Several Ultima problems :(
Pheonix
into several problems that I will detail below in the hopes of finding
out how to fix them Originally I played Ultima 1-5 on my C=64 and was
just starting Ultima VI when the magic smoke escaped from my computer.
I have since upgraded my system several times, until I now have a
P4-1.6ghz system (though I've also recently purchased a C-128 for
nestalgia purposes.)
Running across the Ultima Collection CD in a bargain bin I wanted to
relive the joys of Ultima (the sleepless nights, the frantic
scribbling of clues, etc...) Just to be complete, I also went digging
and found UW 1&2 in another collection, and even found the Savage
Empire and Martian Dreams (though after looking at them I don't
consider them Ultima.)
Little did I realize the problems that would face me on installing and
running them. First and foremost is speed. ACK!!! Well, there was
an answer just waiting for me on the CD. Problem is that it didn't
work. MoSlo 2.1 Deluxe does not work on systems over 600mhz (approx.)
Well, no big problem, I just purchased the latest MoSlo. Not good.
Ultima III never slowed down enough no matter where I set the % too.
Ultima IV was jerky - speed seemed good most of the time, but every
few seconds it would increase to warp speed then slow back down. The
others were ok for the most part though. Even got Ultima II to play
the sounds correctly (like I remember them on the C=64 or close.)
To make a long story short, I'll skip over fighting with the other
problems. The lack of music, the inability to even play U7 or SI with
sound (SB Audigy SB16 emulator **requires** emm386.exe.) Having to
reboot for many of them (a royal pain in the @$$.) With the help of
the U2-5 upgrades, U?win9x, and alot of searching on the web I fixed
most of my problems. However some still remain and I will go into
details on each of the games below.
One problem consistent with all of them (except 7+ of course) is that
the key repeats so fast it's blinding. If I hold down a movement key
for a few seconds, I can litterally be on the other side of the world
in a matter of a few seconds. If I happen to come across a creature
during that time, my entire party could end up either at one end of
the combat screen, or escaping from combat before I can even think of
taking my finger off the key.
Ultima I:
Plays great for the most part. Can get the sounds close to
correct thanks to MoSlo4Biz in mode 2. Though I have to turn it off
in space. It's almost as if they re-coded the game with my system
speed in mind, but left out the codeing that would allow it to adjust
to different speeds. So, I just play it without MoSlo and put up with
not having the sounds. Note: It was the sounds and music that made me
fall in love with Ultima in the first place, Ultima III on the C=64
was the first Ultima I ever played. The only other problem is a nasty
graphics glicth that causes messages to print over themselves whenever
a critter attacks me. I'm told this has to do with advanced graphics
cards. If I play in CGA mode with the /c switch (YUCK!!!) it works
fine though. I'm hopeing that someone somwere either has, or will,
write a interface program to filter this little problem. I'm also
hopeing that someday, someone will write a digitized sound patch for
it 8)
Ultima II:
Plays great, no problems :) With MoSlo in mode 2, I get the
speeds set just right and it works great. It even, if I work tt right
sort of fix the key repeat problem mentioned above. I can also, by
adjusting the speed during play, slow it down enough to make landing
the rocket ship a little easier. I really enjoyed the upgrade patch
from Exodus Project and can't wait to see if he adds in the digitized
sounds like is mentioned somewhere on his page. Note: If you are
reading this, I can attempt to do a capture from my C=64 emulator of
the sounds and e-mail them too you if you want :)
Ultima III:
Here is where I first encounter some major problems. First, with
the upgrade patch, MoSlo stops working entirely no matter how I set
it. The Frame Limiter in the patch does a good job for the most part
though. however, the winds still change at a difficult rate, the
sounds of course are at warp speed, and the whirlpool is almost
impossable to avoid/catch. I litterally watched it cross the entire
screen from left to right (with several turns and reverses) in a
matter of just a few seconds. Other than that, it's great 8)
Ultima IV:
Again, thanks to the upgrade patch at Auric's Moongates, it works
just great. Wish the Frame Limiter defaulted to on, and worked on the
opening sequence as well. Not a major problem though. Guess he
defaults it to off because of the problems in the dungeons with it.
Being able to switch it is handy though. It makes waiting for
moongates alot less tedious, not to mention waiting for wind changes
when you don't have any [W]ind spells. The only other problem I have,
and it may have been bad luck (extremely bad luck,) a problem with the
version on the CD, or possably a change made with the patch, but I
made it to 8th level. Got all my companions. Got all of THEM to 8th
level. Found all but one or two items. Yet I had still failed to
have EVER found a whirlpool. I never even saw one in passing. I
shudder to think that I did this, but I gave up, and used a cheat
program to move me, and my ship, to the middle of Lock Lake. This
allowed me to finish the game. Again, the speaker sounds are too
fast, and MoSlo only works in mode 1, with the problem I mentioned
above, I just don't use it.
Ultima V:
Just starting this one, but I've run around doing some testing.
The upgrade patch from Exodus Project is awesome, and even includes a
Frame Limiter it seems. Though I sometimes have to load, exit, load a
couple of times to get it to kick in. I've run around doing some
testing, and the only problem I see are those mentioned previously.
PC speaker sound & key repeats. All in all, no other complaints.
Can't wait till I start really digging into the story again :)
Ultima VI:
Only one problem. I either have things happen way too fast (on
the side, the game doesn't really need slowed down for the most part.)
It's mainly the animations that are a problem, and the PC speaker
sounds of course. If I slow it down with MoSlo enough so that the
animations look ok, and the sounds actually seem to sound about right
when I do, then the transitions become extremely tedious. When you
escape out of the intro and the main menu fades into view, it's like
pulling teeth :( I can practically go fix myself something to eat
just wating for the fade in to complete. Can't see any real fix for
this however. I've just set things to a comfortable medium level.
The animations are a little too fast, and the scene changes are a
little too slow. I figure it just might be that the original had the
same problem. A Frame Limiter of some sort for it would be grand
though. The only other problem, and at least in 6 you can turn it
off, though in later ones you can't, is that they started making the
key words obvious. Part of the fun I had was talking to someone and
making guesses at the key words :( That could just be me though.
Ultima Underworld 1:
Got it working, got some awesome music thanks to my audigy, only
one complaint, but it's a real brain twister. For some reason, when I
create a character and go to type in the name, if I hold the shift key
and type a letter (to capitalize the name, of course,) it locks up
HARD. Have to power down to recover :( On the other hand, if I tap
the <Caps Lock> key then type the letter, then tap the <Caps Lock> key
again, there is no problem. When I contacted customer support, all
they told me was, "Use the <Caps Lock> key and forget about it."
Hopeing someone else had come across the problem before and new the
answer. I played it once a while back (off of floppies,) and had the
same problem. I fixed it then, but do not, for the life of me,
remember how I fixed it.
Ultima VII - The Black Gate:
No problems, thanks to U7win9x. Just putting it here for
completeness. Wish I could use the roland music withought having most
of the sound effects go weird on me though. I'll just use the
digitized stuff, better than nothing.
Ultima Underworld 2:
No problems whatsoever :)
Ultima VII - Serpent Isle:
Ok, time for another brain twister. With U7win9x, it will load
and run just fine for the most part. However, if I set the sound to
anything other than roland, or have roland set with something else set
up for digitized speech/sound, the game locks up during the intro when
it switches inside the castle with LB, the Guard, and the Scroll. If
I <ESC> out before it gets that far it seems to work ok. However,
when I exit the game, all other programs that access DOS sound report
that they cannot initialize the sound device. Setting digitized sound
in Akalabeth does the same thing - so I just set up the music and
leave the sounds turned off in that. I do the same for SI too, I
guess. Set it for roland music with no digitized sounds.
Ultima VIII:
No problems, thanks to u8win9x, except that I'm still unsure
wether to consider it Ultima or not. No Britannia?? Oh well, guess
it's part of the story.
Ultima IX:
Um, is this really Ultima?? I've played it all the way through
and, is it just me, or doesn't it seem rather linear? The music is
great, the scenery is great, and the story is fairly good (IMHO.)
However, it just seems a bit spartan :( The side quests, while
somewhat plentiful, seem rather simple. The dialoge seems simplistic
and rather fixed. Not to mention being extremely "campy" at points.
Also, the world seems to have shrunk considerably - though that is
understandable to a point. Wasn't a big fan of how it ended, but the
ending did make sense, at least to me. On a side note, if Lord
British just happens to read this, I have to disagree. Hythloth
didn't seem too dificult to me :) I ran thru the entire dungeon even
though I didn't need too. The only problem I had is that there seems
to be a bug with the final block. It didn't pull the shelf out so you
could climb out of the water like you are supposed too. Though I've
heard that others have played through and it did it for them.
Ultima X:
**wish** **wish** (in vain though, U9 sort of put a ca-bosh on
that.)
Sorry for the lenght, but I only recently discovered these newsgroups,
and this has been building up for a bit. I'm off once again to
Britannia, this time to find Lord British.
Take care and adventure well.
Feeding Dragon
**sorry, lost my --udic-- sig, will have to go have it generated again
J.E. Warren
Did you ever get this problem solved? I have the Ultima Collection too, and
I didn't even know there was *supposed* to be sound in Ultima 1!
Anyway, the speed problem has been a big pain in the a$$ for everyone who's
bought this collection, no doubt. I use a program called CPUKiller. You have
to pay to get it registered, but it's made for modern computers and runs
with a graphical user interface. Just go to CPUKiller.com. You can try an
evaluation version. You can also configure it to launch certain games with
different speed settings. You set the speed settings easily with a graphical
sliding bar.
I run Ultima 1 at 50%. No more problems with messages going by too fast. You
were right about Mo'Slo. It's a dream come true, trust me. I recently took
my Ultima Collection (which I'd previously given up on) off the shelf after
finding CPUKiller. (They should pay me for advertising!) Akalabeth and
Ultima 1 are the only games I've played so far, as I'm going in order.
However, for Akalabeth, you won't even need to use a slow-down utility if
you get MinerJr's remake. It's at http://www.geocities.com/AkalabethRemake/
. There are also some graphics addons that make Akalabeth look much prettier
than the old 1970's version. The surface is graphically tiled, and the
monsters in the dungeons are solid polygonal 3d! Same game, just a different
look.
I started writing a Web site just last night, and with it I'm going to try
to spend a little time collecting problems with the Ultima Collection CD and
addressing them. It's at http://www.lettucethink.com/ultima . It's far from
complete, as I just started writing it last night, but soon I'll have that
'comments' link down at the bottom working, and people can offer help to me
and each other right on the site.
At PCUKiller.com, remember that you can buy a license for one person for
$20, but a license for 500 people only costs $15 (!!). I'm hoping someone
out there will buy themselves a license and donate the other 499 to my site,
so I can give them out freely. I already have a registered copy, and don't
have a check card or credit card.
SOOO... If you've gotten through all that... Can you tell me how the heck to
get sound working on Ultima 1? I didn't quite understand that "/c" stuff you
mentioned in your post.
J.E. Warren
aka Matthias Grimm
in Ultima Online,
Lake Superior Shard.
"Pheonix" <REMOVETHI...@cyberdude.com> wrote in message
news:h3hjiuot8c210snpi...@4ax.com...
Steve
I bought the ultima collection [only 2.99] to look at the older ones.
Is ultima 6 really worth playing!!!
It looks so old, and the others even worse. I also cannot at least one of
them to load and play,
ultima 5 and another one.
"J.E. Warren" <ja...@lettucethink.com> wrote in message
news:HPN29.4$D82.7...@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
Lumina Dragon
Steve wrote:
>
> I bought ultima underworld 1, uw2, ultima 7 parts 1 and 2 and ultima 8.
>
> I bought the ultima collection [only 2.99] to look at the older ones.
>
> Is ultima 6 really worth playing!!!
YES!
> It looks so old, and the others even worse. I also cannot at least one of
> them to load and play,
> ultima 5 and another one.
Well, they look old because... they're old.
This does not preclude them being good, though. You shopuld give them a
try.
4-6, definitely. 1-3.... not as well-recieved by modern audiences -
plots didn't get big until 4, really.
But I do count Ultima 6 as one of my favorites. The plot of 5 is simply
one of the most interesting plots in the entire series! And 4.... you
gotta play four. It's a look into how the Avatar became the Avatar.
If you have a computer too new to run DOS games, you'll have trouble
getting anything ebfore 7 to run -- someDragon has made an app that can
run Ultimas 7, SI, and 8 through Windows.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~rsd/U7inWindows.html
(works for U7 and SI; click link at left for U8 in Windows)
-Lumina Dragon
P.S. Just because a game does not have top of the line graphics does not
mean it's not a good game. I still have been known to replay games on my
8-bit NES or Sega, and also the older Ultimas and D&D games for the PC.
Steve
I will load it up tomorrow and let you know what happens
Steve
PS incidentally, the price i paid for this was the proper price for a brand
new game in a
games shop in town
"Lumina Dragon" <kewh...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3D4C735E...@hotmail.com...
David & Barbara Schmidt
Chocolate Breathing Dragons
(Or even $Can or (lb)Brit for that matter)
Chocolate Breathing Dragon (who don't use funny characters like curvy
L's--eat that you silly non-$ using limeys!!!! (just kidding))
--
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day
that they start making vacuum cleaners.
Steve
What I have is a gold covered box called "electronic arts presents CD-ROM
CLASSICS".
"Gold Edition - Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 - for Windows 95 and MS-DOS
computers".
Now i hope the info i gave out isn;t strictly true...but this box cost me
£2.99.
Inside it I have another disk called "Ultima Collection" with all the
ultimas 1-8 on it, including both
ultima 7's and the additions.
It is only a disk, there are no instructions but as i have instructions
anyway for the other originals I
already had, it doesn;t matter. But I know I only paid a £2.99 or maybe
£3.99 for this particular
disk as well as the £2.99 for the uw1 and 2 in the gold box.
The ultima collection installs to a directory called UC and at installation
gives you the option of
installing whichever one you want to on an individual basis.
It is a proper origin made CD.
Steve
"David & Barbara Schmidt" <davn...@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:553CAA6B4863392E.3471E11D...@lp.airnews.net...
J.E. Warren
When you go to play Ultima, you're getting a good book with meager graphics
and interactivity, which really is more than most books offer ; )
If you're having problems with your computer running the games too fast
(this is the biggest problem), check out CPUKiller.com or keep an eye on a
page I just started, at http://www.lettucethink.com/ultima . Although a
program called Mo'Slo is included with the Ultima Collection CD, it was made
for computers that existed six years ago. Being good proof of how fast
computers are evolving, Mo'Slo is no longer adequate for the computers of
the 21st century. Plus, CPUKiller has a grapical interface with sliding bar
for adjusting speed. You can also configure it to run different games at
particular speeds.
I'll warn you that the Ultima Collection is mainly for people who are into
nostalgia. A lot of people buy these games because they remember "growing
up" with them, and so forth.
But they're also for people who love a good story line. The story line
progresses and evolves and becomes much more complicated as you get on with
the series, of course. The plot in Akalabeth is about as simple as the game
itself, but already, as you move into Ultima One, it's beginning to mature.
The world of fantasy you've been summoned to becomes much stranger when you
learn the sorceror Mondain is conspiring with the "Starwalkers",
"unspeakable horrors from the heavens," (aliens), in order to arrange an
invasion of the world.
Jacob
"Steve" <Nospam...@sogetnotted.com> wrote in message
news:aij6sc$1m7$1...@news5.svr.pol.co.uk...
TheCycoONE
<snip>
Ultima IV
Yet I had still failed to
> > have EVER found a whirlpool. I never even saw one in passing. I
> > shudder to think that I did this, but I gave up, and used a cheat
> > program to move me, and my ship, to the middle of Lock Lake. This
> > allowed me to finish the game. Again, the speaker sounds are too
> > fast, and MoSlo only works in mode 1, with the problem I mentioned
> > above, I just don't use it.
I never use the whirlpool in Ultima IV, nor do I use any cheat program. The
blink spell in this game is amazing. Actually I used it to get the items in
Serpent spine too... now that was tedious. The air balloon should work too.
TheCycoONE
> that they start making vacuum cleaners.
To be fair, Dungeon Siege is pretty good... or at least with the Siege
Editor it can be used to make some pretty decent stuff. Actually it's great
in comparison with most modern CRPGs. Win XP is decent to if you spend
enough time customizing/optimizing it.
Lumina Dragon
Did M$ make DS?
I know the Age of Empires games are good, and they have Microsoft's name
on the box -- but as publisher. The games were made by Ensemble Studios.
-Lumina Dragon
Dalboz Dragon
<kewh...@hotmail.com> earned a wedgie by saying:
Dungeon Siege was made by Gas Powered Games. Microsoft was the
publisher.
--
Dalboz Dragon -=(UDIC and Grass Growth Analyst of dANIP)=-
AIM: BeerStud362
ICQ: 14285834
Dispenser of the Holy *SMACK!* (Not to be confused with *SLAP*)
--------------
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--------------
http://dalboz948.tripod.com/
"Holy Flurking Schnit!" - Kang
Lumina Dragon
Moscow Dragon wrote:
>
> > And the MechWarrior/Battletech and Crimson Skies games are published by
> > Microsoft, but developed by FASA Interactive.
>
> Maybe only the latest MW.
> Old MW (of around 90-91) was by Activision/Dynamix, same company as
> published the well-known Deathtrack.
>
> >And Starlancer was published by
> > Microsoft, but developed by a team lead by Chris Roberts
>
> ...and UWs were published by Origin, but developed by Looking Glass. So
> what?
> The authors just sells the game to larger company to use their superior
> marketing machine.
That's the point!
Some people tend to immediately dislike anythying with the M$ label. We
are here proving that that label is not an immediate indicator that
something is made by Microsoft.
Small game companies contract big game companies to publish their games
because the big names can advertise more widely and pour lots of funds
into selling the game.
-Lumina Dragon
Moscow Dragon
>
> Some people tend to immediately dislike anythying with the M$ label.
This is sheer idiocy for me. Who cares the label? The product quality is the
only thing which must care.
If the product is bad like Win9x/Me - then just do not use it. If the
product is good like the vast majority of other MS's products - then why not
use them?
The number of lawsuits against the vendor and his "predatory business
practices" are just irrelevant here.
It's the lawyer's and competitor's problem, not mine.
Max,
who will use any good products, regardless of the evilness of the empire
who produced them :-)
Lumina Dragon
Peter Read wrote:
>
> A computer too new to run DOS games? Umm... Here's an idea, anyone thought
> of using DOS??? I know it may sound a crazy idea, but I still dual boot
> with DOS, & can't say I've ever had any problems. I think they're down to
> Windows timeslicing screwing with stuff or something (don't know, pay as
> little attention as possible to windows)
Well, when (if?) (WHEN!) I get a new computer, I plan on keeping the old
for the old games.
> > P.S. Just because a game does not have top of the line graphics does not
> > mean it's not a good game. I still have been known to replay games on my
> > 8-bit NES or Sega, and also the older Ultimas and D&D games for the PC.
>
> Rock on!! Anyone wanting a break to play something other than Ultima -
> Wonder Boy 3 on the Sega Master System! (assuming you legally own the
> cartridge of course) you can generally find an emulator for download
> somewhere fairly quickly - if you've never played it, & want top end
> graphics (well, for the time), give it a go.
Well, I have Wonder Boy 3, actually, and while it's OK, it has nothing
on Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors (has *anyone* else heard of this
thing???), and Ys: The Vanished Omens.
WB3 falls in with Golvellius and a few more in the second tier of SMS
games.
-Lumina Dragon
P.S. Emulator? I play these things on a SMS, cracked case and only one
functioning controller, but it WORKS!