06/10/04 v1.2 Official release with all the improvements and bug fixes from the last two years. 02/29/04 v1.1.10rc2 Fixed a number of crashes Fixed some Windows-only problems, including resurrection Added more Black Gate paperdoll art 01/27/04 v1.1.9rc1 Cleaned up non-MIDI music driver support Cleaned up diagnostic output Fixed various schedule and pathfinding bugs Worked around Serpent Staff bug from original SI Lots of minor bugfixes 10/18/03 v1.1 Beta3 Fixed item duplication Fixed missing NPCs Fixed disappearing items Fixed cosmetic bug in 2xSaI scaler Fixed resurrection Improved SFX handling for items Improved schedule support 08/08/03 v1.1 Beta2 Fixed missing item descriptions in Windows Fixed missing exultmsg.txt on some platforms 07/20/03 v1.1 Beta1 Party Formation Improved combat system with pausing, hit display and targeting Spellbook improvements Exult Studio improvements and porting to GTK+2 Support for arrow/keypad walking and running OGG Vorbis music system FM Synth emulator Additional paperdoll art (SB-X, Oblivious) Scale2X scaler (Andrea Mazzoleni) Ported to the Zaurus (Artaxerxes) Experimental OpenGL scaling/rendering Tons of bugfixes (see ChangeLog for details) 06/05/02 v0.99 RC 2 Support for 32 bit usecode (for large usecode functions) Many changes to Exult Studio (tiles, combos, freetype fonts, etc.) Improvements to UCC (conversations, etc.) SFX improvements (thanks to Simon Quinn) Tons of bugfixes (see ChangeLog for details) 03/12/02 v0.98 RC 1 UCC, Exult's Usecode compiler works again UCXT, Exult's Usecode decompiler, is now included Subpackages for Linux distributions can be built (RPM, Debian) Exult's data files have a CRC now, so it is easier to detect a mismatch between them and the main executable Gumps can be dragged even in target mode SI's intro and ending are complete Music looping is user-configurable New scaler from Kreed: BilinearPlus Configurable combat difficulty Tons of bugfixes (see ChangeLog for details) 11/26/01 v0.96 beta 1 It is now possible to complete both BG and SI Savegames are now compressed. They are now actually zip files, so you can use your favourite tool to open them. This should make things easier especially when submitting bugs to SourceForge which has a size restriction on attachments. Gameplay Options Dialog has been implemented together with a slew of extra features that can be configured The speed of the party may be configured Middle mouse button support Fast mouse in full-screen modes Tinted background behind text in conversations Wheelmouse support for slider gumps You can now freeze in SI Multiracial Avatar support in BG (requires SI) The currently playing music track is stored within savegames so that it started again on load Scheduled usecode is now retained between save/load Endgame and Quotes entries in the menus are now only visible when appropriate Allow choice of MIDI device in Win32 Many broken animations were fixed (especially in SI) Show SFX icon next to BG/SI to show that support for digital sfx is enabled. Tons of bugfixes (see ChangeLog for details) 08/25/01 v0.94 alpha 5 Colourless' amazing stats display (press "r" to toggle the various modes) Lots of work on performance improvements (faster scalers, faster renderer, etc.) Near-perfect dungeon renderer Lots of work on MacOS by Fingolfin (both Classic and MacOS X), including MIDI support. Return to menu option in BG and SI game menus Detect incorrect/incomplete path settings in the configuration file and show only valid entries (BG/SI) in the main menu. If neither game is available, a warning is displayed. Video Options in-game menu (still incomplete) Text/speech synch in BG intro and near-perfect butterfly animation Support for scale > 2 in Point and Interlaced scalers Exult now compiles with MS Visual C++ Tons of bugfixes (see ChangeLog for details) 06/28/01 v0.93 alpha 4 There is a new in-game menu (invoked with ESC) from which various setup actions can be performed. Currently this includes a nice audio configurator. The save gump has been improved greatly with support for a mini-screenshot, save-game details and infinite savegames. World wrapping has been implemented Lots of work on SI (spell scrolls, spellbook, jawbone and combat gumps, keyring, general fixes) We now have Near Pixel Perfect Maps (tm) which are displayed when using the teleport cheats. MIDI SFX are unsupported now by default. The use of digital SFX is strongly encouraged, even though there are still a few problems. See the FAQ for details. Combat has been improved: NPCs now flash red when they are hit, Protection mode is supported and many bugs have been fixed Win32 SMP-safeness More work on ExultStudio (Linux only for now) Tons of bugfixes (see the ChangeLog for details) 04/11/01 v0.92 alpha 3 Savegame names have been changed to exultXXbg.sav for the Black Gate, and exultXXsi.sav for the Serpent Isle. (The savegames themselves have not changed, so you can rename them to make them work again.) Multiple scalers can now be used. Use config/video/scale_method set to either "2xSaI", "bilinear", "point", "interlaced" and "SuperEagle". "2xSaI" is the new scaler, "bilinear" is the old one, "point" duplicates the pixels, "interlaced" is the same as "point" except misses every other line, "SuperEagle" is another scaler by Derek (the author of 2xSaI). New cheat screen (F2) similar to the originals'. Currently allows for some level of NPC editing. Pick Pocket cheat (Ctrl-Alt-P). Forces all actors to display inventory. Grab Actor cheat (Ctrl-Alt-G). Default Enabled. When enabled clicking on a NPC will make it the default NPC in the cheat screen. The default NPC is edited by not entering a npc number. NPC Numbers cheat (Ctrl-N). When enabled, clicking an a NPC will display their number instead of their name. More NPC schedules (sew, lab-work, etc.) implemented. Many bugs (especially combat/weapons and audio) fixed. Black Gate paperdoll art by Adam Delman and Philip Gottschalk 02/08/01 v0.91 alpha 2 Dynamic keybindings. Use config/disk/game/(gametitle)/keys to specify a keybinding-file. See data/default.key for an example. Can now use the Serpent Isle paperdolls while playing The Black Gate. To use, the Serpent Isle path in the config file must be filled in with an absolute path. Paperdolls may be a little buggy. Massive code restructuring and cleanup (use STL wherever possible, pervasive use of namespaces, more portable C++ conformance, etc.) These changes have the side effect of improving stability. Gamma correction (use + and -) More schedules support Improved, easier to use shape browser Serpent Isle paperdolls Improved weapons support Support for the French version of BG (Frederic Wagner) Alpha/Linux cxx support (Christoph Reichenbach) Allow for disabling/enabling of palette fades Improved BG intro (plasma screen, animations, etc) New cheats (Heal, Resurrect, Max Party Level) Sound Tester (Alt-1) Screen Shots (Ctrl-Alt-S) Reworked audio subsystem (including MIDI repeat support for Timidity) Loads of bug fixes (Read ChangeLog for details) 11/20/00: v0.90 alpha 1 New scaling code contributed by Derek Liauw Kie Fa (2xSaI filter) Exult logo & menu at startup & mouse support in menu Many more cheats (ArchWizard, Hack-mover, ...) Key ring for BG (same as original SI) Improved help About box GIMP plugin is functional (load & save) Better SI support (not playable yet) Midi Sound Effects (Windows & Timidity only) Tons and tons of fixes (magic, schedules, weights, dungeons, missile eggs, explosions, invisibility, protection, ...) More quotes & credits :-) 8/22/00: v0.40 Note: ALL save games from before this update are now broken. Games must be restarted. Better introduction sequence. Can be interrupted by keypress. Main menu implemented. Proper instruments in MIDI music and XMI support. Cheating mode: any keys which enable additional features can be disabled/enabled from the config file 'God mode' (alt-G) and teleport (ctrl-alt-t) cheat added. Support for barges (Flying carpet, ships, carts...) Teleports. Combat: Monsters attack, and the music plays. More shortcuts: 'f', 'w', 'm', 'b'. Serpent Isle awareness (not useful yet) Better shape browser. The usual slew of bug-fixes. 7/6/00: V0.35 Scrolling works like the original. Same for conversations. First attempt at combat: You can attack/kill monsters, but generally (with a few exceptions), they don't fight back. Spellbook and magic (some spells at least) work. Weather: Storms, clouds. Scaling: 2X scaling with antialiasing. See README for details. 6/2/00: V0.30 Save/load implemented. MIDI improvements in Windows version. More animations: You can see the weapons being carried. Better object identification and inventory management. View the endgame movie by hitting F10. NPC schedules/pathfinding improved. Moongates work. Sleeping works (but animation not done). 5/8/00: V0.26 MIDI in Windows version!! Correct Avatar/NPC animation frames (finally), and improvements to 'seashore' animations. Inventory improved: Armor, etc. goes where it's supposed to (although there are still a few things to be fixed). You can now read signs, books, and scrolls. Much improved shape browser (a development aid). Many bug fixes. New pathfinding framework. New object access API for some data-objects 4/25/00: V0.25 Improved midi support using the timidity binary and patchsets under linux. Earthquakes (except in Win32 version)! In-game scripted introduction. More animated objects. Some NPC schedules now implemented. Lighting and transparency. Better USECODE support. You can solve the Trinsic murder, and then answer the mayor's copy-protection questions to get the password. Also speed, compilation and debugging improvements. Improved inventory support. You can buy items, and feed Iolo. Better support for building win32 targets. Improved rendering pipeline. Still not perfect, but definitely a vast improvement. 3/23/00: V0.20 Speech and midi support from Dancer Vesperman, as well as automatic configuration. Inventory partly working. You can open bags and boxes, and drag items in/out of them. Mouse pointers and fonts from Ultima7 are now used. Animated objects (like fountains and flags) supported. 2/29/00: V0.12 Fixed crashes at start and after initial conversation, thanks to Richard Wesley. Added obstacle detection. You now need to open doors to get through them, and you can climb up/down stairs. Replaced XLib and Win32 code with the SDL library. Should make porting to Windows far easier. 2/20/00: V0.11 Loads of improvements to the USECODE interpreter, especially with conversations. 2/10/00: V0.10 Added USECODE interpreter. Removed my previous conversation engine (which I'll use in another project). Exult creates the "gamedat" directory and files automatically. Moved web site to exult.sourceforge.com. 7/5/99: W.J. Palenstijn's WIN32 port! 6/10/99: First attempt at obstacle avoidance. 5/28/99: Wrote a script compiler for NPC's. 5/24/99: Modified conversation engine to handle the notion of a conversation "topic". Also show character "portraits". 4/23/99: From Tristan Tarrant: Read item names from "text.flx" instead of trying to enumerate them in the code. 4/14/99: V0.07 First implementation of an NPC conversation engine. 12/21/98: V0.06 Startup memory requirements are reduced dramatically. A port to MSDOS (320x200 VGA) is added. 12/4/98: V0.05 Added text rendering using the FreeType package and the "avatar.ttf" font. Left-clicking on many of the game items now causes their names to show on the screen. 11/5/98: V0.04 2 other characters walk around randomly. Double-click on doors and shutters to open/shut them. Program exits gracefully when window is closed. 10/14/98: V0.03 Avatar now walks around using the right-mouse button. 10/6/98: V0.02 Show moveable objects from "ireg" files. Read in all objects shown. Improves display performance. Attempt (with partial success) to show objects in proper z-order. 9/25/98: V0.01 Try to open files first lower-case, then upper (u7open()).