Month: June 2011

Good Old Games Makes Origin, Ultima Titles Available

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Good Old Games has now signed with Electronic Arts to make classic EA titles available, including Origin and Ultima titles. Given the Ultima Forever website launching today, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll get the rest of the Ultima games later this summer through GOG.

So far we have:
Wing Command Privateer – $5.99
Ultima Underworld 1+2 – $5.99
* Dungeon Keeper is also available for $5.99.

Wing Commander: Privateer comes with a manual and a reference card. It’s 78 MB in size.

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 comes with the manuals, maps, reference card, cluebook, “Memoirs of Cabirus” and “Safe Passage Through Britannia”. It’s 26 MB.

Both Wing Commander: Privateer and Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 come with a “wrapper” that allows you to easily play them under Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit). These games are not new versions of the original games, they are in fact the original DOS games packaged with emulation software to easily run under Windows.

Some notes
* Another Origin title, Crusader: No Remorse, will be available before the end of June.
* Before the end of June there will be more games, with 20 or more later in the summer.
* System Shock and Syndicate series are not a part of this due to licensing reasons/rights.
* It took around a year to get EA on board.

This, along with the Ultima Forever website/campaign, bodes well for UO.

You can read the announcement here at GOG.com.

Ultima Forever Website is Online, Features Ultima Online

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The Ultima Forever website has been officially launched by EA, after a false start earlier this week. The official Ultima Forever twitter launched a few months ago but wasn’t picked up on until recently.

Ultima Aiera has more details, but I want to point out that in the middle of the Ultima Forever website, which offers a free download of Ultima IV, you can find this:

It’s nice seeing that “Ultima Online: 14 Years and Going Strong!” section.

There is a lot more to come, obviously. I would like to mention that the “false start” earlier this week didn’t feature Ultima Online prominently. In fact, the section in the middle of the page that mentioned Ultima Online wasn’t there, just a small link at the top of the page. Adding in the mention of UO so prominently is very interesting.

Talents of Sosaria Art Contest is Live

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The Talent of Sosaria art contest is live and available on the Talents of Sosaria gallery at the official Ultima Online Facebook page.

There are three entries listed so far, with more on the way, but I have to confess that “Assault on Castle British” – by Queenie of Drachenfels, which you can see below, is my favorite so far. Click the link above for a higher resolution of “Assault on Castle British” as well as the other entries.

I like this contest/event a lot, as there needs to be a lot more interaction between the community and the developers and EA BioWare.

Origin gets Publish 70.4, Theme Packs

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Yesterday, Origin received Publish 70.4, which includes the new Mini Booster Packs / Theme Packs:

Today Publish 70.4 comes to the Origin shard along with the Enhance Client Patch 4.0.14.4 and the Classic Client Patch 7.0.14.3. The shard will be unavailable until approximately 7pm EDT.

In the meantime we wanted to share the notes for your reading pleasure, thanks!

Publish 70.0.4
Rustic Theme Pack
Board and Batten wall tiles
Raised Garden Bed
Distillery
Topiaries
Rustic Bench
Commodity and Pet Broker Encampments

Gothic Theme Pack
Gothic wall tiles
Advanced Training Dummy
Chest of Sending
Ritual Table
Gargoyle Statues
Commodity and Pet Broker Encampments

Note: Codes can be purchased at http://www.uogamecodes.com but will not be valid for any shard except for Origin until June 7th.

Bug Fixes
* Players are no longer able to steal from EM’s in Felucca
* Felucca players now have access to the stairs of the building in the hedge maze
* Corroded boxes will now properly highlight and show tooltips when locked down in your house and you customize it
* Ingots will no longer disappear when the player’s backpack is overweight when smelting
* Hell hounds can no longer be turned into Ancient Hellhounds
* Increased the chance to receive copper wire from thieving and a random chance to get it from Pirate Ships
* Pets owned by Faction members will now obey verbal commands given by the pet’s name

Enhanced Client 4.0.14.4
* The Use English Item Names option will now only apply to item properties names
* One line generic gump text boxes will no longer wrap to the next line
* Updated art for the Arcane Circle and the Freshly Picked Rose
* Cliloc updates

Classic Client 7.0.14.3
* Cliloc Updates
* Updated art for the Arcane Circle and the Freshly Picked Rose

UOJournal Note: http://www.UOGameCodes.com does not yet, as of June 2, 2011 1pm Central, have the proper codes/purchasing options up for the new Theme Packs.

From here on out, hopefully we’ll see less theme packs/booster packs and more work on the artwork updates and Enhanced Client.