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Hello again.
Thanks for the tip, Bruenor, you’re right as usual. I just changed the music card in the sound setup and it all worked. I feel I should apologize for asking something this basic, it left me feeling slightly stupid. 😊 I guess it’s never too late to learn.
I just wonder why I never had this problem on other games. I usually just copy them over from my Windows PC, testing them there first and never touch the setup once I’m over on the tablet.
Hi again,
Just a little update on this. The problem seems to have taken care of itself. I got an update a few weeks ago, and now Magic Dosbox works as it should. So it seems it was a bug, either in Android, or in Samsung’s software.
I can also mention that the problem was more serious than the first post indicated. The entire interface for modifying profiles were ruined, too. If anyone has similar problems, maybe a system update is in order.
Controls are a bit clanky, sure. But to be fair, this game was revolutionary when it came out. It must be the first game with a true 3D environment even if the monsters and NPC’s are just sprites. I remember being fascinated by the technology back when it was new.
I have been testing various pad and joystick solutions on Magic Dosbox, and I don’t know… I just prefer to use buttons like you can see on my screenshot. I’m not a big fan of frenzied action games. In a game like UW there is seldom the need to move very quickly, just the way I like it. I will probably have a go at Doom, Quake and Duke at some point, I might need to rethink my strategy then. When I use a pad on the edge of the screen, and then are watching the action of the screen, I feel that I lose control over where my pad finger is. There is nothing to hang on to.
The keyboard movements in UW was a pain, but when you can map them to widgets it gets much better. But jumping is still annoying. I have found that I can get by in many places by using the standing long jump (shift-J) if I position my character just right. And save before I try. 😊
My character is now at level 7 so I should be able to cast Levitate, but I lack the rune stones. I’m on my way now to take care of a troublesome Gazer on level 2 of the dungeon now, hopefully it has some good stones. But maybe the Gazer ends up taking care of me… 😊
Admin, I do not have the profile anymore. It was just an experiment, so when it didn’t work I just deleted it. It’s no biggie anyway. A couple of extra icons in the file don’t make much difference. I keep my icons at 192×192 pixels, that is what’s recommended, right?
If I feel like trying again, I will work a little harder, keeping Al ex advice in mind. I probably used Windows built-in Add to compressed folder command to zip it. I’ll try with 7zip next time.Al ex, good luck with your pixel traps. I guess this problem won’t affect me, then, I just started using them. Together with layers they make a fabulous tool! The sky is the limit to what we can do with this. I’m getting more excited by Magic Dosbox every day.
It’s also great to rediscover my old favorite games in this way. First Might and Magic: World of Xeen (which I have now completed), and now Ultima Underworlds. I have now explored most of the first level and just found my first shrine. But all the acrobatics needed to move about in this world, and to put down the monsters, can be frustrating at times. I remember feeling the same back in the day, and then I was playing with a mouse. I miss the Teleport spells from M&M already. 😊
Thanks Al ex! I’ve made several changes to it today. Most notably I moved the attack widgets to the lower left corner, so I can hold the tablet and the attack button I want with the left hand, and maneuver with my right hand.
Do you have to edit the XML to get rid of the Pixel Traps? Can’t you just remove them in the interface?
Another question on the same note: I tried to extract one of the mgc-files, remove some icons that I did not end up using, and rezip it. I then renamed it back to mgc, but I got an error when I tried to import it. Is there a trick to the zip-ing these files? I made sure to keep the folder structure, obviously.
Yes, I’m getting really excited about it. It’s gotten to the point that I plan to play it for a while and see how it goes. You can see below what it looks like now, but I already have found things that I will change. Beside the visible buttons I have about 10 layers of invisible widgets turned on and off by pixel traps, so far.
SongJiang, my original problem was not related to the pixel traps. That was just an additional problem that turned up when the pixel trap and target click where on the same spot. While I’m developing I keep all my widgets transparent and visible, so I can see my different layers kick in and out. When I manually move the cursor over the pixel trap I can see the widgets disappear, and return when I move the cursor again. Anyway, having a move in my deadly strike solves both problems.
Thanks for your thoughts, guys.
Hi guys. Thank you for good suggestions and instructive video.
I have worked with this game on and off since I started using Magic Dosbox, but I feel that it’s one of the most complicated games out there to get working properly. I took a break and worked with other games to improve my skills. Now I thought it was time to get started with Ultima Underworlds again, I’m itching to play through it for the first time in 29 years. 😊
I have tried using Al ex suggestion (absolute mouse / target / relative mouse) before, and I tried it again today. And yes, it works. Until it suddenly doesn’t work anymore. Then I do some other stuff, like pressing other widgets, and it works again for a while. It seems to me that there need to be mouse reset in there somewhere for it to be stable, and I would rather not have a separate widget for mouse reset if I can help it.
However, I have continued working with this after starting this topic, and I think I have found a workaround. On the deadly strike I have added a second target after the click, this one just moves the cursor. This seems to make the widget working every time, and it also solves another problem. The widgets on the arrow icons shown above is activated by a pixel trap on one of the arrows, and that means that the cursor might deactivate the widgets. Moving the cursor away solves that problem as well. Deciding how to set up the pixel traps is a puzzle in itself when it comes to this game.
By the way, no rests seem to be needed, either. We want maximum snappiness, right? 😊
I will continue working with this, keeping your advice in mind. We’ll see where I end up. Thanks again.
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.
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. 😊
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?
I definitely plan to play around with pixel traps, when I get a moment. Maybe I should give Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes a spin and have a look at your design, SongJiang. Never tried that game.
A nice Lemmings design would be very cool. It’s my favorite puzzle game from back in the day.Thank you, Al-Ex!
I have been testing Pixel Traps a little bit, and I’ve got an idea that I can use that and layers to hide and show the icons on the right automatically, depending on if we are in fight mode or not. And then I could also drop them on top of the icons as invisible buttons. So there might be a version 2.0 someday, we’ll see.
I love the Ultima games too, of course. That is why I chose the Avatar as my, eh, avatar. I started the series with Ultima 7 and the Underworlds, so they are closest to my heart. I have not played Ultima 6 yet, but I plan to. I’ve started working on Worlds of Ultima 1, and that has very similar interface as Ultima 6, is not that right?
I haven’t gotten around to Win95 yet. I looked at the tutorial and it seems easy enough. I guess I must clear some room on my tablet first. 😊
There is much to learn here. I started working on Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire, using relative mouse like I use to. But then I discovered that it seems to be perfectly playable using absolute mouse. This will make the design much simpler and more intuitive.Wow. Thanks a lot, Al-ex! That helped. At least a little… There are many quirks to this. 🙂
I followed your suggestion and it worked better, but it was still not quite reliable. I then added a Black Magic/Mouse Reset as the first element in my deadly strike, and now it seems to work properly. I’ll test it a little more.
By the way, I published my design to Might And Magic: World of Xeen here, if anyone is interested.
