Andrew Owen has kicked off 2016 with a few updates to the U3.5: Pax Britannia subdomain here at the Codex. In the first one, from late last week, he comments on Episode 31 of Spam Spam Spam Humbug (our interview with Goldenflame Dragon about The Dark Unknown), and offers up his own answers to the questions that were asked of Goldenflame during that session. Here are a few samples:

What was the moment when you decided you wanted to make your game and what was the catalyst for that decision?

I had created my own 8-bit computer derived from the popular British microcomputer, the ZX Spectrum. I had even persuaded someone to add support for it to a popular cross-platform ZX Spectrum emulator. I wanted a game that would show off what it was capable of doing and I thought Ultima IV was a good fit. Somewhere down the line the plan changed to support the more commonly available but less powerful ZX Spectrum +2B and to do an original game rather than a port.

Was there an initial design document, and has the project exceeded your expectations of its initial scope?

There wasn’t what would commonly be thought of as a design document, just a lot of notes, although over time they have evolved to more closely match a traditional design doc. In terms of the scope, it’s entirely dictated by the hardware platform, the main limitations being RAM, the memory paging system, and the lack of a disk system. The advantage is there’s not much room for scope creep.

Were there specific design elements you wished to celebrate with respect to previous Ultima and Ultima-like games, and if so, why?

The top down view, because it lends itself to attribute-based graphics. The conversation system, because I also like text adventures. The fully realized dungeons from U5, because I also like dungeon crawlers. The music from the Apple ][ versions, because the Spectrum has an AY chip (as does the Mockingboard). The non-linearity and lack of a big boss from U4. The references to other episodes from Serpent Isle.

What are your favourite Ultimas?

Exodus, Quest of the Avatar and Serpent Isle.

Click on through to read the rest.

More recently, as a response to Episode 33 of Spam Spam Spam Humbug, Andrew has put together a situation report on the status of Pax Britannia. He also addresses us on the #SSSHPodcast crew directly:

Thanks for all the nice things you had to say about my project (especially about the music). I’d just like to clear up a few things. U3.5 is an unofficial epilogue to U3 and prelude to U4. However you do not play the Stranger or the Avatar. You play a new character known as the Envoy. It’s not called Ultima for two reasons; 1) legal, 2) some people feel that calling it an Ultima is a bit presumptuous. It calls back as far as Ultima I and foreshadows events up to the end of Serpent Isle. Inevitably one or two things were missed in the summary. Here’s the status of the project:

The ZXodus][Engine that underpins the project has had a major overhaul as a result of me reading Jason Gregory’s “Game Engine Architecture”. The code is in the best shape it’s ever been in.

And he comments on the platform(s) that Pax Britannia will be playable on:

Yes, it’s written for the ZX Spectrum, but there is a ZX Spectrum emulator available for almost any machine you care to name, including (as mentioned in the podcast) the Nintendo DS, which gets its own U6-themed U3.5 skin for the ZXDS emulator (which uses the touch screen as a keyboard).

Here too, click on through for a list of fully or near-fully implemented game features.

Finally, Andrew has also published a short update concerning the ColdSnap Audio engine that Pax Britannia uses:

As part of the development of the ZXodus][Engine, which underpins U3.5, I’ve built an audio engine. ColdSnap Audio is a cross-platform music engine for Z80-based computers with AY-3-8910 (and derivative) sounds chips (as used by the Mockingboard for the Apple ][). In fact a friend of mine is looking at doing a 6502 port for the Oric, which might eventually lead to an Apple ][ version. The engine comes in at around 1.8KiB of code. It features ADSR envelopes based on real instruments (brass, choir, flute, guitar, harp, marimba, organ, piano, and strings). Note tables are generated accurately based on the clock frequency of the AY chip in each machine. This ensures that when you listen to the U3.5 music on the real machine (or an emulation of it) it sounds the way it does on the SoundCloud site.

Don’t let Pax Britannia’s use of the Spectrum platform fool you into thinking that the game doesn’t feature some impressive and well-designed technology. What Andrew Owen has been able to achieve, and then on an ancient processor architecture and with a very limited memory space, is pretty much incredible.