Windows Native Ultima II ------------------------ Version 1.01 Copyright (C) 1983, 1989 by Lord British and Origin Windows executable Copyright (C) 2000 by John Alderson (alderson@iserv.net) Current version available at http://ultima2.voyd.net. Thanks to Michael C. Maggio, Voyager Dragon, for providing the web space. See the end of this file for changes since the last version =/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\==/=\= Welcome to the future: an early eighties game brought to its knees by a quick and dirty port to Windows. This game will run under Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and presumably any Windows that comes in the future. You MUST own a legal copy of Ultima II to play this game, it uses the data and I do not and can not provide it. I have been testing using the version that comes on the Ultima Collection CD, and it may or may not work with other releases, since there were some slight changes. If you have another version, and it does not work, please let me know. INSTALLATION ------------ Installation is easy: simply unzip WinUltima2.zip into your existing Ultima II directory, and run Ultima2.exe (it's the one with the icon, Ultimaii.exe is the old DOS version). GAME PLAY --------- I have tried to preserve the original "feel" of the DOS program as much as was convenient. All of the commands defined in the manual are the same, and the story is identical (it does, after all, use all of the same data files). There are a few minor differences, most notably the outer space system. I tried to make it a little less disorienting, and did not have the time to get it to work the same way as the original. All of the coordinates are the same, and hyper drive is the same, but your ship can now drift to adjacent sectors after a while. I have tried to get the probabilities of most things accurate, but because the way the DOS program did random numbers and mixed number formats (it's a long story), this proved to be very difficult at times to get 100% accurate, so there are some differences in some of the calculations. Most aren't noticeable, and some I feel actually improve game play. There were several aspects of Ultima II that were slightly, shall we say, annoying. Like the fact that it saves your game whenever you enter a town (or village, or dungeon) and what not. I tried to change this, but it turned out to complicate matters, so I kept it as it is. I wanted to allow for switching between the Windows and DOS versions without losing anything. PROGRAM OPTIONS --------------- The game window can be sized to any dimension, but looks better if it is an exact multiple of the original 320x200. To quickly do this, choose an option from the Zoom menu. 1X is the original 320x200 resolution, 2X is 640x400, and so on. You can choose between three different color palettes. "Original" is the CGA colors we all know and love from the eighties, with magenta oceans and cyan trees. "Red" gives green trees but makes oceans and bricks red, which looks best in some sub maps. "Blue" gives green trees and blue oceans, but blue bricks. "Reset Game" under the Game menu will abort your current game and reset back to the introduction screen. No more rebooting to restore a saved game! TECHNICAL ISSUES ---------------- Dungeons (and outer space) may look slightly different than you remember from the DOS version if you use the default rendering engine. The alternate rendering option (under the Game menu) switches between two different ways that the graphics are drawn on the screen. One way is faster on some chips, the other one is faster on others. Toggle it on and off and see which one works best on your video card. Older video cards may be very slow. There is also no sound, because I did not want to reproduce the annoying beeps of the original, and I have not yet gotten around to recording new sounds. Sound will hopefully be included in a future release. The zip file includes the missing planet maps. Special thanks to Mike Marcelais, The Moonstone Dragon for making these available. FUTURE PLANS ------------ I hope to resolve the performance issues with a DirectDraw version at some time. Also, as I said above I would like to add some sound effects. The Big Plan I have is to replace the tile set with new, higher resolution and high color tiles. This will likely have to come after the DirectDraw work is done, and will make the game look different, but play exactly the same. No, it will not look like Diablo, but it won't look like an early eighties game, more of a late eighties game :) ==================== HISTORY OF REVISIONS ==================== 1.01 - 1/9/00 ------------- - Optimized "Alternate Render" mode slightly. It should be faster on some cards now. - Fixed "disappearing town" problem--no longer allows you to exit from a ship when the ship is still over a town tile. 1.0 - 1/1/00 --------------------- - Original release, made available on January 1, 2000.