Homepage changed to plain HTML

As our website host is abandoning PHP in the near future, we have migrated the site to plain HTML. This means that some dynamic features are no longer available. Mostly this affects the creation date given for the snapshots on our downloads page. We will try to reimplement this soon in some fashion, but in the meantime you can monitor the snapshots at GitHub.
You can still download the snapshots from our download page.
However, we couldn't save the old, read-only forum as it is pure PHP. It's converted to html and archived if there is ever a need to look something up.

Exult version 1.12 for macOS fixed

The macOS Intel build had problems on lower versions of macOS and has thus been updated to version 1.12.0-1 and is using FluidLite instead of Fluidsynth. Nothing else changed.

Exult releases version 1.12

A new release and much sooner than anticipated. After this release we are going to swiftly switch to SDL3, which Dragon Baroque as intensively prepared. So the right thing to do is to release a new version with the stable SDL2 backend.

And there are many fixes and improvements over the last version:

• Fixed crash in SI training.
• Running against doors properly opens and closes them.
• Scrolls in SI are now properly displayed.
• Schedules eat-at-inn and desk work were broken.
• Antimagic rain caused by the cube generator is now dissipating fast enough.
• Fixed using too close objects.
• Polymorphed NPCs will revert back to their original bodies when they died.
• List field fights in SI are now properly handled.
• Mini status icons in face stats.
• Emergency savegame and crashlog creation on Windows.
• New higher resolution icons for Exult and Exult Studio.
• Better graphics for the uncut SI intro.
• Several MIDI music fixes.
• Advanced Audio Settings for the MIDI drivers that individually allows choosing which soundfont to use, MIDI conversion, chorus and reverb.
• You can now use FluidLite instead of FluidSynth when compiling Exult.
• Bilinear scaler fixes and refactor.
• With bigger game resolutions the party speed changes sooner.
• The Android port now allows to download games and mods you want to install.
• The GIMP 3.0 plug-in for SHP files.
• Aseprite plug-in for SHP files.

You can find the Windows, macOS and Amndroid releases on our download page.
Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the Github discussion page or bug tracker.

Exult releases version 1.10.1

This is a bugfix release. Accidentally we've introduced crashes in our Windows version by not allowing older CPUs. Also the Android launcher wouldn't install our mods.

Our short list of fixes:

• Fixed crash on Windows by increasing compatibility with old CPUs
• Fixed Android launcher not installing mods
• Fixed new releases being unable to download and install our mods on Windows
• Added new icons for our main platforms (thanks Florian Piesche)

You can find the Windows, macOS and Amndroid releases on our download page.
Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the Github discussion page or bug tracker.

Exult releases version 1.10

We seem to be now in a roughly two year rhythm of releases, so here we go:
A much needed update of Exult and Exult Studio.
Much needed as we fixed a crash when entering combat pretty soon after the 1.8 release and of course people encounter this again and again.

But we fixed much more since the 1.8 release:

• The Android port is now fully working
• The Windows installer now offers to install several mods
• New Volume Mixer to set individual volumes for music, sfx and speech
• Cheat Screen overhauled so the options can now be activated by clicking or touching
• Much improved combat:
  • Default attack mode “nearest” and attack mode “random” will try to select an enemy that is not already targeted by a party member
  • Faking defend by selecting weakest enemy when low health, nearest otherwise
  • more blood
• Better detecting of clicks on gumps over the shortcutbar to prevent accidental triggering of a shortcut
• mt32emu driver resampling fix
• Endgames now wait for ingame speech to finish
• Background sound effect music tracks are less annoying and disabled for FMOpl music driver
• Music looping improved
• Exult Studio allows zooming of the shapes view
• Fixed a crash when swapping weapons in combat
• Fixed random crash on sleeping past midnight in Britain
• Attacking locked doors did not work
• Immobile NPCs were able to move (e.g. Reapers)
• Enemies poison now

You can find the Android, Windows and macOS releases on our download page.
Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the Github discussion page or bug tracker.

Ultima VI remake mod

Last year the Ultima VI Remake project finally released their mod that remade Ultima VI with the Exult engine and Ultima VII graphics. That's quite a feat, so check it out. The mod is available on our download page and our Exult installer for Windows offers to install it.

Ultima VII turns 30 - Exult releases version 1.8

30 years ago Origin released Ultima VII - The Black Gate and many still hold this game in a very high regard. We certainly do!
Instead of waiting another decade this is the perfect opportunity to release our next version. Because of the measures we took to eliminate weird crashes it was important to make a new release available.
By default we will now play the extended intro of Serpent Isle, that we restored from an old recording of it. It was cut and slimmed down for the release of Ultima VII's Part 2 to conserve precious floppy disk space. A shout out to Denis Loubet for creating this masterpiece.
Two important things were always missing from Exult in regards to the Black Gate:
The sound effects in the intro and the congratulations screen! Both are now present!
Currently we are in the process of merging Ken Cecka's fork of Exult for Android (*). While this is not yet finished, Ken created a 1.8 version based on our release code.
You can find the Android, Windows and macOS releases on our download page (**).
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 v1.6:

• Windows builds are by default 64bit
• Exult Studio modernized by porting it to GTK+ 3 (thanks Dragon Baroque)
• Exult Studio now offered as a download for macOS
• Exult shows the proper ending screen for BG (you have beaten Ultima VII in nn days...)
• Sound effects in the BG intro were missing
• Extended intro for SI implemented
• More crashes eliminated caused by cached out objects
• "Gumps pause game" no longer delays usecode events
• Smooth virtual joystick movement on iOS
• iOS shows the mouse cursor when a real mouse device is used
• Screenshots will now be saved in the PNG format
• Status bars can now also be vertical on both sides of the screen
• Updated Windows installer to download and install the audio packs and our mods
• Our options have been reordered

But we do have known issues:

• Antimagic rain caused by the cube generator is still not dissipating as fast as it should
• Exult does not return to the game menu after beating the game (instead it quits)
• Some schedules need more detailed love
• Several bugs that need more in-depth looking at but no plot-stopping bugs

(*) Follow Ken's fork at his github page.

(**) All files have been scanned and cleared with Virus Total's online scanner, however Avast falsely flags our InnoSetup based installer for Windows.

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.
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

Source code versioning moved to Git on GitHub.

We are now working on our code via Git on GitHub
Everything else, website, forum, mailinglist, bug tracker, etc. remains hosted on Sourceforge.net.

Fan Project of the Year 2014 - Ultima Codex

Exult has been voted Project of the Year 2014 by the readers of the Ultima Codex in a close race with Nuvie.
Our prize was a hand signed certificate by our Liege Lord British to each member of the development team.

Exult on an iPhone/iPad
Chaoji Li (aka Litchie) forked Exult on Github to work on the initial porting effort by Lanica Dragon (which had stopped in 2013).
Read more about it in our Documentation.

As for a new version of Exult, again lot of bugs have been fixed, the game eggs bug referred to below among them but other bugs have of course appeared.