You totally didn’t read it here first, but there it is: Ultima series creator Richard Garriott has parted ways with Tabula Rasa (also his creation) publisher NCSoft in order to pursue new interests.

Apparently, his recent trip into space (a “lifelong dream” of his) has prompted him to look for a change:

“Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests.”

Well, here on the Edmonton Game Convention blog, we wish Lord — now General — British all the best in whatever new venture he strikes out toward, whether those interests exist within, or outside of, the gaming industry.

Interesting factoid I did not know previously: Lord British is apparently the son of an astronaut.

(thanks to Aiera Reader mageguru for the link to this article)

This open-source 3D client for Ultima Online has been updated to version 2520, for both Windows and Linux. Updated installer files can be downloaded from the project website, or via the project entry at Aiera.

This interesting project that imports shapes from The Black Gate into Serpent Isle has been updated and patched since last I looked in on it. Specifically, it has been updated to version 6.8.7, which has also been patched to fix an issue with compilation.

Full details can be found at the project’s discussion thread in the Exult forums. Updated downloads are available there, or through the project entry at Aiera.

The bleeding-edge version of Exult — the Ultima 7 engine for more operating systems and platforms than one cares to list — has been updated as of October 9th. Exult Tools and Exult Studio have similarly been updated, and all can be downloaded from the project website.

Or from the project entry at Aiera, my Ultima-themed website.

I missed this update, which is already almost two weeks old, to the Redemption website. Direhaggis posted an advertisment, announcing the project’s need for writers:

Do you like Ultima dungeons? Does the thought of creating NPC’s and plots based around or involving an anti-virtue sound interesting? Do you want to check out all of the behind-the-scenes action?

We’re looking for a new writer or two to help sparsely (or maybe not so sparsely) populate several remaining dungeons in U9R. You have 100% free artistic license over your area and will obviously get credit for your work.

So if you find that you are interested in climbing aboard one of the most exciting projects currently under development in the Ultima community, Direhaggis has provided his email address and the submission guidelines at the Redemption website. Go and check thou it out!

Just announced:

Nintendo’s hit DS portable machine will come with a digital camera that will allow players to mix images, scribble on photos and create new faces, the Japanese game maker said Thursday.

The Nintendo DSi will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 1 for 18,900 yen ($180), and will be available overseas next year. Dates and other details for overseas plans will be announced later, President Satoru Iwata said.

Iwata said the revamped DS is meant to be the first camera for children, a means of network-building for older people or a party toy, part of the company’s ongoing quest to broaden gaming’s popularity.

One in six Japanese already owns a DS, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo, which also makes Pokemon and Super Mario games. But the goal is to make the DS a must-have for every Japanese, Iwata said.

Very cool. I will say this: Nintendo, like Apple, has a knack for producing very cool, fun, and very culture-savvy products…and the DSi is certainly an excellent example thereof.

(Personally, I’m holding out for the version of the DS that comes with the camera, mp3 playback^[1], a 60+ GB internal solid-state drive, and a cellular phone. And 3G, just for good measure.

You know it’s coming, good Reader. ;))

1) Apparently, the DSi will not ship with a GBA game slot, so the Play-Yan mp3 player won’t work with it.

Hawkwind, one of the developers over at Forgotten World, contacted me to let me know that despite the lack of news from the development team of this promising, in-engine remake of Ultima 9, things have been moving.

What is more, they’ve given their site a bit of a facelift, having ported it over to the Joomla content management system! On that basis alone: way to go, fellas! Joomla is a pretty sweet CMS, and one of my two “go-to” pieces of site software whenever I have a site to build.

But an even bigger hurrah should be sounded over the news that accompanies the new site design:

We have - again - done a lot of work without results that are presentable.

Due to some strange issues with some of the files, it is now certain that there is still an unknown part in what we thought unraveled. We, therefore, had to rewrite some of the file loading routines. Meanwhile, we wrote a model viewer. So far, we have yet to find any really special models. We will keep you appraised!

Our next aim concerning the editor is getting object selection and property display working.

I can’t imagine how complicated it must be to unwrap a game engine and try to make sense of it, and I am constantly impressed by the demonstrated progress this team has made. I’m confident they can overcome this little hiccup.

Saw this article on Reuters today:

Gina Sutton takes aim and deftly strikes down several targets in a row as they pop up on the screen in front of her.

A self-described girl gamer, she traveled from her home in Virginia to spend her 16th birthday at the Nintendo World Store in New York, and she can’t understand why anyone would think video games are just for boys.

“It’s like saying boys play with action figures and girls play with dolls,” she said as she used a Wii Zapper in a game called . “I’m the girl who plays with action figures.”

With her nimble fingers and bubbling enthusiasm, she is one of a fast-growing posse of female gamers in the United States and elsewhere capturing the attention of video game makers — expanding the market beyond male-appeal games like Grand Theft Auto.

Girls and young women are a “pot of gold” for the industry, said George VanHorn, senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. “The gaming industry has market characteristics that many would die for.”

According to IBISWorld, 38 percent of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 percent in just five years.

From January through August of 2008 females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent.

Rooster Teeth — the geniuses behind the Halo-based series Red vs Blue — have been on this topic as well in recent days.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to the growing demographic of female players; there’s already a goodly number of games in publication, but if the market — especially in the States, but worldwide as well — continues its downturn, publishers and developers will be under additional pressure to produce titles that capture the interest of as many gamers as possible…which means we could, and perhaps should, expect to see more and better titles being released to capture the interest and attention of female gamers.

Of course, that means that developers might just have to step beyond games with titles like “Cooking Momma,” “Master Chef and Babyz,” and “Fashion Designer,” and move the content beyond ponies and makeup. Female gamers, in my experience, are a savvy lot who expect substantive content, and it’s odd to see that in many cases, developers and publishers have responded to the growing demographic of female gamers by publishing content that is the digital equivalent of the Barbie doll.

The Realms of Ultima project — the Neverwinter Nights 2-based version of Project Britannia, a project which aims to create a pre-fabricated Ultima world for others to use as a basis for their own projects — has been updated twice since last I checked in with it.

For starters, project lead MokahTGS has posted an article in which he discusses a few of his inspirations, as well as some of the new features of an upcoming NWN2 expansion pack that he is looking forward to making use of.

But additionally, he and fellow developer Jaesun have been working on a contribution to Bouncy Rock Entertainment’s “Community Halloween Project.” Their contribution will evidently be the Grumpy Strumpet tavern, which will in due time become the tavern in .

A big part of my interest in gaming is of a very “retro” nature — I’m a huge fan of the old Ultima series of RPG games. So much of a fan, in fact, that I run a rather extensive Ultima blog, which deals primarily with the various patches and remakes that other Ultima fans the world over have produced.

Yes, remakes.

The biggest remake, to date, is probably the implementation of Ultima 5 in the Dungeon Siege engine. Ultima V: Lazarus was published earlier this year, and the lead developer was hired by Ensemble Studios shortly thereafter (if memory serves).

This is serious business, in other words, and many other remakes are in the works, at various stages of completion. And it has fallen to me to be “the guy” who tracks the news for these various projects, aggregating them into one convenient report for the benefit of Ultima fans the world over.

So don’t be surprised if, going forward, I pepper this blog with Ultima news. Yeah, the series isn’t being made anymore (except for Ultima Online, which only partly counts), but the fan-base is still going strong, and their innovation is often worth spotlighting.