exult vs. dosbox & questions

[rekuli]

I have noted some small issues with Exult that differ from running the U7 games in DOSBox. Notably:

-- Exult has the more "grown-up" GUI (which I like very much) with features of which I previously didn't know that they were missing in the originals.

-- Exult doesn't seem to be able to load original DOS save games. At least, it won't with mine.

-- Asides from the obvious benefits of Exult, currently I believe it makes more sense to play U7 in dosbox to avoid those strange engine glitches (as mentioned in the FAQ) that can seriously trash a game exactly when you don't expect it and are about to save.

-- Exult doesn't support the complete storyline of the "third trilogy" (U7-1, U7-2, U8) --- it is clear that Exult cannot run U9, but U8 is definitely missing and ought to be supported, not only through the Pentagram engine. Is a merge of Exult and Pentagram planned? I recall reading something of "Exult supports U8 and will do it even better in the near future" somewhere in the Exult documentation or manpage.

[Dominus]

We clearly state in the Faq that original savegames are not supported.
We also clearly state that NO other Ultima is and NEVER will be supported (if you read this somewhere and you can point out where, this needs correction). Exult is an Engine for U7 only. U8 and U9 share some similarities but clearly not enough to make one engine for that. I have no idea why you even think it should be one engine...

The big disappearing bug is happening regardless whether you save or not,. The crash on saving is only a symptom of this.

[psz]

If you want U8, then http://pentagram.sourceforge.net/ is your best bet (other than DosBox) - Latest SVN update is date 21st January of 2012.... So it's still being worked on ;->

[rekuli]

DominusMobile2: savegames: I must have missed that, sorry. U8 in Exult: I'll try to find where I read that passus and let you know. U9: Right, I mentioned that myself. different engines: right, again, but I never said it was the same engine --- but similarities between U8 and U7 are far greater than between U9 and U8 or U9 and U7, so at least theoretically it would be a nice idea .
Btw: I didn't want to flame or complain, if you took it that way... I like Exult. And I hope someone finds, thrashes and kicks out that bug.

psz: Thanks. I already grabbed it while posting the first entry

[Dominus]

I never meant that you said ir's the same engine, just that it's clearly that much a different one that I wonder how you could think of doing it in one engine
And u8 and u7 are very different, starting with u7 having one seamless world map. U8 has many different maps...
And Pentagram was started to apply all the things we learnt from doing Exult.

[rekuli]

Yep... U8 is in some regards a retro to the pre-U6 design with U7-style engine and JnR-Elements (the non-patched first release of U8, that is)

All in all, nice work you (the whole team) have done, both with Exult and Pentagram... and I'm looking forward to doing maps&mods... Keep up this grand work! And give that bug a good kicking from me whe you find it.