History

16 May 2014

State of Exult or why there is still no new version

It's been 3 1/2 years since the release candidate and almost a decade since our last full release. Duke Nukem Forever was released since then. Imagine that.
So why is there still no new release of Exult?
After the 1.2 release Exult went into experimental mode, mostly making it easier and more stable to mod the original games via Exult Studio. Along with that many lingering issues, missing features and unknown data files from the original got implemented. In turn that broke other things in Exult and for a long time, Exult was just too unstable to be released. When development slowed down we fixed a lot of stuff and released 1.4.9rc1 - making it a release candidate on purpose. It generated enough interest for people to play Exult again and send us their bug reports and there were a lot. Some even game breaking and when the disappearing objects bug was discovered it proved we were correct in not labeling the release a full release. Since that bug has been squished the 1.4.9rc1 is no longer linked to on our site to prevent people using that and run into that severe bug.
And now we seem to be in a situation that everytime we think Exult could be ready for a new release, some new bug is discovered that prevents us from releasing.

This time the big bad bug is a flaw in which we handle game eggs (see Bug #1875 ). Mostly you will not notice that something is wrong until you reach to the abandoned outpost in SI and get slaughtered by the misbehaving fire shooter/energy barrier trap room (see Bug #1848 - savegame included) or when you notice that the anti magic rain in BG never stops until you restart Exult or whatever (see Bug #1865).
Whenever this is fixed you can expect another round of bug reports coming in about all the things now broken...
(not to mention countless other stuff, including some bug in the way we handle midi music, some BG intro things etc...)

Whenever - because development of Exult is currently not really existing, it hasn't for a while and doesn't look like it is picking up soon. There have been small bursts of bug fixing, mostly by Marzo, Willem and Malignant Manor but these are getting fewer and fewer.
Exult is now almost 16 years old and a lot of the developers have been with it since then. Lives and interests change and it's hard to keep interested in something like Exult that at times is easier to break than to fix.

So, is Exult dead? No, but it's not teeming with life and as has been written before, without new developers Exult might never leave this state.
Don't mistake this for a farewell, we just want to be frank about these things.

18 November 2013

Disappearing objects fixed but still no new version.

Dr. Code has fixed the disappearing objects and the resulting crashes quite some time ago (August 2012) and at the time it seemed we could fast forward to a new release. Unfortunately some other crashes were uncovered and Marzo went on a bug squishing rampage last year. After that very productive outburst our development almost completely stopped apart from some bug fixes.

On the plus side this means that the current snapshots are much more stable than the last rc1 release, not to mention the ancient 1.2 version that should never be used again. For that reason we no longer link to our old releases on our download page.
However there is still no new release and thus the ancient Exult 1.2 version is unfortunately still widely regarded as the stable version, especially in Linux repositories.

29 November 2011

After over a decade you can buy the Ultima VII games again.

As of today Good old Games offers "Ultima VII: The Complete Edition" for .99. If you don't already own it - go grab these gems now.
Fortunately the complete edition means that it's both games, The Black Gate and Serpent Isle, with their addons, The Forge of Virtue and The Silver Seed.

News about Exult are rather slow these days but Marzo has accepted the quest to take on the disappearing objects.

11 February 201

What we've been up to since the rc1 release and why there is no final version yet.

Let's start off with the the bad news:
We have a bug that causes random objects in the games to disappear forever. When this happens Exult tends to crash badly. Unfortunately this bug is unpredictable and we have no sure way of reproducing and thus fixing it. We have some ideas of what is happening but no fix yet. This is a real show stopper and unless we fix it we can't release another release candidate or a final version. If you encounter this bug (disappearing objects, random crashes, especially in combat) best you can do is revert to an earlier savegame.

The good news is that we welcome a new member to our team, Malignant Manor, a long time user of Exult.
He took on many bugs and improved many other things:

• command line option for portable use of Exult and Exult Studio for Windows
• fixed many NPC schedules (baking, serving food, eating food, ...)
• fixed talking to NPCs through locked doors (important for the Fawn trial)
• added a new combat option to make handling of charmed party members more realistic (and thus harder) and also fixed normal charmed behavior in some places
• added many options to the game menu that you could only change through editing the cfg file
• fixed some Silver Seed stairs teleporters
• possible to have separate settings for fullscreen and windowed mode
• fixed various things for new games created with Exult Studio
• and many other things...

We also put all our various audio files (digital music pack and the SFX packs) into an all-in-one package. You can download a zip file for manual installation or an installer for either Windows or Mac OS X. You don't need to download this if you already downloaded the audio packs individually before. And if you still prefer to download the smaller, individual packs, these are also still available.
Head to our download page to grab it.

21 October 2010

Exult 1.4.9rc1 has been released!
It took us over six years, but with DNF seemingly getting ready to be released after all, we had to do something. To prepare for a full release, we have created a first Release Candidate, available on our download page. Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the forum or bug tracker.

If you have followed the news this list is likely already familiar to you, but we did a lot with Exult in the years since 1.2:

• Compatible with the stricter permissions of Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Rewrite of the Graphics system to allow switching to full screen on modern systems
• Better integration into Mac OS X with default location for the supported games
• Smooth scrolling (disabled by default, though)
• Aspect correction is now supported
• More data from the original has been decoded and thus improved gameplay and combat
• In-game Notebook with support for automatic notes (notes created by usecode)
• Integrated Pentagram's audio system which means support for real Roland MT-32 device, Roland MT-32 emulation and FluidSynth
• Removed dependency of the audio system on SDL_Mixer
• New shapes for the paperdolls
• Tons of bugfixes

There have been many changes to Exult Studio and our support for mods as well:

• Multi-map support for new games
• Moved hard-coded information to datafiles
• Increased limits on resource sizes (shapes, frames, etc)
• Greatly improved compiler tools to ease new game development
• Tons of work on our map editor Exult Studio and the ability to develop new games and mods

Worth mentioning is that our team member Marzo has developed two mods, which can be downloaded separately:

• Keyring for BG which adds a large quest to obtain a SI-style keyring, as well as a lot of other enhancements such as meditating in the shrines and viewing the Codex
• SIfixes for SI which corrects many mistakes in the game, for example you can now cure Cantra when you play with this mod

11 November 2008

It's official: the next Exult stable version will be out soon after Duke Nukem Forever. Jokes aside here's what's been done to the development version in the past 15 months:

• Unlimited NPCs (Marzo)
• Smooth Scrolling (Ryan)
• Vast improvements to the Exult toolchain (usecode compiler, ExultStudio, etc) (Marzo)
• Most data is now non-hardcoded but read from datafiles (Marzo)
• A lot of data from the originals has been decoded and combat should work a lot closer to the originals now (Marzo)
• Tons of fixes (Jeff, Marzo, Willem, Ryan, Phillip)

Most of this work has been done by Marzo aka The Unstoppable Hacking Machine !!!

19 June 2007

• Our newest member, Phillip George, has succeeded in porting Exult to the PocketPC.
• Marzo has been actively working on his Keyring mod, in particular, improving Exult and ExultStudio to support further mod development.
• Many bug fixes, such as Marzo's recent implementation of missing weather effects in SerpentIsle. See the ChangeLog for the complete list.
• Support for the "Hq2x" and "Hq3x" screen scalers.

10 April 2006

Over the last several months, we've been working in two main areas:

• Improving our support for game details such as NPC schedules and combat. For this, we have to thank our users who have pointed out so many features that we've missed.
• Support for mods:
  • We now allow more than 1024 shapes, so original art can be added.
  • There is support for multiple maps (so you can make huge worlds).
  • Our map-editor, ExultStudio, and the script compiler, UCC, have had numerous bug fixes and improvements for easier use.
• ...and, we have the two extensive mods, Marzo's "Serpent Isle Fixes" and the "Black Gate Keyring".

23 June 2005

No we are not dead. Development is slow, but moving ahead.

• Support for more than 1024 shapes and 2048 global flags
• In-game journal (press 'n' for notebook
• Support SI intrinsics in BG
• New art contributed by Crysta the Elf and Berty Zhang
• Colourless has integrated Pentagram's audio subsystem in Exult:
  • Real MT32 support
  • MT32 Emulation support
  • Fluidsynth support
  • It is Better(tm)

03 August 2004

03 July 2004

• recent snapshots have the version number 1.4.x (it seems we skipped 1.3)
• combat uses dexterity to determine how fast you can strike
• wand charges are kept track of
• rewrite of the midi & graphics system to make it easier to manage
• multimap support
• enhanced savegames so we can use more than 1024 shapes (this might even break old savegames)
• other changes intended to make developing of new games easier

17 June 2004

2 April 2004

1 March 2004

5 February 2004

29 January 2004

20 October 2003

9 August 2003

1 August 2003

28 July 2003

04 May 2003

• Jeff changed party formation to look more like the one used in the original. He also fixed stealing some more.
• Nadir's and Kirben's port of ExultStudio to GTK+ 2.0 has been merged with the main branch but still needs some work.
• Dominik updated the documentation, FAQ and the Exult Studio documentation.
• As always some other bugfixes as well.
• O'Reilly released an article on Exult at O'Reilly Network.

12 March 2003

• Behaviour of the bookmark in the spellbook has been improved.
• A crash while sleeping has been fixed.
• Jeff has been working on improving Exult Studio, including some bugfixes.
• Some miscellaneous bugfixes

3 March 2003

• DrCode has added a new scaler (Scale2X by Andrea Mazzoleni), implemented exploding weapons, made pathfinding faster and fixed a few bugs
• WJP has updated the build system to the latest tools, and provided a couple of fixes
• Nadir has been porting ExultStudio to GTK+ 2.0

7 November 2002

24 October 2002

• Jeffrey Hoeksma wrote an in depth guide on how to use Exult Studio and Dominus merged it with the existing documentation. Even though it is still not a complete guide it is already quite useful and a good informative read. Thanks Jeffrey!
• We added a letter page that contains some of the praise we received from users and Lord British himself.
• Dr.Code fixed some bugs in Exult (selling baked bread, another trial bug in SI) and Exult Studio.

11 September 2002

• More progress on the Zaurus port (MIDI support, also thanks to Colourless' port of the FMOPL driver)
• Weather shows when gumps are open
• Bug fixes

19 August 2002

• Explosions inside containers should now properly work
• Fixes to sleeping (you should now lie down in the right bed)
• Various combat-related bugfixes (slimes, party-members not attacking)
• Some cosmetic fixes to conversations

28 July 2002

• Fixed a pathfinding bug in Windows and MacOS that caused trouble with finding paths across staircases. (e.g., Training in Monitor)
• Fixed a bug that caused the camera to lose the avatar when going through moongates
• Several other bugfixes

20 July 2002

• Fixed the bug that broke moongates in the Sphere generator (BG)
• Added some more new BG paperdoll art (Thanks sb-x)
• Some fixes to cart-handling
• Serpent Isle has been fully played through with the current 1.0.x snapshots, resulting in a lot of SI bugfixes.

7 July 2002

• Fixed several combat-related bugs
• Finished adding special object names for Serpent Isle
• The --buildmap command line option is working again
• Fixed a crash that could occur whenever you're near Spektran (SI)
• People should no longer sleep next to their beds or sit next to their chairs
• Some fixes to paperdolls in BG, and some new art by Oblivious.
• Lots of other minor (and not-so-minor) bugfixes

10 June 2002

If you checked our download page recently, you may have noticed that we have two sets of development snapshots now: a 1.0.x (stable) snapshot, and a 1.1.x (unstable) snapshot.

The 1.0.x branch will become our 1.0 release soon, hopefully, and we will mainly be fixing any remaining bugs in this branch. We recommend using the 1.0.x snapshots for playing and testing Exult.

The 1.1.x branch is meant mostly as a 'developer playground' at the moment. We are making some very destabilizing changes to this branch, like a rewritten usecode interpreter and new audio code. We do not recommend using the 1.1.x snapshots for normal playing.

6 June 2002

19 May 2002

• Jeff has changed the party formation a bit.
• Stackable items (coins, arrows, lockpicks...) are now auto-combined when put in a backpack or bag of the party. In SI keys are now automatically added to the keyring.
• Colourless fixed a bug that affected some Windows users (only the first savegame was visible).
• Simon Quinn has now recorded the SFX for SI and also changed the SFX for BG. Download his Roland MT32 soundpacks from our download page.
• We now have combos working in Exult Studio (see the documentation for Exult Studio).
• Dominus has updated the FAQ and also the documentation for Exult and Exult Studio

5 May 2002

• Simon Quinn has recorded the SFX for BG with his Roland MT32. If you ever wanted to know how those sfx sounded download it at sqsfxbg.zip
  Simon plans on recording the sfx for SI as well.
• As always lots of work on Exult Studio.
• Dominus has updated the documentation for Exult Studio

10 April 2002

• Lots of work on Exult Studio, including the beginning of font file support, and continuously improving support for creating new games.
• Fixed a problem with monsters which caused savegames to grow far too large
• Dominus has started documentation for Exult Studio
• Take a look at SI-French for a project that's translating all of Serpent Isle into French using Exult

1st April 2002

23 March 2002

• Jeff has continued work on Exult Studio, improving image editing and terrain editing.
• We fixed a few cosmetic bugs with the German version of BG
• Jack Burton has provided us with a BeOS binary of 0.98rc1. (Thanks!) You can find it on the download page

15 March 2002

13 March 2002

2002-03-03

• Jeff has created an 'ipack' program to help with creating and modifying art files.
• You can now adjust the combat difficulty in the exult.cfg file
• Several improvements to how map-editing mode works.
• Bug fixes (including some spells, traps and serpent venom)

2002-02-19

• Gumps can now be moved when in target mode
• Combat takes strength into account a bit more
• Fixes to Exult/ExultStudio to allow for the creation of new games from scratch (i.e. not as patches to existing games)
• The Photoshop plugin has been fixed for PS6
• Bug fixes

2002-02-11

• Colourless has made ExultStudio work under Win95 and WinNT
• DrCode has added frame browsing and palette import/export to ExultStudio
• Common code between Exult and Pentagram has been factored out to increase reusability
• Bug fixes (including the skin colour in the sex scenes problem)

2002-01-31

• Colourless has completed the SI intro and ending with full synchronization of text/sound/speech
• DrCode has added grouping functionality to ExultStudio
• WJP has fixed wud and wuc (usecode disassembler and assembler) so that they are now compatible with each other.
• More Pentagram hacking...

2002-01-21

• Colourless and Kirben have been working a lot to get ExultStudio going under Windows with the help of Mark Siewert who has provided drag & drop support amongs other things.
  
• DrCode has been adding more usability features to ExultStudio
• Nadir has merged Ruediger Hanke's patches for AmigaOS/MorphOS support
• Dominus has updated the FAQ and Documentation. Go and read them now
• Colourless and WJP have been hacking on Pentagram... :)

2002-01-11

• Bugs fixed related to the Hound of Doskar and Dupre rejoining the party in SI
• Rewrote part of the teleporter code, which should prevent teleporters from taking you to the wrong spot
• various other changes and fixes, including more work on Exult Studio.

2002-01-06

• Several fixes related to character attributes. (str, int, combat, etc...)
• Fixed a bug where the Jawbone would be created in the wrong spot, causing Erstam not to realize you picked it up
• Expack is now a bit more verbose, and should be able to handle Unix-style indexfiles in Windows.
• Jeff has done a lot of work on Exult Studio. You can now edit terrain.

2001-12-26

• The Spanish version of Serpent Isle should work now.
• Serpent gates work even if you don't have Silver Seed
• Duelists will attack their dummies and archery targets
• Magic Storm now actually damages enemies
• Various other fixes to schedules, monster spawning, menus, and many more

2001-12-19

• Exult now compiles under Solaris with G++
• Music looping is now configurable via the Audio Options
• A few fixes for correct display of spanish menus have gone in
• Combat has been modified slightly to make it more challenging
• More bug fixes

2001-12-10

• Make sure you read this
• There is an Amiga port of Exult, which hopefully will be integrated in the mainstream code. Get it here
• Patrick's UCXT (usecode decompiler/disassembler) now works and will be included in future "Tools" releases
• Jeff has upgraded UCC (usecode compiler) to work with the new conversation calls, and has released a new "patch" to BG. Grab it from here
• Exult's data files (exult*.flx) have a CRC so that Exult refuses to run with non-matching data files
• We fixed a few crashers and other bugs

2001-11-29

Get it from the download page, see the screenshots, read the documentation and the FAQ.

And there was much rejoicing :)

2001-11-19

• Colourless has implemented proper Ice Dungeon rendering
• Jeff has fixed behaviour of Poison and Sleep fields as discussed in the forum
• If Exult can't find sound effects files, it will show you in the main menu
• More bug fixes in preparation for Beta.

2001-11-12

• Colourless has implemented compressed savegames. By default, savegames are now infact zip files in disguise. This should make submissions to the bug-tracker much easier.
• Dominus has updated the FAQ again with the latest additions.
• Development is slowing down as we are preparing to release the first beta of Exult.
• More bug fixes

2001-11-5

• Both DrCode and Dominus have managed to complete Serpent Isle. This doesn't mean the experience is perfect, but many bugs have been fixed along the way !!!
• Dominus updated the FAQ and Documentation to reflect the latest changes
• WJP added mousewheel support for the slider gumps
• Other bugs fixes

2001-10-25

• We have lost all messages in the forum, because of a bug. WJP took the opportunity to upgrade to the latest stable version of the forum software. We'll try and keep regular backups in the future. Sorry for the inconvenience :(
• As promised on the forum, Colourless added support for multiracial Avatar in BG (SI is required)
• Also, from a suggestion from the forum, Nadir added an option to show a tinted background behind text in conversations to make it easier to read
• We have some new paperdoll artwork from Oblivious
• Fawn Trial should work again
• Other bugs fixes

2001-10-18

• Some monsters can now split
• Gumps are now a bit more modal
• Some more effects are now implemented (e.g. swordstrike)
• Telekinesis and Fetch work

2001-10-12

• Gameplay Options dialog togther with fast mouse and middle-button support have been added by Christian Ohm. Thanks !
• Slimes should behave a bit better now
• Powderkegs are much more explosive !
• Lots of combat fixes
• Support for SI freezing attributes

2001-10-06

• Dead party members are now properly handled
• Some bug fixes related to books and signs
• Many more SI bugs fixed (endgame, trappers, Batlin scene, etc...)

2001-09-27

• Better animation timing
• Serpentine signs, books and scrolls have been implemented
• Hopefully it's now impossible to lose objects when dropping them onto walls
• All the flags for the actors are now saved
• Bug fixes in SI's plot

2001-09-18

• lots of animations bugs fixed
• Several List Field bugs (SI) fixed. Training should work a lot better now
• Some bugs related to dueling have been fixed

2001-09-12

• Fixed several bugs related to weight/volume checking
• Improvements to pathfinding code
• Fixed bugs related to teleporters
• Monsters that shouldn't leave bodies now don't (ghosts, slime, etc..)

2001-09-04

• Avatar and NPCs now restore hitpoints and mana hourly
• Several crash bugs fixed
• Various other minor bugs bugs fixed

2001-08-25

2001-08-23

• Max has implemented MIDI for the MacOS (classic and X) versions of Exult!
• Attacking non-living items like chests and doors should now work properly
• We have a new renderer, that should reduce the amount of glitches.
• Literally dozens of plot-related bugs have been fixed, including: Moonshade Trial bugs, the Gargoyle's tests in Furnace, SI crystal balls, you can now resurrect Gwenno properly, the Banes-cutscene now works, and many more.

2001-08-07

• We have several new screenshots, including two of ExultStudio!
• Our old FAQ has been split into two sections: Documentation and the new FAQ
• The 'fleeing party members' bug has been fixed!
• The BG intro has been improved further
• Barges (boats, carts etc..) are working much better now
• Max has done a lot of work on the MacOS (classic and X) versions
• Many other bugfixes, including the SI Test of Purity, some world-wrapping issues, 'dance' schedule, Guardian and Earth Serpent speech.

2001-07-31

• Ryan has implemented new status bars. These show the health of your party members. You can also use them to quickly access their inventory and status screens. Activate them by pressing 'r'
• There is now a 'return to menu' option in the Black Gate and Serpent Isle menus. (The one in the game itself doesn't work yet)
• Lots of SI bug fixes including Erstram's turtle, a few Shamino's Castle crashes

2001-07-25

• For a preview of what Exult Studio can do, take a look at the "BG-Data" section on our SF download page. (This is still very experimental, and will only work with a very recent snapshot)
• The quest items from the Silver Seed should work now! (Belt of Strength, Gauntless of Quickness, etc...)
• Lots of bugfixes, including some bugs in the Fawn trial, the Silver Seed exit bug and the Silver Seed iron maiden
• Serpent Isle is now playable up to Shamino's castle!

2001-07-17

• We have a new Discussion Forum to replace the defunct Jackchaos message board
• Hack-mover has been reenabled (use Alt-H)
• Ryan has fixed the Frigidazzi sex scene in SI. Let's all Exult :)
• Palette cycling fixes
• Kirben, our snapshot builder, has switched to a new, much faster, hosting service
• Maciej Kalisiak has made the bilinear scaler 2x as fast

2001-07-12

• Ryan has fixed dungeon rendering in SI!
• The in-game Video Options menu has been implemented
• The Guardian speech is now synchronized in the BG intro!
• several more SI bugfixes (Lucilla, Moonshade-kidnap, ...)
• the FAQ has been updated with a few known issues

2001-07-06

• The FAQ has been updated for the new Alpha 4 release.
• We have been doing some optimizations: the renderer and the point/interlaced scalers are now a lot faster!
• Exult now compiles in MSVC6. See the 'msvcstuff' directory for the required workspace (.dsw) file

2001-06-29

Alpha 4 has been released! Highlights include:

• The SI-specific Jawbone and Combat Stats are in
• The keyring from the Silver Seed now works
• The MIDI SFX have been replaced by digital SFX
• The new savegame interface, with unlimited savegames!
• Many, many bugfixes and other improvements

The Linux (both i386 and Alpha) and Windows version are already available (along with the source, naturally). You can get them from our Download page. Be sure to read the FAQ and the README!

2001-06-19

• The SI Serpent Jawbone has been implemented!
• Fixed a bug which prevented you from using the spellbook you received from Fedabiblio. (SI)
• Cheat screen update: you can now modify global (plot) flags and NPC stats!
• The map-teleport cheat now uses maps of the actual game world, providing a lot more accuracy.
• Tons of other bug fixes, including: Erstam's machine (SI) now works, you won't go into combat mode automatically anymore, some spells fixed

2001-06-11

• We've implemented the Serpent Isle 'Combat Stats' window.
• The mouse cursor shape is now only a hand when it's over a window. It will stay an arrow otherwise.
• Some bugs related to combat fixed. (eg. SI List Field)
• Maps in SI are working now.

2001-06-01

• Bugs fixed this week include (but are not limited to :-): containers aren't closed when casting a spell (makes mark/recall work properly), small audio configuration problem, several SI problems (Fawn trial now works!)
• Two more spells have been implemented: Time Stop and Death Vortex.
• Jeff has continued work on the interaction between Exult and Exult Studio

2001-05-23

• The 'protect' combat mode is now supported
• Jeff fixed a crash during resurrection
• The MIDI SFX have been disabled because they didn't sound well. Read the FAQ for instructions on how to install the digital SFX packs. (Which sound a lot better :-) )
• Fixed several minor and less minor bugs.

2001-05-16

• Jeff fixed the bug causing the Guardian to sound like a chipmunk on some systems.
• You can now also take screenshot with ctrl-alt-s while menus (such as the new savegame interface) are open
• Marc Winterrowd wrote some documentation for expack. Thanks!

Ultima VII still belongs to the best role-playing games. It's because of the many interaction possibilities and its epic story. However, as a DOS program with a very exotic memory manager and missing speed adustment, the game doesn't run on modern PCs. Fans are now working on a new game engine for Windows. In the current Alpha 3 version the first part, The Black Gate, already runs better than in the original because many bugs were removed. Warren Spector's Ultima VII - Part 2: Serpent Isle still causes the programmers problems, though.

2001-05-10

• lots and lots of bugs fixes, including resurrection, object names, caltrops, fields and several Forge of Virtue and Silver Seed bugs
• Jeff is working on the interaction between Exult Studio and Exult (Linux only for now). For instance, entering map-editor mode will now automatically launch Exult Studio if possible.
• Fixed a cross-platform bug in the new savegame info. Old savegames on some platforms will show wrong information. (The game itself isn't damaged)
• Pressing 1-8 will now open the inventory of your party members. (Thanks to Telemachos)

2001-05-01

• We have started adding support for world-wrapping. It should even work occasionally :-)
• Our custom art is now viewable from the shape browser.
• A few scaling (screenshots, fullscreen, resizing) bugs have been fixed.
• Spell scrolls in SI have been implemented!
• The spell book is now mostly working in SI!
• Several Silver Seed related fixes
• And the big one this week: Exult now has a new savegame interface! Features include:
  • Unlimited savegames!
  • A small screenshot of the location you saved!
  • Save statistics (RealLife(tm) time saved, in-game time saved, ...)
  • Statistics of the avatar and a list of party members
  We also have a screenshot available.

2001-04-18

• More bugs in SI have been fixed. For instance, you can now use the Amulet to enter the Silver Seed.
• Schedules for the blacksmiths and bakers have been added.
• Exult now also compiles and runs on Solaris machines.

2001-04-15

Binaries for OpenBSD, FreeBSD and MacOS have been released over the last few days. Have fun!

2001-04-12

We have released Alpha 3! Some of the highlights are:

• Serpent Isle playability has greatly increased!
• You can now choose from multiple scalers
• We have lots of great Black Gate paperdoll art! (Thanks Adam and Philip)
• Support for digital (.wav) SFX
• Tons of bug fixes and other improvements

Go on over to the download page to download it. The source code and Linux, Windows and BeOS binaries are currently available. Other versions will arrive in the next couple of days.

Enjoy! (Be sure to read the FAQ if you run into any problems)

2001-04-03

• Serpent Isle support continues to improve, with work on combat, schedules, usecode and more.
• Updates to the rendering code should reduce the amount of visual glitches.

2001-03-27

• Jeff and Ryan have greatly improved SI support! (Crystal-ball scene is beginning to work, knight's test has been improved, and much more)
• Some crashes have been fixed. (Tailors, toggling wizard mode with spellbook open, ...)
• Added even more art by Adam and Philip! (All the party members now have their own unique paperdoll)

2001-03-19

• I've added some more excellent art by Adam and Philip! (There's still more to come...)
• You can now use .wav files for the SFX! You can download a set of SFX (by Joseph Morris) from the Exult download page on Sourceforge (jmsfx.zip). Unzip this file to get jmsfx.flx. Then, you need to add the following entry to your exult.cfg, in the config/disk/game/blackgate/ section:

  <waves>
  /path/to/jmsfx.flx
  </waves>

  (replace /path/to/jmsfx.flx with the path to jmsfx.flx, for example ~/exult/jmsfx.flx or c:\exult\jmsfx.flx)

2001-03-13

• Lots of audio bugs have been squashed, including a crash-at-exit in windows, and a timidity-freeze in Linux.
• Jeff is implementing support for digital SFX (as .wav's). "Real soon now" :-)
• Adam Delman and Philip Gottschalk are working on BG paperdoll art! Some of Adam's work is already in Exult. I'll include the rest as soon as possible. Thanks!

2001-03-05

A small update on what you can expect the next couple of weeks:

• We might do another release soon, that'll fix most of the annoying bugs introduced in alpha2. (mostly the combat-related ones). We do want to hunt down the Windows crash-on-exit first...
• We're looking into using .wavs as SFX, to get rid of those 'interesting' sounds you get when opening/closing doors.

2001-02-28

• There's a new scaler: SuperEagle, also by Derek Liauw Kie Fa.
• The bug that caused swords to be thrown is fixed.
• Jeff has implemented the schedule that causes NPCs to turn lights on/off and open/close shutters

2001-02-19

• The bug causing monsters to replicate endlessly ("army of darkness" bug) has been fixed.
• Ryan has implemented a cheat screen similar to the one from the original. This includes an NPC schedule editor!
• You can now select which scaler you want to use. (the default 2xSaI scaler, a point scaler or an interlaced point scaler)
• Due to changes to the caching system, teleporting can currently cause crashes. We hope to resolve this soon.

2001-02-12

• The whole site now passes the W3C validation test! Added W3C logos to every page.
• The FAQ is now automatically generated from XML. This allows for far simpler maintanance. Check it out, the look/content have changed slightly, too.

2001-02-09

Alpha 2 has been released! This stunning new release offers tons of cool new stuff, including:

• Serpent Isle is now partially playable!
• Paperdolls in Black Gate!
• Dynamic keybindings (this also fixes the 'z' vs. 'y' bug on german keyboards)
• Gamma correction
• Support for the French version of BG (Frederic Wagner)
• Alpha/Linux cxx support (Christoph Reichenbach)
• Improved BG intro (plasma screen, animations, etc)
• Screen Shots
• Reworked audio subsystem
• Massive code restructuring and cleanup
• Tons of other fixes and improvements

2001-02-08

• The Exult FAQ from Dominus Dragon is now the official exult FAQ! Added it to the site
• Updated About Us page

2001-02-04

• Support for customizable keybindings has been added!
• Missile weapons (triple crossbow, blowgun, sling, dragon's breath) are now working properly.
• Spells of mass destruction like Mass Death and Armageddon have been implemented.

2001-02-01

• We might do a second alpha release soon! (Maybe within a week)
• Serpent Isle support continues to improve.
• Tristan is working on 'Exult studio', which is currently an improved shape browser, but which will contain more editing tools in the future.

2001-01-26

• The screenshot page has been updated with new shots which show the latest developments (SI and paperdolls)
• The GIMP plugin which allows loading/saving of U7 .shp files is available in CVS for the artists among you.

2001-01-21

• Not being satisfied with just having paperdolls in SI, Ryan has added paperdolling support to the Black Gate! We do, however, need art for the BG items/character not present in SI. If you're interested, please contact us.
• Double-right-clicking has been implemented. (pathfind to selected spot.)
• The Serpent Isle map now matches the world more closely.
• As usual, code has been cleaned up, and various bugs have been fixed.

2001-01-16

• Jeff's Usecode Compiler is working, and you can already use it to supply your own usecode functions!
• Serpent Isle support is being greatly improved.
• The annoying "crash on exit" bug has (probably) been fixed.
• Exult now contains code to generate a full-scale >400Mb map :-)

2001-01-07

• Ryan has added paperdolling support to Serpent Isle!
• Pressing 'escape' in a conversation now selects 'bye', if possible.
• Frame skipping has been added to palette fades and cinematics, to make them run smoother.
• Frederic Wagner submitted a patch to stop the french U7 from crashing in conversations.

2001-01-01

Happy New Year!

• Jeff has started working on a Usecode compiler.
• You can now take screenshots with Ctrl-Alt-S.
• The intro is being updated, to make it look more like the original.
• Various other bugs have been fixed, for example: you can now break glass, sundials are displayed correctly.

2000-12-24

• Jeff's map-editor is coming along.
• Many bugs fixed. Next release still in the pipeline.
• We've slowed down because of Christmas. Some of us are working, some of us are studying, one or two of us may actually be required to do seasonal things with our families. Joyous non-denominational festive season. Don't expect much for the next couple weeks.

2000-12-10

• Tristan and Dancer have performed some more major overhauling of the audio system, fixing a lot of issues with Timidity, threads, subprocesses and tempfiles.
• The ongoing code-restructure is doing quite well, with only the occasional glitch.
• Jeff has been working on a rudimentary GTK-based map-editor.
• Everyone's fixed a lot of minor bugs many of which existed more in potentia. We're sure you folks would have been submitting more bug reports, if you were having trouble. Course you would.

2000-12-05

We've made our first BeOS binary available! Get it here.

2000-12-03

Thanks for all the feedback. We're gearing up for an alpha2 release in a week or so. Here's some of the highlights:

• New keyboard shortcuts.
• Major code restructure, making it easier to hack on.
• Some memory management changes
• Huge audio system overhaul (with some breakage that we'll sort out before alpha2. Promise!)
• Changes to weapon animations (not quite fixing the fact that they aren't drawn correctly)
• configure.in has been completely cleaned up
• Better mouse.
• Get the Guardian's voice right under a wide variety of circumstances. No more Guardian The Death Muppet (we hope).
• New usecode support.

2000-11-21

Version 0.90alpha1, our first Alpha, is available! Featuring a new Exult menu at startup, mouse support in the menus, more cheats, key ring for BG, midi sound effects, ports to BeOS and MacOS, and as always tons of fixes

2000-08-24

After a long wait, version 0.40 is available, with the full introduction supported, improved music, and many more plot features working.

2000-07-10

Version 0.35, with the first attempt at combat, better scrolling, and support for magic, is now available.

2000-06-02

Version 0.30 is out with support for save/restore, many plot and animation improvements, and improved Windows Midi.

2000-05-09

Version 0.26 is out! This has many bug fixes and plot improvements, plus the first Midi support under Windows.

2000-04-25

We've just released 0.25, which includes the first Windows binary since converting to the SDL library. We've also continued with lots of new development, so expect another release soon.

2000-03-23

Version 0.20 is out, and includes a whole lot of work by Dancer Vesperman, who has implemented speech, midi, and all the configuration.  In addition, this version includes object animation (look at the fountains), the first support for inventories, and now shows the mouse pointers and fonts from the actual U7.

2000-03-1

Version 0.12 is now available. The XLib and Win32 code has been replaced with a multiplatform library called SDL. Plus, obstacle detection and climbing are implemented. This means that you now have to open a door before you can walk through it.:-) Unfortunately, the ability to climb stairs also exposes more glitches in my rendering algorithm.:-(

2000-02-21

Version 0.11 released, with many improvements to the "usecode" interpreter.  I'm now going to work on getting the Windows port up to date.

2000-02-10

Version 0.10 released, with a "usecode" interpreter for driving the game plot and conversations.

2000-02-08

Moved Exult to SourceForge.

After letting the project lie fallow for several months, I'm back, currently incorporating an interpreter for "usecode", which drives the games plot.