Hi there, I believe there's a major issue in Ultima Underworld 1. I went down to Level 5 then back to Level 4, and I received a message in-game stating:

"Underworld internal error. Problems in object list."

From what I remember, this seems to be linked to a major inventory bug that plagued the early version of the game (in my previous playthrough years ago, I've reached the same spot and got the same message with my inventory becoming completely glitched)

Now, thankfully, all my items seem to be fine - but whenever I go back to Level 4, I get this message, and whenever I save the game, weird characters appear instead of my usual savefile name.

There's a patch available on the net that fixes the issue (apparently) but the thing is: on the GOG.com version of UU1, the file "UW.exe" is unavailable, making the application of the patch impossible (as far as I know.)

Did anyone get the same error? Am I safe to proceed into the game, and if not how do I fix this?

Edit: Check the second attached image; it shows where the issue occurred for me. Make a backup of your savegame before going to this area if possible.

I have the same issue currently plaguing level 2 of my game right now. As of yet it hasn't caused me any issue and I'm down to level 5.

Doing some rudimentary searching on the net, I've read of a possible fix for the inventory bug that involves using uinstall.exe to set your settings, then uwsound.exe and choosing Option 3: Exit and Save. Apparently you'll have to start a new game, as it doesn't prevent the bug from happening in existing saves. You also won't need the inventory patch, it seems.

The files can be found in the game.gog file (openable with WinZip/WinRar/etc.), in the UW directory. You might find it easiest to extract all the contents in game.gog, then make copies of the relevant .conf files and shortcuts. Modify those copies so that game.gog is not mounted, the game isn't launched immediately and dosbox isn't exited afterwards. Then run dosbox, go to the relevant directory, set things up in uinstall.exe and in uwsound.exe choose option 3. After that, use the original shortcuts and .conf files.

I've uploaded a copy of the config file I created doing this, having started with the uw.cfg extracted from game.gog. Running both programs didn't change any other files, so maybe this is all that's needed, and you can just stick it into your underom1/data directory in your installation without going through the processes listed above.
EDIT: Link removed. Doesn't seem to fix the problem.

Again, you'll have to start a new game after the fix. If these sound values don't work for you, you'll have to find settings that do, but I'd suggest running uwsound.exe and doing the exit and save thing again afterwards.

I'm about to test it, sticking the modified uw.cfg into fresh install, though needless to say this bug may not crop up until a fair way in.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to fix the problem. I would have updated sooner, but I delayed in starting a new game, and put it off until the next day. Today, while coming back up from level 3 to level 2 via the stairs that lead to the back of Goldthirst's throne room, I got the dreaded error message.

I guess it makes sense, as the supposed fix didn't make sense. :P
Still, had to try something...

I just completed the game while having this bug happening on both floor 2 and 4 by the end so I can confirm that, unless the bugged item is one vital to completing the game, it shouldn't effect your gameplay significantly.

I believe it comes from the rare occasion that you drop something on the ground and it just disappears. I had this happen to me a few times with empty bags and I believe it was on teh floors that I ended up getting the error on.

So while it may be a minor annoyance, unless your missing a key item in the game I believe everything should be fine as you continue to play it out. I have no proof of any of this other than being able to successfully complete the game with the bug occurring so take it with a grain of salt.

When I saw that GOG now sells UW1, I was wondering if this issue would show up... ;-)

I bought the original game way back in the 90s and never completed it because of this bug, which ruined 2 of my games and, to my knowledge, was never actually solved. The 'patch' definitely doesn't fix it, and even though various versions of the game exist (the last I know of was v1.72 from a UW1+2 collection, released a couple of years after the original game), the dreadful 'internal error' message may happen with all of them.

The error is supposedly caused by too deeply nested containers within the inventory, so one advice would be to keep it simple and don't use bags inside of bags etc.

I've been getting the error, but I've not been nesting stuff. The game has eaten a few things when they were dropped, which has lead to me saving when I need to drop something important.

I remember reading a statement by the developers blaming the nesting for causing this bug. Sounded reasonable to me, but at that time I had already become so frustrated with the game that I didn't made another try and therefore didn't know for sure.

I should clarify that I probably nested stuff a few times very briefly, but that was dragging a found container into another because I had no free main inventory slots. I didn't keep stuff nested and I'm currently only carrying 3 containers, none nested.

I've been having this issue and:

- Never nested

- have had things "fall" through the floor.

- haven't lost anything that I can see from my inventory.

I was worried that this might be causing the ring to not appear after throwing the levers, but I guess that is a different issue I'll bring up in a different thread.

Hi,

I´ve been receiving the same message over and over. I think it is an "object list" related to the program language of the game. So far I am still playing and nothing (like disappearing items) happened to me.

I think this usually happens when you bring things from other floors and stockpile them on a single floor. The game can't deal with large amounts of objects on one map and runs out of memory for them.

If a critical plot item gets deleted it can make your game unwinnable, so be careful.

You don't need to stockpile things in UW1. Even a weak str 17 mage can carry all mission critical items, while wearing leather armor. You may only need to undress once to deliver a large amount of fish.

I find this statement to be a little presumptuous. If you've never played the game, and aren't using a walk-through, how do you know what are mission critical items?