Ultima Fandom

The fans of the Ultima series are a dedicated bunch. Even the very first game done by Garriott, Akalabeth, has gotten its share of dedication in the form of ports to newer, or in some cases older, computers, like in the case of its C64 port. The most notable released mods for the first three games upgrade the graphics of the DOS versions into more tolerable EGA and VGA palettes. There's even a mod to add MIDI music to make the games a more lively experience.

All the links I've provided here go to the UltimaCodex site, which is quite an active portal for all news about Ultima. So if you want to skip my ramblings, head there to check things out yourself. I won't be going through all the possible projects, just the one that I find the most interesting. 

This is, like most modding or fan remake projects, a scene that is constantly alive. Things might, and most likely will, change suddenly or slowly, depending on the life state of the people involved in these projects. So, even if I might not be the biggest fan of some of these projects, they are all amazing displays of dedication from their developers. They are, for free and of their own volition, bringing these old titles to the future, at times kicking and screaming, but always because they love the games. Not all of them are successful, but even those projects that weren't do deserve some recognition. 

Akalabeth, Ultima 1 & Ultima 2

Akalabeth, the game that is often cited as Ultima 0, has really gotten the least attention from the fans. Perhaps the most interesting projects are conversions of it for the Commodore 64 and Vectrex home consoles. 

Sadly enough, two of the more interesting mods, or remake projects for Ultima 1 and Ultima 2, were never completed. In the 2000s, a team calling themselves Peroxide was attempting to remake Ultima 1 in a custom engine of their own devising. It was a fantastic attempt that envisioned the game as a 1st person RPG with very gorgeous graphics for the time. They sought out official permission to continue the development from EA, but were denied it, which was a shame. 

Sage was at first attempting a remake of Ultima 2 by using a custom engine. After a while, he ditched that and joined the Titans of Ether team, attempting to re-create Ultima 2 in the Morrowind engine. Sadly, nothing came out of these projects either.

Perhaps the most interesting Ultima 1 project is the board game conversion. The rules and printables are freely downloadable for anyone to try. A couple of remake projects exist, but none have been completed. Perhaps the best way to upgrade both Ultima 1 and 2 is Pix's Ultima Patcher. That should provide all the essential fan-made upgrades to improve them. Ultima Patcher should work with games from 1 to 4.

Ultima 3

Perhaps the most notable patches for Ultima 3 enhance the looks of the game as well as add music to it. Ultima 3 Upgrade adds MIDI music, new graphics modes and other improvements. Ultima 3 EGA changes the tile graphics to a better-looking set originally made for Ultima 4. 

Out of all the fan projects, the most intriguing one is the Game Boy Colour conversion. So, yeah, that exists if you have a way of making custom GBC cartridges. Or, you know, just use an emulator.

It would be interesting to see actual remakes of the first three Ultima games (and Akallabeth), but those would, most likely, require some extra work, especially in terms of story, the world and the narrative.  Ultima 4 is really the first game in the series that is more narratively rich and has more fleshed-out characters in it, whereas the origins of the series are more about maxing up your characters so you can kick the evil in the ass in the end.

Ultima 4

Ultima 4 has quite a few fan projects going on for it, perhaps partly because it became more easily available in 2011 after EA released it as freeware. The best place to start would probably be Ultima 4 Upgrade and the accompanying music packs. There is even a mod that adds new content for Ultima 4 without affecting the base game.

For total conversion mods, there are two different remakes done for mods for Neverwinter Nights.  

Ultima IV Reborn was originally released in 2003 and has seen a lot of improvements since then. The latest modification is from 2017. A more faithful mod is called Avatarship. I think I've tried Avatarship back in the day, but never played it to completion. 

Ultima 4 is also the oldest one in the series that can be played by using ScummVM. You can choose to play either the DOS version or the enhanced version with VGA graphics and a proper soundtrack. So as such,  ScummVM might be the most user-friendly way of playing Ultima IV

So, depending on whether you want to experience a modded-up original or a concerted version of Ultima 4, there are a lot of choices to try.

Ultima 5

For those wanting to keep Ultima 5 closer to the original, but still wanting some improvements for the music side of the game, there is the Ultima 5 Upgrade. Now, it only adds music, but there is a possibility for enhancing the 16-colour DOS graphics into VGA at some point. 

Ultima 5 Redux is an interesting one. Brad Hannah, the developer, is taking the original game data and spicing it up by taking it into Unity and displaying it in a voxel-based form. So old style, but presented in an isometric 3D-view. There will be other improvements as well.  

For a more concrete recreation, you only have to take a look at Ultima 5: Lazarus, a recreation of the game using the Dungeon Siege engine. As you might imagine, it is an entirely new way of playing Ultima 5, and as Dungeon Siege can be bought digitally from GOG and Steam, it should be easy enough to give it a spin. I do have to note that while it is an impressive attempt, the game really does suffer from the use of the DS engine, which really wasn't meant for a game of this scale. It does work, but the experience is less than smooth.

Ultima 6

Just like Ultima 5, Ultima 6 got a fan-made remake for Dungeon Siege. The game is complete and fully playable, but it does suffer from similar issues with the Ultima 5 remake: the engine the team used is just not the best possible choice for what they wanted to do. It still is a worthwhile effort.

A bit more interesting effort, especially if you want to enhance the original, is the Exult-like Nuvie engine replacement for Ultima 6, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire. The best thing is that Nuvie is now a part of ScummVM, so there is a good chance it will live a long life for decades to come. With Nuvie, you can play Ultima 6 in higher resolutions and with some custom graphical enhancements, like smoother night view and added rooftops for the buildings while moving outside. Another benefit is the multiplatform support.  Sadly enough, the World of Ultima games are yet to be officially supported by ScummVM, but perhaps one day.

Then there is the attempt to remake Ultima 6 by using the Ultima 7 Exult engine. The process is slow but steady. Hopefully, it will get finished.

Another, perhaps a bit more ambitious one, is Age of Singularity, which aims to remake the game in Unity. 

For those looking for some online action, there is the Ultima 6 Online, an MMO version of the game. It's been ages since I've tried it, but it did work when I gave it a spin years back. It's an interesting premise, if nothing else.

 

Ultima 7

Ultima 7 has perhaps the best-known Ultima fan project, Exult. It is an engine replacement for Ultima 7 and the Serpent Isle, allowing enhanced music and increased resolutions, as well as playing the game on platforms they weren't originally made for. Exult is a mature project, receiving very few updates these days, but I guess it has done all it's meant to do. It's the best way of playing Ultima 7 these days and is even used as a platform for converting other Ultima titles.

There have been a couple of attempts at full-scale remakes of Ultima 7. Exalted Crown was an attempt to recreate the Black Gate in the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine, and El Portal Negro was a Unity-engine-based project. The latter released some screenshots and in-engine videos, but as you'd expect, the process was slow, and the project seems dead.  

The most promising remake at the moment seems to be Ultima VII: Revisted, which aims to bring the game to the 3rd dimension, but still retaining the overall aesthetics. The progress with this one seems to be pretty steady, and its Git is updated regularly.

Ultima 8

Ultima 8 hasn't been left without fan love either, despite some fans thinking that was the point where the series began to dwindle down. Amidst the patches in making the game run on modern OS's, one notable one started as  Pentagram, an engine replacement in the vein of Nuvie and Exult. Pentagram is now a part of ScummVM, and while I've not played the game through by using it, it should be relatively stable.

Exult is, again, used as a platform for another Ultima 8 remake. The project is going to add many of the things from the original game, like jumping and the possibility to climb to roofs and whatnot. I hope this one makes it.

Ultima 8 has a special place in my heart, and I reckon I've played it through more times than I've completed any other Ultima game. So that in mind, I hope it will get some more love in the future. 

Ultima 9

For Ultima 9, the unremarkable end of the single-player series, there were a couple of full-scale remakes, which both ended up dead. Redemption was an attempt to remake Ultima 9 by using the Morrowind engine. The team, Titans of Ether, did release the assets they did, graphics and music, in the hopes of someone else tackling the massive undertaking. As far as I know, no one has risen to the occasion.

Eriadain was a remake project based on Neverwinter Nights, but it was again cancelled in the end. Moa, the developer, apparently implemented quite a few of the mechanics needed before abandoning the project. A brief rekindling was seen when the original story, which was greatly cut and altered for the final game, found its way to the web. But, alas, nothing came of that in the end.

There was also the Forgotten World, which aimed to improve the game in many ways, but it seems that this particular project might be just as dead as the others.  

Ultima Underworld 1 & 2

Considering how well-regarded games both of the Underworlds are, surprisingly little has been done for either of them. But there is something, a project that started as Underworld Exporter, which exports the game data into the Unity engine, making the games run in a modern engine replacement. Later on, the developer decided to leave Unity behind and started his work anew by using the Godot engine. The Godot version is not quite as far as the Unity version, but it is improving constantly. 

I really hope this project makes it, as while Underworld games were quite impressive for their time, they do have their technical limitations, some of which can be alleviated by using a nice fan-made patch to allow mouse look. That alone helps a lot, but it would be nice for the 3D engine to be a bit improved as well, which is exactly something the Underworld Exporter is doing, among other things.

I'm actually somewhat amazed that the Ultima Underworld games have not been brought to stores as modern remakes or remasters by a studio like Night Dive, for example. They have, after all, given some much-needed love for System Shock games, which were the games born from the DNA of Underworld.

And that's some kind of a look at the world of Ultima fandom. Constantly alive, constantly morphing, filled with some great ideas and successes as well as some regrettable failures when the realities of life and business stepped in.  But, success or failure, it is all something that has kept the old series alive while the current rights-holders are happy to do nothing at all beyond collecting occasional cheques from the digital storefronts they sell the games, fully knowing most people who buy them will mod them with the help of the fan base.