Ultima - What is it?

Simply put, Ultima is a series Computer Role-Playing Games, or CRPG.  Based in medieval fantasy, not too unlike the works of Tolkien, but more closely related to Dungeons&Dragons.

Eighteen year-old Richard Garriott (a.k.a Lord British) wrote Ultima in 1980, while living at home with his parents in Houston, Texas.  It was this very simple, tile-based graphics adventure that paved the way of his future, and the future for many Ultima fanatics. After his success with Ultima 1, Garriott went on to produce the largest Computer Role-Playing series ever made, Ultima 1-9.

Those who have never been involved in the Ultima series seem to have a hard time picking up what all the hype is about.  Well, let me tell you what it's about.  It's about anticipating the sequel to come out.  Seeing a mail-order catalog having it advertised, and ordering it only to find out it's not released yet.  Knowing your buddy who has an IBM PC gets the game first before your Commodore 64 version is released.  It's about coming home from school to find a UPS package with your name on it, opening it up and.....smelling the fresh packaging.  Then just staring at the colorfully glossy picture on the front of the package...Okay, I may be getting carried away. I won't even mention getting grounded from the computer when I would stay up until 1:30am on a school night playing an Ultima.  But the point is, Ultima is exciting.

After the final chapter was released, it left many Ultima fans, such as myself dissapointed.  Many Ultima fans will argue that Ultima 9:Ascension had many flaws, and left the series with a rushed conclusion.  For me it was just dissapointing to see the series end.  But there are some Ultima fans that simply won't give up.

Ultima 5:Warriors of Destiny

Ultima V:Warriors of Destiny was released in 1987, first on the Apple II computer, then later released in 1988 for Commodore 64 and IBM PC.  Being an Atari 8-bit computer user, I was rather dissapointed that there was no release for that platform, but later realized the technical impossibility of it.  Ultima 5 brought a number of "firsts" to computer role-playing games.  You were able to carry out complex conversations with NPCs, and they would follow a daily routine -- going to work in the day, and going to sleep at night.  In fact the game was so diverse (for the time) that most versions did not include the music. When the game was released, without a doubt it was the best computer RPG ever made.

Original Ultima 5, Commodore 64

As a sequel Ultima 5 sort of expanded Ultima 4 a step further.  In Ultima 4:Quest of the Avatar, a sort of "hero's" religion was created.  The Eight Virtues:  Compassion, Sacrifice, Valor, Justice, Humility, Honor, Spirituality, Honesty.  In this quest you, The Avatar, would try to better yourself and the land by following these standards.  In Ultima 5, Lord Blackthorn (the bad guy) opposes these standards and creates his own laws of virtue, while Lord British is away on a crusade...no wait--maybe that was Robin Hood.  Anyway, Lord British is lost in the underworld while the tyrant Lord Blackthorn runs things, with Shadowlords terrorizing people.  Okay, that was brief, but you get the picture.  The story is great, and if you've played the game you realize how in-depth it can be.

The Ultima classics will forever be treasured by fans of the series.  As today's technologies continue to develop and having seen the visuals of today's computer graphic cards, playing an old game like Ultima 5 leaves a lot to be desired.  Unfortunately Origin Systems Incorporated, makers of the Ultima series, have made no indication that they will enhance the classics.  Although we have seen a couple of collector's edition packages come out.  Origin has announced they will work on online only games, such as the successor to Ultima Online, Origin Worlds Online, Since these changes, and since Lord British has left OSI, it is highly unlikely that they will ever reproduce the classic Ultima series.

Though Ultima may seem lost, PCShooter recently received word that a few enhancements to other Ultimas that are currently available, such as patches for enhancing the music and graphics. (More information on these updates can be found at http://www.fansforultima.com/.) The Ultima 5 remake caught my eye immediately, as it is my personal favorite from the series.  The project is titled Lazarus.  The resurrection of Ultima 5 is in the hands of….Who else?  The fans.

The Shadowlords by Tiberius Moongazer (remake)

Ultima 5:Lazarus will be completely redone from the ground up.  The game will be using the up-and-coming Dungeon Siege engine for the core program, but the team will be creating their own graphics, CD-quality orchestral music and expanded dialogue.

Lazarus Interview

I was able to catch up with the project leader, Tiberius Moongazer, to ask him a few questions about Ultima V Lazarus.

Gush: Can you tell us who you are and what role you play with the Lazarus project?

Tiberius: Well, my name is Ian Frazier (known as Tiberius Moongazer in the Ultima community).  I'm a Computer Graphics/Animation major at Purdue University, and I'm the project leader of Lazarus.  My role on the team is keep everything moving, make sure all areas of development from music to modeling look and "feel" cohesive, and to make most of the end-level design decisions for things like what new features to add and how to improve the story though side quests and dialogue.  I also do some 3D modeling and dialogue writing for the project.

Gush: What made you decide to remake the RPG classic Ultima 5?

Tiberius: Well, after I finished playing Ultima IX, I knew that the series was officially over.  Ultima is my all-time favorite series of games, so I decided to form a team and remake one of the older ones--to help keep the series alive.

Gush: Why did you decide to remake Ultima 5?  Rather than U1, U2..etc.?

Tiberius: Well, there are three basic reasons:   First, U5 is old enough that its technology is completely obsolete. Ultima VI-IX are still "playable" with today's computers, but V and those that came before it are very outdated. Second, no one has ever created any patches or upgrades for it. Ultimas I, II, III, and IV have all at least been patched, if not completely remade. Finally, I feel that Ultima V has the greatest potential for expansion of all the early Ultima games--its story is rich, its characters are interesting, and its environments are begging to be seen in modern graphics. We now have the technology to bring to life this gaming classic, and that's what we're going to do!  :)

Gush: Can you briefly tell us about your crew?  Are they all volunteers such as yourself?  Where did they come from? 

Tiberius: There are 21 members (including myself) on Team Lazarus.  They're an incredibly talented group of guys from all walks of life and located in every part of the globe--I'm very proud to be working with them.  All are volunteers like myself, doing this project for the good of the Ultima community and for their own personal enjoyment.  I'm sure that some will come and go between now and launch, but for right now the team is stable and running very well--I'm not planning on "hiring" any new team members in the immediate future. 

Gush: What enhanced features can we expect to see in Ultima 5:Lazarus?  What will make it better than the original U5?

Tiberius: First of all, the obvious things: graphics and sound.  We're going to have awesome-looking 3D graphics courtesy of the Dungeon Siege engine, and our music is all CD-quality audio.  All of the original U5 music pieces will be in Lazarus (re-mastered with a mix of high-quality Roland synths and SoundFonts), plus we will have a ton of entirely new pieces that should make the game much more fun overall.

Gush: What kind of graphics will we see?  Will it be top-down,  3D, or some kind of angled isometric view?

Tiberius: The graphics will be 3rd person 3D, and you can see in the Dungeon Siege screenshots over at http://www.dungeonsiege.org . We've not yet decided if we'll use a fixed "isometric" camera or a free-floating camera yet, though.  My guess is that we'll end up making it fairly customizable.

Gush: Will the game use the original U5 RPG rules? (stats, combat, etc.)  If not, why?

Tiberius: All stats for monsters, NPCs, weapons, and stats will be translated directly from the original game.  We may need to tweak a few things when we start beta-testing to get a good balance of gameplay, but the bulk of the stats will remain unchanged.

Gush: How much of the original game will be converted into the remake?  Will there be anything left out like...ahem...sitting in chairs?

Tiberius: If we can pull it off (and I think we can), ALL of the original Ultima V features will be present in Lazarus--from sitting in chairs to having frigates move at different speed depending on which direction the wind is going.  :)

Gush: The original U5, most versions didn't have the music, and the PC sound effects came from the PC speaker.  What type of music and sound effects can we expect to hear in the remake? 

Tiberius: All music will be CD quality audio, probably in .mp3 format.  All music pieces from the original game will be present in Lazarus (re-mastered with a combination of Roland synths and SBLive SoundFonts--you can hear some examples over on our page), and there will be several entirely new pieces.  For instance, a musical theme for The Oppression is currently in the works by one of the project composers.

As for sound, most of our generic sound effects will be the pre-made ones that DS will ship with (arrows whishing by, swords clanging, etc..).  Sounds that are unique to Ultima will probably be created by one of our musicians (he has experience with such things).  If necessary, I'll "hire" on someone to do sound effects.

Gush: Will there be any user-customizable features, such as character portraits?

Tiberius: Yes.  The player will be able to completely customize what his/her character looks like, since all armor/clothes/weapons that he/she puts on his character will be shown in-game.  The player will also be able to choose his/her character's portrait from 6 possibilities (3 male, 3 female).  If possible, we'll also include an option for players to import their own picture for their character portraits.

Gush: Can you briefly tell us about the Lazarus team?

Tiberius: There are 21 members (including myself) on Team Lazarus.  They're an incredibly talented group of guys from all walks of life and located in every part of the globe--I'm very proud to be working with them.  All are volunteers like myself, doing this project for the good of the Ultima community and for their own personal enjoyment.  I'm sure that some will come and go between now and launch, but for right now the team is stable and running very well--I'm not planning on "hiring" any new team members in the immediate future. 

Gush: What will the conversations be like?  Will we be typing keywords such as "NAME", "JOB", etc.?

Tiberius: Conversations will use the tried-and-true Ultima system of keywords (name, job, etc..) much like the original.  However, you will not type in the keywords, you'll simply click them onscreen.

Gush: Will there be any voice acting in the game?

Tiberius: No.  For one thing, it would make our download size skyrocket.  For another, do you really want to hear two dozen different characters with variations of my voice?  ;-D

Gush: Will you be still be able to ride horses as in the original?

Tiberius: That's the plan!  :)

Gush: Will there be any movie-like cutscenes?

Tiberius: Just about everything will use the engine, but there will be a series of still images for the intro and the endgame.

Empath Abbey by Tiberius Moongazer (remake)

Gush: How large will the world, Britannia, be compared to the original? 

Tiberius: Britannia will be the same relative size it was in the original.  However, since our world will be one one scale (unlike in the original, where the game "zoomed in" for towns and dungeons), there will be a pretty big distance between the major towns.  This will make alternative modes of transportation (horses, ships, moongates, and two other things I'm not willing to name in this interview) much more useful to the player. 

Gush: Will Dungeon Siege's multiplayer co-op feature be supported?  Can I have my buddy join me in the battle against Blackthorn and the Shadowlords?

Tiberius: No, unless something drastic happens in the near future, we won't be have multiplayer support.  It would simply take too much time for us to redesign and rescript all the game functions to work with multiple players, not to mention game balance issues.

Gush: Will there be any NPC characters, besides the usual companions that can join with the Avatar?

Tiberius: There were 14 NPCs who could join your party in the original.  Those 14 are definitely still in.  We've not designed any new potential party members yet, but the possibility is still open.  :)

Gush: Will there be any new creatures?

Tiberius: Maybe one or two.

Gush: Will there be any new weapons/armor/items that were not in the original game?

Tiberius: Definitely yes.  There will be at least two new "easter egg" weapons which a player can acquire if he/she is willing to explore.  :)

Gush: Could you please add some closing comments and any additional thoughts/information that you may have?

Tiberius: Just this:  As long as the fans live, so will Ultima.  :)

I’d like to thank Tiberius Moongazer for taking the time to answer these questions.  After visiting the Lazarus homepage, all my doubts about the success of this project have been eliminated.  The remake will live up to everything that these devoted Ultima fans promise. The most amazing thing to me is, that all these people are fans, donating countless hours of their free time, for what?  For the good of the Ultima community.  We need more people like them in the world.

The game has targeted Fall of 2002 to be the release.  Some of the information here is subject to change. 

For additional information regarding Ultima 5:Lazarus, visit the homepage at http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~frazieri/.  There are some pre-rendered screen shots, and also a trailer movie available.

Fare Thee Well,

Parfla Gush

Note: We were a bit skeptical about posting an interview an private remake of an old 80's era game (Even one I played, and loved growing up) until I saw the trailer. For those of you who are too lazy to actually visit the project page I added a direct link below to their trailer. The trailer will hopefully get you excited to visit the project page and support this project. The trailer shows the contrast in graphics and design from the original game to what the finished project will look like. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I was. 

Thanks, Blood.

Ultima V Lazurus Flash Trailer