Ultima 8 in ME

[Neo]

Stupid question, perhaps, but how do I get U8 running in ME... with SOUND? I went to the Ron Windemeyer page thingie, but that patch only let me PLAY the game, not with sound.

Thanks for any help, and the U7 and Serpent Isle deal works GREAT.

- Neo

[Dominus]

Please use another forum for support questions that don't relate to Exult (and occasionally Pentagram, Nuvie, Uwadv...).
For starters look at:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/index.phps= ... 580e4bd19c
and/or at
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/showthread. ... readid=900

And did you use the install.exe in the same dir as u8.exe?

[HellRazor]

Niether one of those links work.

[Dino (can't log in)]

As far as I know, it's nearly impossible to get sound to work in U8 in modern operating systems. That's another reason why I'm waiting anxiously for the finishing of Pentagram - so that I'll be able to play the whole thing again as it was (i.e. sound, music and all).

[DirtyHairy]

For Soundblaster emulation look here:
[url]http://ntvdm.cjb.net/[url]
Unfortunately, due to to technical reasons, this only works for XP, 2000 and NT, so you'd have to upgrade to one of those... no, this definitely is no ad for ms...

[Dominus]

ok, the links don't work, probably too long or sth in it that the Phorum doesn't like.
Try http://vogons.zetafleet.com/ and post in the dos/windows forum or go to the vdms->development forum and look at the thread about vdms for Win9x. Mind you it is still alpha stadium but it could work for you.
It is possible to get proper sound and music in Windows ME but that requires you normally to install the vxd drivers for your soundcard and not the wdm ones (at least for creative SB Live! and higher).

[NeoDevilbane]

Yes, I used the install.exe in the same directory as U8.exe.

OK, so basically the conclusion is that I can't get U8 running with sound in Win ME...?

Here's another question... if I were to buy a Soundblaster Live! or something somesuch (I'm currently using my built-in SiS audio chip or whatever it's called) that would let me reconfigure my IRQ and misc. sound settings (my built-in SiS sound deal doesn't let me change the IRQ or *anything* in the device manager) would that *for sure* allow me to play U8 in Win ME with sound, assuming I use the Ron Windemeyer ultima8w or whatever it is (as I said above, U8 works fine for me now, even with ME, it's just that there's no sound)?

Thanks for any help.

- Neo

[Dominus]

don't bother buying a live! card. First try the vdms for win9x out.

[Skutarth]

Is there a forum for Pentagram? I would really like to know of an active forum for Ultima 8 (and hopefully it's future improvements).

[wjp]

No, there isn't.

[Neo]

VDMS...?

[Neo]

VDMS doesn't work in Windows 95, 98, or ME, man. It says so.

- Neo

[Dominus]

Dammit. Does no one bother to read what I write?

Try http://vogons.zetafleet.com/ and post in the dos/windows forum or go to the vdms->development forum and look at the thread about vdms for Win9x. Mind you it is still alpha stadium but it could work for you.

[Dominus]

While you are at it. Read this thread again. Closely this time.
Sorry for being so short fused but I can't stand it when people ask for help and don't bother to read what people post in regard to it.
(and that my hard drive with about 6-10 GB of data on it died yesterday doesn't help much)

[fliptw]

Screw VDMS.

If you have a computer that lacks ISA slots, don't try running BG, SI, or U8.

You need DOS.

You need an ISA sound card.

if you lack either you are going to get a headache to get it to work, and sub-standard sound quailty when it does work.

Anything faster than a p133 is also out.

[MV]

Ultima8 had frame limiting so it didn't matter how fast the computer is, and so did SI, but not blackgate.

[Colourless]

You really do want a fast system to play U8 on. You also want disk caching enabled (smartdrv in dos). Having lots of memory is nice too.

U8 runs really well on modern systems. Much better than it ever did on the systems from the time when it came out.

-Colourless Dragon

[Darke]

Agreed! Saving's quick, loading's quick! With reasonable amounts
of ram u8/crusader's memory manager will load the entire set of
datafiles into memory, so no paging when changing a level, or
loading from a different map (the crusader games use about
67Meg of memory for all their data, can't remember u8's).

I can't imagine trying to play them on the original hardware, it would have been rather teadious. *grin*

[DirtyHairy]

Oh, well, it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't want to save frequently.... not to forget changing areas was a loooonnnggg wait....

[Soul Harvester]

I played U8 on a 486 DX2-50mhz with 8mb of RAM, a 512kb VGA video card and *no* disk caching, with the HDD in PIO MODE 0

It was love.

I played it again a few months ago on a Celeron 366, with 128mb of RAM (although I ran it in DOS 6.2 which had a useable cap I believe of 16mb), a 4mb Diamond Monster 3D and a nice fast HDD in UDMA/33 and disk caching enabled.

My god, it was actually a thrill to play it on that.

[Stratos]

To: Soul Harvester
I want to play U8 again in old hardware just like you, but I can't find that around anymore!
I've been trying to find an U8 engine that's completed, but when I've read all these messages, I guess I've got to conclude that Pentagram hasn't finish yet so I've to wait until it is ;p

Go, go Pentagram team!!

[Wizardry Dragon]

I have 2 copies of Ultima 8, and for some odd reason only one of them works, dunno why, cause the one that doesn't work is the one on the Ultima Collection CD while my original Ultima 8 works fine.

Go figure

~ Wizardry Dragon

[Dominus]

I can think of three reasons why this happens:
- you forgot to use the patch with the u8.exe of the UC-version
- you used the patched exe of the original version with the UC-version (that is not going to work properly)
- to start the game you forgot to use the u8w.exe instead of the u8.exe...

[Daemongar]

I played U8 on a 486 DX2-50mhz with 8mb of RAM, a 512kb VGA video card and *no* disk caching, with the HDD in PIO MODE 0

It was love.

Love? LOVE?! I hope you are talking about the post-patch u8, because pre-patch U8 was a nightmare! Just the act of walking around in the catacombs and dying for NO REASON but you walked on a crumbly area - jumping to get the Breath of Wind, hell, jumping for anything, etc, etc. *grumble*

I played on a 486/DX50 with a 1mb video and 16 mb of Ram and the constant dying on the jumping puzzles almost made me lose my mind - I still finished it without a patch - but it was a fight all the way.

And I still to this day can't believe the "Tomb of Moriens" was such a big deal. What, were people stooopid or something? Oh, and I seem to recall setting up a ramdrive to really increase performance, tho, or maybe that was for Ultima7...