As you may see in the recent comments on here, I’ve been informed that there was a virus in the last version of the Ultima Patcher. I’ve run it through an online virus checker and only 8 out of 75 algorithms were predicting a virus in the Savage Empire 2.1 upgrade added in that last version. It’s almost certainly a false positive but in the interests of not spreading anything malicious (a popular theme these days), I’ve deleted that particular patch and replace it with my own equivalent created from scratch. Everything else is unchanged and you can get the new version here.
Pix's Origin Adventures
much appreciated you take time with this and keep up with the project! many people(including me) love these games! I always come here when I want to play them the right way! been using your patcher for many years! and intend to continue downloading updated versions! think you very much! for keeping up with it! for answering the forums and for fixing malware and other problems. I am never afraid to download here! cheers!
any possible way to fix all the crashes in Ultima IX. After playing for a while and especially during and after Covetous(my least favorite dungeon) It gets crashtastic enough for me to quit playing altogether! did EA patent it so it cannot be fixed? is there some code lock in?
I am using mac OS to play Ultima 4 from GOG. How can I use the patcher?
I’ve no experience with Macs but as far as I know you can’t – it’s Windows only. The main Ultima 4 graphics/music patch is installed from DOS though. If you are comfortable with DOSBox, you could install it manually. The patch itself + instructions are at http://www.moongates.com/u4/upgrade/Upgrade.htm
Thank you very much for answering 🙂
I was able to patch the GOG for Mac. You can open “enclosing items” on the game app and then extract the folder.
MBam Browser Guard blocks my attempt to download this file and all versions of UltimaPatcher.rar
message as follows
Website blocked due to a suspicious download
Download blocked: https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/UltimaPatcher.rar
Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocks downloads that either come from websites that see relatively light traffic or may contain potentially malicious content. This is intended to protect you from new scams. However, if you trust content from this site and would like to proceed, click “Continue.”
I would never claim this website had anything other than light traffic. You’ll have to decide whether you trust it enough to click continue.
probably light traffic. since Ultima is an old game. Used Mcafee and it too claims many games are “viruses” and the vote is out that gamers find it all FP and Mcafee users is 50/50 FP vote on most games these antivirus/malware programs take games into the bottom priority count when it comes to accuracy. don’t trust any of them!
Hah! I didn’t spot this update ’til now. I made the patch myself and even put the source up on GitHub so that it wasn’t seen as suspect. It just diffs all files in two directory trees, compresses the file diffs and builds a tiny executable that does the patching.
Anyway, I appreciate you being as careful as you are. Thanks for all your hard work.
I cant get this to download, and when i do, the rar file is empty even when i turn my anti-virus off.
It’s to do with old links like this not using https as far as I can see. It should download now.
Any hope for an update to U5 for improved graphics?
The guy who did the Ultima 5 music patch did intend to add VGA at some point but that was years back. If you want a major update, I can recommend Ultima V Lazarus – a complete remake in the Dungeon Siege engine.
Thank you, Pix. I really enjoyed the original game – just would like to be able to play it with improved graphics like I did when I recently went through U4 with the much improved tiles. Thank you for your work.
I’ve tried to scan the original and an updated versions of Ultima 7 – The Black Gate on both a laptop and desktop computer using Patcher 1.68. I have 64-bit Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 installed on both computers. In all situations, the patcher could not read the game files because of system errors.
That said, I think the Patcher is wonderful. I also downloaded version 1.42 and extracted the first versions of Exodus for Ultima 2 and 3 along with other early upgrades. These early version are no longer available for download and they are fully comparable with a 486.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. What errors were you seeing and when exactly? Was it just in finding the game folder before doing any actual patching? It still worked for me on a new Ultima 7 install just now. I did notice that GOG are offering a complete Ultima 7 which is a new one on me – I don’t actually own that just the individual games so possibly it’s an issue with that having a different installation set up? Or it could be to do with GOG Galaxy if you are using that? Whatever it is, if I can recreate the problem here I expect it’s fixable.
Hi all,
I know this is a long shot, but here goes – is there a way to use these patches to update the actual DOS Ultima 3? I’m using an IBM 5150 (8088) with VGA card, and all the Ultima’s from 1-5 run really well on it, but Ultima 3 is my favorite as I played it to death in the 80’s on my C64 with 25″ console TV. I’d love to see VGA graphics (or even EGA) on Ultima 3.
Thanks!
Yes, most of these patches were actually designed for DOS in the first place with this tool just acting as a convenient way of running them. Have a look at http://exodus.voyd.net/projects/ultima3/ for the original patch + instructions.
That said, I don’t know how you’ll get on with a 5150. I’m vague on the details but I gather things like adding music rely on interrupts that aren’t necessarily available on the 8088 – it’s going to depend on the instructions that have been used. You can switch aspects of the patch on/off having said that so you may be ok with just a graphics upgrade. Worth a go.
If you are going to use a 5150, it ought to have a composite CGA set up for Ultima 2 & 3 if you ask me. That might be another option if you have the necessary hardware.
Hmmm,
I tried this and it didn’t work – I unzipped the 3.3 upgrade into the existing Ultima 3 folder on the 5150 (after backing up the original folder) and then ran u3up and it locked up. Then I grabbed the folder and put it on my Windows PC, ran u3upw and that worked, so I copied that folder back to the 5150 and tried to run u3cfg and got a bunch of graphic artifacts and another crash.
I was thinking maybe the 2000 EGA patch that was done may work better, or if that’s not available, what would you do from here?
I’ll miss the music, but really, I played U3 so much on the C64 back in the day that the music is in my head. I’d just like to get away from the awful CGA colors! Ultima 1 looks better, as does U4 and U5.
Thanks!
Sounds like you may be out of luck as far as the 5050 goes. Emulation is your easiest option. I sympathise as I try to avoid it myself these days but the truth is it’s usually barely discernible from the real thing.
If you absolutely wanted to use the 5050, like I say, Ultima 2 and 3 do look a whole lot better in composite CGA. You’d need a composite monitor + original CGA card for this which is potentially expensive. You’d also have to swap them back out to get VGA again. If I was you and spending money on hardware, I’d probably rather get set up with a real C64 and play it how I remembered it. That would be cheaper also I expect.
The problem you face is that all these patches were done years after the fact and XT support wouldn’t have been a consideration. I’ve run into similar problems trying to find a program to slow an 8086 DOS machine down to 8088 speed – I’m yet to solve it.
Hi,
Actually, this VGA card (Trident) does a pretty good job of displaying EGA and VGA. I’m searching for the earliest Ultima 3 upgrade from Voyager Dragon – the EGA upgrade that didn’t even mess with the music yet. I’m tracking down an Adlib sound card, but at the moment, I’d just like the game out of the CGA color realm!
Hi,
I’ve finally gotten what you’re talking about with CGA mode using the composite out – sadly those cards are too pricey for me at this point – I was hoping to get a patch to do the fixes for VGA.
Thanks!
Ok, before the giant snowstorm hits, I’ve made some progress!
I found upgrade 2.5, and it works! Sadly, the u3cfg.exe won’t run, so I can’t setup the toggles for sound, etc. but most importantly, I need to know how to disable the frame limiter! The old 8088 doesn’t need any slowing!
If anyone has the file “U3.CFG” from an older version so I can duplicate it with my settings, that’d be great! Thanks!
Solved!
At least for now – I got the version 3.0 upgrade to work in VGA mode! I had to upgrade it and set the config up using dosbox as those won’t run on the 8088. It’s actually faster than the EGA mode, which had about a 1 second delay between keypress and action on screen.
With VGA it’s down to about .5 second between keypress and action on screen, so it’s slow, but playable at this point.