So, I've managed to procure a space shuttle, but when I try to visit the other planets in the solar system, they end up using the maps of Earth instead. From what I've read on the internet this was a bug introduced into the game due to the galaxy map files having the same names as the Earth map files, albeit in different directories.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I know there's a patch for Ultima II that's supposed to fix it, and I tried to install it, but it doesn't seem to work in Windows 7. Thanks!

Yeah sadly when someone at Origin was copying over the disks to the game for the collection CD's(the versions we seem to have on GOG) they never realized that certain files on the other disk(s) share the same file name as the ones on the previous disk so most of the planets ended up with the earth map instead, lucky the one planet(plus earth) need to win the game remained unchanged but as Mcmagi said you can fix it by using the EGA upgrade patch or by finding a stand alone fix

Thanks! I will try to use the Ultima Patcher tonight. I understand that it's not even necessary to go any of the other planets besides Planet X, but since this is my first time playing Ultima 2, I want to have the full experience of bumbling around on them.

I like the fact that there's an option to patch the galaxy maps and still keep the cruddy CGA graphics if you like.

Well the CGA graphics in Ultima 2 and 3 were intended to be played under a composite monitor which would smudge the four colours they would make 16 and the games would resemble the Apple 2 version sadly most of the youngens now a days don't know this fact.
Now normally you can get composite CGA colour in Dosbox by setting the options to CGA but for some reason it wont work on Ultima 2 and 3 but the last Ultima 3 upgrade patch added a Composite CGA graphics option.

Ultima 2 composite CGA: http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/182120-ultima-ii-revenge-of-the-enchantress-dos-screenshot-a-couple.png

Ultima 3 composite: http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/142940-exodus-ultima-iii-dos-screenshot-receiving-an-important-clues.png

I actually didn't know about this! I used to have a PCJr, which until now I never realized used composite CGA color. That now explains all of those weird graphical artifacts I became so fond of as a kid.

I applied the patch, and it worked like a charm. It's really much more enjoyable with the 16-color graphics.

Those really do look just like the Apple ][ editions. I had an Apple ][+ for the early Ultima games, and they are identical.

Actually, the PCjr did feature a true 16-color mode, comparable to (but incompatible with) the later EGA standard, but you needed to have IBM's special PCjr monitor to use it. The original King's Quest for the PCjr used this mode, for example, as did a few other games. If you hooked up your PCjr to a standard TV, as many who owned one did, you got the basic CGA compositing.

(Postscript: The 16-color PCjr graphics standard is better known, perhaps, as "Tandy graphics" today. That's because the Tandy 1000, Radio Shack's initial PC clone, was a rebadged PCjr at heart, sans the hardly-used cartridge slots -- but when the PCjr was pulled from the marketplace, all references to it were deleted from the Tandy 1000 marketing, and it was released as just an "IBM compatible" computer. The Tandy 1000 went on to become a best-seller, thus explaining its primacy in the minds of the mid- to late-'80s PC gamer.)

Unfortunately, DOSBox emulation of CGA composite output is currently at a rudimentary stage. Not every CGA game supports it, and Ultimas II and III are among those that don't. As noted, however, newer versions of the patch for III allow you to simulate what that mode would have looked like.

Hello,
Thanks for the information. I also just encountered the incorrect planet maps issue. I played Ultima 2 when I was about 16 on my C-64 and although that was long ago, I can remember that Mercury and Venus didn't look like the "Earth" maps!

:)

I wrote a note to GOG, no response yet. So I might try to patch myself. I'm running OS X 10.7.5 so I'm diving into DosBox right now trying to figure out how it works on OS X. I did just figure out the game runs much more like it use to on the C-64 by slowing things down a bit, other wise it runs so fast its almost impossible to land a plane/space ship.

Mike