Fan-Developed Ultima VI Remake Released 161
An anonymous reader writes "20 years after the original game launched, a fan-developed Ultima 6 remake has finally been released! The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin's Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old."
This is great! (Score:4, Interesting)
Cue the DMCA takedown in 5, 4, 3... (Score:4, Interesting)
I notice there wasn't anything on the site saying/acknowledging the copyrights/trademarks of the original Ultima...
Queue up the DMCA takedown notice, and the inevitable "oh, the evil DMCA takedown notice" slashdot article...
Re:Will they do VIII? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's funny, as a kid I remember thinking all of those "legends" that kept coming up but that you never encountered were a pretty cool addition to the game. After all, not many games I played at that age took the time to create atmosphere and a background story for the game universe.
Later, when I learned these were parts of the game that weren't accessible due to bugs (or simply not having been developed) it sort of took away the mystique ;)
I remember they eventually issued a patch (I still remember downloading it with our recently upgraded modem!). It was supposed to make additional areas available and fix an end-game bug, but I didn't like it. It took away one of my favorite aspects of the game: The horrible jumping system! I used to LOVE jumping from platform to platform simply because I was good at it and my older brother was not! After the update jumping was just a matter of clicking on your target. This almost doubled the distance you could jump :(
I would love to see U8 remade in highres. I'd also love to see the Ultima Underworld engine remake actually progress (I think the project is near 10 years old). Maybe, now that I know what I'm doing, I'll contribute to the project myself.
Re:A groundbreaking game (Score:3, Interesting)
I have many many fond memories playing U6 when i was about 10 years old. The game universe was so vast that i played it non-stop for almost 3 years. I always found new things to do in the game, new people to talk to and new things to talk to them about, new spells, new dungeons, everything. It was truly an engaging and enjoyable game with a depth that i find unmatched in more recent games.
Re:Let's see how well it flies (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, you're right about that, but single player versions don't quite illustrate the rise of the online assholes that I was talking about. Even Doom which came 3 years after Ultima 6, only was realistically playable on a LAN, and even then better not be on the work LAN, the way it broadcast packets. And really, on a LAN the whole thing is a lot less conducive to breeding assholes. What you need, is, well, best illustrated by Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory [penny-arcade.com]. You can't really skip the middle ingredient. Acting like an antisocial asshole at a LAN party would just get one not invited any more.
(Note however that I would doubt that it just turns a normal people into a fuckwad, like in the comic strip. More likely it's just created a situation where a sociopath can act like his natural self. Sorta like Dave Barry's rule: Someone who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.)
Re:Uhoh (Score:3, Interesting)
This is the same team that did an Ultima V remake and didn't get a C&D. They reached out to EA, and former Origin employees. This has been a very visible project.
They also released a blank slate version of their project called Project Britania, which allows you to easily make your own Ultima game.
Re:Dungeon Siege (Score:3, Interesting)
Oblivion and Fallout III are nowhere near even Ultima V's system, many of the NPCs never really move much and the plot in Fallout III is completely scripted. They have sacrificed this old-time realism and openess for being more accesible. Morrowind was actually critized for being too open, and was the last game that tried to approach anything Ultima like.
U6 and Legalities (Score:3, Interesting)
I just wanted to mention that the U6 remake should generally be safe from legal action from EA, not because of any inherent "rightness" about what they've done, but because of the generally benevolent attitude EA has taken in the past concerning the core Ultima game remakes.
When I was on the Ultima Online team the U5: Lazarus mod for Dungeon Siege came out, and I actually chose a copy of Dungeon Siege II (if I remember correctly) for the weekly developer prize just so I could download the mod and play it. Our producer at the time was asked by the corporate legal department about it, and since it didn't harm UO, and possibly helped boost marketing recognition for Ultima in general, EA decided not to do anything as long as the remake didn't turn a profit.
In general, EA barely remembers the Ultima IP exists - except to co-opt it for brand recognition (such as the new web-game RTS). UO remains an excellent source of revenue for the company, but even with its millions and millions a year is considered extremely minor compared to the core franchises.
As long as the U6 remake team doesn't turn a profit from this, I couldn't imagine EA taking action, especially since the current UO team would still have a minor bit of input at Mythic. For the curious, no, server emulation for UO is not looked kindly upon by the legal department, yet no significant action was taken in all the years I worked there.
Meanwhile, for U6: I pray that the conversation system and scheduling systems have been converted. People remember Ultima 7 as the most "advanced NPC AI" yet U6 had almost all those features before they were perfected in U7, *and* the conversation system was a model for keyword/response recognition for any interactive games to follow. Ultima Online's own NPC speech system was based on U6's, boasting 13,000 unique lines of text before they were scrapped in 1999-2000 during a localization of the game where the translations were projected to cost something like $250k.
As with the Lazarus project, I just want to give my hearty thanks and appreciation to the team who created this. We dreamed of doing updated Ultima remakes at EA, but never gained any traction. Thank you for doing what we couldn't!