Ultima 6 Project (U VI remake) V1.0 released!

[Jaesun]

For the 2 or 3 Ultima fans on here, the Ultima 6 Dungeon Siege Mod (Done by some of the team that made the incredible Ultima V: Lazarus):

 

5 July 2010:

 

On this, the 20th anniversary year of the release of Origin Systems' Ultima 6, it is with much pleasure that we announce the 1.0 release of Team Archon's Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Players will find a huge and exciting world waiting to be discovered:

* Travel throughout the lands of Britannia, exploring deep, dark forests with bandits lying in wait, deserts and swamps teaming with monsters, and peaceful towns and villages filled with shops, old friends, and interesting people just waiting to give the player numerous and exciting quests to solve.

 

* Explore deep and dangerous caves and caverns full of treasure and hidden surprises. Bring your breadcrumbs to mark your trail, or be prepared to be thoroughly and completely lost, with your remains left to be found by future explorers.

 

* Sail the savage seas to explore remote islands, but be vigilant for there are sea monsters lying in wait for the careless traveler

 

* Discover a hidden new world, far from Britannia.

 

* Encounter strange and exotic races, including the mysterious Gargoyles.

 

* Fight fearsome monsters, find pirate loot, solve a murder, and discover the truth behind the numerous attacks on Britannia

[Tigranes]

I liked the original Ultima VII, though it had quite possibly one of the worst combat in any RPG... I wonder if I can find Dungeon Siege for the cheap?

[Gorth]

The original Ultima V was what made me lose interest in the franchise. Too much fancy graphics at the expense of the rest of the game. Never bothered to complete it

 

Now, if they were to remake Ultima IV instead...

[Jaesun]

I wonder if I can find Dungeon Siege for the cheap?

 

Good question, I still have my Dungeon Siege: LOA copy that I got for dirt cheap because my roommate at the time worked for M$ and could shop at the M$ store. I assume there has to be some cheap copies floating around there somewhere. And also Dungeon Siege works fine (for me) in Windows 7 (32 bit).

 

And here is a few screenies:

 

Dialogue Interface

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i45/Jaes...reenShot039.jpg

 

It's just not an Ultima without the cards

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i45/Jaes...reenShot040.jpg

 

Gypsy camp

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i45/Jaes...reenShot062.jpg

 

Our good friend Lord British

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i45/Jaes...reenShot064.jpg

[Slowtrain]

Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't have used my DS cd for a coaster all those years.

 

Still, it served much better as a coaster than it ever did as a game.

 

So no complaints.

[mr insomniac]

According to the Microsoft website, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is not compatible with Win7 64-bit. Bah.

[LostStraw]

According to the Microsoft website, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is not compatible with Win7 64-bit. Bah.

It is possible that it will work with Windows7 64bit. I played through it just fine 2-3 weeks ago after changing the Dungeon Siege configuration around a bit. However, in searching for a solution to get it working it did seem that there were some folks who couldn't get it to run in a playable state.. so.. disclaimer: "Your results may vary."

[mr insomniac]

According to the Microsoft website, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is not compatible with Win7 64-bit. Bah.

It is possible that it will work with Windows7 64bit. I played through it just fine 2-3 weeks ago after changing the Dungeon Siege configuration around a bit. However, in searching for a solution to get it working it did seem that there were some folks who couldn't get it to run in a playable state.. so.. disclaimer: "Your results may vary."

Well that's what I get for just accepting that it won't work without even trying it first.

 

I googled this link , installed the game, followed the instructions -- with one exception: I did not have to install directx 9.0c. Running with directx 11 and so far so good. I still get a "this program has known compatibility issues" popup on start up, but I can just ignore that. I haven't actually begun playing it yet, still on the character creation screen, but the only issue as yet is the crappy resolution.

 

Thanks LostStraw.

 

EDIT: Okay I've installed Ultima V. What an awesome treat to replay this game! And so far things are working without a hitch.

Edited July 6, 2010 by mr insomniac

[Jaesun]

I googled this link , installed the game, followed the instructions -- with one exception: I did not have to install directx 9.0c. Running with directx 11 and so far so good. I still get a "this program has known compatibility issues" popup on start up, but I can just ignore that. I haven't actually begun playing it yet, still on the character creation screen, but the only issue as yet is the crappy resolution.

 

Yeah those instructions got it running for me as well.. no problems at all. Copying those 4 line in the .ini to the .ini in the U6 folder did the trick.

 

EDIT: Okay I've installed Ultima V. What an awesome treat to replay this game! And so far things are working without a hitch.

 

You will have an absolute blast with Lazarus. Music, dialogues, everything is just done so well.

[Winterwolf]

The original Ultima V was what made me lose interest in the franchise. Too much fancy graphics at the expense of the rest of the game. Never bothered to complete it

 

Now, if they were to remake Ultima IV instead...

 

You know, I never could understand that. I mean, Ultima 7 is the real and only Ultima experience. Together with Martian Dreams and Underworld games. That's the time when they did really interesting things in the franchise. This "I lost interest after the 3rd, 4th..." seems so wrong, because Ultima wasn't Ultima then.

 

And Ultima 5 too fancy graphics at the expense of the game? It had the most detailed world and sophisticated npc schedules and an actual atmosphere and overall tone in rpg's in that time. The game was an immersive exploration experience.

 

Ultima 4 is indeed unique, but that's precisely why one can't remake it. It wouldn't translate well since it's not a "characters and world" game like Ultima's since 5 and before 8.

[mr insomniac]

EDIT: Okay I've installed Ultima V. What an awesome treat to replay this game! And so far things are working without a hitch.

 

You will have an absolute blast with Lazarus. Music, dialogues, everything is just done so well.

Yep, the Intro brought back many memories and I ended up staying up way too late last night wandering the forest around Iolo's hut.

 

The original Ultima V was what made me lose interest in the franchise. Too much fancy graphics at the expense of the rest of the game. Never bothered to complete it

 

Now, if they were to remake Ultima IV instead...

They were both good games, but I preferred V for all its improvements in dialogue and being able to aim on a diagonal with a ranged attack Not to mention the sheer size of the world. After playing IV, Britannia really came to life. Eight 5.25 floppies for the C64. It was awesome.

 

Anyway, not a remake, but... Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

[Thorton_AP]

Ultima 6 also had fantastic npc scheduling and whatnot.

 

Heck, I remember going to the pub at night just to get some food, and going solo mode with my party members so that I could make them all sit on chairs haha. The Blue Boar Inn always had good food!

[Gorth]

Is this the point where I have to break down and admit that I've probably never played Ultima V?

 

Checking its release date, I see it was about the time I retired my c64 and focused on my Commodore Amiga. I missed the game altogether (it was Ultima VI I had in mind).

 

I blame Quicksilva for starting that 3D Isometric fad with Ant Attack (1984). Suddenly all games needed to join the band wagon and if it wasn't isometric 3D, it wasn't good enough for the publishers. They completely ruined perfectly good 2D top-down gaming >_

[Thorton_AP]

I felt that the isometric in Ultima VI was so ridiculously subtle that it pretty much still was a top-down game.

 

What was it exactly that you didn't like about Ultima VI? Because predating it (I never played V), I find all the other Ultima games (including IV) to be very drab and less than stellar experiences. I didn't find the settings had any real life in them or anything. Characters were bland, and so forth. Whereas in Ultima VI, you had a party of adventurers that you could initiate conversation with. The NPCs had schedules and would do various things at various parts of the day that made sense and were consistent. The combat was straight forward with melee attacks being simple targets against the adjacent target, and ranged attacks having a cursor pop up that you could move and pick your target, and so forth.

 

It was the game that really introduced me to the world of RPG. Ultima VII just took it to the next level. It was real-time (which was an adjustment), but the world in that one was even more alive. It was the game that converted me to a PC gamer. Such awesome games! I'd love to play Ultima VI again, now that I wouldn't be so awful at it with no idea what to do! Haha.

[Gorth]

I don't know what the PC version looked like, but the Amiga version had big, blocky "tiles" that offered less of an overview. I was more of a "wargamer" at the time than a roleplayer, so I liked having as much minute detail on the screen as possible. What I loved about Ultima IV was, that the world felt consistent, with its own laws of magic and physics. Probably the only time in a game that I enjoyed trying to figure out new spell compositions based on the available raw materials. I hadn't played party based crpgs before, so I didn't miss that either. Its one of those things you can't explain to people who haven't experienced it, but the story was the one I wrote through my actions, completely non-linear exploration of islands, oceans, balloon flying, dungeon crawling, investigating towns etc. A kind of freedom in a game I hadn't experienced since Lords of Midnight & Doomdarks Revenge. By comparison, my first impression of Ultima VI was "cluttered", and I traded it away shortly after. I probably didn't appriciate that kind of radical change at the time, which was 20 years ago now?

[Thorton_AP]

It was a long time ago.

 

IMO you'd be wise to revisit it. Personally I felt that they continued to improve until the apex that culminated in Ultima VII (and it's sequel Serpent Isle).