Ultima 7, an RPG from the early 1990's, still has a huge following.
But, being a DOS game with a very nonstandard memory manager, it
is difficult to run it on the latest computers. Exult is a project
to create an Ultima 7 game engine that runs on modern operating
systems, capable of using the data and graphics files that come
with the game.
Exult is written in C++ and runs on, at least, Linux, Mac OS X and
Windows using the SDL library to make porting to other platforms
relatively easy. The current version supports all of "Ultima 7:
The Black Gate" and "Ultima 7 part 2: The Serpent Isle", allowing
you to finish both games. This is only possible due to the work
done by other fans who have decoded the various Ultima 7 data files,
especially Gary Thompson, Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Shonberg, and Wouter
Dijkslag.
Exult aims to let those people who own Ultima 7 (copyright 1993)
play the game on modern hardware, in as close to (or perhaps even
surpassing) its original splendor as is possible. You need to own
"Ultima 7: The Black Gate" and/or "Ultima 7: Serpent Isle" and
optionally the add-ons (not required to run) in order to use Exult,
and we encourage you to buy a legal copy.
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