Web site: exult.sourceforge.io
Category: Games
Sub-Category: RPG
Platform: Linux, OS X, Windows, Android
License: GNU GPL
Interface: GUI
Wikipedia:
First release: 2000
Exult – an open source engine for playing Ultima VII on a variety of modern operating systems and environments. The Black Gate (including Forge of Virtue) and Serpent Isle (plus Silver Seed) are both playable to the end.
Ultima VII, 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 that created an Ultima VII 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, macOS and Windows using the SDL2 library to make porting to other platforms relatively easy. The current version supports all of “Ultima VII: The Black Gate” and “Ultima VII – 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 VII data files, especially Gary Thompson, Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Schonberg, and Wouter Dijkslag.
Exult aims to let those people who own Ultima VII (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 VII: The Black Gate” and/or “Ultima VII – Part 2: The 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.