This is a bugfix release to fix an issue when unzipping the Beautiful Britannia patch for Ultima 9. Previously, the BB patch wouldn’t unzip on a version of Windows older than the one I’d compiled with.

The new version can be downloaded from here.

I’ve finally had a chance to look into the recent problems with the Ultima Patcher and they were indeed caused by the new versions of the GOG installers which now use two rather than one Dosbox config file. At the time of writing, all of the Ultima games on GOG are using version 2 installers except Ultima 7/Serpent Isle which will presumably follow shortly. Among other things, the new setup broke every patch that needed to change the Dosbox config which has now been fixed in version 1.5. This new version isn’t compatible with the original GOG releases when it comes to MT-32 emulation so I’ll leave version 1.42 up in case anyone still wants to use it with the older installers.

Other minor fixes include the correct filenames for the MT-32 ROM’s in the description text (underscores instead of dashes), and the patcher now looks in the new default install directories before asking for a game installation directory.

Version 1.5 can be downloaded from here.

I made it safely back home and have a couple of jobs to do around here. First on the list, a patch was released while I was away which fixes the earthquake and white noise effects in Ultima 7 on Dosbox. I’ve added support for this to the Ultima Patcher.

I can report that my luggage also made it back safely which was something of a concern as I was carrying 3 glass items, one of which was a serious lump. Airport security initially took some offence to that particular collectible but let me keep it in the end. I have the perfect occasion to post about that coming up next year so I’ll hold onto it until then. The other two were a nifty short glass gifted from the WC CIC and better still an Origin beer glass. Along with the WC3 prop glass, I think my drinking needs are pretty well covered although I wouldn’t say no to an Origin-themed shot glass if there is such a thing:-

It’s not likely I’ll ever be able to return the favour for the CIC glass with any merchandise of my own but I did send off the Wing Commander 4 35mm movie trailer to be converted to HD digital today and should hopefully have that to share sometime next month.

I’ve uploaded a new version of the Ultima Patcher. The changes are:-

• Support for Beautiful Britannia. Due to the size of this patch, you will have to either download it inside the patcher or manually copy the zip into the Files folder (Thanks to Ken at the Ultima Codex for hosting the download).
• Fixed issue when adding the MT-32 ROM’s where the install/uninstall MT-32 button wouldn’t necessarily appear depending on which game menu you were in.
• You can now change your Avatar name when using the Ultima 9 dialog patch (Well done to Natreg for spotting that the renaming utility ran in DOS).

That’s everything I can think of so barring any more bugs/tweaks, this should be the last release outside of keeping up with new Ultima mod/patch releases.

It’s only been 2 days since the last one but I was persuaded that there was a need for Ultima 9 support and have uploaded a new version of the Ultima Patcher. This adds the new Forgotten World mod, as well as an easier way to change screen resolution and swap between Glide/D3D. I’ve also put in the monster/economy and dialog patches which people may or may not prefer to the vanilla experience.

A couple of things to note:-