This handly little memory-freeing utility for DOS, which can assist you in getting vanilla installs of Serpent Isle up and running on older systems, is once again available for download.

I got this email about a week ago, and have been lax in posting it to the site here for community input.

Do you know where I might find technical information about how the tile shape data is stored/encoded on Commodore 64 disks? The graphics for the tiles for the C64 version of Ultima 4 are mono-coloured. i.e. a single coloured. Therefore, I suspect the characters do not follow the same encoding format as was is used for the DOS version in shapes.ega.

I recently discovered that the map data is actually stored as 256 chunks of 16×16 data. (the DOS EGA version uses 64 chunks of 32×32 data)

To be honest, I haven’t the first clue about how to answer this question. The C64 predates my first foray into computing by a few years, and I’ve no “hands on” experience with that system, nor with the Ultima 4 version released for it. I had perhaps thought that Nodling Dragon would be a good resource to ask, and have suggested that the reader try and contact him…but any input from the community at large would be much appreciated!

Update: I love this community. Thanks everyone for helping George out! (see the comments)

Produced by: Peter Veenstra, Sjoerd, Tommy Frossman, Ulf Wohlers
Website: DOSBox
Releases:
* DOSBox 0.73 (Windows) (1.4 MiB, 89 hits)
* DOSBox 0.73 (Mac) (4.8 MiB, 75 hits)
* DOSBox 0.73 (Source) (1.2 MiB, 75 hits)

A handy utility that creates a DOS-like environment within Windows or Mac OS X, allowing older DOS applications that don’t work well within modern operating systems to be played under those environments.

DOSBox can be a bit processor intensive, especially when playing higher-end games like Ultima 8, but most modern systems should be able to handle it.

Releases:
* RDOSUMB (55.1 KiB, 31 hits)

A utility to free up memory when attempting to run an original DOS install of Serpent Isle. Rendered somewhat moot because of the existence of Exult, this utility may nevertheless be useful on older systems.

Produced by: Jonathan Rimmer
Website: UWE Homepage
Releases:
* Ultima Underworld Editor (156.7 KiB, 169 hits)
* UWE Source (2.6 KiB, 101 hits)
* DPMI Memory Manager (40.5 KiB, 99 hits)

A 2D, DOS-based editor for both Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2. Also available is the source code. The program may require the DPMI Memory Manager because of the Allegro libraries that were used in its making.

Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* Replacement for avpatch (7.6 KiB, 197 hits)

Nodling explains: “You can’t install the Ultima 4 Upgrade under DOS, because avpatch.exe is a Windows console application. The new avpatch.exe can be run in DOS, Windows and DOS emulators.”

Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Release:
* German Keyboard Patch (2.9 KiB, 153 hits)

From Nodling’s site: “If you play Ultima 3 or [Ultima 4] with a German keyboard, the y and z keys won’t work until you remove the German keyboard driver. But that doesn’t really fix the problem, because now the y and z keys are swapped.

With this utility, both keys will work as they should. The program is compatible with DOS, DOS emulators and Windows 9x, but unfortunately not with Windows NT or XP.”

Produced by: DOUG the Eagle Dragon
Website: IT-HE Sofware
Releases:
* Demo v0.93 Flat Datafiles (2.5 MiB, 1 hits)
* Game & Editor (Mandrake 8.1) (2.1 MiB, 2 hits)
* Game & Editor (Windows) (1.7 MiB, 1 hits)
* Game & Editor (DOS) (2.5 MiB, 2 hits)
* IRE Source (2.6 MiB, 2 hits)
* Allegro Source (needed) (3.3 MiB, 2 hits)
* Allegro OGG Library (58.9 KiB, 2 hits)
* JPEG Library Source (744.7 KiB, 1 hits)

DOUG the Eagle Dragon has developed an RPG engine in the spirit and style of Ultima 6. The game and editing tools are cross-platform, currently available on Linux, DOS, and Windows. The source is available to compile and build the software on other systems.

He has also made available downloads of Reign of the Just, a game of his creation and the first to be produced using IRE.

Current Game Modules
* Reign of the Just (Windows) (30.2 MiB, 3 hits)
* Reign of the Just (Mandrake) (30.2 MiB, 1 hits)

IRE requires the Allegro libraries and the JPEG library (above) as well.

Produced by: Exodus Project
Website: Exodus Project
Releases:
* Upgrade v2.5 (321.4 KiB, 168 hits)
* MIDI Upgrade (15.3 KiB, 159 hits)

Another Exodus Project upgrade package, these additions to Ultima 3 include MIDI music and 16-color graphics to the MS-DOS versions of the game (previously, these were benefits enjoyed by Apple & Commodore players only). Also included is a frame-limiter, so that the game doesn’t run like lightning on modern systems.