DeMignon: If I understand you right, you're not using GOG's version of Ultima 7 but Exult? If so, there's a new version as of today:
http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php The SDL.dll should be located in the game's folder. Don't install the game into the Program Files folder, but a custom one (e.g. C:\Ultima7\) and try running it as Administrator (right-click the game's start icon => Run as ..)
You can download the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library version 1.2.x here
http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php Maybe you need the version for 64bit systems.
SDL 2.0.3 is out here, if interested...
http://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php OOOOps...wrong file...;) This is SDL2....we still have to use 1.2
Kind of interesting, but both the win32 & win64 versions of 1.2.15 found here
http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php identify themselves in their respective properties/detail tabs as
1.2.14. The only file that identifies itself as
1.2.15 is the version of SDL that the latest snapshots of Exult install automatically. Something I noticed today and thought I'd pass on.
Edit2: The 64-bit version of SDL.dll does not run at all with Exult; and the 32-bit SDL.dll version runs, but the performance is noticeably lagging behind that of the standard SDL.dll, marked 1.2.15, that is included in the latest snapshot builds of Exult. So, I think people are wise to simply install the lastest snapshot of Exult and forget about downloading the stand-alone versions of the library file. (Besides the fact that although the download page says 1.2.15, the actual files themselves say 1.2.14.)
I've found that when a new version of Exult is released in a new snapshot that it is easily installed right on top of the previous Exult installation--there are no duplicate registry entries made that I can detect (no duplicate uninstall entries, etc.) All that seems to change is the Exult files themselves as to newer versions, as with the 1.2.15 SDL.dll library file.
