Ok:
- remove cputype and add them to machine (-1 option)
- add graphics card type option (+1 option)
- add monitor type option (+1 option)
----------
total +1 option

Suggestion noted and subsequently discarded for no obvious reason.

Yep, logic config options are scary.

😀

For the wishlist: Replace the whole config-file with:

[dosbox]
super-auto=true

wd, I agree that this should be thought through before actually being implemented. Bloat and Featureosis are never good.

Just tried running Ultima 1 myself and remembered this thread after discovering first-hand that DOSBox 0.73 won't run it in composite CGA mode 🙁 It probably looks better in EGA though, unlike Starflight (which was designed for composite then hacked for EGA).

that DOSBox 0.73 won't run it in composite CGA mode

0.72 worked fine? If so please post a full bug report.

Didn't try CGA mode in 0.72.

It does work in 4-color RGB CGA mode (and 16-color EGA) btw, just not CGA composite mode.

HunterZ wrote:

Didn't try CGA mode in 0.72.

It does work in 4-color RGB CGA mode (and 16-color EGA) btw, just not CGA composite mode.

I don't recall Ultima 1 having any special support for CGA color composite mode. Yes, it will run in color by connecting a composite monitor to a CGA adapter, but it will not look very impressive compared to an RGB monitor.

Okay so I beat Ultima 1 and went on to Ultima 2 (after applying the fanmade fix to patch in the missing map files). The game is *clearly* made for 16-color composite CGA with no EGA mode available, but with machine=cga it runs in 4-color RGB instead of 16-color composite under DOSBox 0.73. I see from earlier in this thread that it sounds like it's not currently supported by DOSBox because there aren't many games that use the particular mode that Ultima II uses.

Has anyone played through both versions that can recommend whether it's worth trying to get a custom DOSBox build that supports 16-color mode for Ultima 2, or is 4-color RGB CGA good enough?

I never got into the Ultima games back in the day, but my cousin gave me the Software Toolworks "Ultima I-VI Series" CD-ROM around 10 years ago and I pulled it out a week or two ago to check out in DOSBox for fun 😀

The PC version is 4 color CGA. You can apply a patch that changes it to 16 color EGA based on the Apple II release.

(I think the early Ultimas suck horribly.)

The screenshots on mobygames and the tech specs section both mention 16-color composite as being supported: http://www.mobygames.com/game/ultima-ii-reven … ntress/techinfo

Edit: It's also featured on wikipedia's article on CGA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter

I'll probably just try to power through in 4-color mode using a walkthrough since I'm just trying to breeze through the series to see what it was about.

I was going off of a doc from the patch that must have been talking about the RGB monitor color. The patch stays true yet looks better than any other version.

I played the Atari 800 version. It only had 4 colors even though the Atari was capable of displaying more. I remember seeing the Atari ST version too, and though it had more colors I thought they did a terrible job of porting it. Malignant Manor's screenshot looks greatly improved over what I played. I have the Ultima 1-6 CD but never loaded the PC version of U2.

It's worth a play through. Ultima IV remains my favorite, but U2 was different than any other in the series with space travel and such.

Ultima 1 had a space sequence and was incredibly easy (I hit 9999 hit points and gold without ever going below level 2 of a dungeon and without *too* much grinding).

I'm finding U2 a little harder to get into (mostly because the walkthrus aren't as detailed). Both games feel pretty ad-hoc, but I guess Wasteland does too (still haven't got too far with that game, despite being a huge Fallout 1 & 2 fan).

On a side note, I'm now appreciating the Ultima roots of Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation a lot more. I need to find the newer revision of it that I have around on an old disk somewhere and get it onto the abandonware sites (it's shareware/freeware I think) because I realized that I contributed an older, buggy version to HOTU (the only one currently floating around the 'net I think). It also makes me want to go through my 15-20 year old 5.25" floppies full of BBS downloads to grab and contribute all the old shareware/freeware/whatever DOS games I collected that aren't out there on the Internet.