My PC is up and running again and none the worse for it’s brief experimentation with smoking so as promised I’ve done a new version of the GOG Ultima Patcher. There are no new features and this merely adds compatibility for the new complete Ultima 7 installer that was recently released by GOG. This will probably break patching on the previous version so make sure you have the version 2 GOG installers. Version 1.42 is still available for anyone wanting to patch the version 1 releases.
Pix's Origin Adventures
I’m fairly new to the site, but have all the GOG releases … what is this patcher and why would I want it? Thanks!
Ah, nevermind, just looked at all your posts with the Ultima Patcher tag. Thanks!
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What exactly is the Ultimate Patcher. I don’t see anything that describes what it is or how it works.
The clue is in the name – it’s a patcher for Ultima games. It’s specifically for the GOG versions and will apply various fan made patches without you needing to know your way around DOSBox.
Thanx,
that Ultima Gog ver. patcher dealt nicely with one General Midi pather (namely I think: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss General MIDI Patch V1.1 by SkyGracer aka Panzer Dragon (UDIC).)
But not with this one, I found somewhere, which is really much nicer with Sound Canvas emulation:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12413456/UUWmidiRolandSoundCanvas.zip
Could u include it into your patcher, too?
My first thought was probably not but having had another look it appears to only require converting those MIDI’s to XMI’s and giving them the correct names. I’d want to compare the difference in sound quality to confirm it was worth it before I attempted this.
It occurs to me that a real Sound Canvas could be started in MT-32 mode which remapped instruments to make them compatible with MT-32 MIDI. This works really well with UW – I don’t suppose the emulator supports it these days?
I’ve had a listen to a couple of these now and I prefer the music in the original patch. The “Sound Canvas” MIDI’s get the instruments wrong at times such as drums being used in the intro music during the quiet single instrument section in the middle. If enough people disagreed I might knock a patch together but failing that I’m afraid you are on your own.
You could convert the MIDI’s yourself if it’s something you really want. Grab the Miles Sound System by doing a search for MilesT32.exe on Google – it’s not easy to find but is still available in a couple of places. Use that to convert the MIDI’s to XMI then replace all the XMI’s in the sound directory with the ones you created.
Not to ask a stupid question, but how does the MT-32 emulation in the patcher work? MUNT? Because that seems to get updated quite frequently, so I wonder if it’s possible to get a better emulation…
It uses an SVN build of Dosbox which has MUNT patched into it. The emulation sounded about spot on to me although I never tried much more than the title screens. Provided the Dosbox config files haven’t changed since then, updating it would just be a case of copying a newer build over the previous one. I’ll have a look into updating it in the next day or two.
Hello I found ultima 9 in an old box in my attic. I just installed it onto my system but when I try to run it nothing happens. I thought maybe this patch might help but after downloading it. I still can’t run he game. any suggestions?
I recently found Ultima 9 when I was searching through some of my old games. I installed it on my computer but it won’t run I don’t get anything when I click the shortcut. I downloaded this patch in hopes it would help but still nothing. Any suggestions?
You aren’t giving me too much to go on. I cant say I ever had as much trouble as everyone else seemed to but it was famously buggy even at the time. You could try using a Glide wrapper and using the glide mode to see if that helps. There were some official patches so make sure you install them also (Ultimacodex.com probably has them). The setup program has the option to switch between different texture sets in D3D – I vaguely recall having to switch from uncompressed in the past on one setup.
If all else fails, the easiest option is probably to stump up the cash to Gog.com and buy their version. It’s only $6 and odds are you’ll be able to pick it up in a sale for under $2 in the next month or so.