You don't need append/subst/join in dosbox, it should be possible to achieve
(for most practical stuff) the same with just the mount command.

If for example you need d:\dir\ultimax as g: drive, just type
"mount g d:\dir\ultimax"
If you really need some special feature of those programs please specify
exactly what you are trying to achieve and why.

What this application "wants" to do is create a data disk on a floppy or hard drive. When you select your data disk the application bombs with the error message about missing APPEND, JOIN, and SUBST. If I execute the ULTIMAII.EXE on the CD from the C: prompt for example, I get a wrong disk error. If I copy the files onto my hard drive the game writes all over itself so that I have to reload the files after playing a round.

I'm going in circles!

Sounds like some kind of funky installation is going on there.

If you cannot figure out what's going on and how to bypass the install then it would probably be best to setup msdos in VPC, install the games and then back them up so you don't have to go through that install again.

Well, there is no install per se. It was meant to be run from the CD. The "setup" was not an install but a process to create a scratch disk to save your games on. Like the good ol' days when a 1GB random access data required an entire reinforced concrete floor in in building and a floppy held a whopping 140KB!

Not that I'm into pirating but I could try to send you an image of the disk for you to play around with. You might be better than me in figuring this thing out.

With the U1-6 CD and DOSBox, it is rather simple. Just copy the Ultima1 (or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or all of them) folder directly to where you want them installed. You may (ok probably will,) need to then remove the Read Only attribute from the folder & all the included files. Then just run them in DOSBox normally. No need to mess around with the hacked together & extremely buggy setup program that comes with the CD. Just a couple of notes about individual games:

Ultima1 - You need to set the machine type to Tandy. Otherwise strange things happen to your text readout during play.

Ultima2 - You will need to install the Galactic patch (I also advise installing the other patches as well, but not the graphics patch.) I don't have access to my main system, so I do not have the direct URL available (won't have access for another 2-3 weeks.) However, a search should turn them up with a bit of work. Also, if you aren't a pureist (if you don't insist, like I do, that the speaker sounds are as they should be,) you can install the Graphics patch as well, but you will need to up the cycles to 2 to 3 times normal.

Ultima3 - Basically the same as Ultima2 where the graphics patch is concerned (it's the only one available, packaged together with the music patch.) But be prepared to up the cycles more like 5 times normal speed.

Ultima4 - nothing of note. The patch works just great, and I advise getting it.

Ultima5 - ditto from Ultima4.

Ultima6 - If you set the cycles low enough (so that the speaker sounds are normal,) then no need for any patching. However, I advise installing the AdLib patch anyways (fixes the timing issue on faster machines.) Also, you will have to run the Install program from within DOSBox first. This sets the dislplay, audio, & control functions. The first time, you can go ahead and say start a new character if you want (it really makes no difference, as there is no character present yet.) You can run it again in the future to start all over again if you want. Stay away from the "speaker patch" as this has never worked right for me (on 6 different machines, with 3 different game sources.) In all cases, it slows things down way to much. Also, according to what I read, MT-32 is a total waste, as it is buggy, and it is nothing more than re-mapping the AdLib files into a MT-32 compatable MIDI. Better just to stick with AdLib.

I think that covers it all. Good luck & enjoy. IMHO, Ultima is still the best FRPG series created.

Thanks to all for your quick responses and thanks to Feeding Dragon for the patch info.

Is there not a shiny VGA stand-alone version of Ultima IV that is freely available?

Jorpho wrote:

Is there not a shiny VGA stand-alone version of Ultima IV that is freely available?

The closest is XU4 - an engine remake that uses the original files. Also, several years ago Origin Systems officially released Ultima 4 to the public domain for the Ultima Dragons. So, I guess, it's perfectly all right to download U4 from Origin's FTP, if it is still available, it was a few months ago, ftp.ea.origin.com I believe, or maybe ftp.ea.com/origin (don't remember which, if either, it is, my main computer is in for repairs.) Then download the XU4 engine to play it on.

Personally, I'm a purist, I like things as they were originally designed. I do bend the rules for U4 & U5 to add in the music patch, mainly because I'm a huge fan of the Ultima music though. Plus, I originally played them on my C128, which had music 😀

Yet again, because my main computer is down, I just don't have access to the links 🙁 This system is a Pentium 166, and doing anything serious on the web is a major headache 🙁

Here we are. I was thinking of the "moongates" patch.
http://www.moongates.com/u4/upgrade/Upgrade.htm

As for the speaker patch for U6, I am (or was) the perpetrator of this beast (going as Finire Dragon). It is true that it doesn't work on new machines as it should, since basically it doesn't work for machines that can run a small, simple busy waiting loop more than 65536 times faster than an average 80286 PC - and most modern machines can do that, it seems. All I did was convert a few loops from 16 bit to 32 bit by inserting i386 instruction-size prefixes. It was good enough to run the game on W98 machines in DOS mode in the late 1990s, but not really any more. For DOSBox it's simply not needed nor does it add any value, as long as cylces is low enough (3000 or so).

As for purism, that would really require running the games on an Apple II, wouldn't it? Thats the system they were written on, after all. And no self-respecting gentleman should run U1 in the remake version anyway. 😉

TeaRex wrote:

As for purism, that would really require running the games on an Apple II, wouldn't it? Thats the system they were written on, after all. And no self-respecting gentleman should run U1 in the remake version anyway. 😉

Well, for U0 (Akalabeth,) through U5 that is certainly true. U6+ were all written on the PC first (PC only for U7+.) U6 was never, as far as I can find, released for the Apple II at all. So to be an absolute purist, I guess one would have to buy an Apple II computer and get the Apple versions of U0-5. The closest I'm willing to come is to get an Apple II emulator, and then use my Ultima Collection license to find Apple II versions of those games. Personally, I prefer the C128 version of U1-5 myself. Mainly because I first played the games on my C64 then C128.

My purism only goes so far as that I want to see and hear it as it was originally designed for the machine I'm using. Though, I like the music enough that I want the music patches for U3-5. The only problem I have is that I cannot set it up to use just the music patch on U3 & U4 without also having the graphics patch installed 🙁 Of course, U5 is just a music patch in the first place. Also, the U3 graphics patch slows it way down (not quite to modern machine standards - though it does also have a frame limiter that can be turned on/off.) Because of that, I either have music or correct speaker sounds, not both.

Sorry for being off-topic, but you've mentioned a C128-version several times. It was a favourite machine of me as well, though I didn't have a single game for it, it was all for the C64 mode. So do you refer to a native C128 version? And if so, is there any way to obtain one?

I *think* the version was for C64 and C128 but the C128 had some advance features (like the music? it is mentioned at http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=93138). The C64/128 version is still on sale on ebay every week or so.
I *think* (again) this was true for a couple of C64 games. To my shame I must admit I almost only "owned" pirated games for the C64.

Just to stay off-topic, the C64/128 of U5 version has the following extra features on the C128, note that you have to run it with the BOOT command directly from C128 native mode for this to work:

* Music (though not as many voices as the Apple version or the PC patch)
* Fastloader doesn't crash on PAL machines, as it uses the C128's inherent faster loading capabilities instead of bringing its own. This requires a 1570/71 drive and is not currently working on any emulator that I know of.
* Many commands that always require disk access on the C64 are loaded only once, into the second 64K, on the C128. Makes for more fluid play.
* You can use the extra keys of the C128 keyboard.

The game does *not* support the following C128 features:
* 2MHz mode
* higher-resolution RGB graphics

Actually, I've played it on Vice without much trouble. Other than that, everyone is right. There was just the one version of U5 that had a lot of extra features when played on a C128 through auto-load booting. Also, I never had a 1571 back in the day, it worked just fine with a 1541 drive. From reading these posts, though, I think I'm really going to have to dig out an Apple II emulator. I have an Apple version of U4 sitting on my shelf right now (bought it for the cloth map.)

What I meant was that the C128-specific fastloading feature requires a 1571 AFAIR. Of course it works in normal speed mode on a 1541. Also in an emulator the emulated disk access looks like normal speed mode to the emulated program, even though it might be quite fast in reality. Now lets better discuss DOSBox stuff again before the mods get annoyed...