Uwadv: Into the Underworld... with a Butterfinger

phlask on 22/8/2002 at 21:19

The fifth source and binary package for Underworld Adventures (codename: "butterfinger") was released today. It features a complete character creation, a finished Linux build system, an installer and configuration program for Windows users, some bug fixes and many changes under-the-hood.

For those of you unfamiliar with Underworld Adventures: It is an Open-Source project to recreate Ultima Underworld 1 on modern operating systems like Win32, Linux, etc., using the original game files but with a new engine and game-system.

Check it out at: (http://uwadv.sourceforge.net)

Have fun!

Phlask,
The Underworld Adventures Team

twisty on 23/8/2002 at 05:31

Great stuff! Keep up the good work.

Lanael on 23/8/2002 at 12:36

Great Idea to make a remake !

But what about "using the original game files but with a new engine and game-system." It seems they don't do new textures, animations and sounds... :(

Maybe video-games will soon be ready to have the equivalent re-make that ones in the movie industry ?
I mean : a remake should keep the same story but with new special effects ( ie : textures, sounds, animations ).

Le Magot d'Oz on 30/8/2002 at 20:41

Return to Castle Wolfenstein was basically a remake of Wolfenstein 3D... which was itself a remake of a game released 10 years before on Apple II : Castle Wolfenstein (if I'm not wrong) !

And I think that others UW's remakes use new stuff (TazMan's remake for instance)

Shadowcat on 31/8/2002 at 08:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Lanael
I mean : a remake should keep the same story but with new special effects ( ie : textures, sounds, animations ).

I'm sure if you want to throw a heap of money at the project, new textures, sounds, and animations could be arranged :) There's only so much you can achieve on a budget of zero, and I think getting the game working is a better one to aim for than having some textures...

Having said that, perhaps the game engine could be (or is already?) designed to make it easy to enhance these aspects once the game is up and running with the existing media...?

phlask on 31/8/2002 at 15:34

New and improved graphics are not out of the question by definition for this project, but the main goal at this stage is to get a fully working remake. For this reason we have concentrated all our efforts on the gameplay itself and decided to use the original graphics (for now at least). There are already plenty of UW remakes that were/are in fact nothing more than a improved rendition of the original game levels but lack most (or even all) of the original gameplay.

In my (and most other team members) opinion it is foremost the gameplay that makes UW a great game, not the graphics and it is therefore paramount to get the gameplay right. As pointed out correctly the engine does not rule out improved graphics by any means. In fact... we are currently considering on replacing all critters in the game with 3D models. For this we will need some 3D designers however. Anyone who is interested on helping us out with this can mail vividos (vividos@users.sourceforge.net) or me (phlask@users.sourceforge.net). You can also find us on IRC, channel #uwadv on OPN.

Clark on 7/10/2002 at 19:24

Thank you very much for your efforts!

I agree with that the gameplay is most important, I would be happy just to be able to play the original ones with sound and music (which I currently can't 'cause of ME).

The tech demo looks great, and I personally wouldn't demand more graphics improvements, even though the creatures did appear a little blocky in the original, but full 3D models aren't required from my part.

I'm really looking forward to the final release!

/Clark

Russell on 25/10/2002 at 17:08

Quote:

Originally posted by phlask
In my (and most other team members) opinion it is foremost the gameplay that makes UW a great game,

Absolutely, 100% agree. All the previous Ultimas had great plot, story, NPC AI, etc. Keeping these elements intact is far more important than making the bricks look a bit more real.

Russell

TheOutrider on 3/11/2002 at 10:48

(http://tsshp.sourceforge.net/) The System Shock Hack Project is a project which aims at creating a new engine for System Shock and the Underworld games. It's still in a pretty early stage of development, though, and hasn't exactly shown much activity in the past few months. :erg:
Good to hear there's other people who try to do the same thing.

As for the "complete remake" thing, there might be the problem that Origin are rather keen on their Ultima trademarks. If somebody tried to redo the game - even if they don't use any textures, sounds etc copyrighted by Origin - they might get trouble with Origin. If they only reverse engineer the original data files and create a new engine that uses these, nobody can really complain about anything.