Howdy Goggers,

Quick question - I am interested in playing Ultima IV with the music (which is not included in the PC release that GOG has) but not the updated graphics which are included in the fan patch here: http://www.moongates.com/u4/upgrade/Upgrade.htm#screenshots

Anybody know how to add music w/out upgrading graphics?

Thanks!

Your best bet is to use xu4 and then simply configure it to run like the original (only with the music of course).

EDIT::
You'll still need the upgrade patch, I think. It's compatible with xu4 and the instructions on how to set it up are right on the upgrade patch site.

EDIT 2::
The patch site also says you can switch between new and old graphics "at will". I can't seem to find how but I'll let you know if I do.

EDIT 3::
It looks like you just need to run the "switch.bat" file from DOSBox. I'll post how to do that if you (or anyone else) wants the walkthrough.

Switch.bat turns everything on and off for me.

Yep, you're right. I'll keep looking.

Okay, bad news, the patch is a "single unit", according to the readme, so you actually can't get the music without the graphics.

My initial advice about xu4 still stands though.

Further, I can't actually test the patch by itself (I have to use xu4) because the program won't run under DOS or, by extension, DOSBox.

Sorry I can't help any more than this.

That's not entirely true. You need some auxiliary files (see my sticky thread) to provide the missing functions, but once you have those files in place the patch will run in DOSBox. I know for sure, I installed the upgrade patches for Ultima II, III, IV and V in Boxer that way, because I'm not using Windows.

Hmmm... Good to know. I'll give that a shot later.

Unfortunately, the patch still requires both graphics and music to be enabled at the same time (as far as I can tell).

I did this too when I last played. You just have to copy the original graphics files back over on top of the patch install. I think that would be "ega.drv" and all the others ending in ".ega" if I recall. This worked well for me except when you receive a vision at the shrines the image is garbled, but if you've played before then you already know what they say.

The Aiera link for the auxiliary files is broken. Aiera is basically dead so I'm pretty sure the files have all been moved to the Codex. However, when I try to visit the Codex site for U4... that page won't load for me (in any browser). I'll try the file for U2, U3, and U5... but I have low expectations if it's a different link.

EDIT::
Yeah, no joy.

According to the Ultima Codex the file in question is avpatch.exe:
http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Ultima_IV_Upgrade_Patch

I found a version of it via Google here if you want to try it out:
http://geocities.bootstrike.com/Ultima%20Tech%20Info%20and%20Patches/ultima/ultima.html

The best option would be to simply bundle the upgrade patch with this EXE instead of the original one and thus solve the stupid "you need these extra files" problem.

Okay... testing phases...

Phase 1 - GOG Clean install: Game works properly.
Phase 2 - GOG install with patch only: Game crashes when attempting to journey onward, the graphics are unchanged, but I do get music during the opening sequence.
Phase 3 - GOG install with patch and replacement avpatch.exe file: Same results as phase 2.

"switch.bat" does kill the patch for me and allow me to play the game again but, that kinda defeats the point of all of this.

I'm using a 64-bit system but in DOSBox that probably shouldn't matter. Any other ideas?

It works for me, I just tried. Copy the entire content of the patch's folder into your Ultima IV directory, i.e. the files should be in the exact same folder as AVATAR.EXE (or any other U4 file). Then copy the new avpatch.exe there as well, replacing the old one. In your DOS prompt run SETUP.BAT, which will let you choose your music card (I used Roland MT32 if that matters)

You only need avpatch.exe, the rest are just two C source files and a readme. No idea what's going on there. If I hadn't tried it myself successfully I wold have assumed the avpatch.exe file was faulty or something. I'm using Boxer on OS X, but that's shouldn't make any difference.

Okay, test 4 - Moved the Ultima4 folder to "C:\Games" and tried to use the patch outside "Program Files (x86)": Success!

Now I'll try restoring all the "ega" files and see if that'll allow the game to run with music but the old graphics.

EDIT::
Well, I'm honestly not sure when the music is supposed to play and when it isn't. I did get the music to play during the title screen and then use the old graphics though.

I replaced "ega.drv" and anything that didn't have "rune" or one of the virtues in the name, with the original files. I then copied and renamed the "charset.ega" and "shapes.ega" files to .vga for each. I played it and it seems to work fine (though, as I said, I'm not sure about the music) but I haven't gotten to a shrine to meditate yet (nor would it work with a fresh character anyway).