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News

News articles

OSI relocation and other news

27th February 2004 by Dino

Sad news is running around the net about the relocation of Origin Systems Inc. to California, which may result in the laying off of employees, and possibly Origin's shutdown. Read more about this in the following locations:

• La Legende d' Ultima (French)
• UXO Stratics
• A short article at Slashdot
• A topic by CmdrFalcon entitled "To the Ultima X Devs and everyone at Origin" at the UXO Stratics forums
• The other topics at the Avatar's Corner of the UXO Stratics forums
• Yahoo's Reuters article with the official Origin shutdown statement

More news from UltimaDot is as follows:

• OGaming has an Ultima X clip and screenshot related to combat and spellcasting
• Gamer's Hell has a 1-minute gameplay movie
• The fourth part of GameSpot's Ultima X Designer Diary is up
• The seventh installment of the Dragon Gallery is about Gaseous Dragon
• Another Ultima Online expansion has been announced in an EA Press Release
• RPG Vault have another combat-related Ultima X movie
• The official Ultima X website has been updated again, with Reaper and Zombie Fiction, Druid Abilities, the Hueing feature and links to Developer Feedback
• Much progress has been made on Ultima Iris; new screenshots have been released and a new version is announced
• Ultima 6 Online has progressed too, and 32 NPC dialogues have been completed
• The Ultima Legacy site tells about joining NPC groups, as well as announcing a server downtime between tomorrow and 1st March
• Ultima Unreal has released an ingame movie of a rabbit
• Version 0.9 of xu4has been released; as it nears the 1.0 release, it is already playable from beginning to end

U9R to be back soon; Lost Sosaria alpha release

22nd February 2004 by Dino

There has finally been an update to the remains of the Ultima IX: Redemption website. The little notice that has been there for a couple of months has been added with a notice saying that the Redemption website is "returning soon".

Twice has the Ultima V: Lazarus website been updated today. The first update points to the openings page, as Team Lazarus is looking for a musician. Moreover, an interview with Tiberius can be found at Gamer's Radio.

And once again, there are plenty of updates at UltimaDot:

• The official Ultima X website has been updated with new screenshots as well as two new Features: Necromancer Abilities and Friends List.
• Nazghul's progress diary has been updated, including what has been done about loading and saving.
• OGaming has another Ultima X interview with Jonathan Hanna
• The website of Time Immortal, the team working on Lost Sosaria, has been relaunched, and an early alpha demo is available in the media section.
• There have been some enhancements to and a new release of Ultima IV: Virtue of Humility.

Era wallpaper and U6P Font Tool

19th February 2004 by Dino

Era's homepage has been changed a little, recently. In the news section, the quest for publishers and investors has been summarised in two short paragraphs; the team augurs a good 2004; and it says that a wallpaper has been added to the download section to replace the obsolete wallpapers.

The Ultima 6 Project has released its Font Builder, with which modders can easily create custom font sets.

There has been an update to the Ultima 6 Online website just today. After the news of progress posted on the 12th, whereby quite a few gameplay improvements were implemented, today there has been more progress. 16 NPC dialogues have been completed, and basic saving/loading features should be available by the end of the month.

If you look at UltimaDot, you'll find lots more news:

• As usual, there's a new Ultima X screenshot at OGaming. The screenshot is called "Massive Spell", but Ekim of UltimaDot gave it the more fitting name "Hamster in a Big Red Storm".
• GameSpot has a huge "developer interview" video.
• Ultima Unreal have put up some pictures of player character models, which are as yet work in progress.
• Houston Dragon at Ultima Legacy urges players to read the rules of conduct.
• The modeller OrionBlitz joined the Enilno team.
• RPG Vault put up the first installment of what is supposed to be a series of videos. The current one is a video about combat.
• MMORPGDot is starting a 5-part general Ultima X interview, and the first part has just been released.

Blackthorn joins Allysium??

16th February 2004 by Dino

The link to the Adventures of Blackthorn website seems to redirect to a website called The Road to Allysium. Taking a closer look at the news, it appears that Wind Walker from Adventures of Blackthorn has joined this project:

Welcome!! to the new Allysium site!! our First major announcement is that Prizm Entertainment (Team Blackthorn) has hopped on board with Mystical Productions to bring you a better Allysium!! and we are becoming chock full of custom content!! Have a look around and be sure to join the forums, we want to hear from you!!

It would seem that there will be no Adventures of Blackthorn, as Wind Walker is giving a hand with Allysium.

UltimaDot's only news is an Ultima X contest at MMOG Hell requiring participants to design a guild crest.

Ultima X updates

13th February 2004 by Dino

The news today is all related to Ultima X. La Legende d' Ultima points out the updates to the official Ultima X website; and UltimaDot has mentioned that along with the following news:

• OGaming has a new screenshot of a phoda vs. troll
• MMORPGDot is presenting a video of combat in Ultima X
• Similarly, Gamer's Hell is offering a gameplay movie of Ultima X
• The second part of RPGVault's Ultima X combat interview is up

Era screenshots

9th February 2004 by Dino

UltimaDot has over a dozen new updates but the main one is that it has ten new Era screenshots, showing dungeons, landscapes, a town, and one particular screenshot of a ship which I consider most beautiful, as the water looks so nice and realistic.

Three more dragons are new to the roster.

The Lazarus website has been updated with new music as well as the mention of a couple of photos by Ymochel the Dark Elf Bard showing Lazarus played on a projector screen. I also just noticed that there are a number of screenshots from the demo in the screenshots page.

Other updates from UltimaDot include:

• There have been quite a few updates to Ultima Legacy.
• Ultima Iris version 0.55 has been released.
• At Quill Dragon's Lair, you can learn about Ultima Prophecy: The Ankh of Stars, the new Ultima pen & paper RPG which is expected to improve upon Ressurrection.
• The relaunch of the Lost Sosaria website has been delayed further, but there is now a screenshot to look at while we wait.
• An Ultima X dev chat log is up on UXO Vault.
• The winner of the MMORPGDot UXO Contest has been selected.
• An Ultima X interview about combat has been added to RPG Vault.
• New screenshots and lots of other material has been added to the official Ultima X website.
• At GameBanshee you'll find a gameplay movie of Ultima X.
• UXO Vault has six new screenshots and a movie of "Phoda's running on all fours and then attacking a terathan".
• Origin is offering a free 30-day Ultima Online Buddy Code for Valentines.

Exult, Ultima translator

5th February 2004 by Dino

The Exult website tells of a change in audio configuration, including how to use digital music.

Speaking of Exult, it was on the Exult forum that Artaxerxes announced a web tool with which to translate Ultima 7. It is available at the SI French Project Files page on SourceForge.

2 more mirrors now host the Lazarus demo, as its official website reads. These links have again been added to my Ultima 5 info page where I have listed all the available mirrors from where one can download the Lazarus demo.

UltimaDot set its spotlight on the Ultima Lair of Great Siberian Dragon.

Lazarus mirrors

4th February 2004 by Dino

The Ultima V: Lazarus is flowing with life and has been updated again; there are two new download mirrors and the Lazarus demo has been featured on a GameSpot news article. My Ultima 5 info page has been updated to reflect these new links.

The Ultima 6 Project also stepped forward to announce the Lazarus demo release, pointing out that the conversation engine is a fruit of U6P-UVL collaboration.

More Laz material

3rd February 2004 by Dino

The Lazarus team would like to thank three members of the Archon project, as the website says. More download mirrors for the demo have also been added. I took the opportunity to list all the known download mirrors in my Ultima 5 remakes section. UltimaDot has also put up a screenshot gallery for people who don't own Dungeon Siege.

Other news from UltimaDot includes an Ultima X interview at GameZone and a new Ultima X screenshot at OGaming.

For avid Ultima collectors, check out the latest column at Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe, which is about Mount Drash. This link has been added to my Complete Guide to Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash.

As Eric Fry (of Nuvie) has informed me, U6Edit 1.0 has been released.

January 2004 news has been archived.

Ultima V: Lazarus alpha demo released

2nd February 2004 by Dino

A demo of Ultima V: Lazarus has finally been released! I unfortunately don't have Dungeon Siege, but other people who played it have made very good comments about it. Read the opinions expressed on Hacki's Ultima Page, UltimaDot and La Legende d' Ultima where this news has been announced.

In other news, the Lazarus progress bars have been updated.

UltimaDot also brings to our attention three new Ultima X screenshots at UXOVault and news of an upcoming Ultima X Dev Chat.