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[UO Herald] Ultima Forever Website

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Stretching across dozens of games and three decades’ time, millions of people from all over the world have set out on great adventures in the world of Ultima. They have braved perilous dungeons, faced off against fearsome enemies, conquered lands and saved worlds.

Today we have launched a website dedicated to that heritage – ultimaforever.com! Over the coming months, ultimaforever.com will be expanding, looking back at over 30 years. For a start, we are pleased to officially offer the full, original PC version of Ultima IV for download.

Check it out.



More...
 

Crysta

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I hope that when they get to 8 they release The Lost Vale with it.

And wait.. why aren't the Worlds of Ultima game boxes on that page? Savage Empire and Martian Dreams are wonderful games.

Also, hope everyone has fun with The Stygian Abyss when it comes up. :)
 
T

Tazar

Guest
I hope that when they get to 8 they release The Lost Vale with it.

And wait.. why aren't the Worlds of Ultima game boxes on that page? Savage Empire and Martian Dreams are wonderful games.

Also, hope everyone has fun with The Stygian Abyss when it comes up. :)
Underworld I and II are being released through the GOG.com today along with 20+ other EA titles over the next few weeks so we may see the Worlds of Ultima group there.

I never saw "The Lost Vale" though... From a google search, it looks like it would have been a good expansion.
 
W

Woodsman

Guest
Worlds of Ultima is not mentioned on the Ultima Forever site and speculation on Ultima sites is that the license isn't available or is wrapped up with partners, otherwise they probably would have been at least mentioned on the UF site. It could also be that will be made available, but weren't included on the UF website because they don't really fit into proper Ultima canon.
 

curlybeard

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Worlds of Ultima
Use your google-fu. It's available for DOSBox. Not sure about the legalities, as of now most of the Ultima series is considered abandonware. This website may be an indication that EA is starting to exercise OSI's copyrights.
 
W

Woodsman

Guest
Use your google-fu. It's available for DOSBox. Not sure about the legalities, as of now most of the Ultima series is considered abandonware. This website may be an indication that EA is starting to exercise OSI's copyrights.
I own boxed copies of all of the Ultimas except for I, including UW and the Worlds games, so not concerned about finding them. Will buy them again as they become available on GOG though.

I was just commenting about why they were ignored by EA. I think they were probably full Origin titles and not farmed out, so EA is probably ignoring them because they don't quite fit into the Ultima storylines.

I think EA is starting to exercise the copyrights in some cases. They are leaving people alone who were doing remakes using other games or had been given official permission to host the Ultima IV files, so somebody with some common sense is not trying to rock the boat too hard with the Ultima community.
 

Crysta

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Use your google-fu. It's available for DOSBox. Not sure about the legalities, as of now most of the Ultima series is considered abandonware. This website may be an indication that EA is starting to exercise OSI's copyrights.
None of them have, at any point, been considered "abandonware", aside possibly from "Escape from Mt. Drash". Ultima Collection was still available in stores as short a time ago as 5 years. If you've heard otherwise anywhere, they are quite simply lying.
 

Don't Tread on Me

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Supporter
This ultima forever thing made me go open up my Ultima4 and 5 games for a second. it's been a bit since I've played them. WOW!!!! They make the classic client look like sci-fi! Seriously. U4 got me hooked back in the day, but I'm not sure how much I can play it anymore...
 

sablestorm

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
With this site being released and with UO artwork also being released, is there any chance we could get some high quality images of the old Ultima Cover Art? I always loved the artwork!
 

Nimuaq

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Great website design there and they also give the free trial page at the "Ultima Online: 14 Years and Going Strong" section which looks really cool: Mythic Entertainment | Ultima Online - Play the 14-Day Free Trial!.

However, the classic client version linked on that trial page is 7.0.7.1, so the poor new player have to download 923 MBs of client, and after that, 25 separate patches which all together is about 860 MBs. Even the client download page has more recent version of the classic client which only needs 643 MBs of separate patch download. We're talking about new player experience at its finest there!

Also, why, oh why, do they have a link for uoherald.com? That site does more harm than good with links like Live Events, Newsletter and Game Fiction. This statement stays on most of the playguide pages for more than six months:
We have just recently completed a major overhaul to the Herald's back end content management system. Due to this we're busily working to re-populate all of the content within the play guides, until that time we apologize for this brief interruption and check back soon - thank you!​
These issues are listed on these threads before:

http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/242521-new-players-client-downloads.html
http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/242583-updating-official-website.html

Is there anybody out there reading these posts? We're constantly giving valuable feedback, care to actually act on some of these? We are literally aged here!
 

curlybeard

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
None of them have, at any point, been considered "abandonware", aside possibly from "Escape from Mt. Drash". Ultima Collection was still available in stores as short a time ago as 5 years. If you've heard otherwise anywhere, they are quite simply lying.
A copyright on software, under US Law, lasts for at least 70 years. However, software is generally considered abandoned until the legal copyright holder exerts their copyright. Since much of the Ultima series has been available for download for about a decade on the same website, and the legal copyright holder hasn't issued a takedown notice, I think the games should be considered 'abandonware'.

The games that are offered for download are the original DOS releases. The Ultima Collection you refer to had some additional content and graphic updates. Post the Ultima Collection for download and I bet you'll get a letter from EA, as they hold the copyright for the new content and updated software.
 

Kas Althume

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I wish they would redo ultima7 so that i don't need any dos box. I loved that game, inclusing serpent isle.
 

In Flames

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I read the site 3 days ago -_-
Sure took a long time for them to announce it here.
 
C

ChReuter

Guest
If they re-release the one that came out sometime just before UO:R, I wonder if they will release it playable this time around.
 
C

Capn Kranky

Guest
The Ultima Dragon Edition as purchased some years back through EA had Akalabeth, U1 through U9 but not some of the expansions, goodies, maps and other stuff in the box. I know, because I have it and play it periodically.

Then again I have a lot of the old Sierra Online titles and Infocom stuff too. <shrug> Damned packrat.
 

Gilmour

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
i wonder if our initiative was an inspiration for this website, one can only wonder :)

PS: Its in sig.
 
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