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I noticed there is no sticky thread with links to all the important websites and patches for new users like for many other games, so I decided to make one. I haven't played all of the games, so please fill me in if I missed something.

General Links
Ultima Codex: Ultima fansite with many ressources (successor to Ultima Aiera)
The Codex of Ultima Wisdom: a Wiki covering the entire Ultima universe
Ultima Wiki - Editable Codex: Another Ultima Wiki
Strategy Wiki: a Wiki for game walkthroughs, has very good guides for the Ultima games and, more importantly, features comprehensive lists of key mappings, spells, items, maps and all sorts of useful stuff
Replacementdocs: hosts all sorts of video game documentation, in case something is missing among the GoG extras or if you want to see the manuals of other versions of the games
Ultima Retrospective by The Spoony One: funny and (more or less) informative video series looking back at the Ultima games. Keep in mind that Spoony is an entertainer, not a critic, so take everything with a grain of salt.
DOUG the EAGLE's Pages: Cheats, tools, and various ways to break the games and other fun stuff.


General Paches/Downloads
Pix' Ultima Patcher: (scroll to miscellaneous) a Patcher for most (all?) of the Ultima games to apply fan-made patches in one go instead of each one manually (Windows only?)
High-Resolution Ultima Map Project: High-Res scans of the original cloth maps, superior to the maps included with the GoG releases
Ultima Savegame Editor for Ultima 1 - 5 for Windows and Mac OS X (instructions for Boxer and the GoG versions included)
Ultima Font Collection: Various fonts used throughout the Ultima series

General Information
All games in the series, with the exception of Ultima IX, can be played in DOSBox. GoG sells the DOS versions already bundled with DOS Box, so Windows users don't have to do anythig special to get the games running.

Users of other OSes can get the games running in DOSBox as well, but they will need to get the game files somehow out of the installer. The easiest way would be to install the games and then take what you need and throw the rest away. Mac users should take a look at [url=http://boxerapp.com/]Boxer instead of DOSBox, it's basically the same thing, but Boxer is more user-friendly and imports the right DOSBox settings from the GoG installs. Instead of plain Wine, Mac users can use Wineskin, which is more user-friendly and can make standalone Wine ports (I use it myself to port many of my Windows games)

The DOS versions of these games are often inferior compared to other ports, usually having less colour, less detail and no music. There are various fan-made patches to upgrade the old games to other ports' standards.

A general note about the upgrade patches: Some (all?) of the patches were made to be used under Windows, so they won't run in DOS or DOSBox on other OSes. In that case there are additional files provided, which you must put in the game's directory, as you did with the patch. Do not put the folders containing the files inside the game's directory, you need the files themsevles, not their folders.

For example, I want to patch Ultima II, so I download the ZIP file. I extract it and get two folders (BIN and MANIFEST) with several files. I take the files from these folders and put them in my Ultima II directory and throw the two folders away.

The ZIP file is also attached as an image to this post just in case. Download the "image" file and change the extension from PNG to ZIP; I had to do this because the GOG forum software only lets me upload image files.

I have the Mac version, where are my files?
GoG is using a custom standalone version of Boxer to make the games run out of the box. To access the gamebox (wrapped up DOS files) right-click on the app, choose "Show Package Contents" and then navigate to Contents -> Resources and find the bile with the .boxer extension. You can access a gamebox's contents the same way.
You save files are in another location though. You can find them under "~/Library/Application Support/Boxer/Gamebox States/[name of your game]/Current.boxerstate/[name of your game].harddisk/". In the case of Ultima 1 this would be be "~/Library/Application Support/Boxer/Gamebox States/com.gog.ultima-1/Current.boxerstate/C Ultima1.harddisk/".

How do I delete my old characters in the Mac version?
You could use the aforementioned path and delete the files or just choose from the menu bar of the game File -> Reset Game Data

Generale Guides
Charater Advancement: a general overview about leveling up in the Ultima series, since the process is never really straight-forward.

-- Age of Darkness --

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
To clarify one thing, there is no upgrade patch available for the DOS version of Ultima I, since the DOS version was released later than the other versions as a remake.
Useful manual
Computer Ports of Ultima I
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness]Ultima I on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Computer Ports of Ultima II
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_II:_The_Revenge_of_the_Enchantress]Ultima II on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima II Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.

Ultima III: Exodus
Computer Ports of Ultima III
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_III:_Exodus]Ultima III on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima III Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.

-- Age of Enlightenment --

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
XU4 - Ultima IV Rebuilt (status: Beta, playable): a source port to run Ultima IV natively on modern systems
Computer Ports of Ultima IV
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_IV:_Quest_of_the_Avatar]Ultima IV on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima IV Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.
Virtues in Ultima IV (overview how the game tracks your virtues and how to improve them best)

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Computer Ports of Ultima V
Ultima V Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.
Runeless font: replaces all the rune characters in the game with normal latin characters.
FIXPARTY.EXE: this DOS exectuable fixes your Ultima IV save file (PARTY.SAV) if you get an error when trying to import a U4 character. Run the EXE, type the letter of the drive that has the save file and that should do it.

Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Nuvie (status: in development, play- and beatable): a source port to run Ultima VI natively on modern systems
Computer Ports of Ultima VI
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VI:_The_False_Prophet]Ultima VI on Strategy Wiki[/url]

-- list continued here in another post due to length --
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/ultima_series/ultima_series_ressource_collection/post12
Attachments:
csdpmi5b.png (55 Kb)
Post edited September 11, 2015 by HiPhish
avatar
HiPhish: I noticed there is no sticky thread with links to all the important websites and patches for new users like for many other games, so I decided to make one. I haven't played all of the games, so please fill me in if I missed something.

General Links
Codex of Ultima Wisdom: a Wiki covering the entire Ultima universe
Strategy Wiki: a Wiki for game walkthroughs, has very good guides for the Ultima games and, more importantly, features comprehensive lists of key mappings, spells, items, maps and all sorts of useful stuff
Replacementdocs: hosts all sorts of video game documentation, in case something is missing among the GoG extras or if you want to see the manuals of other versions of the games
Ultima Aiera: Ultima fansite with several ressources
Ultima Codex: another Ultima fansite
Ultima Retrospective by The Spoony One: funny and (more or less) informative video series looking back at the Ultima games, still not finished. Keep in mind that Spoony is an entertainer, not a critic, so take everything with a grain of salt.


General Paches
Pix' Ultima Patcher: (scroll to miscellaneous) a Patcher for most (all?) of the Ultima games to apply fan-made patches in one go instead of each one manually (Windows only?)

General Information
All games in the series, with the exception of Ultima IX, can be played in DOSBox. GoG sells the DOS versions already bundled with DOS Box, so Windows users don't have to do anythig special to get the games running.
Users of other OSes can get the games running in DOSBox as well, but they will need to get the game files somehow out of the installer. The easiest way would be Wine to install the games and then take what you need and throw the rest away.
Mac users should take a look at instead of DOSBox, it's basically the same thing, but Boxer is more user-friendly and imports the right DOSBox settings from the GoG installs. Instead of plain Wine, Mac users can use [url=http://wineskin.doh123.com/]Wineskin, which is more user-friendly and can make standalone Wine ports (I use it myself to port many of my Windows games)

The DOS versions of these games are often inferior compared to other ports, usually having less colour, less detail and no music. There are various fan-made patches to upgrade the old games to other ports' standards.

A general note about the upgrade patches: Some (all?) of the patches were made to be used under Windows, so they won't run in DOS or DOSBox on other OSes. In that case there are additional files provided, which you must put in the game's directory, as you did with the patch. Do not put the folders containing the files inside the game's directory, you need the files themsevles, not their folders.
For example, I want to patch Ultima II, so I download the ZIP file. I extract it and get two folders (BIN and MANIFEST) with several files. I take the files from these folders and put them in my Ultima II directory and throw the two folders away.



-- Age of Darkness --

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
To clarify one thing, there is no upgrade patch available for the DOS version of Ultima I, since the DOS version was released later than the other versions as a remake.
Computer Ports of Ultima I
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness]Ultima I on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress
Computer Ports of Ultima II
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_II:_The_Revenge_of_the_Enchantress]Ultima II on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima II Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.

Ultima III: Exodus
Computer Ports of Ultima III
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_III:_Exodus]Ultima III on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima III Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.


-- Age of Enlightenment --

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
XU4 - Ultima IV Rebuilt (status: Beta, playable): a source port to run Ultima IV natively on modern systems
Computer Ports of Ultima IV
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_IV:_Quest_of_the_Avatar]Ultima IV on Strategy Wiki[/url]
Ultima IV Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Computer Ports of Ultima V
Ultima V Upgrade Patch: If you are trying to patch the game on a Non-Windows OS you also need these files.

Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Nuvie (status: in development, unplayable): a source port to run Ultima VI natively on modern systems
Computer Ports of Ultima VI
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VI:_The_False_Prophet]Ultima VI on Strategy Wiki[/url]


-- Age of Armageddon --

Exult (status: Beta, playable): a source port to run Ultima VII (all of them) natively on modern systems

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (+ Forge of Virtue)
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII:_The_Black_Gate]Ultima VII on Strategy Wiki[/url]
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII:_Forge_of_Virtue]Forge Of Virtue on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (+ The Silver Seed)
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII_Part_Two:_Serpent_Isle]Ultima VII Part 2 on Strategy Wiki[/url]
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII_Part_Two:_Serpent_Isle_-_The_Silver_Seed]The Silver Seed on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima VIII: Pagan
Pentagram (status: in development, unplayable): a source port to run Ultima VIII natively on modern systems

Ultima IX: Ascension


-- Ultima Underworld --

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
MIDI Patch

Ultima Underworld: Labyrinth Of Worlds
MIDI Patch
Outstanding work! Mods, this topic deserves a sticky! +1
Nice to see that someone appreciates the effort ^^ Although, you didn't need to quote the entire post to make your point :P

When I first bought these games I was litereally lost, I didn't know what to do, which buttons to press or where to go. I spent hours (well, maybe not literally hours but it felt like that) digging through this forum and various sites, just to get basic information on how to play these games. I hope I can save other users time and it's nice to have a comprehensive list for myself as well.

EDIT: Yay, stickied ^_^
Post edited June 13, 2012 by HiPhish
excellent work. The Ultima series was big just before the internet took off so there is not as many resources as there should be, but top marks for the effort!
[deleted]
Post edited April 11, 2018 by cmak
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HiPhish: Ultima VIII: Pagan
Pentagram (status: in development, unplayable): a source port to run Ultima VIII natively on modern systems
Actually, the current builds of Pentagram are definitely playable, you can complete the game.
avatar
VisElEchNon: Actually, the current builds of Pentagram are definitely playable, you can complete the game.
Thanks, corrected that.
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cmak: Because manuals are for pussies :P
I like reading manuals, it's just that the documentation GoG included plain sucks. Take Ultima 1 for example, the manual tells you nothing useful, like what the spells do or what keys to press. However, it does tell you that weapon shops sell weapons. Gee, thanks Captain Obvious.

I can definitely see how the "WFT do I do?" effect could drive people away from these games. I have watched Spoony's videos and they really made me intreseted in checking out Ultima, but it was always the inaccessible nature of the games that kept driving me way.
You can get a whole host of U9 patches . Main page [url=http://www.forgottenworld.de/]here.

::EDIT::
For some reason, this post won't work correctly anymore. So here it is again without url markup:

You can get a whole host of U9 patches here (http://www.forgottenworld.de/index.php/screenshots/ultima-ix-patchs-and-forgotten-world-releases). Main page here (http://www.forgottenworld.de/).

::EDIT 2::
Interesting, it added the url markup for me... and that markup works properly. Okay GOG, okay.
Post edited September 15, 2017 by VisElEchNon
Aaaaand added. Thanks.
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HiPhish: Aaaaand added. Thanks.
Yup no problem.

There are a couple pages at The Ultima Codex for The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. There are a few things listed there such as PU6E that could probably be listed above.

Then there's the site I just put up a few days ago: How to use Xenerkes Dragon's Ultima Launcher with GoG.com releases. It's for all the games of course. :)
Post edited June 25, 2012 by VisElEchNon
More resources! (I apologize for the double post but simply editing doesn't seem to notify anyone.)

Ultima V: Lazarus - Lazarus Unbound Humorous walkthrough that also relies on a few, um, "features" that were removed between v1.1 and v1.2 of Lazarus.

Ultima VI: The False Prophet
- DOUG the EAGLE's Ultima 6 Page Various ways to break the game entirely, a world editor kit, savegames and more.
- Ultima VI Online (Official Page) Literally U6 played online as an MMORPG.
- The Ultima VI Online Blogspot Almost anything you could ask for dealing with U6O.

Ultima VII
- A fistful of Ultima 7 Another "anti-walkthrough" by DOUG the EAGLE.
- Serpent's Isle: a cosmic balancing act Also from DOUG the EAGLE, this "anti-walkthrough" is for Serpent Isle.

Ultima VIII: Pagan - DOUG the EAGLE's Ultima 8 Page Guess who?! He warns you to complete the game properly before attempting to break it.

Ultima IX: Ascension - Whacked-out Ultima 9 A lot of strange things to see and do in Ultima IX.
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VisElEchNon: snip
Thanks, buy now I have another problem, my post is too large. I had to cut off a part, I'll store it here for the time being; I need to ask a mod what can be done. EDIT: How do I find a mod around here? I don't usually browse the forums, so I don't know who is in charge

-- Age of Armageddon --

Exult (status: Beta, playable): a source port to run Ultima VII (all of them) natively on modern systems
Alternate font for Ultima VII and Serpent Isle: less fancy, but more readable in-game font for Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part 2. Works in Exult and probably in DOSBox as well.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (+ Forge of Virtue)
Ultima VII Google Map: an interactive "Google Maps" style map for Ultima VII
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII:_The_Black_Gate]Ultima VII on Strategy Wiki[/url]
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII:_Forge_of_Virtue]Forge Of Virtue on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (+ The Silver Seed)
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII_Part_Two:_Serpent_Isle]Ultima VII Part 2 on Strategy Wiki[/url]
[url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ultima_VII_Part_Two:_Serpent_Isle_-_The_Silver_Seed]The Silver Seed on Strategy Wiki[/url]

Ultima VIII: Pagan
Pentagram (status: in development, playabe in the latest builds): a source port to run Ultima VIII natively on modern systems

Ultima IX: Ascension
Forgotten World: Fansite that hosts the last official patch and some unofficial patches. They also host the "Forgotten World" Project, which expands and improves Ultima IX, the "Beatuful Britannia" project for overall appearance improvements and some mini-mods.
(Un)official patches and mods

-- Ultima Underworld --
Solution for inventory bug: Due to engine limitations having to many items on a level can cause items to turn into different things, this post explains the cause and how to solve the problem
Underworld Adventures (status: discontinued, unplayable): a source Port for Ultima Underworld (and potentially Underworld II), unfortunately it has been abandoned. I would have loved to see this one get finished, I can bear the tech of the turn-based topdown Ultimas, but Underworld looks like it needs a major interface overhaul.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
MIDI Patch
Walkthrough by Sir Cabirus, the most somplete walkthrough I could think of

Ultima Underworld: Labyrinth Of Worlds
MIDI Patch

-- Ultima Online --

-- Worlds of Ultima --

Savage Empire
Savage Empire at Ultima Codex: Various downloads and information

Martian Dreams
Martian Dreams at Ultima Codex: Various downloads and information

-- Other Ultima Related Projects --

<span class="bold">Ultima V: Lazarus</span>: An Ultima V remake as a mod for Dungeon Siege
Lazarus Unbound Humorous walkthrough that also relies on a few, um, "features" that were removed between v1.1 and v1.2 of Lazarus

<span class="bold">The Ultima 6 Project</span>: An Ultima VI remake as a mod for Dungeon Siege

<span class="bold">Ultima VI Online</span>: Literally U6 played online as an MMORPG
The Ultima VI Online Blogspot: Almost anything you could ask for dealing with U6O.
Post edited September 11, 2015 by HiPhish
avatar
HiPhish: ...
EDIT: How do I find a mod around here? I don't usually browse the forums, so I don't know who is in charge
...
Well, I know that one of the staff members is JudasIscariot. I don't know how to contact staff though, sorry.
Nuvie snapshots are beatable without using cheats or skipping the plot. There should be a new release soon.
Post edited August 30, 2012 by Malignant_Manor
Nice. I'll still wait for the release until I write that Nuvie is beatable, I guess most people don't want to deal with development snapshots. The development site hasn't been updated for months, so I didn't really pay attention to the development.