Which version of DosBox?

Ultima 7 has worked in DosBox for quite some time. Recently I tried it with the 1-16-2005 CVS and it ran fine.

the latest version. ver 0.63 i believe. I'm running on a windows XP.. SP2.

Hmmm,

Click on "DosBox CVS Builds" in my signature and download ykhwong's build of DosBox.

Can't remember if U7 works fine in DosBox 0.63 or not.

just tried your suggestion. Same problem occurred. When trying to run an executable file, DosBox just immediatly quits without any errors... hmmm I must have some settings wrong somewhere.

I tried to run a freeware game "Lure of the temptress" and it worked fine.... maybe there is something wrong with my Ultima collection files 🙁

Starting U7.EXE is the wrong way... Normally the game refuses to start when you do that, informing you that you should start ULTIMA7.COM (though the DOSBOX should not exit).
Also remember to configure the sound (INSTALL.EXE).

Mirek

Hi mirekluza. thanks for the info. I've just tried running ultima7.com but the prompt just goes to the next line and stops there. dosbox does not exit this time though. but the program does not respond to any further commands. Running "install.exe" quits dosbox too.

After copying to the hard drive, did you also clear the read only attribute of those files? Go to Windows Explorer, browse to C:\ULTIMA7. Hit Ctrl-A to select all, hit Alt-Enter to open properties. Make sure the "read only" checkbox is unchecked, then click OK.

Did you disable ems in the config file? Ultima VII does not work with ems enabled. Also do as the others suggested, run ultima7.com.

It works fine here, though I have another question. In the intro gameplay scene just after the avatar comes out of the portal the screen does not shake visually when it is supposed to shake, only a black rectangle appears at the bottom and the shaking sound is heard. I remember it shaked properly in real dos and in exult too. Is the visual shaking still not present in Dosbox 0.63 and in the latest cvs (I tried both of them) ?

The shaking might be connected to the ultima7 random number
generator, which does not work too well under dosbox. This is
visible in those parts of the intro, where noise is displayed, they
get their random numbers by doing arithmetics to rom region
data (which contains code normally, but not in dosbox as it is
handled by callbacks).
If the screen shaking uses the same stuff, it might result in
zero-shaking.

Would it work to put random data in that ROM area, or could this be dangerous for programs that try to execute the data there as if it were code?

There's some data in the roms as well, so it might affect some
stuff that checks for it. But putting random data into the rom
region sounds a bit odd 😉

Doesn't seem any more odd to me than filling it with 0x00, 0xFF, or NOP or whatever DOSBox is putting there now...

I was going to advice turning off the read-only tag too. I had this problem with other games too. I have the Ultima collection too though, and it runs perfectly.

You can always try Exult instead of DOSBox to play Ultima VII
http://exult.sourceforge.net/
It runs fine in DOSBox for me, 0.63 and CSV. The only time I have had trouble with programs closing was when using an older Nvidia driver in OpenGL mode. It would work if I used Surface mode as the Output Type.

What resolution or scalers are you using? Sometimes they can cause dosbox to just crash like that, try 640x480 and no scalers first.

Are you making sure EMS is disabled? Ultima VII won't run at all if its present. It also used to drop you at the prompt with large fonts and it reacts exactly the way you say.

omg. I opened up Ultima7.com and this was what i found in it

1 beyond measure.  If thou 
2wouldst permit me, I would very much wish appreciate 
3sharing these rewards with you.
4
5ii.  The Story of Batlin - Part the First
6	There is much that I have set out to tell thee in this 
7book.  Some small part of it involves my own personal story.  
8As that is the least important part of this book, I shall quickly 
9relate my tale first, gentle friend and traveller.  In that way 
10we shall soon have it over with and then be free to pass on 
11more important concerns!
12	I was born in the forests surrounding the city of Yew 
13and educated in the traditions of the Druids.  Having been 
14raised in the city of Justice, I was taught to always strive for 

huh? =/

hmm looks like a corrupt copy or a installation that went wrong.

It looks like the part of the scanned Ultima7 documentation... Definitely not a file to run...

Mirek