The all new and improved Ultima Trilogy

[dreammaster]

Many years ago, a company called Origin Systems developed the much beloved Ultima series of role-playing games. Thanks to the previous hard work of others who created stand-alone reimplementations of these games, ScummVM is pleased to announce that, in addition to the two that were previously announced, a third game in the series is also ready for testing.

The first of these games is Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, based on the prior work done by the xu4 project. You can detect your English copy of Ultima IV as either original or enhanced. Enhanced mode uses the VGA graphics developed by the xu4 project. With the inclusion into ScummVM, the game also receives several improvements, such as multiple savegame slots and configurable keybindings. It even adds in a small secret area that only the most dedicated explorers may find.

The second game is Ultima VI, based on the Nuvie project. Due to some miscommunication, Nuvie may still advance as a separate project, but given the work done integrating Nuvie into ScummVM, we're hoping to have it officially supported in ScummVM as well. As with Ultima IV, Ultima VI supports the original game mode, as well as an enhanced mode that allows for Nuvie's full screen map, container gumps as in Ultima VII, and other features. Note that enhanced mode defaults to double resolution, so for now, the intro only displays in half of the screen.

Finally, the third game is Ultima VIII: Pagan, based on the Pentagram project. Since integration into ScummVM, it's had a lot of cleanup and improvements, so the user experience should be better than ever.

So break out your copies of the games and give them a try! You will need a daily development build. As always, please submit the bug reports to our issue tracker.

[AgustinCordes]

Bummer, none of the official Ultima Collection versions seem to be supported variants. I'll report the info to the tracker, but I'm sure this is a fairly widespread collection.

[dreammaster]

Bummer, none of the official Ultima Collection versions seem to be supported variants. I'll report the info to the tracker, but I'm sure this is a fairly widespread collection.

Thanks. The more variations we get known detection entries for, the better.

[Wesker]

I see Ultima VIII is also planned to be supported through the reimplementation of the Pentagram engine. Is Ultima VII (The Black Gate and Serpent Isle) planned to be added too? Both Ultima VII games are reimplemented thanks to the Exult engine.

Also, the addition of the Pentagram engine may also led to support both Crusader games. They are not much "aventure-like" games, but it would be pretty interesting as they are two excellent games.

[dreammaster]

I see Ultima VIII is also planned to be supported through the reimplementation of the Pentagram engine. Is Ultima VII (The Black Gate and Serpent Isle) planned to be added too? Both Ultima VII games are reimplemented thanks to the Exult engine.

xu4 and Pentagram, as well as Nuvie (at least presumed at the time), were pulled in because work had stalled on them for some time, and there hadn't ever been a proper release for the former two. So they got the benefits of being part of ScummVM, as well as new work being done to improve them. Exult is somewhat different in that it's still under active development, and has a well known user base. If it ever gets to a point where the developers consider it "done", or lose interest, then we can revisit whether to integrate it.

Also, the addition of the Pentagram engine may also led to support both Crusader games. They are not much "aventure-like" games, but it would be pretty interesting as they are two excellent games.

mduggan, who's leading the work on Ultima VIII at the moment, has actually made some strides in getting the Crusader games to at least start up. But obviously his focus is the core Ultima VIII right now, so who knows long term whether the Crusader games will be completely supported.

[vanfanel]

@dreammaster

I am trying to build with the ultima engine, and I get an error regarding MP3 functions:

Code: Select all

engines/ultima/ultima4/sound/music.cpp: In member function 'bool Ultima::Ultima4::Music::startMusic(const Common::String&)':
engines/ultima/ultima4/sound/music.cpp:134:52: error: 'makeMP3Stream' is not a member of 'Audio'
   Audio::SeekableAudioStream *audioStream = Audio::makeMP3Stream(
                                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note I have no MP3 support on my system (nor is SDL_Mixer built with MP3 support), so maybe that should be optional?
Does that game support enhanced MP3/OGG/FLAC soundtracks?

[JonWW]

Will The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams going to be supported as well?

[dreammaster]

Will The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams going to be supported as well?

Not for the current release. But the lead Nuvie developer, Eric Fry, has previously indicated his intention to return to work on the two games at a later date.

[enderandrew]

Exult lingered for years without any real development though the threat of their engine being swallowed up by ScummVM seems to have scared them into more active development all of a sudden.

It took them 10 years to release a new version, and they only did that once ScummVM came knocking.

Ultima VII is one of my favorite games of all time and Exult is a magnificent project, but claiming that it was actively developed over the past decade is a bit of an exaggeration. It was in a coma getting only basic life support.

[Wesker]

Well, I suppose if ScummVM is aiming for the complete Ultima series, sooner or later Exult and both Ultima VII games will be incorporated. The Ultima VII games are essential to the series and probably among the most widespread ones (together with Ultima VIII, they were the ones with most localizations), so let's hope that will eventually happen.

As for the Crusader games, yeah, I know Pentagram is able to boot Crusader: No Remorse. I tested that, but unfortunately you can't do much aside from enabling console and debugging options (plus it runs in low res mode). Crusader: No Regret isn't even detected or at least I couldn't achieve it. I love the Crusader games, even more than the Ultima games, that's why I hope that, if mduggan or any other person in charge of Ultima VIII/its engine is willing to add support to these games, it won't be rejected by the scope of ScummVM because of being not so much "adventure-like" games. They are wonderful titles that deserve some reimplementation love still.

[WarpedTrekker]

I see them listed as purchasable from GoG. What is the status of all the Ultima's? Are they all playable now?

[dreammaster]

I see them listed as purchasable from GoG. What is the status of all the Ultima's? Are they all playable now?

English versions of IV, VI, and VIII are currently under testing, so you can play them with a daily build (not any of the official releases yet) and enjoy them either like the original played, or with various new enhancements. Support for all three are based on pre-existing open source projects that were merged into ScummVM and improved on, so none of the other games of the series are likely to be supported in the near future yet.

[Isewein]

Will The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams going to be supported as well?

Not for the current release. But the lead Nuvie developer, Eric Fry, has previously indicated his intention to return to work on the two games at a later date.

Does this mean that they are not currently being worked on? A real shame, they are such underrated gems. I'm planning an all-remakes Ultima playthrough and am wondering whether it makes sense to hold off on those and wait for their ScummVM / Nuvie release or just roll with the DosBox provided by GOG. Thanks!

[bliznik]

The first of these games is Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, based on the prior work done by the xu4 project. You can detect your English copy of Ultima IV as either original or enhanced. Enhanced mode uses the VGA graphics developed by the xu4 project. With the inclusion into ScummVM, the game also receives several improvements, such as multiple savegame slots and configurable keybindings. It even adds in a small secret area that only the most dedicated explorers may find.

Hello, I just finished playing Ultima IV with the latest development build of ScummVM. There were a few bugs, but nothing gamebreaking. I reported what I could find to https://bugs.scummvm.org/.

I was doing a search to determine whether I could play Ultima V using ScummVM (seems like that is not possible), and I came across this post from you.

Question...is there still a difference between the "Enhanced" install and the "normal" install? With the normal installation, it seemed like I could already have a larger number of savegames. I finished the game with 21 different savegames. Also, it appears as though I can also configure keybindings with the normal installation as well. Lastly, I was also able to choose VGA graphics with the normal installation. So...is there really a difference between the normal and the Enhanced versions? Is the only difference the rumored secret area? I didn't find a secret area when I completed the game under the "normal" way to install the game, but since it's secret, I don't know if the secret area is just not included in the normal install, or if I just didn't find the secret area.

[dreammaster]

Answered here on Reddit before I saw this double-post.