uUltima is intended to be a complete remake of Ultima 1 (the 1986 MS-DOS port) using the Unity game engine. Neocron intends to make this project as close to a “1:1 conversion of the game” as possible, preserving as much of the gameplay and graphical experience of Ultima 1 as possible. And along the way, he hopes to learn the fundamentals of the Unity engine.

One notable change, however, will be the use of the XU4 tileset developed by Josh Steele for the overland and town maps in the game; the 16-color EGA tileset from the original game will not be used. As well, the user interface will probably see some simplification, and uUltima can be expected to include a quest log or journal feature. Finally, and where applicable, Neocron will make use of updated Ultima music produced by the fan community.

Additionally, Neocron has released a short video showing off how uUltima, in its present state, plays.

Planned release platforms for uUltima presently include Android amd PC, although obviously there is not yet any sense of when a release might occur.

And yes, there’s now a shiny new project entry for uUltima here at the Codex.