Re: Ultima IV wanted

[fishern3485@cobra.uni.edu]

> Right -- I say 'Ankh alcove' because there was an Ankh there in U IV.
> They handled this well, if I recall.  You can get more than one glass
> sword... but only one at a time.  Whack a dragon, go back, get another,
> whack a dragon, go back, get another, whack Blackthorn, go back...
> 
> The number may well be finite, however.  Never kept it up until they
> were all gone. 

you may be able to get more than one.  I was able to get lots of flying
carpets as I recall.  Just get one, leave the castle, and go back
in.  There will be another one there waiting for you.  Get 99 if you
like.  They are great stepping stones!  Just plop them down on streams
and such.  Unfortunately, all items left laying on the britannia map
are wiped when you go to the underworld. (and I think dungeons, too)

As for the sword, try getting one, and then putting it somewhere.
(like one of your fellows in a 'hotel')  It may work.  I think there
was another somewhat "unique" item you could get more than one of...
forget which.

>>Anyhow, is there a way to copy the Ultima V disks into partition(s) on the
>>HD, and thus avoid the frequent disk-switching that's the single most time-
>>consuming aspect of the game?

you'd have to majorly tear the game apart.  All ultimas that I know use
direct sector/block I/O to read the main outdoor maps. (for speed's sake)
You probably could make it read a file instead, but it would really
hurt the game's efficiency.  Oh, I just remembered - all the screens
on the intro are stored directly on the dwelling disk, too.  What a pain!

SECRET SECRET SECRET

look on the dwelling disk for a deleted file!  It *IS* there!  It is
the ***SOURCE CODE*** for the packing algorythm (with its tree!) 
for all the dialogues!  With a little hacking, you can read it all.
Makes me wonder if that was intentional........


> This may be wrong, but I doubt it without going in and cracking the disks.

there was very little protection on the disk.  Just enough to make
it hard to copy.  No memory checksums or anything else nasty like that
to make modification a pain.  As I recall, it was some sort of header
or trailer change. (it's been a long time....)  Six NOPs I think.

-- 
Nathan Fisher
  FISHERN3485@COBRA.UNI.EDU