Exult Forum

Glimmerscape is a mod that I started around 2006 or so when I learned about Exult. There was no planning or gameplay in mind when it was started; the entire idea of it was just me making a new city and building conversation trees in the existing Serpent Isle world. As time progressed I added more cities and more conversations, and tried to make it more “game-like” by adding an overarching plot and mini quests in many areas. This eventually led to me completely gutting any Serpent Isle related story-line/plot.

Much of the content was made at different times when I had an idea pop into my head. I have tried to connect all related areas enough to have some sort of cohesive storyline for playability. There are areas where you can travel that have zero impact on the overall story line. Hensall is an example of this; if you follow the main storyline there is never a reason to visit this location. What I have tried to do is at least make any non-core area have something interesting within it.

The goal of this project is to update U6 using U7 graphics and Exult engine, for those of us who aren’t into the 3D feel of the Ultimas. It has been something I always wished I could do, long before Exult came into being, but now it is possible. This conversion will stay true to the original game but update the storyline a bit to reflect the warlike atmosphere, new npcs to help tie in loose ends or create new sidequests, and elaborate on things in game that wasn’t possible with the Ultima 6 engine.

I started this project a few years ago (2006!), and have worked on it sporadically.
The idea, like other Ultima remakes and similar projects (such as Lazarus, for example), is to keep Ultima alive, and to introduce new people to older classics!
Another idea of The Savage Empire Remake is to retain most of the original story, expand upon it, and add new things to see and explore. I am aiming to bring the classic game up to Ultima VII's gameplay and vision.

This has BG shapes imported into SI. There are 277 shapes added as of now with a few SI repeats to use for BG usecode functions.

Probably another thing to archive properly are the various fan translations. Let's see if I can find them all

--Ultima VII: The Black Gate/Forge of Virtue General MIDI music support--
V1.1

o What Thou needest:
A general MIDI (preferably GS compatable) synthesizer running on a MPU-401
compatable interface.

o What it does:
Changes all the music from the intro and menu and game music into General
MIDI and GS compatable sequences. It also changes a few sound effects from
the game if you have a GS synth.

o What it does not do:
It does not change the majority of the sound effects to sound correctly
(It probably would be better if you turn the non-midifile sound effects off
completely).
It does not change the music & sound in the endgame sequence.
It does not create world peace.

o How wilt thy set it up:

After unzipping the contents of the .ZIP file into a directory type:
setupgm C:\u7
(Where c:\u7 is the directory where Ultima 7 resides)
You must run Ultima 7 install program and MAKE SURE that your
music sound card is set to Roland MT-32/LAPC-1.
Then run Ultima 7, and enjoy, and then visit the Ultima Dragons home page
http://www.udic.org (or the Ultima info page: http://www.udic.org/ultima)!

--- Notes ---
Unbelievable, people will do darned near anything when a new Ultima hasn't
come out in a while .

After converting music files from Ultima 6, 7.5, and the underworlds
I thought it would be a good challenge that others could enjoy to convert
the native Ultima 7 music and sound effects into General MIDI, so people
could hear it correctly on the new wavetable music cards. I once had a
Roland LAPC-1 and enjoyed the quality of the music & sound effects in The
Black Gate and I thought others would like better music than FM synthesis.
I've been an Ultima fan since Ultima I, and even liked Pagan (patched of
course).

What you see here is what I accomplished. It is music only (excepting a few
sound effects in the rain/wind/shipyards/caverns). I tried to change the
sound effects, but found that Ultima 7 has them embedded within the program
executable itself or in the Usecode, which I did not touch. This is
dissapointing because I had came up with quite a few good GM/GS sound effects
that could have been used in U7. The reason Ultima 7's sound effects are
incorrect on GM wavetable cards is the fact that it uses some commands unique
to a true Roland MT-32 or LAPC-1 that are not found anywhere else to change
the sounds. (I could have done a really great job if the sound effects were
digitized--but alas...)

I also attempted to change the Endgame's music and sound effects, but it uses
an OLD version of John Miles' AIL library, and my newer MIDIFORM program does
not seem to create the correct multisequence XMI files that the endgame needs.
If anyone (from inside or outside Origin) knows how to change the sound
effects in the game, I'd really like to know.

Also, as a bonus, I threw in the MIDI files from the introduction and endgame,
credits, quotes, and menu screens because I haven't seen them anywhere else.
I hope you enjoy these files, and don't forget to turn the sound effects off
in the options menu (press s), otherwise you may get some weird--unintended--
effects. Again, anyone who has info on how to change these I'd be in much
gratitude.

These files have been edited from scratch, I used no prior MIDI file
collection in editing the music. The sound effects, rain and wind,
will only play correctly on a GS synthesizer (it will sound like ocean waves
on non-GS synthesizers)

What I have in audio equipment is: Roland SCC-1 and a Soundblaster AWE-32,
I know that people with SBAWE32s probably wont be able to run U7 in GM mode
because of the huge TSR it needs to emulate MIDI. (However, its a great
excuse to get the Roland SCD-15 Daughterboard--make sure its a SCD15!) All
this on a Pentium 133 (Moslo moslo moslo) and Windows '95.

I didn't do all of this manually, thank goodness, as I wrote some barely
functioning programs to do the lion's share of the conversion and file
flexing. For part of the conversions, I used mttogm12, a program that
converts MT-32 music files to GM music files that I wrote about three years
ago. After that, I manually changed and added effects and a bit of
percussion, and other changes in Cakewalk Pro for Windows and with my MIDI
keyboard. It really wasn't too difficult, and took only about an hour or so
of my time each day over about a week to complete.

Now on to work on the Serpent Isle--this one is all JM's AIL stuff and makes
it more complicated.

Don't forget to check out the Ultima Dragons at the web page:
http://www.udic.org
Or THE definative Ultima web page at:
http://www.udic.org/ultima
Or THE Ultima newsgroup: alt.games.ultima-dragons
See what Origin is doing at: http://www.ea.com/origin.html

Disclaimer:
I do not work for Origin-yet? (I'm a beach bum going to school in Florida who
spends entirely too much time on this kind of crap) so whatever you do, do
not bug their customer support if you are using these files on Ultima 7--
bug me or post to the alt.games.ultima-dragons newsgroup.