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Ultima V - Unofficially Reborn Via Dungeon Siege

Posted by simoniker on from the put-some-british-on-it dept.

Ian "Tiberius" Frazier writes "Team Lazarus, a volunteer-run 'mod' organization, has released a playable demo of Ultima V: Lazarus to the public. Ultima V: Lazarus is a complete, but unofficial recreation of ORIGIN Systems' classic 1987 role-playing game Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, utilizing the modding capabilities of Gas-Powered Games' Dungeon Siege. Functional on both Mac and PC versions of Dungeon Siege, Lazarus Alpha Demo 1.0 is not yet feature-complete, but includes the ability to explore all of Verity Isle, a robust dialogue system, re-designed, custom artwork, vicious monsters and cunning wizards, and a digitally re-mastered soundtrack."

3 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Licensing the Ultima name by j-turkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder how EA will respond to the use of the Ultima name (ya know -- since they own it and all).

    More importantly, why didn't EA think of this? I mean, (IMO) all of the recent Ultima games have sucked, and I don't think that any of the newfangled titles have been able to touch III, IV, and V in terms of fun and playability. EA did release all of the earlier Ultima titles (1-8 as well as both Underworlds, and Alakbeth) on a CD called the Ultima Collection, but I'm surprised that they haven't thought to do something like this themselves. I'll be more surprised if EA doesn't respond in some way to the use of their trademark.

    Anyway, I can't wait to play. That game was probably the best of the Ultima series.

    --

    -Turkey

    1. Re:Licensing the Ultima name by FortranDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If this is a violation of EA's IP, Ultima IV is the exception, since it has been officially released into the public domain.

      No, Ultima IV is not public domain. It is freely re-distributable by members of the Ultima fan club, UDIC (http://www.udic.org/). Putting it in the public domain would mean the EA had surrendered all rights to Ultima IV. They have not.

      The Macintosh version of Ultima III is distributed as shareware, with a paid registration requred to unlock the full version.

      U3 for the Mac required Leon McNeill to sign a contract with EA and the intercession of Richard Garriott back when RG was still at Origin.

      --
      "All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
  2. A reason to play DS, period. by Pluvius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I had known that it would be a Diablo clone, I never would've picked it up. Cheers to the people who decided to make the DS engine useful with this remake.

    Rob