Homebrew Exult Wii : Ultima VII game engin

Wiimpathy · Jun 29, 2020

Here is a port of Exult :

Exult Wii 2.0

Source code

INSTALLATION
=============

- Copy your Ultima VII (Black Gate) static content into /apps/exult/blackgate/static folder.
- For add-ons like Forge of Virtue, copy into the corresponding folder 'forgeofvirtue'.

FEATURES
=========

The essential from the original Exult should be there(music, saving, etc...).

The Wii port is using the Wiimote as a mouse and the basic keys are mapped on buttons.
Here's the mapping (Thanks @Tetsuo Shima ):

You can play with classic controller too. Left stick moves avatar. Right stick moves cursor.

You can name a savegame or the avatar thanks to the dpad. UP/DOWN : cycle letter. RIGHT : new letter. LEFT : Backspace.

KNOWN BUGS/LIMITATIONS
========================

- When you start a new game, press button '2' instead of 'A' to see the intro.
- Left mouse double click isn't good(start dialog...). Use wiimote dpad down instead.
- GC pad not supported.
- Mouse on classic stick is jerky.
- No Wii video specifics implemented. Resolution could be improved. no 240p/bilinear toggle. It's in the code, I'll let others do it.

EXTRA
======

A cover for WiiFlow :

Maeson · Jun 29, 2020

Not in a million years would I have imagined to see this.

I can't try it today, but i have to check it out, this sounds really cool.

One question though, when you say this...

Wiimpathy said:
- No Wii video specifics implemented. Resolution could be improved. no 240p/bilinear toggle. It's in the code, I'll let others do it.

Does it mean that you won't work on this any further? So for now works at 480P I imagine?

Wiimpathy · Jun 29, 2020

MaeseJesus said:
Not in a million years would I have imagined to see this.

I can't try it today, but i have to check it out, this sounds really cool.

One question though, when you say this...

Does it mean that you won't work on this any further? So for now works at 480P I imagine?

Yes, my job is done. The port should be working without too much issues. I've spent enough time on it and knowing very little about Ultima VII didn't help.

Adding 240p shouldn't be too hard. If there are still some dev here, take it as a little challenge! There's already a prototype function to use in exult.cc. I could maybe lend a hand but not so good for that.

On the Todo, there's also improving the build system(linux script right now) and perhaps the GameCube pad support.
Compiling instructions are in the Readmii.txt.

So any help is welcome!

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 29, 2020

This port is a dream come true for me! I was waiting for this day since the wii hacking was born.
Thanks Wiimpathy for your wonderful (and hard) work!

Installation notes:
If you have the Complete Ultima 7 edition you just need to copy the static files for part1 in the blackgate folder, and static files for part2 in the serpentisle folder. You won't need the extra folders for the add-ons (Forge of Virtue and Silver Seed), they already are in the main games folders.

niuus · Jun 30, 2020

Wiimpathy said:
Here is a port of Exult :

Exult Wii 1.0

Source code

INSTALLATION
=============

- Copy your Ultima VII (Black Gate) static content into /apps/exult/blackgate/static folder.
- For add-ons like Forge of Virtue, copy into the corresponding folder 'forgeofvirtue'.

FEATURES
=========

The essential from the original Exult should be there(music, saving, etc...).

The Wii port is using the Wiimote as a mouse and the basic keys are mapped on buttons.
Here's the mapping (Thanks @Tetsuo Shima ):

You can play with classic controller too. Left stick moves avatar. Right stick moves cursor.

You can name a savegame or the avatar thanks to the dpad. UP/DOWN : cycle letter. RIGHT : new letter. LEFT : Backspace.

KNOWN BUGS/LIMITATIONS
========================

- When you start a new game, press button '2' instead of 'A' to see the intro.
- Left mouse double click isn't good(start dialog...). Use wiimote dpad down instead.
- GC pad not supported.
- Mouse on classic stick is jerky.
- No Wii video specifics implemented. Resolution could be improved. no 240p/bilinear toggle. It's in the code, I'll let others do it.

EXTRA
======

A cover for WiiFlow :

This is beautiful. Just yesterday i was thinking about this. Thanks as always, Wiimpathy.

Tototi · Jul 1, 2020

Thank you so much for another great job, Wiimpathy. What are the arguments for this game to work as a wiiflow plugin?

Wiimpathy · Jul 1, 2020

Tototi said:
Thank you so much for another great job, Wiimpathy. What are the arguments for this game to work as a wiiflow plugin?

@Tetsuo Shima may answer this because he's the one who tested as a plugin.

Tetsuo Shima · Jul 1, 2020

Tototi said:
Thank you so much for another great job, Wiimpathy. What are the arguments for this game to work as a wiiflow plugin?

Nothing special. It's:
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}

Tototi · Jul 1, 2020

It didn't work for me, here's my .ini file:

[PLUGIN]
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}
bannersound=
consolecoverid=
covercolor=000000
coverfolder=PC
displayname=PC ULTIMA VII
dolfile=apps/exult/boot.dol
filetypes=.game
magic=474D4254
romdir=apps/exult

I created an empty file with the extension .game and put it in the exult folder

Tetsuo Shima · Jul 1, 2020

Here's the ini file that I'm using:

Code:

[PLUGIN]
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}
bannersound=Exult/ultima7.ogg
consolecoverid=
covercolor=000000
coverfolder=dos
displayname=Exult (Ultima VII)
dolfile=apps/exult/boot.dol
filetypes=.game
magic=45585537
romdir=wiiflow/plugins/exult
rompartition=-1

Last line rompartition=-1 is for SD
I've not tried with the game on USB

Tototi · Jul 1, 2020

I copied the game to the SD card, inserted the command rompartition = -1 in the ini file and ..... IT WORKED !! Congratulations Tetsuo, you solved the problem.

Tetsuo Shima · Jul 1, 2020

Tototi said:
I copied the game to the SD card, inserted the command rompartition = -1 in the ini file and ..... IT WORKED !! Congratulations Tetsuo, you solved the problem.

if you want you can also try with the game on USB and
rompartition=1

Tototi · Jul 1, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
if you want you can also try with the game on USB and
rompartition=1

tested it and it didn't work

Wiimpathy · Jul 2, 2020

First, I forgot to mount USB explicitly. This is because SD is mounted 'manually' in the code to speed up loading time due to a lot of read/write at startup.

Secondly, there seems to be issues with the dolfile path and usb device. Same for rompartition. With 0 or 1, it always launch the dol from SD card. I'm pretty sure it was possible to force it with the full path, usb:/apps/exult (don't remember device prefix, maybe usb1 ?). I could find a workaround in exult's code but won't do anything untill we know it's not also WiiFlow's fault.
By the way, the arguments posted aren't used by Exult. Only the path where the homebrew is launched is used as the base path(exult.cfg).

So, is anyone able to launch a dol(any other homebrew) with a USB custom path in WiiFlow? And preferably with usb on port0, the most common case.

niuus · Jul 2, 2020

Is it normal that Serpent Isle's display is a bit bigger than the screen?

Wiimpathy · Jul 3, 2020

Here's a workaround for the plugin on usb :

https://www.mediafire.com/file/3oz2aeksed1b725/exult-2.0.zip/file

It's now using the 1st argument for the game's path. It's also skipping the menu.
Command options explained: http://exult.sourceforge.net/docs.php#command_line

You may change the titles in WiiFlow with custom_titles.ini. You can create other .game in /wiiflow/plugins/exult/ for addons.
Gamenames recognized by Exult : blackgate, forgeofvirtue, serpentisle and silverseed.

Tetsuo Shima · Jul 4, 2020

Wiimpathy said:
Here's a workaround for the plugin on usb :

https://www.mediafire.com/file/3oz2aeksed1b725/exult-2.0.zip/file

It's now using the 1st argument for the game's path. It's also skipping the menu.
Command options explained: http://exult.sourceforge.net/docs.php#command_line

You may change the titles in WiiFlow with custom_titles.ini. You can create other .game in /wiiflow/plugins/exult/ for addons.
Gamenames recognized by Exult : blackgate, forgeofvirtue, serpentisle and silverseed.

Thanks for that! I didn't know that you could run them as separate games with exult. This is perfect for Wiiflow.
No more problems now with the blackgate intro, too.
However, there's only one little drawback using the --nomenu command when you want to start a new game: it will skip the character creation process and will use a default character.
I prefer to use just:
arguments=usb:/apps/exult/|--game|{name_no_ext}

StanMarsh · Jul 4, 2020

Font fix:

http://smellsweird.com/exult/

Serpent Isle Fixes:

http://exult.sourceforge.net/seventowers/downloads.php?section=0&page=2

Tetsuo Shima · Jul 5, 2020

niuus said:
Is it normal that Serpent Isle's display is a bit bigger than the screen?

Are you referring about the black borders on top and bottom of the screen? That's happening for Black Gate too and I can explain why:
Ultima VII's original resolution is 320x200, but Exult Wii supports only 640x480 or 320x240.
So, with a display resolution of 320x240 and a game area of 320x200 the display is a little bigger than the screen.
You could try Fill mode: center instead of Fit, but in my case I had some cropped graphics and text.
You could also try to increase the game area to 320x240, but personally I don't like to increase that, because the screen will show some things that weren't intended to be showed by design, and this could also introduce some unexpected bugs.
In a perfect world, we should use 320x200 for display resolution AND game area, to recreate the same feeling of the original, but as I've said before SDL expects 320x240 or 640x480. Maybe if some other dev will decide to continue the wonderful work of Wiimpathy, this could be something worth investigating.

niuus · Jul 5, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
Are you referring about the black borders on top and bottom of the screen? That's happening for Black Gate too and I can explain why:
Ultima VII's original resolution is 320x200, but Exult Wii supports only 640x480 or 320x240.
So, with a display resolution of 320x240 and a game area of 320x200 the display is a little bigger than the screen.
You could try Fill mode: center instead of Fit, but in my case I had some cropped graphics and text.
You could also try to increase the game area to 320x240, but personally I don't like to increase that, because the screen will show some things that weren't intended to be showed by design, and this could also introduce some unexpected bugs.
In a perfect world, we should use 320x200 for display resolution AND game area, to recreate the same feeling of the original, but as I've said before SDL expects 320x240 or 640x480. Maybe if some other dev will decide to continue the wonderful work of Wiimpathy, this could be something worth investigating.

No, the game display is bigger than what the screen can show. Using a CRT, have not tested yet on LCD.

And sure, i am aware that going over the original resolution is beyond the intended feel, but i don't mind those kinds of bugs (which i haven't seen yet, at least on the PC version which i am playing with something like 720, lol). Playing 320x200 is way too cramped at this point anyway, but i do understand what you are saying.

Homebrew Exult Wii : Ultima VII game engin

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