Exult
Encyclopedia
Exult is a free software
reimplementation of the Ultima VII
game engine
. It enables play of Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle, and their corresponding expansion disks Forge of Virtue and Silver Seed, on modern machines. In order to play these games, data files from the original games are needed. Exult itself is distributed under GNU General Public License
.
Exult is included in many free *nix distributions, such as Debian
and FreeBSD
.
, but later, as the reverse engineering efforts became more fruitful in finding explanation on the Ultima VII scripting files, the project expanded to become a complete reimplementation of the Ultima VII runtime engine.
Before the project came to fruition, there was a demand for a new implementation of Ultima VII. Original Ultima VII executables started to show their age: they were rather difficult to get working on the systems of even their own era due to their memory management configuration, and in new versions of Windows, the MS-DOS
support in general is getting less and less viable. According to an anecdote by Serpent Isle project leader Bill Armintrout, Origin Systems
has lost the source code to both "Serpent Isle" and its add-on "The Silver Seed", and Electronic Arts is not planning on any kinds of rewrites for modern systems. The game, however, still has many fans who would like to play the game on their current systems.
library, which has led to Exult being ported for Mac OS
, Microsoft Windows
, Sharp Zaurus
, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and other operating systems aside from the original "free *NIX" platforms (such as FreeBSD
and GNU/Linux
). Formerly, Exult was also supported on BeOS
and AmigaOS
. Unofficial ports exist for GP2X
, Dingoo
, Xbox
, Symbian OS and the PSP
.
Exult also includes a comprehensive cheat system, similar to the original Ultima VII.
Exult team members have contributed a large number of custom artwork for the game, primarily to make it possible to use all of the items in Black Gate in a consistent way with the Serpent Isle paper doll graphics.
The upcoming release may also include gameplay fixes to the game usecode itself; effort is underway to fix some of the most troublesome originally unimplemented things in Serpent Isle.
The editor is built as a separate program that can interface with a running instance of Exult. Changing data files is done in Exult Studio window, while the game world - everything from terrain to objects, creatures and their schedules - can be changed directly through game view.
Also included are compiler
, assembler and disassembler
(the latter is not built by default) for the "usecode" script file. This file drives the actual game logic. There are also tools that can be used to 'rip' data sections from the file; this is particularly of interest for people who wish to change the name and dialogue sections of the game.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
reimplementation of the Ultima VII
Ultima VII
Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh installment of the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It was released in 1992.The Black Gate was critically and commercially successful, being widely lauded as a high point in the series and as one of the best isometric RPGs ever created...
game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. It enables play of Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle, and their corresponding expansion disks Forge of Virtue and Silver Seed, on modern machines. In order to play these games, data files from the original games are needed. Exult itself is distributed under GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Exult is included in many free *nix distributions, such as Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
.
History
Exult originally started as Ultima VII map viewer for the X Window SystemX Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
, but later, as the reverse engineering efforts became more fruitful in finding explanation on the Ultima VII scripting files, the project expanded to become a complete reimplementation of the Ultima VII runtime engine.
Before the project came to fruition, there was a demand for a new implementation of Ultima VII. Original Ultima VII executables started to show their age: they were rather difficult to get working on the systems of even their own era due to their memory management configuration, and in new versions of Windows, the MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
support in general is getting less and less viable. According to an anecdote by Serpent Isle project leader Bill Armintrout, Origin Systems
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
has lost the source code to both "Serpent Isle" and its add-on "The Silver Seed", and Electronic Arts is not planning on any kinds of rewrites for modern systems. The game, however, still has many fans who would like to play the game on their current systems.
Operating system support
Exult has, over time, grown to be almost exact reimplementation of Ultima VII engine, with some notable improvements. The system has been written in C++ with 32-bit architectures in mind. The current graphics code uses the SDLSimple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
library, which has led to Exult being ported for Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Sharp Zaurus
Sharp Zaurus
The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of Personal Digital Assistant made by Sharp Corporation. The Zaurus was the most popular PDA during the 1990s in Japan and was based on a proprietary operating system. The first Sharp PDA to use the Linux operating system was the SL-5000D, running the...
, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and other operating systems aside from the original "free *NIX" platforms (such as FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and GNU/Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
). Formerly, Exult was also supported on BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
and AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
. Unofficial ports exist for GP2X
GP2X
The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only....
, Dingoo
Dingoo
The Dingoo A320 is a gaming handheld that supports music and video playback and open game development. The system features an on-board radio and recording program. It is available in two colors—white and black—with a third color, pink, announced for future release. It was released in February 2009...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, Symbian OS and the PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
.
Enhancements over original games
Aside of portability and ability to run on modern operating systems, there are also number of enhancements over original games, such as- Start screen with game selector - only one executable is needed to play both games. The upcoming version also has the ability to add customised games to the menus, and also add modsMod (computer gaming)Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
as suboptions to each game. Mod savegame and game state data are managed separately from the data of the unmodded game. - unlimited number of savegame slots,
- many usability fixes, including numerous new key shortcuts,
- ability to use Serpent Isle portraits and character paper dollPaper doll (video games)In computer and console role-playing games, a paper doll is a way of representing a character's inventory and currently used equipment.In games that use a paper doll inventory management, the different player characters are usually shown posing the same way...
s in Black Gate, - optional statusbar that displays party member health,
- In-game notebook,
- Support for increased display resolutions (not necessarily recommended, as it may lead to unexpected problems in game), with high-quality display scalers (2xSaI family and others),
- ability to use digital samples instead of MIDI sounds, and digital music in Ogg Vorbis format instead of MIDI music (Hardware MIDI is supported in Win32; upcoming version also supports ALSAALSA (Linux)Advanced Linux Sound Architecture is a software framework providing an API for device drivers for sound cards. As such, it is a Linux kernel component. Some of the goals of the ALSA project at its inception were automatic configuration of sound-card hardware, and graceful handling of multiple...
), and support for MIDI software synthesisSoftware synthesizerA software synthesizer, also known as a softsynth is a computer program or plug-in for digital audio generation. Computer software which can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed are allowing softsynths to accomplish the same tasks that previously required dedicated...
(through TiMidityTiMidityTiMidity++, originally and still frequently informally called TiMidity, is a software synthesizer that can play MIDI files without a hardware synthesizer...
; The current version now also supports OPL3 emulation and FluidSynthFluidSynthFluidSynth, formerly known as iiwusynth, is a free open source software synthesizer which converts MIDI note data into an audio signal using SoundFont technology without need for a SoundFont-compatible soundcard. FluidSynth can act as a virtual MIDI device, capable of receiving MIDI data from any...
).
Exult also includes a comprehensive cheat system, similar to the original Ultima VII.
Exult team members have contributed a large number of custom artwork for the game, primarily to make it possible to use all of the items in Black Gate in a consistent way with the Serpent Isle paper doll graphics.
The upcoming release may also include gameplay fixes to the game usecode itself; effort is underway to fix some of the most troublesome originally unimplemented things in Serpent Isle.
Exult Studio
Exult also optionally includes Exult Studio, which is slowly growing into a very complete and complex tool for modifying the game - even while the game is running. Also included are many command-line tools for manipulating game files.The editor is built as a separate program that can interface with a running instance of Exult. Changing data files is done in Exult Studio window, while the game world - everything from terrain to objects, creatures and their schedules - can be changed directly through game view.
Also included are compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
, assembler and disassembler
Disassembler
A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly language...
(the latter is not built by default) for the "usecode" script file. This file drives the actual game logic. There are also tools that can be used to 'rip' data sections from the file; this is particularly of interest for people who wish to change the name and dialogue sections of the game.
External links
- Exult home page
- Exult Studio guides - help with the Studio and the Usecode C language
- Exult Amiga port
- Exult Nokia 770 / 800 port
- Exult PSP port