Possible Ultima Iv Port

[frolik]

Well porting Exult (Ultima 7) is a rather large order that no one seems to want to take on, but here is an open-source recreation of Ultima IV which should be a lot smaller

http://xu4.sourceforge.net

complete with updated 256 colour graphics! Apparently Origin have allowed distribution of the original game too

Ports have already been made for the Zaurus PDA, dreamcast and other platforms so there should be plenty of source to choose from...

The only factor really is, are there Ultima fans out there who would appreciate this? Oh - and a willing coder

 

[thebluenewt]

It's a great game, no Ultima VII but I would still love it!

 

[Enslaved]

That would be cool, I have the ultima collection and it was my first time playing the series but it was still fun as hell.

 

[triksR4rabits]

Dont think finding the fans would be that hard (I'm one as well) but the willing coder part may be a bit difficult... oh well, heres hoping

 

[frolik]

Dont think finding the fans would be that hard (I'm one as well) but the willing coder part may be a bit difficult... oh well, heres hoping

hmm.... well thats three...

maybe no

 

[triksR4rabits]

Dont think finding the fans would be that hard (I'm one as well) but the willing coder part may be a bit difficult... oh well, heres hoping

hmm.... well thats three...

maybe no

:lol:
good point...

 

[kknd_cf]

looks cool

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Don't you need a keyboard for this game? The DC port, for example, cannot be played with the gamepad.

 

[pupnik]

I've ported this for Nokia 770 and yeah it needs keyboard right now.

It also is still kludgy and somewhat buggy (sorry author) but fairly complete..

I'm running down my list of annoyances -- so far they are

1) sounds are lame and incomplete

2) music needs timidity and ridiculous xml configs for no good purpose

3) going into config and back leads to config and intro screen overdrawing one another

4) no onscreen stylus or button based command entry

----

For the keyboard commands you'd need to implement a bunch - there's space onscreen. At bottom for gp2x since it's 320x200 native.

a attack
b board
c cast
d descend
e enter
f fire
g get chest
h hole up
i ignite torch
j jimmy
k klimb
l locate
m mix reagents
n new order
o open door
p peer at gem
q quitnsave
r ready weapon
s search
t talk
x exit
z zstats

Anybody want to work on this? A a couple of the commands could be reduced due to context sensitive nature - e.g. klimb / enter.

The big issue would be dialogue. You either need an onscreen keyboard to type in question phrases, or a tree-based dialogue. Problem with that is that an important part of the game is learning WHAT to ask characters you meet based on hints you get from others. A tree based dialogue would tell the user exactly what each NPC knows already, which nullifies part of the fun.

drop me a note if you can help -- http://pupnik.de/fbk.html

cheers

 

[YakumoFuji]

pupnik summed it up pretty well.

because 'talk' is 99% of this game, you'd need a full popup keyboard to let ppl enter stuff in, and using a dictionary is kinda crap because each 'talk' file uses only 2 or 3 words and has only a couple of people so you'd have a dictionary of like 5 words and then things that are 'hidden' would be visible straight away.

some commands could well be combined as noted. I dont recall having stairs up + down on same cell so you could have enter/climb/descend/board/exit all together.

If people really wanted it, you can play the C64 version or play the NES (ubercrap) version, since a) the c64 emu has a popup keyboard, and B) the snes version is 'built' for a console already.

looking at the screenshot of the SMS version,
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-master-...eShotId,212717/
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-master-...eShotId,212709/



you can see it only displays words you know about.

These kinds of changes to xu4 would be pretty substantial to get it to work effortlessly.

I prefer the sms look over the nes cartoony look but its all the same game mostly inside.

 

[InsertFaveGameNameHere]

Interesting that theres another game out there that could theoretically be ported to the 2X. I'm an advocate of having as many ports as possible to try extend the life of the machine and enrich the community. but guess what? I can't code worth crap! Sorry!

Funny though cos some of these olders games do exist on alternate systems so technically a port wouldn't be 100% necessary. It just sounds better to say 'It can play Ultimate IV' rather than 'If you load up an SMS emulator you can play...'.

 

[quasist]

http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/UAE4all
Only benefit of porting would be a longer battery lifetime.

I think it is more fun to write similar game to U4 that to port existed one.

 

[pupnik]

because 'talk' is 99% of this game, you'd need a full popup keyboard to let ppl enter stuff in, and using a dictionary is kinda crap because each 'talk' file uses only 2 or 3 words and has only a couple of people so you'd have a dictionary of like 5 words and then things that are 'hidden' would be visible straight away.

you can see it only displays words you know about.
These kinds of changes to xu4 would be pretty substantial to get it to work effortlessly.

I prefer the sms look over the nes cartoony look but its all the same game mostly inside.

I've looked at the Master System port and it's basically the 'right way' to do this for dpad and button-only control. One big change is that players can target any enemy in range (not just attack in 4 directions). (edit) This is sure to piss-off purists, but it does make combat move faster.(/edit) The intro graphics are great but the worldmap graphics are overbright, oversaturated and just awful imo.

Conversation is done well. The way to not provide players with too many hints is to only enable NPC-specific queries when player has already encountered a reference like "Ask XYZ in ABC about the Foo Bar!", then talking to XYZ after that dialogue will show "Foo Bar" as a query option.

This removes part of the challenge (fun?) of the original of course, where you kept notes and had to remember who knew what. I think this really draws players into the game world - forcing them to learn it, instead of just passively watching a FF movie.

There is a Dreamcast port for it here: http://imrtechnology.ngemu.com/ports.htm It might be worth looking how they did the UI conversion. I couldn't find source on the site but whoever runs it must give source on request (GPL), so if you want it, just email them.

My port probably won't be very useful for gp2x since it will use touchscreen and additional screen real estate for the control, leaving the core xu4 gameplay almost untouched. I will be adding an autojournal feature though, so important conversation gets logged. On-the-go players are probably not going to want to take game notes in a notebook.

 

[Ravnos]

There is a Dreamcast port for it here: http://imrtechnology.ngemu.com/ports.htm It might be worth looking how they did the UI conversion. I couldn't find source on the site but whoever runs it must give source on request (GPL), so if you want it, just email them.




I haven't played the DC version, but it's worth noting that there was a keyboard available for DC so they might have just kept the keyboard controls.

 

[quasist]

I think that U4 similar game is realy easy to develop. Why some U4 fan not to try his developer's skills?

 

[Quiest]

Well porting Exult (Ultima 7) is a rather large order that no one seems to want to take on

Nice research
Exult + Addon already got ported by Puck2099 to the 2X, and its working at 100% wonderfullines.
Here's the link, you will still need the data files.
Its shocking me that no one replying to this topic knows about it, or pointed you to it...

 

[Alex.]

Well porting Exult (Ultima 7) is a rather large order that no one seems to want to take on

Nice research
Exult + Addon already got ported by Puck2099 to the 2X, and its working at 100% wonderfullines.
Here's the link, you will still need the data files.
Its shocking me that no one replying to this topic knows about it, or pointed you to it...

Hahaha, you'd need a time machine to do that!

 

[quasist]

Well porting Exult (Ultima 7) is a rather large order that no one seems to want to take on

Nice research
Exult + Addon already got ported by Puck2099 to the 2X, and its working at 100% wonderfullines.
Here's the link, you will still need the data files.
Its shocking me that no one replying to this topic knows about it, or pointed you to it...

Hahaha, you'd need a time machine to do that!

...and a Terminator