Ultima Classics The Ultimate Collection of Ultima by Sedryn Tyros June 26, 2004 v1.2 Introduction: I've made a handful of changes and additions to this version of the Ultima Classics package to make it more "complete" if it could ever be considered so given the enormous amount of fan contributions made to the Ultima series. The most notable additions in this version are the Sound SFX files for Exult which I neglected to include in v1.0 and v1.1. Make sure you use these for without them you'll get no sound effects while playing Ultima7 with Exult. Another great addition to v1.2 are the Exodus Project Upgrades, specifically the one for Ultima5 which adds MIDI background music while retaining the capability to play Ultima5 through DOSBox for all the original PC Speaker sound effects. I've also made a few changes to the directory structure so that the Ultima games will now end up in "C:\Classic Games\Ultima" instead of "C:\Ultima Games" and Shortcut icons for the classic Ultima games are now under "Shortcut Icons\Ultima" instead of just "Shortcut Icons". My motivation for doing this is to establish a directory structure that's consistent throughout all of my classic games releases so that they are easier for users to manage. This package contains every CRPG Ultima game ever made for the PC except Ultima 9 (which you can undoubtedly find floating around somewhere). In addition to the ready-to-play games, most of which require DOSBox (which is included in this package), to run properly, I've included an ISO image of the Ultima Collection CD-ROM released in 1998, video clips of an interview with Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British) from this CD-ROM, as many associated materials (maps, walkthroughs, etc.) that I could find in a reasonable amount of time, several independent remakes and revisions, and fan patches (even though I didn't use any of them). For the die-hard Ultima fan, purist or otherwise, this is the dream collection. Everything you need to play the most influential RPG series in entertainment software history is in this package. Enjoy! ------------------------------- Changes in version 1.2: -Changed "Ultima Games" to "Classic Games" with a subfolder named "Ultima" and reconfigured shortcuts -Removed contents of Ultima Collection CD-ROM and replaced with an ISO image -Added Exult v1.2 in "Remakes & Revisions\Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)" -Added Exult Digital sound files in "Remakes & Revisions\Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)" -Added Exodus Project Ultima Upgrades under "Remakes and Revisions" -Added "UltimaV (Exodus Project Upgrade v1.0)" to "Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions" -Added "UltimaIII (Exodus Project Upgrade v2.5)" to "Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions" -Added "UltimaII (Exodus Project Upgrade v1.1)" to "Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions" -Added "Lord British Interview" (video files from Ultima Collection CD-ROM) -Added "Game Box art" (thanks to Lynette C of the File Soup Forums for all but 2 of these) -Added some new URLs in "Links" -Modified Readme to correct errors in crediting works and to reflect additions and changes in this version Changes in version 1.1: -Grammatical corrections and minor additions to readme ------------------------------ System Requirements: I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what systems will and will not run these ancient games, but I do know that a few of them require a hefty PC when run through the DOSBox emulator. The contents of this package were tested on an enthusiast-level, custom-built 2.8GHz P4 with an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Mainboard, 1GB DDR400 Corsair XMS SDRAM, an ASUS v9280 GeForce4 Ti4200 AGP 8X video card with 128MB RAM, a SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer OEM sound card, running Windows XP Professional. Obviously, this test bed is well beyond what's required to run most of these games, so if you don't have anywhere near this level of system don't worry about it. DOSBox usually runs fine on a 400MHz P2, unless you're overclocking CPU cycles, which is necessary for Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2, Ultima 8, and both Ultima Underworlds games to run smoothly. Try to play the games no matter what system you have, most of them will probably work just fine. Folders included in this Package: "Classic Games" - pre-installed, pre-configured games. copy the folder to your C drive. "Documentation" - manuals, maps, walkthroughs & copy protection bypassing. "DOSBox v.61" - needed to run all official games properly (except Akalabeth). "Fan Patches" - unofficial patches; I didn't use any of them. "Game Box Art" - some art pics of original game boxes. "Links" - URL's to a wealth of Ultima resources. "Lord British Interview" - video clips of Richard Garriott from the Ultima Collection CD-ROM "Remakes & Revisions" - materials used to setup Ultima "Ultima Games\_Remakes & Revisions" "Shortcut Icons" - program shortcuts used to start the games once you've finished setup. "Ultima Collection CD-ROM" - an ISO image of the official Ultima Collection CD-ROM. Setup: This entire setup routine assumes that you're running Microsoft Windows on a fairly new PC. After you've unzipped the contents of this archive while maintaining the directory structure, start by copying the folder "Classic Games" to root of your C drive. Copy the folder as is; don't mess with the subfolders or directory structure. Next, run the "DOSBox0.61-win32-installer.exe" executable located in the "DOS Box v.61" folder of this package. Proceed through the installation normally; it should install to "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.61" by default (double-check during installation to verify this as the install directory). In the "DOS Box v.61" folder there's a subdirectory labeled "Ultima Configs". Copy the contents of this folder (not the folder itself) to "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.61". If you correctly followed the steps I just outlined then the icons in the "Shortcut Icons" folder should now correctly run the games corresponding to their labels. Place the icons anywhere you like. The game icons won't work if you alter the directory structure of "Classic Games" in any way. "Classic Games" needs to end up at "C:\Classic Games". Most game shortcuts won't work if you don't also copy the .conf files from the "DOS Box v.61\Ultima Configs" folder to "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.61". If you have any of my other Classics packages setup on your computer there is probably already a folder on your C drive named "Classic Games". When you copy the "Classic Games" folder in this package to your C drive Windows will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing folder. Go ahead and say yes. The file locations in the package won't conflict with any of my other Classic Games releases. Classic Games: All of the official versions of Ultima are played through DOSBox-0.61 except Akalabeth. I've configured the DOSBox games to start in Windowed mode but you can toggle between windowed mode and fullscreen mode with "ALT-ENTER". Some of the older Ultima games (Ultima 1 through 4) have no in-game command for quitting the game. To quit out of these games switch to windowed mode and close the DOSBox window, but make sure you save first (using "Q")! All sound in DOSBox emulation is piped through the wave output in Windows, including PC Speaker sounds. This is very handy since you can control the volume of the PC Speaker sounds with the Windows "wave" volume control (or the master volume) or your speaker's volume dial. DOSBox attempts to emulate a fast 486 processor system. It's default CPU Cycle setting is 2500. Since many older games didn't reference the internal system clock to control their timing, I've had to tailor the CPU cycles to match each game's requirements. In each game description I've included the CPU cycle value that I used in the games .conf file. I chose the values based on what I think most accurately reproduces the sound effects and gameplay of the game while still taking into consideration that some games could have utilized a beefier system in their day (such as Ultima Underworlds 1 and 2). Incidentally, although I describe the games as "original versions" this is not entirely accurate. They are the original versions that were later patched and re-released. You should not need to apply any official patches to any of these games. Be sure to take a look at the "Documentation" folder in this package for Game Manuals, Maps, Copy Protection answers and other helpful information. The icons to start these games are located in the "Shortcut Icons\Ultima" folder of this package. Akalabeth This version of Akalabeth comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. It has a few colors (CGA) and some midi music that weren't part of the original Akalabeth. This game runs fine in the NTVDM environment of Windows XP as long as you have the following line in your C:\Windows\System32\Autoexec.nt file: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3 Make sure that this is the only SET BLASTER command in the Autoexec.nt file that's not REM'd out. This game doesn't work properly in DOSBox-0.61, but DOSBox was handy in configuring the sound file. My attempts to configure the sound via the Akalabeth setup.exe file from the Windows XP NTVDM console resulted in multiple crashes, so it's best you don't mess with sound configuration. MIDI music (which is the only sound) should play correctly as long as your sound card is compatible with NTVDM soundblaster emulation and the SET BLASTER command line variable shown above is included in your Autoexec.nt file. In this version of Akalabeth "Q" will save your game, "CTRL-Q" or "CTRL-E" will quit to desktop and "CTRL-R" will restore your saved game. None of these commands were present in the original Akalabeth. Purists, don't be disheartened, for under the "Shortcut Icons\Ultima Remakes & Revisions" folder you'll see an icon labeled "Akalabeth (AK1 - Original Version -Mine Jr)". This is a pure PC port of the original Akalabeth game with no additions, no MIDI, nothing but the original black and white Akalabeth. Ultima 1 - First Age of Darkness This is the 1987 re-release of Ultima1 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 225 for this game. Although this version of the game has 16-color graphics I had problems running it in this mode with DOSBox so I set the emulation to use CGA instead. If you want to give the 16-color graphics a shot on your computer then edit the "Ultima1.conf" DOSBox config file as a text file and change the line "machine=cga" (found under the [dosbox] heading) to either "machine=vga" or "machine=auto". There's also a Fan Patch in this package that supposedly fixes a bug in the OUT.EXE file that caused compatibility issues with certain VGA schemes, but this patch didn't seem to fix the graphics glitch for me in DOSBox so I didn't use it. This game uses only PC speaker sound effects with no background music. Ultima 2 - Revenge of the Enchantress This is the original 1982 version of Ultima2 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 175 for this game. The game uses RGB/CGA graphics and PC speaker sounds with no background music. Ultima 3 - Exodus This is the original 1983 version of Ultima3 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 200 for this game. The game uses RGB/CGA graphics and PC speaker sounds with no background music. Ultima 4 - Quest of the Avatar This is the original 1985 version of Ultima4 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 300 for this game. The game uses 16-color graphics and PC speaker sounds with no background music. DOSBox doesn't get this game quite right (at least not on my system). There are some odd pauses, such as after you attack a creature, and the PC speaker sounds aren't emulated as well as they could have been. Unless you're a purist, I recommend trying some of the unofficial recreations I've included in this package. XU4 is probably the closest to the original game, but Virtue of Humility is truly an impressive piece of work (it plays the game in 800x600 resolution) and the one I recommend playing if you're not a purist. Recently, an enhanced version of Virtue of Humility that uses improved Ultima5 tilesets was released. Both the U5 tileset and the older U4 tileset versions of Virtue of Humility are included in this package. Utlima 5 - Warriors of Destiny This is the original 1988 version of Ultima5 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 375 for this game. The game uses 16-color graphics and PC speaker sounds with no background music. There are some odd pauses during startup and while viewing the introduction but the game itself seems to play just fine through DOSBox. Hit CTRL-E while in-game to bring up a prompt asking whether or not you want to quit to DOS. Don't forget to save first (using Q). Ultima 6 - The False Prophet This is the original 1990 version of Ultima6 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 1800 for this game. The game uses 256-color graphics, PC speaker sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use Creative Music System for the MIDI music and it seems to work well. Although you'll hear sound during the introduction, when you start a new game the sound is disabled by default; use CTRL-Z to toggle the sound on/off when in-game. The game seems to run well in DOSBox, but you may notice that the images on the Avatar's television play ridiculously fast during the intro sequence! Don't worry about this, the gameplay itself seems to work properly. Hit CTRL-Q while in-game to bring up a prompt asking whether or not you want to quit to DOS. Don't forget to save first (using CTRL-S) Ultima 7 - The Black Gate This is the original 1992 version of Ultima7 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM, which includes the Forge of Virtue expansion. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 5000 for this game. The game uses 256-color graphics, digital sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use SoundBlaster Pro for sounds and Adlib for the MIDI music. After you double-click the icon to start the game you'll also need to hit the space-bar after you see the DOSBox window come up (this is a necessary work around to some problem with DOSBox and this game). On my system, the voice in the intro is significantly louder than the MIDI music and unfortunately DOSBox does not currently have an option to toggle volume controls for each sound component. Also, the game is very stuttery, with pauses every few feet; I could not figure out a way around this. If you're not a purist, I recommend installing Exult, the unofficial Windows engine, located in the "Remakes & Revisions" folder of this package in the directory named "Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)". Overall, the Exult team has done an incredible job of creating a superb engine from which to play Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2 in a Windows environment and the engine includes many additional configuration and gameplay features not found in the original game. Ultima 7, Part 2 - Serpent Isle This is the original 1993 version of Ultima7 Part 2 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM, which includes the Silver Seed expansion. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 5000 for this game. The game uses 256-color graphics, digital sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use SoundBlaster Pro for sounds and Adlib for the MIDI music. After you double-click the icon to start the game you'll also need to hit the space-bar after you see the DOSBox window come up (this is a necessary work around to some problem with DOSBox and this game). On my system, the voice in the intro is significantly louder than the MIDI music and unfortunately DOSBox does not currently have an option to toggle volume controls for each sound component. Also, the game is very stuttery, with pauses every few feet; I could not figure out a way around this. If you're not a purist, I recommend installing Exult, the unofficial Windows engine, located in the "Remakes & Revisions" folder of this package in the directory named "Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)". Overall, the Exult team has done an incredible job of creating a superb engine from which to play Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2 in a Windows environment and the engine includes many additional configuration and gameplay features not found in the original game. Ultima 8 - Pagan This is the original 1994 version of Ultima8 that comes with the Ultima Collection CD-ROM. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 10000 for this game. If your computer is not fast enough, you may experience choking which makes the game unbearably choppy. To toggle back the CPU cycles use CTRL-F11. CTRL-F12 will increase the CPU cycles. Decreasing CPU cycles will result in slower framerates but is preferable to choking which grinds the game to a halt. While playing in windowed mode, you can see what your current CPU cycles are across the top border of the active DOSBox window. Once you find a number that works for you, you can edit the "Ultima8.conf" DOSBox config as a text file and edit the "cycles=10000" under the [cpu] heading to the new default value that works best on your system. The game uses 256-color graphics, digital sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use SoundBlaster Pro for sounds and MPU-401 for the MIDI music. On my system, the voice in the intro is significantly louder than the MIDI (even more so than the Ultima 7 titles) and unfortunately DOSBox does not currently have an option to toggle volume controls for each sound component. The game is somewhat stuttery but definitely playable. Ultima Underworld 1 - The Stygian Abyss This is the original 1992 version of Ultima Underworld that comes with the Ultimate RPG Archives CD-ROM set. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 9000 for this game. If your computer is not fast enough, you may experience choking which makes the game unbearably choppy. To toggle back the CPU cycles use CTRL-F11. CTRL-F12 will increase the CPU cycles. Decreasing CPU cycles will result in slower framerates but is preferable to choking which grinds the game to a halt. While playing in windowed mode, you can see what your current CPU cycles are across the top border of the active DOSBox window. Once you find a number that works for you, you can edit the "Ultimaworld1.conf" DOSBox config as a text file and edit the "cycles=9000" under the [cpu] heading to the new default value that works best on your system. The game uses 256-color graphics, digital sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use SoundBlaster Pro for sounds and Adlib for the MIDI music. On my system, the voice in the intro is somewhat louder than the MIDI music and unfortunately DOSBox does not currently have an option to toggle volume controls for each sound component. The game runs fairly well in most respects. Ultima Underworld 2 - Labyrinth of Worlds This is the original 1993 version of Ultima Underworld 2 that comes with the Ultimate RPG Archives CD-ROM set. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 12000 for this game (this game requires the most CPU resources of any game in this package to run smoothly). If your computer is not fast enough, you may experience choking which makes the game unbearably choppy. To toggle back the CPU cycles use CTRL-F11. CTRL-F12 will increase the CPU cycles. Decreasing CPU cycles will result in slower framerates but is preferable to choking which grinds the game to a halt. While playing in windowed mode, you can see what your current CPU cycles are across the top border of the active DOSBox window. Once you find a number that works for you, you can edit the "Ultimaworld2.conf" DOSBox config as a text file and edit the "cycles=12000" under the [cpu] heading to the new default value that works best on your system. The game uses 256-color graphics, digital sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use SoundBlaster Pro for sounds and Adlib for the MIDI music. On my system, the voice in the intro is somewhat louder than the MIDI music and unfortunately DOSBox does not currently have an option to toggle volume controls for each sound component. The game runs fairly well in most respects. Worlds of Ultima 1 - Savage Empire This is the original 1990 version of Savage Empire. This games uses the Ultima6 engine. As far as I know, the game was never patched and never re-released. I scrounged this copy off the internet. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 1800 for this game. The game uses 256-color graphics, PC speaker sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use Adlib for the MIDI music and it seems to work well. Worlds of Ultima 2 - Martian Dreams This is the original 1991 version of Martian Dreams. This games uses the Ultima6 engine. As far as I know, the game was never patched and never re-released. I scrounged this copy off the internet. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 2100 for this game. The game uses 256-color graphics, PC speaker sounds and MIDI background music. I've configured the game to use Adlib for the MIDI music and it seems to work well. NOTE: See the "Remakes & Revisions" section of this readme for information on the games in the "C:\Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions" folder. Documentation: In the root of the "Documentation" folder you'll find a document taken from Dino's Ultima Page that contains all the answers you'll need to bypass copy protection in every Ultima game. Unless you're a veteran of whatever game you're playing, I recommend you also check out the folder corresponding to the game you intend to play. At the very least examine the game's instruction manual ya freakin' goon! DOSBox v.61: The Almighty DOSBox! Special thanks to these geeks. Without them, us Ultima fans would be royally screwed. Don't know about you, but I don't have any 486 machines laying around! Here's the link to the DOSBox website: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/ Here's a link to the Boxer website. Boxer is a front-end for DOSBox and a dang helpful one too. It made it a lot easier to fiddle with the various game configurations: http://www.pcgamester.co.uk/modules/news/ Fan Patches: These are a collection of Ultima patches I downloaded from the Ultima Reconstruction website (which you can find in the "Links" folder) and didn't end up using. Most of them aren't needed with DOSBox and the ones I tried to use didn't work out for one reason or another. I included them here in the off chance the someone, somewhere might use them for something. To find out more about them check out this link: http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?page=project&type=fanpatch Game Box Art: This folder has JPEG images of the boxes for all of the original Ultima games in this package. Most of these were posted on the File Soup forums by Lynette C (all but Savage Empire and Martian Chronicles, which came from Moby Games). Thanks Lynette C! Links: A collection of URLs that are handy for getting information on these classic Ultima games. Most of the Documentation included in this package came from these websites. Lord British Interview: Since I decided to go with an ISO image of the Ultima Collection CD-ROM in v1.2 of Ultima Classics, I included the video clip answers to the interview with Richard Garriott in this folder on the off chance you don't have a CDR drive and therefore can't create a CD from the ISO to view the interview that way. Remakes & Revisions: The folder off the root of this package labeled "Remakes & Revisions" contains the source materials I used to setup the "Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions" folder (which should now exist on your computer as C:\Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions). There's one folder in particular under "Remakes & Revisions" that you should look at; "Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)". I couldn't setup Exult in advance because it adds to Windows registry during installation. You'll need to run the installation yourself if you wish to use it (which I recommend you do if you want to play Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2). Everything else except "Underworld Adventures - Mojito (Ultima Underworld Windows Engine)", "Ultima Darkcore (unofficial browser-based Ultima)" and "UltimaV Lazarus (3D Recreation of UltimaV using Dungeon Siege Engine)" I've already setup for you. Below, are some notes on the Remakes and Revisions I've setup. The icons to start these games are located in the "Shortcut Icons\Ultima Remakes & Revisions" folder of this package. Akalabeth (AK1 - Original Version - Mine Jr) This is a PC port done by Mine Jr of the original Akalabeth game created by Richard Garriott way back in the near-forgotten archaic age of 1979. It is the same game verbatim; no changes whatsoever. Akalabeth (AK2 - Remake - Mine Jr) This is Mine Jr's recreation of Akalabeth with some basic tile-based graphics and backgrounds. It's some nice work and worth taking a look at if you're an Akalabeth fanatic. Don't bother trying to view the introduction, though. It will probably crash to desktop. Akalabeth (AK3 with Graphics Addon - 2K1 Beta v1.02 - Mine Jr) This is a later Akalabeth recreation done by Mine Jr that sadly never left the beta stage. I encountered some very annoying bugs in this game while trying to run it. If you choose to give it a whirl don't be surprised if it sucks. Here's a link if you're interested in getting more details on Mine Jr's now seemingly defunct Akalabeth recreations: http://www.geocities.com/AkalabethRemake/ UltimaII (Exodus Project Upgrade v1.1) Added in Ultima Classics v1.2, this upgrade was written by Michael C. Maggio a.k.a. Voyager Dragon. This upgrade to Ultima2 adds 16-color graphics (EGA), the ability to toggle the autosave feature on/off, the ability to save your game on galactic maps, while on a horse, ship, plane or rocket, a speed fix and frame limiter that allows the game to be played through Windows XP in the NTVDM environment, and hotkeys for restoring saved games (ALT-R), exiting to dos (ALT-X), and quitting to the main menu (ALT-M). Unfortunately, the upgraded graphics introduce glitches (like the ones seen when playing Ultima1 in 16-color mode) if the game is played through DOSBox. Since the game must be played through Windows the PC Speaker sounds will probably not work correctly on most systems. So, your decision to play this version boils down to whether or not you want the PC Speaker sounds of the original or EGA graphics with the extra options. Run "u2cfg.exe" located in the program directory to configure the game options. UltimaII (Windows Native) This a Windows Engine for Ultima2 written by John Alderson. It has some bugs and no sound. The project now appears defunct. Since the original Ultima2 game seems to run perfectly in DOSBox where you have the option to hear or not to hear the PC Speaker sounds, there's no longer much point in a Windows Engine for Ultima2. Here's the source website if you're curious: http://ultima2.voyd.net/ UltimaIII (Exodus Project Upgrade v2.5) Added in Ultima Classics v1.2, this upgrade was written by Michael C. Maggio a.k.a. Voyager Dragon. This upgrade to Ultima3 adds 16-color graphics (EGA), the ability to toggle the autosave feature on/off, a frame limiter that allows the game to be played through Windows XP in the NTVDM environment, hotkeys for restoring saved games (ALT-R), exiting to dos (ALT-X), and quitting to the main menu (ALT-M), and MIDI background music from the C64 and Apple II versions of Ultima3. Unfortunately, the upgraded graphics introduce glitches (like the ones seen when playing Ultima1 in 16-color mode) if the game is played through DOSBox. Since the game must be played through Windows the PC Speaker sounds will probably not work correctly on most systems. So, your decision to play this version boils down to whether or not you want the PC Speaker sounds of the original or EGA graphics, MIDI background music and the extra options. Run "u3cfg.exe" located in the program directory to configure the game options. UltimaIII (U3Project - Beta 20030323) This is a recreation of Ultima3 that's still in the beta stage of development. The intention among other things is to recreate Ultima3 with a new, more colorful tileset and better sound. I've encountered various difficulties with this one, including crashes to desktop while trying to get past the title screen. When I did manage to create a party and start a game I couldn't actually move anywhere! But hey, the graphics look way better than the original Ultima3!!! Keep your eye on this one. I have a feeling it may eventually become close to being as good as Virtue of Humility is to Ultima4. Here's the project website: http://www.xmission.com/~mhansen/ultima3/ UltimaIV (Virtue of Humility v4.0430) The crème de le crème of Ultima recreations. George Stepan has really outdone himself on this one. The game runs natively in Windows XP with 256-color graphics at 800x600 resolution. I highly recommend playing this over the original Ultima4, or any Ultima clone/recreation for that matter. The entire game is here (slightly altered) with an additional module not present in the original game and everything looks and sounds much, much better to boot! This is by far the best old-school Ultima recreation to date. In part, you have Electronic Arts to thank for that since in an uncharacteristic display of generosity they made Ultima4 shareware. Because of that, the game can be distributed as a full product whereas recreations of other Ultima titles require that you have the original Ultima game. Being able to distribute a complete product without concern for copyright issues undoubtedly makes coding easier to deal with. Here's the link to the Virtue of Humility website: http://www.wizardportal.com/ UltimaIV (Virtue of Humility v4.0530 - U5 tileset) This is an enhanced version of Virtue of Humility using an improved Ultima5 tileset. George Stepan just doesn't know when to quite! UltimaIV (XU4 v.9 with 256-color upgrade v1.3) XU4 is a project to recreate Ultima4 with a Windows Engine. It's nearing completion and in its current state is fully playable from beginning to end with some minor bugs. This is a very accurate recreation that purists will certainly appreciate. If Virtue of Humility is a bit too much of a departure from the original Ultima4 for your tastes check this out. Just about every feature that's been added above the original can be disabled. I've included Aradindae Dragon and Wiltshire Dragon's 256-color upgrade to the Ultima4 tileset (which is compatible with the original Ultima4 as well as XU4. Note, this upgrade also adds MIDI music to game when used with the original Ultima4, but XU4 has it's own MIDI scores and therefore only utilizes the tileset upgrade). If you wish to play XU4 with the original 16-color Ultima4 tileset simply edit the video configuration from the configuration menu in-game; set it from VGA to EGA (and disable screen shaking if you're shooting for a pure recreation). Here's a link to XU4's homepage: http://xu4.sourceforge.net/ A link to the Auric's Ultima Moongate Annex, host site for Aradindae Dragon and Wiltshire Dragon's Ultima Upgrade: http://www.moongates.com/ UltimaV (Exodus Project Upgrade v1.0) Added in Ultima Classics v1.2, this upgrade was written by Michael C. Maggio a.k.a. Voyager Dragon. This is the least developed of the three Exodus Project upgrades, but ironically therein lies its strength. Because no frame limiter or major code changes were made with this fix the game can be played through DOSBox, so the original PC Speaker sounds will still work. I've set the DOSBox CPU cycles to 375 for this game. This upgrade adds the MIDI background music from the Apple II / Commodore 128 version of Ultima5, music during character creation, the introduction, and endgame not found in any original version of Ultima5, and the ability to exit the game from the main menu (CTRL-E). I recommend playing this version of the game since it includes everything in the original Ultima5 for the PC along with the upgrades and it seems to work well. Here's the homepage for the Exodus Project: http://exodus.voyd.net/ Here's some information on the rest of the contents in the "Remakes & Revisions" folder. These require manual setup: Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine) I recommend installing this and using it to run Ultima 7 Parts 1 and 2. There are two versions included in this package, Exult v1.1.10rc2 (earlier version) and Exult v1.2 (the latest version). It's not 100% polished (I noticed that some sound effects aren't accurately reproduced) but it runs more smoothly than playing the original games through DOSBox and has several video and sound configuration options not included in the original Ultima7 engine. As of Ultima Classics v1.2 of I've included the Sound Packs needed for sound effects to work while using Exult. Information on configuring the sound packs can be found under section 3.0 of Exult's Documentation page here: http://exult.sourceforge.net/docs.php#Audio. The simplest configuration is to extract the Sound Packs from "Remakes & Revisions\Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)\Sound Pack - Black Gate" and "Remakes & Revisions\Exult (UltimaVII Windows Engine)\Sound Pack - Serpent Isle" to the "Data" folder of your Exult installation. No further configuration is required for sound effects to work in the game. Here's the Exult website: http://exult.sourceforge.net/ Underworld Adventures - Mojito (Ultima Underworld Windows Engine) This project looks very promising but isn't as far along as Exult. Take a look at it if you're curious, but I ran into difficulties with the most basic parts of the game such as picking up items, doors were too small, things like that. Here's the Underworld Adventures homepage: http://uwadv.sourceforge.net/ Ultima Darkcore (unofficial browser-based Ultima) This was a browser-based Ultima game created for Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape 4.0. Unless you have one of those old browsers you'll likely experience repeated crashes, though. This game is set just after the end of Ultima8. Here's the website: http://bilbo.bio.purdue.edu/~mhilborn/darkcore/ UltimaV Lazarus (3D Recreation of UltimaV using Dungeon Siege Engine) As a prerequisite to using this module, you must have the Dungeon Siege game (which is not included in this package) installed on your computer. It's currently in its alpha stage of development. The U5 Lazarus homepage: http://www.u5lazarus.com/ Shortcut Icons: These are shortcuts I setup to run the games in this package. As long as you follow the instructions I listed in the Setup portion of this readme then all the shortcuts should work. There are two subfolders in "Shortcut Icons". The "Shortcut Icons\Ultima" folder has all the shortcuts for the original Ultima games that should be located under "C:\Classic Games\Ultima" on your computer. The "Shortcut Icons\Ultima Remakes & Revisions" folder has shortcuts that run the revised Ultima Games that should be located under "C:\Classic Games\Ultima\_Remakes & Revisions"on your computer. Special thanks to Frank Wolters (a.k.a Sir Cabirus) for his awesome Ultima Icon art. Here's his homepage http://www.sircabirus.com/ Ultima Collection CD-ROM: As of v1.2 I've removed the contents and replaced them with an ISO image of the Ultima Collection CD-ROM released in 1998. Since all the games from the CD-ROM can be found already setup under the "Ultima Games" folder in this package there's really no need for it. However, some people like to tinker with things themselves. If you're the type that wants to install the games yourselves and play around with them from scratch then this CD-ROM will come in handy (it has the install for Akalabeth, and Ultima 1 through 8). Although I included the video files of Lord British's answers to the interview questions in the "Lord British Interview" folder of this package, you may also be curious to see the questions posed to him during the interview. They are on this CD-ROM as well. Well, that's it for Ultima Classics v1.2. This will probably be the last release I circulate until there are a significant number changes made in fan-based Ultima recreations and revisions.