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uw2wnt.exe version 1.1 […]
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uw2wnt.exe version 1.1
patch makes ultima underworld I und II running with windows nt
according to the problem solution by Moscow Dragon
see following copy of news entry
--------------------- begin of news entry -------------------------------
From : Moscow Dragon (maxim__s@mtu-net.ru)
Subject : UW2 on NT: looks like solved!
Newsgroups : rec.games.computer.ultima.series
Date : 2001-12-23 15:06:51 PST
Patching :
- make a copy of the original UW2.EXE, for a case if something will go
wrong.
- open UW2.EXE in your favourite hex editor like HIEW (or use some UNIX
tool).
- go to offset 0x24719
- you will see the bytes of:
FA 52 BA 03 00 E4 64 A8 02
If you see some other bytes, do not proceed. Looks like you have some
other build of UW2 then me.
- patch the FA byte to C3
- save and exit
Technical details:
- UW2 has a function which sends "set LED indicators" command to the
keyboard ports, bypassing BIOS.
- this way of accessing ports is incompatible with NTVDM and hangs it.
NTVDM waits forever on some Win32 event as a result of the DOS app
reading the port.
- the patch switches the function away at all, C3 is RETN
- I do not know whether the function is vital for UW2. Probably not.
- for now, I also do not know whether the function called many times from
UW2 or only during the introduction.
Max
--------------------- end of news entry -----------------------------------
I found out that the offset is dependent on the Ultima Underworld version,
but Moscow Dragon's solution should work with all versions and even with
Ultima Underworld 1 too. Just search for the pattern and change the first
byte according to Moscow Dragon's description.
Many people don't own an hex editor or are not familiar with the operation
of this tool. For all this folks I've created this patch which will do the
necessary work automatically. BTW - should work means that I wasn't able
to test this with all Ultima Underworld versions and with all Windows NT
versions. My Ultima Underworld 2 version is different from Moscow Dragon's
(not the same offset) but this patch program works fine for both of my
Ultima Underworlds and with my Windows 2000 (SP2). Can't say anything about
Windows XP but Windows 2000 is actually Windows NT 5.0 and Windows XP is
Windows NT 5.1. So it should work, but who knows.
Put the patch program uw2wnt.exe into the Ultima Underworld directory and
start it. uw2wnt will look for UW.EXE and UW2.EXE and patch it so you can
use it with Windows NT (2000, XP). It will also create a backup of the
original file which is called UW.EXE.BAK or UW2.EXE.BAK. The patch program
will shelter the back up file from overwriting by setting the read only
attribute.
After patching you must modify the properties of UW.EXE respectively
UW2.EXE. Select the Memory tab (hope this is the correct term, I own
the German version and my tab is called 'Speicher' which means 'Memory').
Select the Expansion Memory (EMS) listbox and choose 8192. Then select
the Screen tab and activate the Fullscreen radio button (again I can only
guess the English terms, just secure that Ultima Underworld don't start
in a window).
Run Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 with VDMS for sound and music. Get VDMS for
free, visit http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound .
Now have fun with this patch and let me know if you like it 😉
development : Sir Cabirus Dragon aka Frank Wolter
email : SirCabirus@gmx.net
homepage : http://www.SirCabirus.com
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