RG interview on Gameinformer

[TDI]

Gameinformer reports that Richard Gariott, creator of the Ultima series, intends to build on the Exult engine to "clean up the unfinished mess" that was Ultima VII part two: Serpent Isle.
In the detailed interview Richard Gariott is quoted as saying:

"You know, we truly had great team at Origin Systems, back in the day. Some of the most talented and inspired people I ever had the pleasure to work with. And I think Ultima VII is a testimony to that. Unfortunately there was alot of pressure from above to round this up as quickly as possible so alot of things that we had planned for Serpent Isle had to be excluded from the final product."

Richard Gariott goes on to say:

"There's this guys, a talented group of developers that have been building a really amazing piece of software that can run Ultima VII on modern operating systems, I believe it's called 'X-Ult' or 'X-Ultima' something like that. Anyway, I've contacted some of the original Ultima VII developers and I think we may build on that system (since it's open source) to redeem ourselves for the blunder that was Serpent Isle and to bring it back in it's intended glory."

...

"Yes, EA certainly still owns the rights to the Ultima trademark. But I've talked to some people at the top and I've been able to convince them to give me a temporary license for this project. I think they see the benefits of breathing some life in the Ultima brand."

...

"Really, Serpent Isle has been on my conscience for years and most of the former guys share my opinion that we can do this... It's finally time to clean up this mess. (laughs)
Also I've had a few tech-people looking over what X-Ult has to offer, and there are some advanced features in place we can definitively take advantage of. Who knows, if this goes down well, we might even take another shot at U8."

[Nicodemus]

Disgusting exploitation of April 1st. You should be ashamed of yourself

[torgus dragon]

So not cool.

[TDI]

Gosh. Everyone's so serious lately.

That makes me sad.

[torgus dragon]

I honestly believed you till I saw the next post. I was getting all excited! I always wanted to see what moonglow would have been like with 2 levels. Or even 3...

[TDI]

Yeah, Nicodemus totally spoiled the fun.

[Nicodemus]

Yeah, I'm a spoiler...sorry bud. It was a very good attempt though if it is any consolation.

[TDI]

Btw. there's a real interview with RG on Gamasutra where he talks about Ultima, future projects and game design.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4 ... ourney.php

Unfortunately he doesn't mention anything about recreating Serpent Isle and U8.

[Kensu]

I would've tried something like "Exult ported to GlaDOS".