General News - ScummVM adds support for Ultima IV, VI and VIII

[Silver]

ScummVM has added support for Ultima IV, VI and VIII.

Sep 27, 2020: ScummVM "Interactive Fantasy" 2.2.0 Sees the Light

Posted by sev
A new release of ScummVM is ready. This is a thrilling one because we are embracing adventure games as far back as 1976! That's right, the infamous Colossal Cave Adventure, the very first Interactive Fiction game, is now supported by ScummVM.

Besides that (and about 1594 other IF games), we now added 3 more game engines and extended another 4, thus adding the following games to the supported list:

• Blazing Dragons
• Eye of the Beholder - Sega CD version
• Griffon Legend
• Interactive Fiction games
• Operation Stealth
• Police Quest: SWAT
• Prince and the Coward, English translation
• Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar
• Ultima VI - The False Prophet
• Ultima VIII - Pagan

As you can see, we continue our exploration into the world of RPGs.

Other notable changes are: a fully rewritten MorphOS port; a new subsystem for automatic saves present in nearly every engine we support; Right-To-Left display support in our GUI; updated MT-32 emulation code and Discord Rich Presence.

We now support additional different game versions, and have noticeable improvements to Illusions, Kyra, Lab, Queen, Titanic, Xeen and ZVision engines. There is also improved support for Maniac Mansion, NES and Apple //gs versions. As usual, we continue fixing original SCI script bugs in over 30 games and added Roland D-110 soundtrack support to these games.

Of course, you can find the comprehensive Release Notes here.

Grab your copy from our downloads page, or, on Windows or macOS, let the automatic updater fetch it for you.

In addition, we will be releasing a new Android port into the Beta Channel and will need your help with testing. That would be great for us to get your feedback at the Android Port subforum.

Time to dive into a nice Interactive Fiction or fry some monsters in Ultima with a Blazing Fire, if you're a dragon of course.

More information.

 

[JDR13]

So apparently it can only support sequels that are even number?

 

[shamroxor]

Glad to see The Sega CDs version of Eye of the Beholder getting some love, Soundtrack was made specially for that version by Yuzo 'Streets of Rage' Koshiro!

 

[mercy]

Nice work! That led me a quick search for turn-based Ultimas. Turns out VI is turn based. Hmm.. Checking it out.

 

[epithumia]

It looks like they incorporated other projects: xu4, Nuvie and Pentagram for the 4th, 6th and 8th games, so at least work on those projects didn't go to waste.

Which is fine; I'm sure if there was code they could use for the other games then they would have. There's also some code for Ultima 1 in there, but it's not enabled in release builds. I guess Exult is kind of large to be pulled in wholesale, since it's a bit bigger than just an engine for Ultima 7.

 

[duerer]

It looks like they incorporated other projects: xu4, Nuvie and Pentagram for the 4th, 6th and 8th games, so at least work on those projects didn't go to waste.

Yup. Also worth noting that e.g. Xu4 supports midi music and vga-tilesets, so U4 looks slightly better as its original PC version you might remember.
Nuvie has a few quality-of-life enhancement tricks that makes U6 slightly less frustrating to play: bigger game screen, better inventory management, etc.
Pentagram features better Avatar control and a handy minimap, so U8 can be finally played proper.

All in all, if you have not played these great games (YES, U8 included - it is a great game on its own right, shut up), and you don't mind the old-school feeling -- then this is a great opportunity to soak in some ground breaking gaming history.

 

[Sin2x]

So apparently it can only support sequels that are even number?

There is no need to support Ultima VII since we have Exult.

 

[JDR13]

There is no need to support Ultima VII since we have Exult.

True, but Exult still isn't quite finished even after all these years.

 

[DR490N]

True, but Exult still isn't quite finished even after all these years.

Well, I made a full replay (including the Silver Seed extension) a few years back, it was really great, and I don't remember missing anything (except a turn-based combat mode ), nor having any crashes or bugs.

 

[JDR13]

Well, I made a full replay (including the Silver Seed extension) a few years back, it was really great, and I don't remember missing anything (except a turn-based combat mode ), nor having any crashes or bugs.

Iirc, there are a few sound FX missing in Exult, and some of the NPCs schedules are slightly different. The party formation is also a little different than the original.