Andrew Taylor’s SDL-based re-creation of the Ultima 4 game engine should need no introduction; xu4 is a cross-platform engine for Richard Garriott’s most storied game, much as Exult is for Ultima 7.

The project has changed hands a number of times over its development; it fell dormant after 2008, but was subsequently restarted in 2011 by Darren Janeczek, who went on to improve xu4’s gameplay experience, and restructured the code to facilitate the goal of porting the game to other platforms, including mobile.

After another bout of dormancy, xu4 was incorporated into ScummVM alongside several other Ultima fan engines (this happened in 2020). However, since then, Karl Robillard — going by the handle Whitesmoke — has taken on the responsibility of maintaining xu4 in its standalone form. Version 1.0 of the engine — it spent 18 years in a beta state! — was released in early 2022, with version 1.1 following in July of the year, bringing with it improvements to the engine’s handling of sounds.

Version 1.2, released in December 2022, brought with it an improved Linux backend for the engine, as well as expanded support for game mods. Versions 1.3 and 1.4 were released in 2023, adding — respectively — AI-synthesized voiceovers and the U4 Recreated module, and improved spell incantations alongside more improvements to mod support.

So really, the news here is that xu4 has seen quite a lot of development since the last time the Codex had any news about it…which (embarrassingly) was more than three years ago.

What’s more, the expanded mod support allows for the easier addition of custom content to Ultima 4:

Due to the kind nature of the xu4 team, who took it upon themselves to re-package the recordings, they are now part of a module that can simply be placed alongside the xu4 executable.

Likewise, you should no longer need to download my fixes and tweaks to the graphics tiles mentioned in prior posts. Just download Wiltshire Dragon’s and Aradindae Dragon’s original Ultima IV Upgrade package and place the U4UPGRAD.ZIP file (still zipped!) next to the xu4 executable as well.

With the original ultima4 game files directory, the “Hurin” music module, and the U4UPGRAD.ZIP file all in the xu4 directory, you should be able to press ESC from within xu4 and choose whatever your prefer. 

You can download the latest build of xu4 from its SourceForge and GitHub pages, or from the project entry here at the Codex. Currently, there isn’t an up-to-date build for Mac OS; Windows and Linux are the only supported platforms at this time.

(Hat tip: Hurin)