some well rendered and textured models, and then they show the concept art and it SUCKS!!!!
It looks like they hired retarded 3rd graders and gave them crayons and 2 hours to come up with stuff. As long as it gets the job done, then fine - but why the hell put it on the site?
good concept art and storyboards would be in the Matrix book, and I think the second warcraft had some good concept art... other than that - total crap.
I know on the animation boards and mailing lists there are many of them that are AMAZING artists and animators - but I suppose not all software houses can get them (most of them - the really amazing ones - were with disney if I recall correctly).
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
See Blitz 3D... for evidence of its capabilities, see Skidmarks Construction Kit
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
Graphics3D 640, 480
If they make all of those changes, how can it still be considered Ultima?
--Matthew
"If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
There are also major remakes in progress for U5, U6, and U9.
U9 has several actually.. One is just a dialog patch, which keeps the same game but redoes all the dialog to change the plot of the game. There are also plans to completely recode the game from scratch with a plot and features that are typical to ultima games (a party for instance).
As for rights, I don't think any of these games have permission. Most of them have tried and have gotten no response. They are pursuing with the hope that the non-commercial intent will fall under the radar. If they DO respond negatively, the engine and new media can be utilized for other games unrelated to the Ultima series.
As for alienating ultima fans, the series is closed. There won't be any more Ultima games as far as the Avatar in Britannia is concerned. Details can be safely invented at this stage, as long as they don't interfere with stock storylines, as there won't be any more to interfere with it later. And the long term plot tends to contradict itself on several occasions anyways, so its not a major crisis anyways.
The point of remaking these older games is to provide a way to more modern gamers to experience the enchanting wonder of the Ultima games. This way the series will be kept alive even if no new titles are released under the name.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Then we need a 3-d verson of Beer Run.
"Artisians on the roof!"
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Any real Ultima fanatic knows the best Ultima ever made was U5. U4 was great as well, but everything they did good in 4, they did GREAT in 5. I played them all up to 8 + Ascension + UO. 6, 7, and 8 in my opinion where not as good primarily do to technical reasons. For instance, in 6 if you do something wrong (kill the wrong person) your pretty much done as you can't complete the task at hand, be it from lack of information or the proper item.
Ascention / UO. One of the memorable disappointments in my life. Corporate termoil probably primarily to blame for that one.
Ultima 1 and 2 are very special episodes in the series. The go beyond the whole mid evil era to new times and dimensions. For that fact alone, I think it is a neat idea to revist the stories themselves with a technically modern approach and see what comes out of it. With any luck, at the very least, it will remind me of days long gone and playing computer games with life long friends when there was no such thing as the "interweb".
final note - In Ultima 3..who would have guessed that Exodus was MACHINE!! So cool, so funny.
Why should people even use the grey matter that is found between their ears when they can just ride the coat-tails of another person's success to the top? It is the same in the music industry, find an old hit, add a beat to it, butcher the lyrics, cut print, watch money roll in.
Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to codeing my new game, Nibbles 2002.
Rocking good fun!
Also -- for a bit of well crafted flash reminiscence -- check Lazarus
rcmiv
Very impressive remaking of an old classic, looks promising.
I think there would be a huge double edged market for old titles remade to fit with todays tech.
Imagine bards tale, phantasm, saboteur with new engines e.t.c, the developers would get both us set of old geeks wanting to play (I can still remember my way around the town in bards tale 1, but not it's name! That was AGES ago.) and new people who think its a crash hot title.
I reckon there would be a lot more interest in the RPG side of things than in the remakes of space invaders (virgin?) and Frogger (activision) we have seen recently.
If anyone is else is planning or doing something like this for another rpg system i.e bards tale, moonstone knights then let me know and I will help out.
Syrf1@yahoo.com
I know it's been lauded over and over as a revolution in role playing on the computer, but I always thought it was boring and ugly. It was almost as bad as the first Dragon Warrior for walking around for hours and killing things without advancing the plot at all.
It's neat that it's getting a facelift but if it's still all about roll playing and not role playing I think I'll pass.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Remakes I'd like to see:
You can try to use an emulator.
I've been playing Ultima I and II lately through a C-64 emulator. Not quite the same feel as the lovely IBM compatibles, but still entertaining. Try www.lemon64.com for c-64 emulators and games.
From the faq... ;)
Q: Will it require 3d acceleration?
A: Yes, we left the stone age in '99
Many of the best 3D games never required 3D hardware acceleration. Lots of manufacturers are making 3D Accel optional because users don't think the installation hassle and added cost are worth it for a single game. Most people just flocked to the console instead of forming the world of Haves and Have Nots that the hardware industry lusted after. But it works for these guys because they obviously don't care whether you play this game or not.
Or, even better, run Akalabeth.
This was all "hot" stuff for Apple II emulators circa 1996; see these google archives for details.
This is a fantastic idea.
Examples in other industries have shown that playing on people's nostalgia can be very profitable indeed.
Take, for example, the success Fender had in bringing its line of "re-issue" guitars. Let's face it, sometimes the things of the past were made with greater care, quality, and creativity than their modern counterparts, and recapturing that lost craftsmanship is a fine idea, especially if you enjoy lining your pockets with cash.
I wish this idea would reach the automobile industry, I could really go for a revamped late 60's Mustang!
I had it worked out so that when I wanted to play U7, I used a specialized config.sys that would load a bare-bones OS so I could have the memory I needed to play, and when I was doing work I'd boot to the "regular" config.sys, which gave me access to all my stuff.
:(
Does anyone know where one can actually buy the game these days? I think I still have the disks around, but I don't know where they are.
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
When are they going to do their interpretation of nethack? I want to see my ascii characters in full 3d rendered action!
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Richard Garriott wrote the "kill everyone in town" bit into the game on purpose. His idea was that by the time you could do that, you could win the game anyway if you really wanted to. It was like the "drop a coin in a corner of the town, get a dagger" routine that let you build up cash a little at a time if you needed the money that bad. Completely intentional. I was there (and can be seen in the game as Chad the Mad).
This is why you don't make webpages that are extremely image heavy.
Will you still be able to add new party members and steal their gold?
I found a mirror for the tech demo at:t /s eikkailu-roolipelit/861/
http://www.peliplaneetta.net/tiedostot/pelidemo
Enjoy.
Dungeon master was remade in java
http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~alandale/dmjava/
The version supplied is a new advanture... it's really cool, but what's best is you can play the original dungeon master I levels as well. Grab the levels at http://bigcalm.freeservers.com
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
The only difference today is we have fancier graphics, and less of a story. :P
;P
:P
I have yet to meet a fighting game that equals the sheer kick-assness of Samurai Spirits II. I have yet to meet a side-scrolling shooter that has the grandesque nature of Contra. There will never be another Bionic Commando. There will never be another Shining Force (Because after SF is when Sega started getting really.. Really.. Shitty.)
I can't say that modern games aren't good. Well, I can say most of them suck ass, and are all about flashy graphics. (See Squaresoft, they're the biggest offender. They should've stuck with games like Rad Racer - it's what they were good at.)
Twisted Metal kicked ass. Overworks slaughtered everyone with Eternal Arcadia. Squaresoft, despite their games being utter crap.. Much like teen idols, they've brought some form of.. entertainment.. And possibly a greater understanding of meteorologic terms to the sub-human masses.
But, damnit, there will never be another time when a game needed to rely on gameplay, and simple, yet working stories and plots.
We'll get a few, but not many. Most people lack an imagination, and demand their photo-realistic graphics, even at the cost of gameplay/story/plot/etc.
Do they have the rights to this? Or is U One Public Domain?
Was it created before 1923? If not, it's under de facto perpetual copyright, as Congress has an unwritten agreement with Disney Enterprises to pass a bill every 20 years that extends the term of all subsisting copyrights by 20 more years.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Isn't 'Ultima' a trademark from Origin/EA?
Are they forgoing it? Do these companiese have to pay them to be call their products like that, or are they just waiting to sue them afterward and capture all the profit, if they're succesful?
--
Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
It's an interesting concept, although I think the time might be better spent developing original content rather than rehashing a classic. I liken it to someone rewriting Tolkien.
Rewriting Tolkien is all too common nowadays; what recent fantasy-quest novel isn't just a rehash of LotR with the names, faces, and map changed?
Will I retire or break 10K?
i dont think that anyone could squeeze anything of value into 64k.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Q: How much of the original game is being recycled?
... We're striving to make this game feel like an Ultima ...
;)
Q: Will it require 3d acceleration?
A: Yes, we left the stone age in '99
I played Akalabeth (~Ultima 0), Ultima 1 through to Ultima 5 on the Apple IIc, if it doesn't run on 128k, 4 x 360k disks, and 256x150x16 shades of green, then it don't "feel like an Ultima".
in the Beer sense? How about speech (ie opensource?)?
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Hello,
Answering to some of the concerns posted here:
"too bad they aren't using a decent well-tested engine though"
-If you are stating this from playing our Tech Demo 1.0, this demo uses a build of the engine that is long outdated. A tech demo 2 will be released in the upcoming months featuring a much more powerful and polished engine, with some of gameplay code already avaible.
"I'm worried about their claim of "adding more details"."
"If they make all of those changes, how can it still be considered Ultima?"
- This has certainly been a concern that has been talked over in our message boards, and more than frequently end up in purists vs revisionists discussions.
My views are that this is common for any kind of franchise and remake projects, which require revisions of the original subject. This is another time, the technology has evolved drasticly, and people have today different expectations about what a game should offer. Creating new content and revising the old is unavoidable in the Industry.
We certainly take artistic liberties, but we try to keep our changes within the context and make this game feel like an Ultima when being played. While we unfortunately do not have Richard Garriot working with us, we have die hard Ultima fans who know the storyline extensively, countless Internet databases, and our own belief that we can make a compelling and involving storyline from the overly simplistic aspects of the original.
Please feel free to visit our boards to discuss this subject.
"Are there so few new ideas in the world that we have to pick up the old ones?"
"This just seems to be a marketing scheme to pimp their new 3d-engine"
Actually this is something that has little to do with lack of ideas, much less money-making. This project is being made by Ultima fans who would like to celebrate the series and make a tribute to the fan community by remaking the original game and bringing up once again the experience of visiting Sosaria.
We have each several ideas for different kind of games and original plots, but liking Ultima so much, we have all been brought together to work on our own version of the first Ultima, pretty much in the same manner many of the other fans would make their own if given the chance to.
"You can never go back. I fear all this project will do is demonstrate the reality isn't a match for my memory of the past. "
I cannot agree more.
Certainly all of us have good memories of playing Ultima for hours at some point of our lives. We are not attempting to replace these memories. You can naturally play the original U1 today and it wont be the same experience. We are trying to make though a whole new experience, but that still relates to the previous trips to Britannia, in context and looks.
To those who would not like to let go the original U1 and what they feel at playing it, they can always stick to the original, and there's something quite cool about it. Without a doubt, we cannot please every fan, though we attempt to hear all.
With your input, I'm pretty sure we can make a better game. Please feel welcome to visit our boards and post your views there. You'll certainly be heard.
-Ralph Damiani
Artist/PR Peroxide DK.