I tried editing the dosbox file but get an "access denied" message when trying to save. Any ideas?

That sounds like you need to run Notepad (or whatever it is you're using) as an administrator.

I am having the same problem as the original post. And like others the DDraw change did not fix the problem.

So I tried the Exult version. When I ran the Serpent Isle (The Silver Seed), the opening introduction cut the top and bottom of the sequence. The words at the bottom said, "In The eighteen months after the destruction of the Black Gate and..." and it cuts off there. The rest of the sentence is missing at the bottom. When you get to the main menu the words Serpent Isle is cut off at the top. I'm afraid this will affect the rest of the game.

Also the game window is fixed. I guess I could change the resolution of my monitor to make it bigger, but that wouldn't change the cropping problem. It seems the GOG.COM is allowed to expand. Actually that was just the opening sequence, I never got to the game.

It's too bad really. Of course its not the money. I would just like to play the game. GOG.com is a Godsend for us old gamers or youngsters who want to explore the origins of computer games. I only wish we didn't have these problems.

If anyone has further advice, I would love to hear it.

thanks - nightotter

What about running the game in windowed mode in Dosbox? You'd need to set "fullscreen = false" and would probably want "scaler = normal2x" so it isn't too tiny - "scaler = hq2x" can be tried later once you have the game working.

Thanks Garran, I will try that tonight.

To use the configuration utility, you HAVE to run the program from the start menu shortcut the GOG installer creates. The shortcut has a few command-line options set that allow it to work properly.

What are they? When I use the short-cut it just starts the game.

If I run the graphics configurator it still says the game is not installed and doesn't seem to have it's own short cut on the desktop.

~

The shortcut is in the Start Menu/Start Screen. 2.x installers also put a shortcut to it in the game folder.

Launching the EXE directly does not work, as you have discovered; this is normal and intended.

Found it now, thanks.

In the mean time I edited the conf file manually.

man this is so lame Im reading posts that are 4 years old with my exact problem and no solution. although my copy does run except the screen is way too zoomed in and I can find no solution to fix shy of playing in tiny window mode. If anyone ever reads these I could use help or even a fucking refund since this is supremely irksome.

You didn't mention which problem you are having. Regardless, it can probably be resolved by using Exult to run the game (like one of the other posts mentions).

Go here:
http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php

Download the Windows binary snapshot, install it and point it at the Ultima 7 files under C:\GOG Games\....
Then run Exult and enjoy the game.

I played through the entire game using Exult about a year ago and ran into zero bugs.