Shot in the dark

[Iceshard-]

I know I am taking a shot in the dark here, but I need some help. Since there are alot of Ultima fans here, I figured some of you may be able to help me.

I found and installed Ultima 8, (Sorry for taking up space here, but it's the only place I can think of to look for help :/) but everytime I get to a certain point, near the begining, the game crashes. I am running it in Dosbox, because that is the only way I have been able to get the sound to work. Does anyone know if there are any patchs or anything availible anywhere that might fix this or something?

Thanks,
Iceshard-

[Playful Dragon]

Where, EXACTLY, does it crash?

Even if using Dosbox, the sound settings must be setup properly (IRQ, DMA, etc...)

I'm guessing your settings for Digital Sound (speech) is misset, and the program is dumping when the Guardian tries to speak...

Is this the case? Knowing the exact point it crashes, and details of what it does when it crashes will help us help you!

You have been a thorne in my side for FAR to long, Ultimas!
-Playful Dragon

[Iceshard-]

Well, when you just start the game, you go over to the dock and watch the execution. Then you go up to the city, and the guard stops you. Once in the city, follow the street straight forward. You will see a building (Or is it 2?) with a stone bridge on the 2nd floor connecting it. (them?) This building has 2 destroy trap scrolls in it, if that helps. It is right there, that it crashs. I may be able to go inside and grab an item or so first, but I can not get more than a dozen or so steps without crashing once I get there.

And for the sound settings, I just set it to Soundblaster Pro. It has worked for a number of other programs I use with Dosbox.

Does that help?

Thanks again,
Iceshard-

[Ares]

Are you using Windows?
if so, have you tried getting Ultima 8 for Windows?
(website: http://members.iinet.net.au/~rsd/U7inWindows.html)
I used that for my machine running windows, and it works fine even without dosbox.
If your running another OS, I don't know how you can fix it... unless your willing to give the pentagram thing a try when its done.... (its like an exult for U8, but I dont know how complete it is)
And its two towers, connected by a bridge, which is right before the drawbridge into the castle

[Iceshard-]

It seems to be working well now, thank you. Now I ge to toy with it and see if I can get the music to play a bit faster. Seems a bit sluggish with VDMSound...

Thanks again! Your a great help!
Iceshard-

P.S. - I never actually made it more than a step or 2 onto that bridge w/o crashing.

[Gradilla Dragon]

Are you using Ad Lib music? If so, lower the quality of Ad Lib emulation in VDMSound, or reconfigure the game to use General MIDI and use the Windows MIDI Mapper instead.

[Iceshard-]

Can I get a translation? I am new to VDMSound, so... I have Adlib enabled, but I don't know which setting you mean for me to lower. Synthesis? Buffer? But Midis are also enabled, using the MIDI Mapper thingy... And how would I reconfigure the game for this? Sorry, not to proficiant with this kind of stuff...

Thanks again,
Iceshard-

[Colourless]

I don't think there is a way to speed up the music in u8 when running under VDMS.

-Colourless Dragon

[Playful Dragon]

Nope, and digital sound (voices) are hosed. It's a known glitch in VDMS.

When you go through 'Install' on Dosbox, what is your DMA and IRQ set to?

Oh, and how old is that version of Dosbox? I heard there were incompatibility issues with Dosbox and U8 that were ironed out in the new release. You may want to see if there is an updated version.

Right now, if it works, Dosbox is the only way to get the right speed music and sound. Of course, you could wait for the Pentegram team to finish, but that may be a long time to wait...
-Playful

[Iceshard-]

Dosbox0.60-win32-installer is the name of the file I used to install it. I believe it was Dosbox 0.60 for Windows 2000/Nt/XP, but I forget now. And I can get U8 to run in Dosbox, but it is glitchy. There may be something wrong with my copy, as it still crashes with Dosbox, and VDMSound for that matter. It runs best using the u8w.exe without using VDMSound, unfortunatly. And if I try ANY settings other than Sound at Soundblaster (Card) 0x0220 (Port) 7 (IRQ) 1 (DMA) and Music at Soundblaster, 0x0220 with VDMSound, it runs well for a few seconds and then a get a small whine sound that grows in pitch over time, growing faster if anything is going on on screen, until it crashes. The VDMSound options I don't even understand at all, unfortunatly. It looks like I am going to have to either play without sound, or not play at all, if it keep crashing...

Thanks for all you help,
Iceshard-

P.S. - Disabling Adlibing with VDMSound won't even let the game run.

[marzo]

There is a newer version of DOSBox, 0.61. I've run U8 successfully in it, and had only one problem: sound was stuttering; it may or may not happen to you. Anyway, I added a frame limiter to graphics (got it from DOSBox forum), and it now works perfectly. Give it a try.

[Iceshard-]

I have 0.61 running, and it is SO much better. Thank you very much. And the sound stuttering I fixed by setting it to 7800 cycles with frame skip of 3. Though it varies based on what hard ware you have, I have noticed.

Thanks one final time,
Iceshard-

[Playful Dragon]

Wow, I was right for once! (Don't tell my wife...)

I rememebr, I was watching DOSBox, but is was never full U8 compatible. When I saw the release notes for 0.61, and saw it was supposedly fully compatible, I did a little jig for joy...

Glad it's working for you...good luck escaping...
-Playful

[Iceshard-]

"good luck escaping..."

Escaping from what?

Anyway, I won't tell your wife. Atleast, not intentionally. I don't know who she is, or who you are for that matter, after all, so if I do tell her, it will be an accident.

And another awesome thing: I played it for about 4 hours today, and it did not even look like crashing. Most games I do play on Dosbox crash once every 2 or 3 hours. Usually.

I was beginning to thing I just had a corrupted copy of U8. But I don't! YAY!

Thanks one final time... Again,
Iceshard-

[Playful Dragon]

Escaping Pagan...sheesh!
-Playful