OOT: UO Pre Alpha

wintermute_turing_ai · Thu Aug 21, 2003 1:14 pm

I know this is severely Out of Topic, but I was hoping to track down any folks that might have remembered the UO pre-alpha tests years and years ago. I've been attempting to find a copy of the pre-alpha client (quite unsuccessfully) for nearly a year. There were reports from a gentlemen who was designing a p-a server emulator, and had a near-working copy at one point (http://web.archive.org/web/200108020635 ... ndex.shtml) but that has long-since disappeared.

Again, apologies for the OoT post, but I'm really hurting here, and exult is the closest to oldschool Ultima that I can find on the web. Even UDIC on usenet doesn't even remember the pre-alpha test

Thanks much!
WM.

Post by **drcode** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 1:42 pm

Just curious, but why do you want it?

DreamMaster · Post by **DreamMaster** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 3:54 pm

In the "Hidden conversation in SI" thread it was mentioned there were rumours the map in early versions of Ultima Online was considered for Ultima IX. He may want to inspect it for use in one of the fan recreation projects.

XxVenomxX · Post by **XxVenomxX** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 3:58 pm

I won one on eBay a couple years ago for 1 cent.

wintermute_turing_ai · Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:28 pm

Re DrCode: There are still approximately 25-30 ex-prealpha folks out there that have been dying for the oldschool UO ever since we enjoyed the p-a tests back in the day. Now that a lot of us have grown up, there are a significant amount of people capable of building a server emulator that would give us someting playable, for nostalgia's sake.

I've been mirroring every single prealpha content for the last 2 weeks, and its been quite a process. archive.org carries a large amount of old screenshots, but I'm mostly relying on fan accounts (and my own memories) for generating landmarks like the BoD, The Sweet Dreams Inn, the Conservatory, etc.

For a bit of a history lesson, the very first UOX server (built by Jaegermeister, who is one of the alpha folks still around) was originally intended to run as a server for the prealpha client. The project was abandoned and taken over by Cironian, but the possibility of having something worth playing is still there.

Re DreamMaster: I actually have a copy of the very first pre-alpha map, labelled "Pre Alpha Britain". Pretty tiny city, but a lot of us have some great memories of it

Re VenomX: are you sure you're talking about a pre-alpha file? The pre-alpha client was a 12-14 megabyte file distributed on owo.com during the tests. It was not ever sent out on CD, unlike the betas, which had seperate cd's for both.

Post by **drcode** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 10:42 am

Sounds pretty cool. I've never played UO, and I didn't know there were people who were nostalgic for the original. All I remember about that time is that there were many complaints about its bugs.

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:31 am

The pre-alpha was considered one of the most enjoyable tests of any game in recent memory. After all, it was the first time that Ultima fans had the chance to interact in GUI. The pre-alpha client even had features that later versions of UO did not, like Grouping and Following (sharing XP and player-tailing).

Wizardry Dragon · Post by **Wizardry Dragon** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:39 pm

You are aware that any copy of the pre-alpha or emulator you create would not be legal, correct?

Read UO's license agreement...

~ Wizardry Dragon
"Not sea shanty again!"

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Aug 22, 2003 3:18 pm

UOX/Sphere/etc have been around for years, and I hardly see the leap in legalities between UO-published and UO-prealpha.

Nobody said anything about distributing copies of the pre-alpha client which remains the property of the almighty EA, I simply implied that the server codebase would be provided open-sourced.

care to elucidate your comments Wizardry?

MV · Post by MV » Sat Aug 23, 2003 3:43 am

While on the topic, does anyone know of any world maps to suit UOX and UO-the second age?

I bought that UO way back in '99 just for the sole purpose of playing it with UOX, (And to this day I've still never played it online). Playing the beta test of it was enough to put me off any MMOLRPG, (Whatever that acronym is), game.

Noviere · Post by **Noviere** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 5:11 pm

Ah, the UO pre-alpha. Those are some good memories. It was soooo long ago. I remember downloading it on a 36.6 modem(and paying hourly for my internet connection, after using the 60 hours per month), or something like that. And it was 255(or 120?) MBs if I recall correctly. It took forever to get it, especially with everyone trying to get it at once. It was worth it though.

wintermute_turing_ai · Sun Aug 24, 2003 1:00 am

heheh actually noviere, it was only 15 megs or so :0 split into 3 files.
I was on a 14.4 at the time, and i wasted days trying to get all the binaries.

I've been speaking with a few of the ex-OSI folks that worked on the pre-alpha, so things look good for finally finding that old client. *crosses fingers*

I will be putting up a web page with all pre-alpha info/screenshots/etc for old-times sake soon. Will post the URL in this thread whenever its done (some time this week).

nice hearing from a fellow alpha tester

Ravenous · Post by **Ravenous** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 3:46 am

Hey neat, I'm looking forward to seeing pre-alpha screens. I didn't get in that early, but I did beta test UO, and it was the most fun I've ever had in a MMPORPG. Maybe becaues it was so new to me and I'm a huge Ultima fan, but I certainly have fond memories of my guild and guildmates. Wonder what ever happened to those guys...

At the time I was playing on a P75, 32 mb of RAM with a 14.4 modem.

wintermute_turing_ai · Thu Aug 28, 2003 9:13 pm

I played the betas too, and I had a great time despite all the bitching that people did about it

I was on a P133 with 32 mb of ram and a 28.8 (!). Crazy speeds!

Pre-alpha was on a 486-SX33 with 8 megs of ram and a 14.4. It was almost unplayable

Andrea B Previtera · Post by **Andrea B Previtera** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 7:13 am

Ravenous: just screenshots? Then, here's a timedoor back to 1996...
http://www.andrew.net/uol/screenshot.html

wintermute_turing_ai · Wed Sep 03, 2003 7:39 am

just an update for anyone interested.. I located Telavar Dragon, who kept a copy of it stored away on a iomega zip disk. Unfortunately the zip suffered bitrot, and a couple of the large files could not be extracted (named art.mul and client.exe)! Bad luck!

I'm still on the hunt for the client, and have one more lead.
Thusfar the entire OSI staff that worked on the pre-alpha project has been contacted, and none of them have the old client

The website will be up very soon, containing archives of the old sites. Stay tuned to this thread for more on that.

Tel · Post by **Tel** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:16 am

yo toobad it didn't work, did you already ask on the Horizons board? Quite a few oldtimers use to hang around there. Also, early UO folk like the Fuckheads etc might be of assistance too...

wintermute_turing_ai · Thu Sep 04, 2003 8:11 pm

great idea! I had no idea that horizons was still even around. thanks.

Noviere · Post by **Noviere** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 1:58 am

It was really that small? God... 14.4 does sound right, actually then. Explains why it took days to get

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 4:28 am

I have the full client. 15Mb perfect state

wintermute_turing_ai · Tue Sep 09, 2003 3:05 pm

Just an update for everyone: Covenant got me a working copy of the pre-alpha client!!!!! Now comes the hard part -- working on the pre-alpha file formats (which are significantly different from UO-release formats).

I will post the URL of the web site ASAP.

Post by **Colourless** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 8:28 pm

Per-alpha formats may have similarites to the file formats from Ultima 8 or Crusader.

wintermute_turing_ai · Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:13 pm

yup, I was under that assumption too. I'm trying to track down Mad Hatter's old u8 site and see if his u8 utilities might be of some use.

Post by **Colourless** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:36 pm

If you can get the pre-alpha to one of us in the Pentagram team (such as me), we could probably help you out.

The file formats used in the Crusader games are slightly different to Ultima 8. Pretty much for Crusader all the file formats were made 32 bit, when with Ultima 8 they were 16 bit. As such, the Crusader formats can not be read by U8 tools that haven't been extended to read the Crusader format.

If the Alpha does use U8 or Crusader formats, it is more likely it will use the Crusader version rather than U8. Of course, it might use nethier.

-Colourless Dragon

Post by **Darke** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 11:14 pm

Or no doubt a minorly extended crusader format, just different
enough to be inconvenient to decode with the current tools. *grin*

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:14 am

oh, no... This might be yet another TGWDS...

Post by **Darke** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:47 am

Ahem. I believe you're missing a *minor* point from our faq:

"1.5 Will Pentagram be Multiplayer/Online

HELL NO!"

Which is slightly different to saying we "don't" (not "won't") support a game. *grin*

Darke
(So do I get to tell the documenter to RTFM? *grin*)

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:27 am

Jason Ely (U8 Dev and Crusader Dev) said in the news that some bits of code of U9 were inside Crusader code. He also said that the original U9 was changed to UO pre-alpha.

So, the file format of the pre-alpha was pretty similar to Crusader. Jason Ely talked in the news about U8 and Crusader File Format a few year ago. Maybe it can be of some utility.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:38 am

Take a look to this thread:

http://www.google.com/groups?hl=es&lr=& ... 26rnum%3D1

Post by **Darke** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 3:58 am

We know most of the data file formats as it is. The most useful
data at the moment would be *how* some of the bits interact. *grin*

I believe all the documentation on the file formats he mentioned
was on a webpage, now long gone and non archived anywhere I
can find it, mentioned in the documentation on one of the
crusader cds.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:33 am

Jason Ely mentioned IIRC that he still had that docs... try to ask him at http://www.dransik.com

wintermute_turing_ai · Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:43 am

Hm. Well, from what I remember, the alpha used actual graphics from U8 art library (literally!). But for all I know, they could be in a crusader format.
They're in 16-bit color format (according to the readme that went with the distributed client).

I will try and contact Jason.. hopefully he can shed some light on this. According to the credits list, he wasn't actually on the pre-alpha team, but he regardless may know a lot about the file formats. A friend of mine was a programmer on the Crusader team, and consequently knew a lot about U8 programming too. Jason was known to hold on to a lot of ah, code,

so hopefully its still archived away.

Thanks folks!

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:22 am

I'd suggest visit the people on #pentagram first and ask them to help you. It could very well be that the tools of Pentagram might allready be working for you!

Post by **Colourless** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 8:20 am

I would agree. Talk to us, before annoying developers.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 3:20 am

How's it going? Any news?

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Sep 12, 2003 6:41 pm

No news as of yet. Web site is the major work that is undergoing right now.
I've tried InsideUO to view of the file formats, but it only partially works. Art is corrupted.. probably a small bit shift is needed in the reading algorithm.
Sound.mul was fully extracted though, which was cool.

Will post an URL to the web site ASAP, I promise!

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 3:53 am

Hmmm, this seems to have been forgotten :/

wintermute_turing_ai · Mon Oct 20, 2003 7:46 am

No, not forgotten Covenant, just on hold for a bit

grad school has a way of eating my time alive in the fall, so I've been juggling 200 projects at once, and unfortunately this one is low priority in the scheme of things :\

I'm hoping to have the site up in the next few weeks, and I will of course post in this thread whenever its ready. I can't say how much I'll be able to devote to working on the client-server however. If it inspires other people to do some work though, I'd be more than happy. I have no problems with some sort of group project.. I'll probably put a web board there for any developers interested in chatting about the client.

Candyman · Post by **Candyman** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:47 pm

If any of you are interested in a UO server that actually tries to stay true to historical Ultima, then I suggest you give Ultima Legacy a look. I helped get it going and was a GM for a couple years (till too many other things had to take priority).

The "info" site is at: http://www.ultimainfo.net/
and you can find the message board at: http://www.horizonstavern.com/

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 2:31 pm

There's a Ultima 3 "Remake" using UO too
http://members.cox.net/darkshard/

Nice custom map

wintermute_turing_ai · Thu Jan 08, 2004 9:25 am

http://uol.vanilluh.com

The site is in its infancy, but it hosts a good collection of info.

Enjoy,
WM.

Bilbo-B · Post by **Bilbo-B** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 1:14 pm

I havent understood very well. Wintermute is trying to decode the p-a uo to make a server?. It sounds great.

And, about the Legacy server, i have entered his page and it looks great. Is anyone playing in Legacy?, Is it as they say?, are there pks and other diablo-like players?.

WishStone Dragon · Post by **WishStone Dragon** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 2:42 pm

So.... people who want to join you there will need to ... "Aquire" the Pre Alpha UO data. And it's near impossible to buy it. How do you assume that will work then?

Warder · Post by **Warder** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:35 am

I play on Legacy - and no, no PK-nuts or anything like that. PvP is quite rare and only happens for roleplaying reasons.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:22 am

I think that the original uo pre-alpha was never sold, players were able to download it, free.

In fact, it isn't a full game, it's only a pre-alpha release ;D

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:41 am

Indeed, it was distributed freely by OSI. Poke around the site for the data you're after.
*nudge*

WM.

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:07 am

My bad! Someone pointed out that the pre-alpha data on there was corrupted. I just uploaded a good copy of it.

Enjoy!
WM.

XxVenomxX · Post by **XxVenomxX** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 11:10 am

Don't think that won't mean WishStone won't complain and moan about it some more though ;P

However, good work so far

WishStone Dragon · Post by **WishStone Dragon** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:36 pm

Nope, it won't, Venom, because the Pre Alpha Stuff was linked to NDAs and the likes.

Perhaps you don't understand what I am after, I don't want Exult to be in trouble with EA. And EA can be ratehr swift with handing out trouble if they smell something they don't want to happen. UDICs might remember the lill package they wanted to hand to Garriot before EA suddenly stormed up front against them.

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:48 pm

Like I said, this was an OOT post. Feel free to wipe the entire thread if you worry over legalese. Its your forum.