Ultima: The Ultimate Collector's Guide coming soon; Goodbye John Watson; site moved

27th September 2007 by Dino

Chris at The Artful Gamer contacted me about an interview with Stephen Emond he wrote recently. Stephen Emond, otherwise known as Commander Falcon, has been working on his book, Ultima: The Ultimate Collector's Guide, for the past few years. With the book nearing completion, a copy was auctioned in a fundraising event organised by the University of Texas at Britannia Manor (Lord British's home). Chris from The Artful Gamer wrote a very interesting interview with Stephen Emond about the book and Stephen's background and meeting with Ultima developers. It seems that the book will also be published soon.

According to La Legende d' Ultima (who in turn got the news from Wing Commander CIC), John Watson has passed away. John Watson was involved with several Origin projects, mostly Ultima and Wing Commander. A permanent memorial page has been set up listing the games he was involved with, and memories written by those who knew him.

At Seven Towers, two mods (BG Keyring and SI Fixes) have been updated.

Ophidian Dragon, still Blogging Ultima after finishing Ultima Underworld 2, is now playing Serpent Isle.

The Titans of Ether website has been updated twice. Kultan, a dialogue writer, has joined the Titans. Also, a dev diary entry about Moonglow development (part 1) has been written. It is part of the forum and accessible only to registered users.

Other updates courtesy of Aiera:

• There are some new screenshots of Ultima 5 for TI Calculators. Ranman also informed us through Aiera that the project is 89% complete.
• Aiera has uploaded the latest snapshots from Pentagram, Iris, Project Britannia and Exult for the PSP.
• Withstand the Fury Dragon resumed development on Lost Sosaria.
• The EUO website has been redesigned.
• Back in June, the U3 Project website saw a few updates, mostly technical stuff.
• The following projects' websites are no longer online: UCR, Eriadain, Ultima Underworld for PocketPC, Infinity Eternal.
• Darkshard from the deceased Ultima 3 Online is selling the project's maps.
• Razimus, who was formerly leading the Blackrock Engine project (for an online Ultima 7), proposed continuation of the project under the name Blackrock Undead.

Last but not least, Dino's Ultima Page has moved to a new location. The old shiftedphase site will remain online for a while until everyone updates their bookmarks, but will no longer be updated.

Nuvie Yearly Update; Ultima 7 Web Map

20th August 2007 by Dino

SB-X at Nuvie posted the first update in a year (exactly). Progress has been mainly as far as the engine core is concerned, and now a scripting engine is being used. Several spells are working, features have been added, and bugs have been fixed. Check out the Nuvie website for details on what's new!

Nikolai Faaland made an Ultima 7 Web Map "using Exult's map output feature", to quote him. Check it out!

Exult for PSP

16th August 2007 by Dino

Ophidian Dragon is currently playing Ultima Underworld 2.

Thanks Paulon for pointing out that there is now an Exult PSP port.

Also, a while ago (sorry for taking so long), Martin Metzler pointed out an article about Richard Garriott's home, Britannia Manor:

an article about Richard Garriott and his house Britannia Manor... of course the article is in german.

Taken on the same visit to Richard Garriott were the following two pictures posted in the GameStar blog by the editor who visited him.