Native Android Port

Thalinor · Post by **Thalinor** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:15 pm

Thank you SO much! I hope this project keeps up. Its funny, I said to my self today "Wouldn't it be great to have U7 and U8 on my Xoom tablet" and here is is! (Well at least U7). Keep up the great work. Downloading now and will try to install in a few. I hope the Tegra 2 is not too much for this build; I remember trying to run it on an XP box a few years back, and having to deal with MOSLOW so it was not running so fast. Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:45 pm

Doesn't sound like you ran u7 with Exult on your XP machine...

Thalinor · Post by **Thalinor** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:55 pm

@Dominus1 No, that was many years ago and I can't remember how I got it running tbh, I do remember some exe called moslow or something. On Win7 I use dosbox and all the old games from my teenage years run fine. Anyway, I just got things up and running on the Xoom and am shocked at how well it seems to work. Controls are a little flaky but the game runs very well and seems to be stable. I had some problems entering a name [it would cut off randomly some letters I typed] and I couldn't figure out how to select "journey onward" but after tapping all over the screen like a madman and hitting different hardware buttons, somehow it just started.

Anyone know how to "disabled relative mouse emulation so I can use the touch screen as it's supposed to be used" as posted by "TheOtherAlex". They apparently used a fake email so there is no way to contact them directly. I looked in the cfg file but did not see an option.

Anyway, I can confirm this runs very well on the Wi-Fi only Motorola Xoom with only minor issues, mostly controls. A large part of that is probably me too.

Thank you very much for the port! Any chance of getting U8 up and running? I have not tried using the patch to compile it yet, but assume it will probably not work with out some modifications.

Oh one last thing: It seems you can't use save files from a pc save game, even if renamed. I don't remember what the original save files were named, but using dosbox its "GAME00.U7". If I were to go and load up U7 on my pc and then go to save/load the save GAME00 is called "Save 1". I renamed GAME00.U7 on the tablet to exult00bg.sav and tried to load it but it just starts where I left off with the new game started on the tablet. Oddly enough that save game has been replaced with the one from the PC, so I have no idea how it is loading the one started on the tablet as it should no longer exist?! Anyway, when you go into save/load it sees the correct save game name "Save 1" but when I go to load it the app crashes. It might have something to do with how dosbox deals with game saves, who knows.

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:51 pm

This is a port of Exult, NOT a port of Ultima 7. Except for some path and control stuff the documentation and FAQ of Exult is also valid for this port.
http://exult.info/faq.php#old_savegames

The same way Exult got ported you could port Pentagram to play Ultima 8. of course not EXACTLY by just applying this patch to Pentagram.

TheOtherAlex · Post by **TheOtherAlex** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:53 am

@Thalinor: I usually don't go spreading my email adress across the net, sorry

Anyway, all you have to do is tap the screen when the SDL logo appears and enter the 'Mouse emulation' submenu. There's an option to disable relative mouse movement in there.

Thalinor · Post by **Thalinor** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:47 am

@ TheOtherAlex

Thanks for the reply. I thought I looked there and did not see the option to turn it off, only change things. I will have to check again.

No worries on the email; I 100% understand. I am a huge privacy guy myself.

Thanks again for the info.

Thalinor · Post by **Thalinor** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:57 am

Found it under the sub menu thanks!

Nathan Delahunty · Post by **Nathan Delahunty** » Thu May 05, 2011 8:59 am

Tried it on the galaxy tab and am getting sound etc but crashes out on the red loading screen on starting a new game. I tried deleting the gamedata folder and starting a new game but did the same thing. The apk I tried was the latest link.

KenC · Post by **KenC** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:14 am

can you run 'adb logcat' while you launch it up to the point of the crash and send me the results or post them here?

Nathan Delahunty · Post by **Nathan Delahunty** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:25 am

Thank for the response KenC. I have sent you an email with the logcat attached from just before clicking journey onward till just after the crash.

Nathan Delahunty · Post by **Nathan Delahunty** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:41 am

Thankls so much for your emails Ken. Just an update for everyone else. After updating to a honeycomb rom from xda-developers the crash issue stopped and am able to play the game not a problem now.

Duane H · Post by **Duane H** » Mon May 30, 2011 7:10 am

Works almost petfectly on the Huawei Ideos x5. Just a minor glitch with activating the onscreen keyboard. However this only happens to me when naming a new character.

I just want to say that I am very grateful to all those who got this going on android. I think that U7 is just about perfect as a tablet game and I suspect that by this time next year, it may be on more tablets than pcs.

It has also given me the perfect excuse to dig out my old cloth map and aluminum fellowship talisman and head back to Britainia!

slerbal · Post by **slerbal** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:32 am

Discovering this thread made me so happy!

I'm going to have a go at installing this on my Xoom, but I wanted to post to say a massive thank you to KenC for putting Exult on Android (and a massive thank you to the whole Exult team for making it in the first place!)

The entire Ultima series hold a special place in my heart. My fondest gaming memory was discovering Ultima 5 and playing it through to completion. I always regretted not getting around to Ultima 7 so no more regrets.

Thank you!

Gypsy · Post by **Gypsy** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:17 pm

So I know this is a silly question, but how do you get the keyboard controls to show up? I have a new all touch screen tablet with no buttons and I'm a little lost. I can start the game and pick things up, but I can't enter a name or a gender. *sigh

KenC · Post by **KenC** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:42 am

There should be a little 'Ab' button at the top-left corner of your screen. Tap that to bring up the text entry widget. It does seem a little buggy on my N1, in that I have to twitch the roller ball or hit a hardware button (like volume) before it actually brings up the text entry widget.

Ken

Gypsy · Post by **Gypsy** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:06 pm

Thanks KenC! I saw that, and I can now get half my letters to type in for the name, but since there is no mouse on that screen and I don't have any buttons other than my power button, I can't change the gender... Any tips or tricks?

KenC · Post by **KenC** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:26 am

Hmm - you don't have *any* buttons besides power? Not even volume up/down? I have a roller-ball which maps to arrow keys by default, so that worked for me, and if you do have volume buttons, you could map them to arrows. It is also possible to set up touch-screen buttons in the SDL setup which you can map to any key-press, although I haven't spent much time playing with them. The touch-screen buttons may be your only option if you don't have any hardware buttons.

Ken

Starn · Post by **Starn** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:11 pm

how well does this work on Atrix? seeing how it has no buttons just a touch screen and volume control on the side.

DarkAvatar · Post by **DarkAvatar** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:51 pm

I finally decided to give this a try on my samsung galaxy s phone a couple of bugs I had were I can get the game running and had an issue with the audio only the effects would work and I would get no music and the other issue was I had a hard time picking up objects which I found to be that I needed to set the left mouse button to a physical key that worked a bit it seemed to still pick up the button if I tapped the screen instead of the physical button

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:38 am

Thanksforusingpunctuation or is it really that hard to write halfway decent on a galaxy?

DarkAvatar · Post by **DarkAvatar** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:19 am

Wtf man I didn't post on here to be judged on how I type on my phone. So what if I didn't use punctuation no one else seemed to care.

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:48 am

It's a matter of courtesy, so please continue writing as in your second post.

Jarryd · Post by **Jarryd** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:26 am

I tried installing the .apk file on my Galaxy S which worked fine, however when i try running it i get an error something like "Cannot find static data for blackgate or serpent isle" i still have the original game for PC, where do i copy the files on the disk to on my phone?

Post by **Dominus** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:13 am

first post pretty much says where to, I think (I don't own an android so I'm not 100% sure that is enough information - but anyway there is more in the thread).
Male sure the static folder of the games is either named STATIC or static, if the android file system is case sensitive, then Exult has problems with mixed cases like Static (or sTaTic

).

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:43 am

For ideas on how to develop a control scheme for a touch screen, you can take a look at the port of Exult to the GP2X F-200 Open Source handheld console: http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Exult

I have a Xoom like others here, and am very excited that this got ported to Android. Kudos to KenC for this port and continuing to make the Ultima series live on with the latest technology. I'm sure Richard Garriott would be very happy to see this port(especially if he actually has an Android phone). I just wish he would purchase the franchise back from EA with the money he got from the NCSoft recently. There are many fans that would buy games, if he would breath new life into the series. I would be one of them.

Nuno Sousa · Post by **Nuno Sousa** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:55 pm

Hey guys!

What is working in this version? Is it enough for me to play it start to finish? I really wanted to be able to play U7 on my droid

Eric C · Post by **Eric C** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:28 am

How well would this work on Asus Transformer tablet with keyboard dock?

Viking · Post by **Viking** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 6:25 pm

So how do I get the games themselves onto the phone?

Post by **Dominus** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 6:30 pm

1st post?

Viking · Post by **Viking** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 7:03 am

Sorry, but I need something far more idiot proof than that

I guess I have to connect the phone to the PC first?

Post by **Dominus** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 8:07 am

From the first post I'd say the games need to go onto the SD card. Does every Android have one?
Anyway you can see in the first post where the games need to go on the SD card. You get there either by connecting the android to a PC or pulling the SD card out and connecting that to the PC...

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:18 am

Not every Android device has an SD slot (for example, the Kindle Fire). You can connect the Fire to a PC with a USB cable and load stuff directly, but if this port of Exult requires an SD card, the Fire is outta luck.

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:03 am

Somewhere there is an exult.cfg which you can edit and point to where the games are.

trainchaser · Post by **trainchaser** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:47 pm

I really hope you guys will build a new version of the Android port and make it available as an .apk file. I also don't know how to use the adb commands on Mac OSX (no such file or directory). I want to play Exult on my Kindle Fire, which doesn't have an sdcard, but has an /sdcard/ directory where you can place stuff, so I guess it would work. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for your work!

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:54 pm

if you have the directory then just place the files there if you can.

*just* is assuming you have some way of accessing these directories.

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:16 am

Where are you seeing this folder? I've opened my Fire by plugging it into my PC, and I don't see an \sdcard folder or any obvious place to put apps.

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 6:57 am

I don't understand anything about push commands so I did the following:

I moved all the Ultima 7 installation files (intro.exe, mainmenu.exe, u7.bat, the STATIC folder, etc.) into the internal sd card at /mnt/sdcard/app-data/net.sourcefourge.exult/blackgate. Then I installed exult.apk. When I run exult, I get the error "The application Exult (process com.exult.android) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again."

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:49 pm

I'm still not able to get it to work on my Kindle. I've copied the game files to the following folders (I had to create the \app-data folder, as it doesn't exist by default on the Kindle). Note that the "root" folder on the Kindle Fire is already \sdcard.

\app-data\net.sourceforge.exult\blackgate
\app-data\net.sourceforge.exult\serpentisle

I then install the ExultAndroid.apk file, which installs without a hitch (is it supposed to have the default green Android icon, or should there be an ankh icon?). When I run the Exult app, I get the following error:

"The application Exult (process com.exult.android) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again."

I then have to force-quit the app. I've tried various different folder configurations (creating a \sdcard subfolder, for example, or placing the \net.sourceforge.exult folders in \Android\data, which holds other similar folders for other apps).

Any ideas? I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, but I'm just not sure what. For the record, the game files I'm copying across are the same ones (less mods) that I've used to play Exult on my PC.

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:04 pm

1st are you using the apk from this thread or the one from the download page? (difference native vs java)
Also there might be access rights issues. So try checking those (don't know how on android).
Try checking whether the error is the same with or withou the files in place.

It might also just not work at all with the kindle

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:18 pm

I used the apk from the download page. Should I use that one or the one in this thread?

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:45 pm

You have to actually read the thread

This thread is about the app in this thread.
The java one, developed by the Exult team (Dr. Code) works differently of course. See http://exult.info/forum/viewtopic.php?p=346769#p346769

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:46 pm

Native - java difference is that the java port is a rewrite of Exult in Java. The native one (this one) "just" makes Exult source code work on Android.

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:11 pm

Okay, it's up and running: I can confirm that the native Android port of Exult works on the Kindle Fire. However, the "mouse emulation" leaves a lot to be desired; perhaps I'll need to play with the mouse options.

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:22 pm

Hey great!
Thanks for confirming this.
Maybe the java one has better mouse, but the apk is very old ;(

GuJiaXian · Post by **GuJiaXian** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:39 pm

Yeah, I can confirm that the port works great...except for the interface, which is virtually unusable (KenC does point this out in his first post). So, other than as a proof-of-concept thing, it's really not playable. What's really needed is a from-scratch interface, replacing the mouse cursor with basic touch-screen controls (press to move, tap to interact, etc.).

Wopah · Post by **Wopah** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:31 am

How do I install the size patch on the android??? I have tried copying to the exult directory and see no changes.. i have also tried copying shapes.vga to blackgate/static and well i killed u7 so i reverted back the original file.

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:57 am

You apply the size patch to the source code and then compile Exult.

Pegbyter · Post by **Pegbyter** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:06 pm

Every time I try to run exult android after the ICS upgrade on my Asus Transformer the minute I try to move the onsrceen mouse, the whole screen immediately turns white and the only way I can get out of it is to power off the tablet. Any chance of fixing this, and making the physical keyboard/mouse dock functional with it?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:42 am

Got it running on my new Galaxy Note. Controls are time-consuming, but still, this is to be commended. Great proof of concept. Well done!

TonyV · Post by **TonyV** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:47 am

works on Coby Kyros. Intro crashes Exult when Guardians face pops out. Controls are horrid. Can't get up stairs and have a hard time trying to talk to people. But runs smooth with music and fx.