What makes this a "Gold Edition"?

Wow, I totally missed that in the description, but you're right. I guess I was expecting it to look like "Speech Pack(tm)" or something! :) Thanks.

I am a bit unsure if I should get this. I watched now several reviews and a lot of gameplay. It looks really great besides of some points. The patches and fixes are really convincing.

I have never played any Ultima game beside of the Underworld, so I do not really know the depth and greatness of the prequels. Maybe I will like it because I do not really see it as an Ultima sequel to 7.

I do not mind mindless button mashing, some things I did not like that I hear, is that most areas look the same, as well as the enemies and that there are severe plotholes. Is that true?

I bought it!

I've played it for five or six hours (the GOG version), and I haven't experienced any bugs other than the "bag in a bag in a bag" bug (inventory). That is easily fixed though.

Is this game only in english? Is there a german version?

Hmm, are you sure? Soundblaster basically was Adlib (OPL-2 FM synthesis) + a DAC for digital speech etc., so in 99% of PC games the music would be exactly the same no matter whether you selected "Adlib" or "Soundblaster", if they even were separated at all for music output. And I mean the music, of course with Adlib you wouldn't get any digitized speech or digitized sound effects, if the game supported such with Soundblaster.

I can name only a couple of games where it would matter. In "4D Sports: Boxing", if you selected Soundblaster instead of Adlib, you would get digitized drums in the intro/menu music, on top of the basic tinny Adlib FM-synthesized music. Also in a few games like Dune, you could possibly select e.g. Adlib Gold for a bit more advanced OPL-3 FM synthesis music, but as far as I can tell OPL-3 support never got that widespread really, it was already being superseded by General MIDI support.


Anyways, the only real way to play Ultima 8 is with General MIDI music, hopefully with a fully Sound Canvas compliant sound card or soundfont. The game used Roland SCC-1/SC-55 features to the full, not only its General MIDI part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJAucC_JUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SBwTDGY9d8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFaXdWIRcN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4JpKbR6G18

Brother, you completely missed the point. What I'm complaining about is that GOG chose to configure Pagan with Adlib Midi instead of SB music, when DOSBox has the capability to capture all video and audio from gameplay EXCEPT any midi music. The music per se is similar with AdLib and SB (it's NOT the same as you appear to believe), but this is not my rant.

As long as you're using DOSBox, I don't think sound card specs really matter, since all sound is emulated by DOSBox. And since you apparently like the Pagan MIDI music better, you're free to use it, I'm just asking for an option.

Ok maybe I completely miss the point, because frankly I am not anymore sure at all what you mean. :) Maybe I should check what are the music options in Ultima 8, but I think I originally tried it also with Adlib and SB music options, and didn't hear any difference.

Unless there was a separate music (not effects) option for Sound Blaster 16 or Adlib Gold (which offered a slightly better OPL3 synthesis, which to my recollection was never really supported widely in PC games due to General MIDI, ie. you'd normally get OPL2 music with those cards too), the "Soundblaster" option in U8 most probably sounds identical to Adlib, because Soundblaster 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 used the very same Yamaha YM3812 chip (OPL2 FM synthesis) as the original Adlib sound card. Soundblaster Pro and Pro2 had two similar OPL2 chips, offering "stereo" sound, if any game would support "stereo" sounds for FM music.

EDIT: Unless you mean that DOSBox itself would somehow yield different kind of music whether you select Adlib or Soundblaster for Yamaha OPL2 music, but I don't know why and how they'd do that. Maybe I'll have to take your word for it for now, but it interests me enough so I think I need to try it myself, as I used to be quite keen on PC gaming music back in the early 90s (MT-32, SCC-1, SB16, GUS etc.).

By default, I don't think DOSBox tries to emulate the soundbanks of any (General) MIDI or MT--32 compatible cards.

I think DOSBox simply passes any MIDI (General MIDI, or MT-32/CM-32L) MIDI messages to any MIDI device that you have configured in Windows. By default, that device in Windows (XP/7) is "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth", which gives passable, but still pretty poor, General MIDI sounds.

You can enhance that quite a bit by installing in Windows e.g. BASSMIDI drivers/utility and using some other, better, GM/GS/XG soundfont (and telling Windows to pass the MIDI messages to BASSMIDI, not "MS GS WT Synth"), or even using a real General MIDI card or module to which you pass the MIDI messages coming from DOSBox.

That's also how you achieve Roland MT-32/CM-32L music from DOSBox games: you install a MT-32 Synth Emulator, and associated files (like the proprietary Roland MT-32/CM-32L ROMs containing the actual instrument sounds) into Windows, and tell Windows to pass any MIDI messages to that MT-32 emulator (driver). DOSBox just blindly passes those MIDI messages from the DOS game to the Windows MIDI device, not knowing at all what MIDI messages they are (General MIDI, GS, MT-32, whatever).

The GOG version of Ultima 8 comes bundled with DOSBox. If you hit Ctrl+Alt+F5 while playing, DOSBox will capture your gameplay, video and audio, how cool is that? Here's an example of video I captured: http://youtu.be/SXhmhPrzTIA

But there's a catch, DOSBox can't capture midi sound. So if I hadn't hijacked the config to change the music to Sound Blaster, my video wouldn't have any music.

The music output in-game is similar, only the capability to record it is different, understand?

You know, the more I read about this game, the more it reminds me of the HOMM4 Scenario

-Rushed out game
-Met with unrealistically high expectations due to a fantastic game previously in the series
-Panned by gamers on release for "Being different"
-Improved over time with Expansions and Patches

Ah ok, I guess I do now. Thanks for taking the time to explain. :)

Except the dang expansion for U8 was finished and ready for pressing but nooooooo...someone had to hold it back....

should GOG release Ultima 9? from it's fame,GOG should be far away as possible.
on the videos that I watched the graphics style reminds me of MDK