The C64 and Apple II Ultima FAQ April 6, 1996 -==UDIC==- ------------------------- Commodore 64 and Apple 2 Ultima FAQ Version 1.4 by Caliaber Dragon (Bladez@ix.netcom.com) This is my Frequently Asked Questions list for the Commodore 64 and Apple II Ultima games freely available on the internet. This FAQ is divided into 4 sections. Introduction Section I: C64 Ultimas Section II: Apple II Ultimas Section III: Akalabeth Section IV: Closing *** Introduction *** Hello and welcome to this release of the FAQ. I have pretty much refined it to the point where it doesn't need any more additions. Additions to this version: -Information about ApplePC which has Mockingboard support. -Information on Ultima V music on the Apple ][ -Information on C64 Ultima V music Program by Minstrel Dragon -And more... Need Help: I wrote this FAQ as a service to all the Ultima players and I realize that many of the procedures with all the .gz files and everything may be difficult. I would appreciate it if someone could provide me with a WWW page or allow me to put all this stuff on their page. I would like to store the Apple II Ultima's somewhere as .ZIP files (pkzip) so it will be much easier for people to access the games and set them up. I already went through all the hard stuff and so all you have to do is unzip them and play instead of renaming files. All I need is a place to display the FAQ and games for C64 and Apple II on the WWW. Thanks. *** Section I: C64 Ultimas *** Q. What is this I have been hearing about Ultima on C64? A. There are many people who love the 8-bit Commodore and own PC compatibles. These people can use emulators of the C64 which allows them to use software for those computers. This software includes great games such as Ultima I,II,III,IV and V. All of this is freely available on the internet. Q. And Apple II? A. Yes, Apple II as well. On the Apple II you may play Akalabeth, Richard Garriot's first Ultima game released long ago as well as Ultima I-V. You do not need an Apple II itself to play though. See Section II. Q. Why would I want to play Ultima games on a C64 emulator when I can play the PC versions? A. The C64 versions of Ultima III and IV include music. It is good music in fact. It's worth getting them working just for that. Another thing is that not everyone has the PC versions of Ultima and don't want to buy them. It would be illegal to distribute copies of PC Ultimas, but the C64 versions for download are no longer sold so they can be downloaded. Q. Ok, good. Now, what emulator can I get and where? A. The Commodore 64 can be emulated several ways, there are many different programs available. PC64 is the one I most highly recommend, however there is also C64S. These two run on an IBM compatible at various degrees of success. For example, the music will not sound as good on a 386SX/16 as it will on a 486DX4/100. There is also a Linux C64 Emulator available I believe. You may want to check the Linux home page at http://www.linux.org and follow the software map. As of now, I'm not sure where you can get PC64. Q. Where do I get the C64 Games? A. ftp: arnold.hiof.edu /games/u -Trivia- There were FTP sites that mirrored the former C64 site watson.mbb.sfu.ca, this site was the originator of the collection. Jeff Bryer was forced to remove his C64 collection and the mirrors came to death as well. This also happened to the mirrors of Watson as well. It was sad to see an entire collection of games vanish but you need not worry because C64 Ultimas are now available on the following site: arnold.hiof.no /games/u Q. Okay, I have all the games and stuff, how do I run them? A. Please read the documentations for the emulators you are using. Note that there has been quite a bit of confusion about the documentation of PC64. There are two different versions, one is English and the other is German. The Enlish version is the one with the 'e' in the zip file. Q. I am stuck in _insert name of game here_. A. Check with WWW site: http://www.udic.org for hint files. Also, try reading the newsgroup alt.games.ultima.dragons. This is the newsgroup for the Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter, an Ultima fan club. Q. Where can I get the manuals for these games? A. Try FTP.EA.COM and look for MANUAL.TXT, MANUAL.WRI, or MANUAL.ZIP. These are the instructions for the 6 pack of Ultima games on CD-ROM. For maps, try http://www.udic.org and they have scanned images of them which may be downloaded and printed. Q. I can't get the music working in Ultima V. A. The music in Ultima V can only be heard on a 128. However, Minstrel Dragon has written a program that allows you to hear the music in PC64. Just check ftp.udic.org and you should be able to find it. The file is u5-music.zip. To run it, unzip it into a directory then go into your PC64 directory and type: PC64 C:\PC64\GAMES\ULTIMA5\U5_MUSIC.P00 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (path name) Q. What about these games with the multiple disk images? A. On the shareware version of C64S, they do not support multiple disk images, in other words you will need to shell out $60 to register it. In the shareware version of PC64 you can use multiple disk images allowing you to play the games with more than one disk. Q. In PC64 I try to open these files and I can't. It says they need to be .C64 files. What do I do? A. Okay, you need to pull down the EMULATOR menu then choose NEW. Now, you can push F9 and choose the .D64 file you need. You can continue to do this and make more than one window open and switch back and forth between them. Remember, once you have loaded the .D64 file, push F5 to go into the emulator. You may push escape and goto the menu then come back by pushing F5 again to go where you left off. See the manual for more information. Section II: Apple II Ultima Games Q. What is this I have been hearing about Ultima games on the Apple II? A. The Apple II is a computer from the early 80's. The original Ultima Games were made on an Apple II computer. These games have become available on the internet and can be played on DOS, Windows, Linux and Macintosh computers. Q. Ok. How do I emulate an Apple II on my computer? A. FTP to robot.asimov.com and login as anonymous and give your email address as a password. I /pub/apple2 you will find several directories to get emulators. My favorite Apple ][ Emulator in ApplePC, which can be found at robot.asimov.edu in /pub/apple_II/emulators. Get the newest version (2.40) and get iierom.zip. Put them both in a directory and read apple.doc. ApplePC emulates a Mockingboard so you get the cool music in Ultima V. The next best one I have found is AppleWin which include 16 and 32 bit versions and runs on 486 compatible computers in a Windows enironment. Download the emulator of your choice and set it up. Consult the emulator's documentation on how to do this. Unfortunately, this doesn't emulate Mockingboard. Q. Ok. The emulator is working now where do I get the games? A. The games are available from robot.asimov.com in the /pub/apple2/images/games/rpg directory. There you will find Akalabeth, Ultima I, II, III, IV and V. These disks have been compressed by a unix form of compression known as GZIP. All files will have the extension of .gz at the end. Important: Get Ultima V from the /pub/apple_II/images/games/rpg/Ultima_V directory. Here are step by step instructions for getting a disk image to work. 1. Download the file. We will use Akalabeth.dsk.gz as an example. 2. The file will probably have a shorter name due to the fact it is on a DOS computer. You will need to rename the file Akalabeth.dsk.gz from whatever it is present to something like akale.gz 3. Download the gzip compression utility from somewhere. 4. Use the command gzip -d akale.gz 5. Rename the given file name from that to akale.dsk 6. You may now load it in your emulator. A simular process is followed for all Apple II disk images. Q. I can't get Akalabeth to boot in AppleWin, it screws up. A. Follow this procedure to load Akalabeth: 1. Click on the disk drive icon and load akale.dsk 2. Click on the apple button Q. Music in Ultima V? A. Yes and no. Yes, if you use ApplePC and no if you use AppleWin. Go into the music configuration from the Ultima V menu and set ports 4 and 5 for Mockingboard. Note that it requires an Adlib compatible card. (any Soundblaster compatible will work) Q. Which version of Ultima I should I get? A. There are 2 versions of Ultima I available. The first is in the rpg directory and that is the 1986 version. The second is in the Ultima_I directory and is from 1981. The major changes are basically the graphics. Section III: Akalabeth Q. What is Akalabeth anyway? A. Akalabeth is the very first Ultima. It was made by Richard Garriot in 1980 and he sold it in zip lock bags. It has been referred to as Ultima 0. All die hard Ultima fans must take a look at it. Q. How do I play Akalabeth? A. Basically, you explore the Akalabeth, World of Doom and do quests for Lord British. Here is what Malicious Dragon says: Here's what I've found out about Akalabeth: Once it sets your stats, you start in a town. Press 'Q' to exit. Use: for North <- for west -> for east / for south In dungeons, those keys mean forward, left, right, and turn around, respectivly. 'A' to attack in dungeons. No combat outside of dungeons. Food is consumed at 1 unit per step on the outside, and .1 unit per movement in dungeons. And I thought starvation was a problem in other Ultimas... sheesh. 'S' to check your current stats. no savegame feature that I can see symbols that look like giant 'x's are dungeons single boxes are trees five linked boxes are towns(all with the same thing in them) haven't found Lord British's castle yet. Everything of note that can be entered can be entered by pressing 'x' climbing up and down ladders and dungeons can be accomplished by pressing x There is no difference between Fighters and Mages, except that Mages have weaker combat abilities, but can use the mysterious Magic Amulet as a weapon. Items in dungeons can be picked up simply by walking on them. It's amazing how much Questron dungeon sequences resemble Akalabeth dungeon sequences. Garriot really DID set the standard. (Thanks to Malicious Dragon) Section IV: Closing Well I suppose that wraps it up. Hopefully, if you didn't have any Ultima's, now you will and should be able to play them. If you've been wondering what Akalabeth was now you have it. This is just my contribution is the Ultima Dragon's Internet Chapter, a virtual club that consists of fans of the Ultima series of games. As to ethical questions... Some people have brought up the point that having these games on the internet is a form of piracy. They are no longer published for these systems making them hard to find so they are considered by some to be free works. I don't say anything on the issue so please no flames. Made by: Caliaber Dragon Thanks to: UDIC Jeff Bryer (Host of the original C64 site) Malicious Dragon Minstrel Dragon Send comments, questions, flames etc. to: If you have space on your WWW page for this and the Apple ][ + C64 Ultima games, or would provide me with a page for this, please e-mail me. Caliaber Dragon -==UDIC==- Bladez@ix.netcom.com