Ultima V - Unofficially Reborn Via Dungeon Siege

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."

Comments

Sweet

[aridhol]

I've been looking forward to this since I heard it was being planned. That was some time before Dungeon Siege was released; in fact, I think it wasn't long after DS was announced that the planning for the Lazarus project started.

The Ultima series were some of my favourite games. I hope that Lazarus can live up to the expectations of the many fans that the originals gained.

Congrats to the Lazarus Team

[Render]

The demo has been a long time coming, and I'm glad to see that they've pulled it off. Congrats to Tiberius and the Lazarus Team!

Other Ultima remakes worth mentioning:

Ultima IV - The Dawn of Virtue, a recreation of Ultima IV using a custom engine, from the author of Nethack Falcon's Eye:
http://www.hut.fi/~jtpelto2/ultima4/

Exult, a fully-playable reimplementation of the Ultima 7 engine that runs on Windows, Linux, and a few other platforms (Slashdot had better know all about this by now):
http://exult.sourceforge.net/

The Ultima 6 project, which is developing their Dungeon Seige mod in cooperation with the Lazarus team:
http://www.planetdungeonsiege.com/archon/

That will do to go on, but there are plenty of other such projects out there. AFAIK, every Ultima game but Ultima VIII is getting the remake treatment by someone.

Re:Congrats to the Lazarus Team

[nekura]

I'd like to add the Ultima IV remake Avatarship Polished to this list, which is a Neverwinter Nights module.

Re:Congrats to the Lazarus Team

[Haeleth]

AFAIK, every Ultima game but Ultima VIII is getting the remake treatment by someone.

I thought there was a project to remake Ultima VIII using Neverwinter Nights? Did that die?

And who's doing Ultima I, now that Peroxide switched to making an original RPG "inspired" by the Ultima games?

Licensing the Ultima name

[j-turkey]

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.

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[aridhol]

Maybe there's a different Ultima Collection from the one I have, but I only got 1-8 and Akalabeth; no Underworld. It's the EA Classics collection, but there may be another available.

As to permission, IIRC, they spoke with Richard Garriot, who supported them on the project. He is the creator, and allowed them to use Lord British (Garriot's trademark, not EA's). Although he can't allow the use of Ultima (unfortunately, EA's trademark), he did allow the use of everything that he can.

As for EA fighting the trademark use, I can't say. Maybe they've decided that the backlash from angry gamers would be too great; maybe Lazarus hasn't registered on their radar yet. If EA does complain, then the Lazarus team may need to rename; however, they have many sources for names that RG has allowed them - Britannia, for example, would work as a game name, and would be recognizable to Ultima fans.

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[j-turkey]

Britannia, for example, would work as a game name

According to this page:

ELECTRONIC ARTS, ORIGIN, UltimaTM and Britannia are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. ORIGINTM is an Electronic ArtsTM brand. Lord British is a trademark or registered trademark of Richard Garriott in the U.S. and/or other countries.

It sounds like EA's got their bases covered on the trademarks. Fortunately, since the project is pretty low-key, it would be really easy to just change the name(s) if it ever came up. I am glad that it got Richard Gariott's blessing, and I hope that it is able to keep all of the original Ultima names. I do think that the names, places, titles, etc add alot to an Ultima game (famaliarity, authenticity, etc) and it would be a shame to see EA put a halt to this.

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[Render]

Considering the fact that EA has failed to go after any of these projects, some of which have been publicly announced for *years*, I doubt they'll choose to go after any of them now. Consider that:

- Many of the free UO servers such as Sphere have been in widespread use for several years now, and EA has not batted an eye, despite obvious terms of service violations.

- Reimplementations of early Ultimas are being distributed on the net, including all the games' original data files, and have been for some time. If this is a violation of EA's IP, Ultima IV is the exception, since it has been officially released into the public domain.

- Ultima map viewers are available, and contain most of the data files for the first six games.

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

Not only does this demonstrate that EA does not care about the license for the early Ultima games, it probably also gives them a very loose footing for enforcing their copyright should they ever choose to do so, since they've let it slide for so long. It is actually in EA's best interest to just let these things go. A loyal fanbase that keeps their IP in the public eye is probably their last hope for being able to get any more cash out of the franchise. The loss of the fan's goodwill would ruin the marketability of the Ultima franchise, especially since Lord British is no longer part of the company (though he does still show great interest in projects such as Lazarus. I also recall he had some very kind things to say about the GameBoy Color version of Ultima III.)

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[Doctor Cat]

Maybe I should contact them and grant them the rights to use my two trademarks that appeared in Ultima V, "Dr. Cat" and "The Cat's Lair". Not that anyone probably cares. I do hope their project and all the other re-creation projects do well. It's nice to see some of the older classic games kept alive, I've met too many people these days that think the only Ultima game is Ultima Online!

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[Anonymous Coward]

What you say is not correct at all! Peroxide wasn't forced by EA. They decided to create a *commercial* game, and as a consequence changed their game from an Ultima remake to an original game. EA was not involved in this whole affair.

No false assumptions, please.

--
Hacki

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[Lathan]

Actually, EA stomped on Peroxide's "Ultima 1: A Legend is Reborn" 3D remake. At that point (early 2003) it was just about the only 3D remake with a demo out. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but nobody could really do anything.

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[Haeleth]

EA was not involved in this whole affair.

While it's true that EA didn't "go after them", your summary is likewise incorrect. What actually happened is that they tried to get explicit permission from EA for the project, and failed to get any response at all; in the absence of any clear legal status they opted to use the engine for an original game. The timeframe is slightly confused, but their story, at least, is that the decision to go commercial was subsequent to that.

Re:Licensing the Ultima name

[FortranDragon]

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.

Did anyone ever win the original?

[slaker]

I swear I played the original game for months and couldn't win it. I knew everything I had to do but I couldn't advance my characters to levels high enough to make it through the underworld without being munched by "Demon: Summons Demon" BS. IIRC only the character that killed something got any XP for it, so I'd end up with a 9th level, hammer-weilding Shamino and a bunch of pansy 5th level hangers-on.

I played it simultaneously with the original Might and Magic. Both games were incredibly rich, filled with details. Both were very much opposite of modern games like NWN - I'd love to see an NWN-like game with outdoor areas the size of those found in the later Ultima games, or the tiny discoveries that suddenly change the way the game is played (such as U5's magic carpet).

I loved the fact that in Ultima5, the NPCs had their own schedules, and the free-form conversation system that really did reward me for the occasional tangent from a character's main purpose.

Dungeon Siege, on the other hand, was been almost the antithesis of a decent CRPG. The graphics and music were cool but it was at-best a half-step over a Diablo clickfest (don't even get me started on that one). The whole game was "Oh, a new tileset, and different color bad guys. Yay."
I'm glad I only paid $15 for it, and with an Ultima-like expansion, maybe now I'll feel like I got my money's worth.

Re:Did anyone ever win the original?

[Xian97]

I finished the original. At the end it said "Report your feat to Lord British". I sent Origin a letter and they actually sent back a certificate saying that you had completed the game. I may have that confused with IV though. I finished Ultima III-VI but never finished I, II, or VII, and didn't play VIII and IX. I remember the end of Ultima V had some tricky dungeons where you had to use magic to remove obstacles to reveal the exits from rooms.

A reason to play DS, period.

[Pluvius]

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

Re:ULTIMA IS BACK BABY

[Firehawke]

Actually, I'd say it's more like EA pressured Origin to release U9 despite it being unfinished, having already systematically dismantled Origin over the past prior years and killing several other series in the process.

The enmity between Richard Garriott and Trip Hawkins is nearly legendary, with at least one snipe at EA in an early Ultima (2? Maybe 3, but most likely 2) with a pirate character named Pirt Snikwah. I'd venture to say EA bought out Origin PURELY to dismantle them and remove them from the market.

Of course, by the time U9 was released, no further Origin projects were on the release list per-say, so Garriott managed to extricate himself from the burning wreckage of his company.

Dr. Cat, Cat's Lair, etc.

[tibermoon]

We'd love to hear from you! :) Also, if possible, we'd like to get a photo of you so we'll have something to base your character's in-game portrait off of. Please drop me a line at tiberius@planetdungeonsiege.com

Man...

[BadmanX]

Everyone is bagging on the original Dungeon Siege. While it wasn't the best game in the world, it did two interesting things that made me glad I'd picked it up. The "streaming world" technology was extremely well done; I'm really hoping that this will become the norm for ALL games - DEATH to load screens! If you're a developer and you want to know how they did it, Scott Bilas has tons of information on his site here: http://www.drizzle.com/~scottb/

Tho other thing I really liked was the character advancement system. Want to get good at something? Do that particular thing. No levelling, no "skill points", just practice.

While the plot and dialog were weak, these features, plus some interesting environments and enemies, made me glad I'd picked it up. And hopefully DS' weaknesses will be fixed in the sequel.