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Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

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Revision as of 05:13, 15 December 2018 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (→‎top: updated GOG.com ID format)
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss cover
Developers
Blue Sky Productions
Publishers
Origin Systems
Engines
Underworld engine
Release dates
DOS March 1992
Windows June 2, 2011[1]
macOS (OS X) October 18, 2012[2]
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss on Wikipedia
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress 1982
Ultima III: Exodus 1983
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar 1985
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness 1987
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny 1988
Ultima VI: The False Prophet 1990
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire 1990
Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams 1991
Ultima VII: The Black Gate 1992
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss 1992
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds 1993
Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle 1993
Ultima VIII: Pagan 1994
Ultima Online 1997
Akalabeth: World of Doom 1998
Ultima IX: Ascension 1999

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM-free
Floppies or CD-ROM; see run in DOSBox (retail).
DOS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Pre-packaged with DOSBox.[3] Includes Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Origin
Origin
Not available in some regions.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The Ultima Underworld 1 Patch is needed for floppy disk versions. The CD-ROM and GOG.com versions are already fully patched. An unofficial General MIDI patch is available here as well.

Run in DOSBox (retail)

To run correctly in DOSBox change cycles=auto to cycles=max.

Underworld Exporter

Use Underworld Exporter to play in higher resolutions, add mouse look, listen to higher quality/custom music, etc.
Some bugs still remain.
Can also be used to play Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, but it is only partially supported at the moment.
Set up Underworld Exporter (Windows)[citation needed]
  1. Download and install the latest Github release.
  2. Find config and open it with your text editor of choice.
  3. Find Path_UW1= and place the path to your Ultima Underworld installation folder after the “=”.
    • That is, the folder with CRIT, CUTS, DATA, etc.
    • Note: All paths must end with a trailing slash \. Ex. C:\path\to\folder\
  4. To add music, download Music.Packs from the same location as the releases and extract. Afterwards, go into config, find UW1_Soundbank=, and then place the path to the folder containing your music of choice after the “=” .
    • The music pack gives one the choice between MIDI, Soundblaster, and PSX (PlayStation 1) versions of the OST.
    • One can use their own music files if they are in .ogg format.
  5. To use with the GOG version of the game, one must extract the files from game.gog; the folder UW is all one needs.
    • One method is to rename the file from game.gog to game.iso and then extracting the files using WinRAR or 7-zip.

Game data

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE*\
Windows <path-to-game>\SAVE*\[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) ~/Library/Application Support/Boxer/Gamebox States/com.gog.ultima-underworld-1+2/Current.boxerstate/C Ultima Underworld 1 and 2.harddisk/UNDEROM1
The SAVE1, SAVE2, SAVE3 and SAVE4 folders are save slots I-IV. SAVE0 is temporary storage, not a save.
In-game settings are stored in each save rather than shared.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin

Video settings

General settings.
General settings.

Template:Video settings

An alternate shades.dat is available here which will increase the overall brightness of the game without destroying it's atmosphere. Use it if you feel the game is too dark.

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Chinese, Korean and Polish retail versions only have the manuals translated; the game itself is still in English.
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Spanish
Fan translation, download.

Issues fixed

Piano footstep sounds (GOG.com)

The GOG.com version's sound is incorrectly configured by default, resulting in misplaced effects such as piano sounds for footsteps.[4]

Fix piano footsteps (Windows)[4]
  1. Go to DATA in the installation folder.
  2. Edit UW.CFG
  3. Replace 6 -1 -1 -1 sound with 2 7 220 1 sound
  4. Save your changes.
Fix piano footsteps (OS X)[citation needed]
  1. Go to Finder, Applications, Ultima Underworld 1+2.
  2. Right click Ultima Underworld 1 and choose Show Package Contents.
  3. Open Contents
  4. Open Resources
  5. Right click Ultima Underworld 1.boxer and choose Show Package Contents.
  6. Open C Ultima Underworld 1 and 2.harddisk
  7. Open UNDEROM1
  8. Open DATA
  9. Edit UW.CFG with TextEdit (right click, Open With)
  10. Replace 6 -1 -1 -1 sound with 2 7 220 1 sound
  11. Save your changes.

Sluggish and/or jumpy mouse controls

The cursor may jump around in-game or mouse control may feel sluggish (especially on menu screens). To fix the first issue, disable joystick functionality; to fix the second, increase mouse sensitivity.
Fix jumpy mouse cursor (Windows)[5]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit dosboxULTIMA1.conf
  3. Set joysticktype to none
  4. Save your changes.
Fix sluggish mouse (Windows)[6]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit dosboxULTIMA1.conf
  3. Change sensitivity from 100 to 200. Experiment with this figure until your mouse feels right.
  4. Save your changes.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Audio Interface Library [7]

System requirements

DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) DOS
Processor (CPU) IBM or 100% compatible 386SX, 386 or 486
System memory (RAM) 2 MB with Expanded Memory (EMS)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 11 MB
Video card (GPU) 256-color VGA graphics
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 48 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2 GHz+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 45 MB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References