Exult on iPhone App Store

[John The Consultant]

Hi guys,

thank you for making it possible to play this classic on current operating systems.

now, is there any chance that it will be possible get Exult up and running on iPhone and iPod Touch?

I know that the community does not have the resources to port Exult to every platform out there, but since Apple's mobiles are running a modified version of OS X, it should be possible to compile it for the hacked OS at least...

even better would be an official app on the app store sometime in the future... (I would certainly be willing pay up to $9,99 for that and I guess I'm not alone)

keep up the good work
John

[Dominus]

We let you figure out the controls
And we can't sell Exult for the same reasons we don't accept donations for it.

[John The Consultant]

well, movement could be done through the motion sensor (by tilting the iPhone/iPod Touch in the direction where you want to go), selection/manipulation through the touchscreen...

there does not have to be Exult on the app store rightaway. I just wonder if it would be possible to compile it for the platform in general (for jailbreaked iPhones/iPod Touch) and there is the possibility to offer apps for free on the App Store, it does not have to be sold.

John

[Dominus]

well, movement could be done through the motion sensor (by tilting the iPhone/iPod Touch in the direction where you want to go), selection/manipulation through the touchscreen...

well, we'd need someone to code that.
Just compiling it for the iphone platform won't do...

[Frank]

and still the iPhone is strickly regulated. As the exult team doesn't own the IP they would never get it past Jobs' desk.

How ever an XNA port would be possable and really cool, U7 on the XBOX360 or the Zune, though I don't know how to control a game on the Zune.

[moore]

Well ,what about android? you dont have to charge for their appstore, I'm not even sure you have to use it, and it's linux based. G1 is an ihpone with a keyboard and linux...

[frank]

what about the openmoko phone? That would be an easier then the Iphone it has the same input possibilities as the iphone.

[razorblade79]

I 2nd the request for a 360 port =D

[Colourless]

Porting Exult to XNA wont mean it'll work on an Xbox 360. Exult is written in C++ and getting Exult to compile with MSVC in C++/CLI Pure mode and using an XNA backend should be reasonably trivial, as far as reasonably trivial ports go. It'd work on windows.. which would be pointless

However C++/CLI Pure mode only works in Windows. If you want to use the C++ compiler to make code for Xbox 360 you need to use C++/CLI Safe mode, which would not be compatible at all with Exult.

Its not the end of the world though. The Mono project has details on how to get C++/CLI Pure to work under mono which doesn't contain the C++/CLI Pure libraries, and I'm guessing that following the same instructions, and some assembly header modification may get a C++/CLI Pure assembly to work on the XBox 360 too.

A GCC version that compiles to CLI also may work, but I have no ideas about how that works.

[Mike Mayday]

Hey hey hey guys.
There is no need to release Exult on the App Store. There are, after all, unofficial installers for jailbroken iPhones available (like Cydia).

So the only problem is compiling it on iPhone's freeBSD (I think this is what it uses?) and coding the controls (we could ask around in the iPhone community for that, there are lots of dedicated and talented coders releasing their apps for free).

[Crumpy]

If it is ported for the iPhone, it would be a super hot item in the App Store, and it' would have to be free. I disagree with the idea of using the 'tilt' to move though, that would be a super pain during play. Just use 2-finger-hold to represent the click-hold right-mouse-button (for movement), a single finger tap to select/interact with items. Single finger tap-drag to drag items. Single finger double-tap to represent double-click (for movement) etc.. It's all very intuitive.

[drcode]

You would need EA to make it possible to have U7 on the IPhone, either using the original source or Exult. And there's probably too little profit in it for them to take notice.

[Mike Mayday]

What?! Why?
If you have u7 on your PC, you can just copy it to the iPhone.
What's the problem here?

[Dominus]

you can't. AFAICT from the Apple Store policy every app that needs data that needs to be copied onto the iphone will not be allowed. So far there is no official way provided by apple to access the filesystem of the device.
I *know* that it is easily accessible but it's not official.
So you'd need to bundle Exult with the gamedata and that is not something we can do. Only EA could do that.

[Mike Mayday]

Grrrah, screw the AppStore. Cydia and iPhonebrowser or ssh and we're good to go.
We're talking about an opensource application, dammnit!

No, seriously, I think we should all go on a hunt for someone capable of adding touchscreen support. I have already started.

[Dominus]

If it is coded for Cydia it can't be the Exult team. We probably just can't get involved with this for legal reasons.

[Mike Mayday]

See, the thing is, you don't code specifically for Cydia. You just code it like you normally would. It's on the internets, anyone can just post a link to it in a Cydia repo.

You CAN get involved because you wouldn't even be breaking any apple rule of agreement. That's not to say I'm stronly encouraging you to do it, I probably wouldn't even play it (after all it's much better on the PC), I'm just saying it's nothing impossible.

[Alan Kane]

I don't see how this is any different than scummvm (which has been on cydia/installer for a long time) seriously screw apple and their greedy app store

[Wizardry Dragon]

The team can't get involved for legal reasons, I think they rather like not being in jail or having their shirt sued off their back, so yeah.

That's really the end all and be all of it.

Yes, someone could make a version for cracked iPhones, but because of those same legal issues, Exult as a project team could not support it.

The reason for this is simple - even if you did not distribute Ultima VII with it, or Serpent Isle, the file formats that Exult uses to store data are the intellectual property of EA. So until EA either releases rights to those formats, or makes them "open" under something like the GPL, it's not going to happen.

And I don't expect EA will ever do anything regarding the Ultima VII file formats that Exult uses. They're old, outdated, and there's not much for EA to gain by releasing them, from their point of view. (Trying to convince a suit that "community goodwill" is something they can bank on may as well be trying to squeeze blood from a stone.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

[Dominus]

Final word.
As Peter pointed out, the problem with Cydia is not Apple.
closed