[Al ex]

Version 1.4
========

Info: Re-uploaded on 20240522 due to incompatibility of the old version with recent Magic Dosbox releases.

Download

Info:
– Absolute mouse; double tap or two-finger tap for right mouse click
– Movement Control: Dpad on the right side (set to Numpad 1-4 & 6-9), or use mouse movement via absolute mouse. First alternative is more console-/keyboard-like, with a little stutter after the first step, the second option works smoother, but the finger will block part of the screen. Samsung’s S-Pen works nicely here. 😉
– Gestures:
-> swipe up/down will show/hide the UI
-> swipe left/right works as Esc key (to skip intro/cutscenes or pass one turn).

Widgets:
– Although the Ultima 6 icons are pretty well suited to be used natively, I’ve created transparent key shortcut widgets. Reason: if you want e.g. to travel with the Orb of the Moons, and use the “U” shortcut instead of the original icon, Ultima 6 will display a crosshair, which can be moved with the Dpad. This makes targeting with the Orb easier.
– Game Options: Load, Save, Quit, Yes/No (single/double tap), Sound On/Off, Conversation Help On/Off
– Quest Log: built-in Notepad function for quest notes
– Map: peer gem cheat via Deadly Strike widget as automap substitute (for a little more “modern” gameplay; if you want it to be completely oldschool, delete the icon 😉 )
– Attack: perhaps the most frequently used button, placed at the side for better accessibility
– Enter: to confirm attacks (alt. to Attack button), confirm Orb of the Moons locations, leave conversations, etc.
– Conversation mode: after starting a conversation with an NPC, tap this icon to hide all UI elements and bring up the built-in MagicDosbox-keyboard instead. It’s aligned to the top and set to only 25 opacity, so most of the dialogue box is visible, to improve readability.
When you’ve finished conversation, tap the icon again to change from keyboard to UI again.
Note: this hack uses a Deadly Strike widget. If you accidentally press the “back” soft key instead to hide the keyboard, both keyboard and UI will be shown/hidden at the same time. Simply press the icon and then the “back” soft key once again to correct this.
– Character Selection (1-8 & 0 keys):
-> Single tap: Character selection (1, 2 etc., for item exchange & solo mode); 0 switches back to party mode
-> Double tap: Inventory (F1, F2, etc); 0 (F10) returns to party overview
-> Tap “Char Select” button to show/hide the number key block
– Turbo Mode (“>>>” icon, top right corner), to speed up lengthy sequences, like e.g. resting

[fiffi]

Very nice layout, Al ex! I’ve played around with it, finding many nice ideas that I could use. I’m making my own for the big screen, with the widgets outside of the game screen. I’m using the same design for Ultima 6 and the two Worlds of Ultima, as we discussed before.

The map trick was neat. Have you tried that widget on the WoU’s? I tried it on both, and it gives widely different results.

However, I have a question: When I play your layout and select something to Move from my inventory, I can give it to another character by tapping his number. It also works when I pull up the keyboard and type the characters number. I find this very practical.

But none of these methods works on my own layout! I have number buttons beside the game screen, and as far as I can see they are set up the same way as yours. If I tap my number button (after choosing an item), or use the keyboard I get a Move to none message, and the item stays where it is.

Do you have any idea about what I’m doing wrong?

[Al ex]

Weird, should be pretty straightforward. You can post your layout, if you like, so we can take a look.

[fiffi]

Here is the profile I’m working on. But I’ve tried this on several setups. The profile I linked, a complete blank profile using the keyboard, your profile and on Dosbox 0.74.3 on the PC. The results are the same, except on your profile. Neither pressing a number widget nor pressing a number on the keyboard works as target for a Move command. In your profile, however, both methods work. In all the other setups, I have to click the character on the map.

That leads me to think that there is something you have done with your profile, but I cannot find out what it is. Or maybe it’s something else I haven’t understood. It’s no biggie, but it would be nice to have it work. I have used the same version of the game for all my tests, a freshly installed GoG-version.

I’ve started playing it a little now, and I feel I’m getting sucked into that old Ultima feeling. It’s been many years since I played one of these games. They are definitely deeper than M&M that I have spent most of my Android retrogaming time on so far. I haven’t gotten far, just started exploring the dungeons under Castle British, and nearly died from poison. 😊

[Al ex]

Seems like a bug in Ultima 6 to me. It’s the mix between mouse input (tap “Move” icon, then tap item to be moved) and the following keyboard press that breaks the input.
When I remove the “M” overlay I’ve placed on top of the Move icon, I get the same bug.

[fiffi]

Yes! That’s the solution. Silly me, the only thing I didn’t try was to type the M instead of tapping the icon. Thanks a lot! I tested the issue in Dosbox on the PC as well, and it is the same there. And in both the games in World of Ultima.

My only problem now is to right-click one of the icons, to make a shortcut. I have set up double tab and long press as right-click, but that won’t work anymore with a widget on top of it. I have found a workaround, but it is a bit clumsy. Do you have any idea how to right-click a game button beneath a widget?

It’s great fun tinkering with these designs. I must make sure to spend some time actually playing the games too.

[SongJiang]

The gestures (as double click and swipes) work on top of widget only if the widget is set to ‘non blocking’.

[fiffi]

That’s brilliant. Thank you SongJiang!
I guess that takes care of all my problems. For now… 😊

[Vi3D]

My game crashes on startup with this one. Adding the game manually it boots fine, it’s the GOG version. Any ideas?

[Al ex]

You should check the mount command in the autoexec section in expert settings. Unless you’re using the exact same phone with exact same folder structure, these will point to an invalid location. I don’t think it’s crashing, but IIRC, there’s an “exit” command in there that’s supposed to close Magic Dosbox automatically on quitting the game, but will also close it if the game exe isn’t found.

[Vi3D]

I did use the Get feature to make sure it sets the correct path to the game’s EXE, but actually the entirety of Magic DOSBox is what crashes when I boot it, it kicks me out to my phone’s home screen, I wasn’t clear about it on the previous post.

[Al ex]

Game’s working fine for me. I hate it when that happens. 😉
So it’s obviously not a general incompatibility between an older profile and the most recent Magic Dosbox version. What happens if you use expert settings, but comment out or delete the game launch and exit commands from the autoexec section, then run the game manually from the DOS prompt?

[Vi3D]

Crashes even with the autoexec empty. Gonna make sure MDB is updated and try again, my Google Play likes to not warn me about updates.

[Vi3D]

It is up to date. Could it be because my game folder is “Ultima 6” with a space?

[Al ex]

Could be, though in that case it should replace the filename internally. You don’t need expert settings to use the profile btw, so you could also uncheck them, and add the game via UI.

[Author]

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