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: Somebody…anybody know?
Releases:
* Ultima 4 Map Editor (75.2 KiB, 134 hits)

A utility to edit the graphic tiles in Ultima 4. Requires EGA graphics and the original shapes.ega file.

Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* U5 Game File Formats (16.2 KiB, 179 hits)
* U5 C64 Game File Formats (9.9 KiB, 96 hits)
* U5 Sharp x86000 Game File Formats (4.6 KiB, 83 hits)
* U5 Savegame File Format (33.1 KiB, 135 hits)
* U5 EGA Driver Information (1.9 KiB, 80 hits)

A comprehensive collection of technical information from Nodling Dragon concerning the Ultima 5 game data files. It includes a description of the PC version of the game’s file formats, and a description of the file formats from the Commodore 64 version as well. It also includes a description of the file formats from the Sharp X86000, an incomplete description of the EGA driver that the game uses, and a description of the PC version’s savegame format.

Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* Atari ST File Formats (2.7 KiB, 98 hits)
* EGA Driver Information (6.6 KiB, 85 hits)
* Bugs in Ultima 4 (5.2 KiB, 123 hits)

These three files from Nodling Dragon include a description of the Ultima 4 game data file formats, although only for the Atari ST version (u4atarist.txt), general information about the EGA driver that the game uses (u4ega_driver.txt), and a list of bugs and undocumented features of the game’s PC version (u4_bugs.txt).

Produced by: Nodling Dragon
Website: Ultima Tech Info and Patches
Releases:
* Rune Font (5.7 KiB, 114 hits)

Replaces the Latin characters in Ultima 4 with runic font. There are actually two patches bundled into this package — one for EGA and one for VGA resolutions. Nodling points out that CGA isn’t supported yet.

Produced by: Exodus Project
Website: The Exodus Project
Releases:
* Moonstone's Galactic Patch (21.2 KiB, 158 hits)
* Micro's Speed Fix (2.6 KiB, 181 hits)
* Upgrade Package (223.3 KiB, 196 hits)

A team effort to upgrade Ultima 2 by the Exodus Project team, it includes a number of improvements to the original game, including EGA graphics (an improvement over the 4 color original), full-color tiles, lower-case text, better save game support, and hotkey support.

Additional files included here are Moonstone Dragon’s Galactic Patch (which adds maps for some of the inner planets) and Micro Dragon’s Speed Patch (which corrects the all-too-familiar divide-by-zero error).