Ultima VII Part I - Exult v1.6 Released

To celebrate Ultima VIIs 28th anniversary the latest version of Exult (1.6) has been released.

17 April 2020

Exult 1.6 has been released to celebrate Ultima VII's 28th birthday!

Almost ten years after the version 1.4.9rc1, 16 years after the last stable version (v1.2) and 28 years after the official release of Ultima VII - The Black Gate (16 April 1992), we are finally ready to release a new version. With many developers busy with their real life and most having moved on, it took us this long. We have been busy squashing more of the inexplicable crashes but these changes will force us to stop supporting some ancient operating systems.
That's why we decided to release one last version of Exult, Exult Studio and Exult's tools for the old OS' before moving on with development. For really old Windows operating systems (95/98/ME/NT/2000) we prepared a legacy download.
So please grab the new version available on our download page.
The source tarball and the Debian package will be uploaded at a later date.
Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the forum or bug tracker.

A brief list of the most important changes in Exult since v1.4.9rc1:

• Shortcut bar with important shortcuts right on top of the screen (thanks Litchie)
• Switch to SDL2 - important for up to date OS'
• NxBR and HQ3x/HQ4x scalers
• Option to drop stacks of items without confirmation
• Some more combat options to make charmed combat more difficult
• Schedules got a work-over and are more closer to the original but not yet perfect
• NPCs using beds are sleeping better now
• Paperdoll support of wearing diapers
• Portable option for Windows
• Separate settings for fullscreen and windowed mode possible
• HighDPI mode available on macOS
• Better pathfinding when the party boards a barge
• Fixed most inexplicable crashes
• Serpent Isle Beta version works
• Cleaned up the code in many places and fixed many compiler warnings
• Tons of bugfixes

But we do have known issues:

• Some crashes due to some cached-out objects, we are working on this in another branch which will be the main snapshot after this release
• Antimagic rain caused by the cube generator is not dissipating as fast as it should
• Exult does not show the "you have beaten Ultima VII in n days" message
• Exult does not return to the game menu after beating the game (instead it quits)
• The BG intro does not have the proper sound effects
• Fire Elementals cannot walk across lava
• Some schedules need more detailed love
• Several bugs that need more in-depth looking at but no plot-stopping bugs
• When you disable "Gumps pause game", certain events might only happen after you close all gumps

More information.

Very cool. I wasn't aware Exult was still being worked on.

Does ithis mod work with both parts of Ultima VII? If it doesn't, which part does it work with?

I've never done a full playthrough, but afaik, Exult supports both parts plus expansions.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
Does ithis mod work with both parts of Ultima VII? If it doesn't, which part does it work with?

It works with both parts (U7 and U7 Part 2: Serpent Isle).

I tried this many years ago and it was great, even though back then it didn't support NPC schedules. Nice to see they've made a heap of progress on that front.

NxBR and HQ3x/HQ4x scalers

Even more scalers ? That's cool. I finished it again a few years back and it's still a really beautiful world.
The only thing missing : a turn-based combat mod !

Amazing to see this still under development.
U7 has a special place in my heart.
I remember starting playing it when I was a kid and couldn't speak a word of english… I wasn't able to pass the copy protection questions at the end of the first town…

I had an original copy of the game but I just couldn't tell what I was asked to do… I wasn't even aware the game had that kind of copy protection, all I knew was that I couldn't exit the city for some reason, so I spent days, if not weeks, exploring every single inch of the town in search of a way to evade.

At some point, I started doing weird things like staking wooden crates in top of each other… found out I could build a ladder that way and get on the roofs…didn't take long for me to run to the strange house, where the guardian speaks, and see if there was something special on the roof… well those who played the game well enough know what was hiding behind the chimney… all the others… well you should go play the game… all I will say is that, among the other things, it allowed me to skip the copy protection and explore the amazing U7 world.

For years I thought that that was the only way to exit the city, later, after learning english, found out the game had a fancy copy protection method that involved using the printed game manual to answer certain in game questions.

Needless to say venturing behind that chimney was one of the best moments I had with a videogame.

Originally Posted by Francesco
Amazing to see this still under development.
U7 has a special place in my heart.
I remember starting playing it when I was a kid and couldn't speak a word of english… I wasn't able to pass the copy protection questions at the end of the first town…

I had an original copy of the game but I just couldn't tell what I was asked to do… I wasn't even aware the game had that kind of copy protection, all I knew was that I couldn't exit the city for some reason, so I spent days, if not weeks, exploring every single inch of the town in search of a way to evade.

At some point, I started doing weird things like staking wooden crates in top of each other… found out I could build a ladder that way and get on the roofs…didn't take long for me to run to the strange house, where the guardian speaks, and see if there was something special on the roof… well those who played the game well enough know what was hiding behind the chimney… all the others… well you should go play the game… all I will say is that, among the other things, it allowed me to skip the copy protection and explore the amazing U7 world.

For years I thought that that was the only way to exit the city, later, after learning english, found out the game had a fancy copy protection method that involved using the printed game manual to answer certain in game questions.

Needless to say venturing behind that chimney was one of the best moments I had with a videogame.

Heh, that's a pretty fun story! Thanks for sharing!

I've never played the game, but own it on GOG since a long time ago. One of many classic games in my back log

One of the greatest game I ever played and also one of the most frustrating (bugs, bugs everywhere at launch). Makes me smile when I read people complaining about nowadays launches and how it was so good before.
Anyway, that is an awesome news

This is very cool, but:

"Paperdoll support of wearing diapers"

uhhhh what?

Originally Posted by Nephologist
This is very cool, but:

"Paperdoll support of wearing diapers"

uhhhh what?

Yeah, I read that as well. Seems weird, but funny. It is a joke, right?

This is the game that killed Richard Garriot…I look at this as his last good game.

Originally Posted by rune_74
This is the game that killed Richard Garriot…I look at this as his last good game.

What do you mean killed him? Are you referring to the fact that U7 didn't earn as much as they hoped?

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
What do you mean killed him? Are you referring to the fact that U7 didn't earn as much as they hoped?

No, I mean the guy who made that game never came close to anything like it after….matyter of fact in late years you could say he was just awful.