Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (ERA: The Arken Throne)
Produced by: Peroxide
Website: Peroxide
The first tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne).
The second tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne).
The final tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne). This is the Windows version; a Linux version is also available.
The final tech demo for Ultima 1: A Legend Is Reborn (later ERA: The Arken Throne). This is the Linux version; a Windows version is also available.
This project began as an ambitious remake of Ultima 1. However, due to the fact that Peroxide couldn’t get formal permission from Electronic Arts to make an actual Ultima game (not that this should have ever been a condition that Peroxide imposed on its development), the project ceased to be a formal Ultima remake in January 2003.
However, Peroxide kept their stunning custom-made 3D engine alive a bit longer for a new, somewhat Ultima-inspired project: ERA: The Arken Throne. This was supposed to be a published game, inspired by (but not actually) Ultima 1.
Sadly, Peroxide has shut development on ERA down. The team’s website contained, for a time, a message that seemed to promise that they would reappear, with the ERA engine still in development and ERA under yet another new name. Nothing seems to have come of that promise over the last few years, sadly.
Fortunately, Voyager Dragon managed to grab copies of the Ultima 1 remake’s tech demos. Thanks also goes to Dino the Dark Dragon, who found a copy of the 2.0 version of the game’s tech demo.
This looked really promising when I first played the tech demo, it was clear that these guys had the talent to make a good indie game. But I also know how these things go. New jobs, moving away, starting families… groups of friends who work on such projects tend to gradually dissolve, fact of life.
It would have been nice to see what they’d made out of it. Back when they announced it, the independent PC game scene was much smaller and more underground than it is today. Seeing how nice their self-made engine looked certainly changed my opinion about what a bunch of amateur developers would be able to do.
By the way, I do have the music they released for ERA. Not sure what the song names are though.
Both Kasper Fauerby and Søren Seeberg, two of the main members of Peroxide, are now working at IO Interactive of Hitman series fame. So their plans to break into the games development business definitely worked out.
Hullo there! I’ve download the v2.5 Tech Demo here, and unfortunately the archive is corrupt, it gives out errors whenever I try to extract the archive. It does extract the files, but when I try to run the demo through its .exe file, it opens up with no audio, and no mouse cursor, I can’t do anything, no button works. Might be because of the corrupted archive, some important file got omitted. Any help perhaps? Anyone knows any way to remedy that? Cheers.
I’ll see if I can replicate these issues at my end, and then try find a backup of the demo.
Hi, I’ve noticed it’s just the sounds.jf file inside the archive that is corrupted, and gives out an error 100% of the time. I managed to get inside the game for a brief moment, I can control the game, but there is no sound, and the game crashes during first convo. I feel like its the engine seeking sounds.jf file, and can’t find it, then crashes. Any luck find a backup? Cheers, and thank you for your quick answer yesterday!
I was able to find a backup, and I’ve tested the extraction locally on my PC. It doesn’t throw an error regarding the sounds file, which is a good sign.
I’ve updated the download entry here with the non-broken version, so hopefully that’s all it takes for you to get the demo working.
Holy guacamolly, it actually works! And it has character voices now! So that’s why it kept crashing earlier, it needed the sounds and voices. Thank you very much, mr WtF Dragon, for your quick reaction!