Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[NerevarineKing]

I'm replaying Ultima 4 since I didn't beat it several years ago. I'm glad I know about turning off the sound since it makes the game run so much faster. I've blasted through so much of it already in just a few days. It also helps that I haven't recruited any companions yet.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I'm glad I know about turning off the sound since it makes the game run so much faster.

If you're not being stunlocked by Reapers for 15 minutes, are you really playing Ultima 4?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ah, those are the days eh. Just stay poisoned if you hate sleepy sleep.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I have pondered on buying these reference books... or finding pdfs somewhere.

Reference Books
The Books The Genesis of Ultima ☥ The Official Book of Ultima ☥ Our Epic Origin

and there is a 2011, 2012, 2013, addendum version of
The Ultimate Collector’s Guide

2011 edition

cover
Title: Ultima: The Ultimate Collector's Guide: 2012 Edition
Publisher: CreateSpace
Author: Stephen Emond
Published: Nevember 11, 2011
Length: 826 pages
Original List Price: $49.99
ISBN-10: 1467934607
ISBN-13: 978-1467934602
Contents[edit]
Created by Stephen Emond, this guide in all detail lists all the versions of the various games that were released all over the world (24 countries to be exact), complete with pictures. This includes Ultima I-IX, Akalabeth, Mt Drash, Runes of Virtue and Runes of Virtue II, Savage Empire, Martian Dreams, and Ultima Underworldand Ultima Underworld II as well as the many Collections & Compilations. Also included are bonus chapters for Ultima X, Ultima Online, as well as information to publications connected to the games, like hint books.

Inside the book are:

• Information about 520 main series releases and 180 Ultima Online releases.
• Details about 286 book releases and 267 Ultima Online books.
• 149 items connected to the series and 69 Ultima Online items

Pity this was cancelled:
The 25th Anniversary Edition

Not surprising, esp since they cancelled their mobile fame in less than a year.

I went to the EA site and.... it looks like shit. It is like EA might fold or sone crap.

On a lighter note there is also:

 

[Cael]

Get Tales of the Avatar, both books by Caroline Spector. I loved the second one to death when I was younger. Book basically disintegrated from the amount of times I read it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Length: 826 pages

now I'm kind of curious as to what's in it

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I found pdfs of Through the Moongates 1 & 2 and it is long as well. Don't expect pics except the cover. I'm noticing books on sierra, sud meyer, etc. eh... biography & gaming history perhaps.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

For the two of us who are attempting to play Ultima 5 on Linux, if you want GM music you need a version of DOSBox that supports Fluidsynth or Timidity then use that program to select your sound card driver after running Ultima patcher through WINE. Took me a bit of messing around to figure that out.

 

[Cael]

Do anyone know where I can buy the Avatar Adventures books? They are long out of print, but surely someone somewhere had pdf'd them or something?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Avatar Adventure books?

This?

or

Mocagh

or these?

or just go to pix

 

[Cael]

Avatar Adventure books?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Mocagh link has those and I'm sure pix does too.

 

[Cael]

Mocagh link has those and I'm sure pix does too.

Thanks. I'll see if I can download them and get them bound. Be good to read them again.

 

[Infinitron]

https://github.com/ergonomy-joe/u6-decompiled

u6-decompiled
Decompiled code for PC/MSDOS version of Ultima VI - The False Prophet (version 4.5)

This project allows you to build GAME.EXE, with very few differences from the original. I have also decompiled most of the other executables, but I have to make the code more readable before releasing it.

The techniques used to decompile GAME.EXE is basically the same I used to decompile Ultima IV:

• disassemble the executable
• gather the tools/libraries that were originaly used (Borland Turbo C 2.0 in our case)
• search for modules/functions separation in the code.
• for each function, read assembly code and try to guess what was the original C code
• build new code and compare the resulting binary with original binary
• eventually correct code and build again
• repeat 3 last steps until all the executable file has been reversed

Some years ago, someone released Ultima 6 Technical Documents online, which proved very helpful to understand some parts of the code, and to give a name to some functions/variables/macros. Be aware though that these documents refer to an earlier version of the game, and so they do not reflect exactly what is in the code.

Concerning the build process:
The original game was build with Borland Turbo C 2.0 for the part written in C language (most of the files). There are some asm files too, you will need tasm 2.0 and masm 3.0 to build them.

All you need to know for the build process is in the file SRC/doit.bat which uses MAKEFILE. Before that, you will need to launch SRC/OSILIB/doit.bat. I think I put most of the asm files in there.

The naming of the C files is not friendly at all, and I apologize for that. Maybe some renaming will take place in the future ?

Have a lot of decompiling fun!
2022/03/29 ergonomy_joe

PS: when I first decompiled this code, I posted some comments on a french abandonware related forum, you can take a look here.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Is there an Ultima 7 manual that tells you what all the interface buttons and everything do? I downloaded the gog version but the manual was all lore and spell reagents

 

[newtmonkey]

perfectslumbers
There should be a reference card that shows that information. If GOG doesn't include it, you can find it here:

https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=u7

(top row, fourth from left)

 

[perfectslumbers]

There should be a reference card that shows that information. If GOG doesn't include it, you can find it here:

Thank you

 

[NerevarineKing]

I've finally been playing Ultima 5 for the first time and it's such an improvement over Ultima 4 in basically every way. I can definitely see why this one is so beloved and it's probably my favorite one so far.

Also, all of the the Ultima games I've played from GOG have included several documents, including the reference card.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

I've finally been playing Ultima 5 for the first time and it's such an improvement over Ultima 4 in basically every way. I can definitely see why this one is so beloved and it's probably my favorite one so far.

Also, all of the the Ultima games I've played from GOG have included several documents, including the reference card.

GOG's version of Ultima 5 is missing the Journal of Lord British which is crucial for beating the game. A copy can be found here:

Spoiler

https://mocagh.org/origin/u5-journal.pdf

 

[NerevarineKing]

I've finally been playing Ultima 5 for the first time and it's such an improvement over Ultima 4 in basically every way. I can definitely see why this one is so beloved and it's probably my favorite one so far.

Also, all of the the Ultima games I've played from GOG have included several documents, including the reference card.

GOG's version of Ultima 5 is missing the Journal of Lord British which is crucial for beating the game. A copy can be found here:

Spoiler

https://mocagh.org/origin/u5-journal.pdf

I'll have to look at that for sure, it's a shame they don't include that.

 

[Infinitron]

http://exult.sourceforge.net/

Ultima VII turns 30 - Exult releases version 1.8

30 years ago Origin released Ultima VII - The Black Gate and many still hold this game in a very high regard. We certainly do!
Instead of waiting another decade this is the perfect opportunity to release our next version. Because of the measures we took to eliminate weird crashes it was important to make a new release available.
By default we will now play the extended intro of Serpent Isle, that we restored from an old recording of it. It was cut and slimmed down for the release of Ultima VII's Part 2 to conserve precious floppy disk space. A shout out to Denis Loubet for creating this masterpiece.
Two important things were always missing from Exult in regards to the Black Gate:
The sound effects in the intro and the congratulations screen! Both are now present!
Currently we are in the process of merging Ken Cecka's fork of Exult for Android (*). While this is not yet finished, Ken created a 1.8 version based on our release code.
You can find the Android, Windows and macOS releases on our download page (**).
Please play with it and tell us of any problem you encounter using the forum or bug tracker.

A brief list of the most important changes in Exult since v1.6:

• Windows builds are by default 64bit
• Exult Studio modernized by porting it to GTK+ 3 (thanks Dragon Baroque)
• Exult Studio now offered as a download for macOS
• Exult shows the proper ending screen for BG (you have beaten Ultima VII in nn days...)
• Sound effects in the BG intro were missing
• Extended intro for SI implemented
• More crashes eliminated caused by cached out objects
• "Gumps pause game" no longer delays usecode events
• Smooth virtual joystick movement on iOS
• iOS shows the mouse cursor when a real mouse device is used
• Screenshots will now be saved in the PNG format
• Status bars can now also be vertical on both sides of the screen
• Updated Windows installer to download and install the audio packs and our mods
• Our options have been reordered

But we do have known issues:

• Antimagic rain caused by the cube generator is still not dissipating as fast as it should
• Exult does not return to the game menu after beating the game (instead it quits)
• Some schedules need more detailed love
• Several bugs that need more in-depth looking at but no plot-stopping bugs

(*) Follow Ken's fork at his github page.

(**) All files have been scanned and cleared with Virus Total's online scanner, however Avast falsely flags our InnoSetup based installer for Windows.

 

[Gastrick]

Was playing Ultima VI but dropped it after I couldn't find the pirate map pieces. It seems that if you play on widescreen instead of the original aspect ratio, the UI is more tolerable. Even then you need a good supply of torches or light-magic ingredients. For things I disliked, it's that there's only three stats and one of them, magic, is only accessible to the Avatar. (Nvm, there are a couple classes that can use magic, but their INT stat is 1/4 of his). The combat is also quite shit where you either have no control over your party, or you switch on control and fights take a very long time. It's also really easy, but was starting to pick up before I left off. You finish most encounters with 80% of your health left, and for the exceptions you can win quickly with lightning. The exploration elements are fun, like searching out all the cities and locations. It's too bad that U4's ethics elements are sidelined, and you can even kill a few civilians with no consequences. They introduce 8 more virtues, but they don't actually do anything outside of the story. I'm sure the intentions were some libtard "all cultures matter" kind of thing, but around half of them are better than the old ones, like persistence, achievement, and order. It really is unique, how scarce money is in this game, where you can't just farm respawns, but need to do special side quests like with the bank. I liked how the spell books worked, that you need to find or buy the pages to cast spells. Something about the game makes it addictive to play. The NPC scheduling was well done here. Mixed views on this game.

 

[Cael]

U6 have scarce money? Are you serious??? I filled the entire Castle Britannia with bags of 3000 gold.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Were you the King's treasurer? Taxes that bad in Britannia? Damn you LB! You ain't getting a Sosarian Moon Rocket!!!

 

[Cael]

Were you the King's treasurer? Taxes that bad in Britannia? Damn you LB! You ain't getting a Sosarian Moon Rocket!!!

Well, you know that Book of Mantras you can get from the Lycaeum? Turns out that if you show it to the wisps for gold, your ENTIRE inventory fills up with gold nuggets up to your carry limit. My Avatar had 30 Strength, and so do half my party (Segallion, Sentri, Dupre).

Think on that for a second.

And as a second line of money making, that junction outside of Skara Brae has mongbats and adventures fighting. They frequently have daggers, which are light and sells for 5 gold. Many, MANY daggers. And they spawn at the drop of a hat if you even move off screen. I once had to chase down the adventurer in a group, and by the time I got back to the junction to loot the corpses, another group was fighting already.

And then that British fucker sent me back home without so much as a "by your leave" and 200 years later, all that cash was gone. How the fuck did you throw away over a million gold, you %$*&#*(%^!!!!!