Ultima Ultima IX 15th anniversary: Source code, interviews

[Infinitron]

So, it's the the 15th anniversary of the release of the father of all disappointing RPGs, and the Ultima Codex has been releasing all sorts of stuff. Like this screenshot from a very early version of the game (probably circa 1996): http://ultimacodex.com/2014/11/ultima-9-isometric-dungeon-screenshot/

And now this: http://ultimacodex.com/2014/11/ultima-9-the-source-code/

Ultima 9: The Source Code
BY WTF DRAGON · NOVEMBER 26, 2014

As we continue to mark the occasion of Ultima 9’s fifteenth anniversary, I’m pleased to announced that the seemingly dormant Ultima Source Code Offline Archival Project (USCOAP) has finally borne some fruit: the Ultima Codex has added the source code for Ultima 9 to its offline archive.

Hopefully this news will come as a happy thing, and hopefully it won’t be too much of a source of frustration for fans that we cannot publicly release the code at this time (any will probably never be able to). But equally, nothing stops anyone from pointing out to EA that we now have available some of the “raw materials” (I’m totally stealing that phrase, by the way) from which a console release of Ultima 9 could potentially be constructed. Or a mobile port, perhaps; we could use a good mobile RPG — and another Ultima — on mobile, I think.

Well, yay. Checking with Kenneth now to see what exactly this means.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Uhm... so what? First of all, U9 is the one part in the series which has so many conceptual flaws that access to the source code is effectively worthless, since any attempt to improve it would require a complete remake of all aspects of the game - not just the engine.
Next, the source is still under copyright by EA and can not only not be used but could also lead to problems for fan projects just because EA can argue that people might have had unwarranted access to it.

And finally, wtf is this about:

nothing stops anyone from pointing out to EA that we now have available some of the “raw materials” (I’m totally stealing that phrase, by the way) from which a console release of Ultima 9 could potentially be constructed. Or a mobile port, perhaps;

Why would anybody go and actively push EA to do a fucking console port or even a double-fucking mobile port of the triple-fucking monstrosity that is "Ultima" Ascension? Ultima is dead and forgotten and that, my friends, is a good thing - especially for us Ultima fans.

 

[Infinitron]

Uhm... so what?

So nothing. I report news and the leaking of a game's source code is always newsworthy.

Kenneth is a U9 fanboy, go bother him.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Kenneth is a U9 fanboy, go bother him.

Bothering a U9 fanboy? That sounds as futile as beating up a masochist. But thanks for reporting, anyway! - I'm always interested in Ultima gossip.

 

[Daemongar]

Actually it would be interested if a group were to create a new textured U9, and it would also make it a lot easier for a group to do some hard-core patching or updating. This would be incredibly useful, as the Exult team had to pretty much reverse engineer Ultima 7 to make the game viable on modern systems (way better than Dosbox version.)

Uhm... so what? First of all, U9 is the one part in the series which has so many conceptual flaws that access to the source code is effectively worthless, since any attempt to improve it would require a complete remake of all aspects of the game - not just the engine.
Next, the source is still under copyright by EA and can not only not be used but could also lead to problems for fan projects just because EA can argue that people might have had unwarranted access to it.

Thanks, guy who is not a lawyer or a programmer for this well thought out response.

 

[deuxhero]

I think preserving the source code is a fair goal, but yeah, can't see anything useful being made WITH the code.

 

[Norfleet]

There's no evidence to support the notion that this is true. They CLAIM this, but there is absolutely no evidence to corroborate this claim. I could create that exact same screenshot, it would not even require Photoshop.

 

[Daemongar]

I think preserving the source code is a fair goal, but yeah, can't see anything useful being made WITH the code.

No so sure. It would be nice to be able to (at a minimum) re-skin the game, modify the dialogue, add anti-aliasing and support for higher resolutions, fix some of the more retarded moments, and at least try to create a better game from the rubble. There were some touches of brilliance in the game that are easy to overlook.

 

[Viata]

I think preserving the source code is a fair goal, but yeah, can't see anything useful being made WITH the code.

Better yet, can't see anything useful that EA can do with the code.

 

[Infinitron]

I think preserving the source code is a fair goal, but yeah, can't see anything useful being made WITH the code.

No so sure. It would be nice to be able to (at a minimum) re-skin the game, modify the dialogue, add anti-aliasing and support for higher resolutions, fix some of the more retarded moments, and at least try to create a better game from the rubble. There were some touches of brilliance in the game that are easy to overlook.

Some people are doing that without the source code: http://forgottenworld.de/

 

[Koschey]

[...] from which a console release of Ultima 9 could potentially be constructed. Or a mobile port, perhaps; we could use a good mobile RPG — and another Ultima — on mobile, I think.

WTF Dragon indeed.


Archiving the code is a good thing though.

 

[Giskard]

It would be great if someone could patch all the game breaking bugs from this game. I have tried 4 or 5 times to finish and always been stopped by a gamebreaking bug, and never the same one twice.
It IS a steaming pile of crap, but I would still like to say I have finished every game in the Ultima Series. Bloody OCD.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

this is fantastic news; someone tell those folks in ferguson and maybe theyll rejoice and put away their looting gloves

 

[Daemongar]

I think preserving the source code is a fair goal, but yeah, can't see anything useful being made WITH the code.

No so sure. It would be nice to be able to (at a minimum) re-skin the game, modify the dialogue, add anti-aliasing and support for higher resolutions, fix some of the more retarded moments, and at least try to create a better game from the rubble. There were some touches of brilliance in the game that are easy to overlook.

Some people are doing that without the source code: http://forgottenworld.de/

Very interesting, just loaded it and tested it out/got it running. Very promising. But it's a good example of how this source could help: the fellow doing most of the work/providing status updates is spending an inordinate time reverse engineering the code to figure out how the game works:

More recently, I've attempted to do some reverse engineering with the executable and I helped Kirinn a bit with widescreen corrections. We ended up finding a few bytes in the executable (largely by coincidence) that govern the scale of all book GUMPs in the game. Pretty useful; especially for those that find the spellbook overlaps with the toolbar. For more details, check out the comments section below this post at the Codex.

Unfortunately, I've not had much luck in finding other useful bytes; however, I did find out that savegames store snapshots of various on-going in-game processes. These are largely spells, animation, and movement controller processes as well as a few special trigger processes like fade-in. This might prove somewhat useful at some point, but the processes are largely about stuff we don't intend to change. I'll probably do some more executable reverse engineering over the next few months.

Withe the source, he could just look at the files and correct them natively/compile them. Absent source, most of the work is working backwards/trial and error. All moot anyhow, considering this source may not see the light of day. But this is a project that would definitely be helped by the source release.

 

[Infinitron]

All moot anyhow, considering this source may not see the light of day.

Well, it doesn't count as the "light of day" if the Forgotten World devs are the only ones who see it...and nobody knows they even have it...*cough cough*

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Shit, 15 years? I still remember the day when I bought Ultima 9 (Dec 12th 1999), how I entered the main store of BT (name of the biggest game retailer back then) and saw that the shelves full of big box PC games taking up around 15 meters of shelf space (and 2 meters upwards) and how Ultima 9 had just arrived and therefore had the "seat of honour" in the shelves, tens of titles stacked side-by-side, enticing all the Icelandic gamers who had been waiting for this game to grab a copy.

(Oh if we had but known beforehand what anguish we would all feel.)

I also remember the time spent in January trying to play the game, helping a friend of mine who also bought the game get past the sewer map under New Magincia, how he eventually got stuck somewhere while I persevered...and finished U9 late at night sometime in early February, wondering just what the hell was up with the last dungeon.

I've replayed the game twice since then, once with the 1.19f patch and again with the Fan Dialog patch, which removes the voice acting but contains new dialogue that actually acknowledges the previous Ultima games and answers questions like: "How did Iolo, Gwenno and Shamino get back from Serpent Isle?"

But I still love the music.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, it doesn't count as the "light of day" if the Forgotten World devs are the only ones who see it...and nobody knows they even have it...*cough cough*

If a tree falls on a mime in a forest and nobody sees, does anybody care?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Ultima is dead and forgotten and that, my friends, is a good thing - especially for us Ultima fans.

Never understood this mentality. Fallout 3 didn't make F1 suddenly start sucking by osmosis and it led to the creation of the #8 favorite RPG of the Codex.

 

[taxalot]

"HEY GUYS I HAVE AWESOME NEWS ! THE ULTIMA IX SOURCE CODE EXISTS ! kthxbye"

 

[Luzur]

I remember the old Ultima IX screenshots in PCGamer, those showed alot of promise, but in the end all we got was a box of cowpoop.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

U9 really deserves to be considered a non-Ultima. Nothing in it is Ultima-like. Also, having to murder Iolo and talk about it with his wife was some sort of sick joke.

 

[Infinitron]

U9 really deserves to be considered a non-Ultima. Nothing in it is Ultima-like. Also, having to murder Iolo and talk about it with his wife was some sort of sick joke.

Please, his name was OOLI.

 

[ghostdog]

Maybe now we can finally get a clear answer about what's a Paladin.

 

[Baron Dupek]

A miserable pile of source code.

 

[SuicideBunny]

I remember the old Ultima IX screenshots in PCGamer, those showed alot of promise, but in the end all we got was a box of cowpoop.

i remember the iso concept pics. those looked friggin awesome...