I remember coming across a topic in these forums that said the four .SAV files in the game folder were what I needed to copy in order to back up saves. I put the backups in a compressed folder in my email inbox for safe-keeping. Not too long ago I was told by a maintenance program I have that my graphics drivers needed an update- leading to my laptop becoming un-usable until I reset to factory default. During that time my laptop was out of commission, I tried replacing the .SAV files from Ultima 4 on my desktop with those from my email- yet the game I had saved on my desktop still is the only think that the Ultima 4 program loads.

Where is my computer saving Ultima 4? The .SAV files are irrelevant to what saved game is loaded :(

Depends on your operating system.

Under Windows XP, you need write access to the game's folder, because the game saves there.

If you use Windows Vista or newer the savegames for Ultima 4 might be stored in
\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Ultima Second Trilogy\Ultima 4
(the "\GOG.com\Ultima Second Trilogy\Ultima 4" part may vary, depending on your game's installation path)

For Mac OS X check in your home folder in Library/Application Support/Boxer/Gamebox States/

On Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, what is the save file called and where can I find it? I have no idea what all the files do. I got the information about the .SAV files from here I think. However, deleting all the .SAV files on my desktop and then replacing them with the ones from another computer does not alter the Ultima 4 game I had on my desktop in the slightest. If the game is not saved in these files (despite what the linked thread mentioned about party.SAV for transferring characters between games), what files in C:>ProgramFiles(x86)>GOG.com>Ultima4 is the game saved on? I can't find any Ultima Second Trilogy or AppData or Local/VitualStore or any of that stuff you mention anywhere on my computer. I just want to be able to back up my Ultima 4 game (reading The CRPG Addict has made me more than a little wary of old computer games' buggi-ness and tendency to corrupt save files, so having backups would give me greater motivation to get through this game and on the two Worlds of Ultima and then Ultima 7, the only other Ultima games I have).

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

The AppData folder might be hidden on your system.
- Click, Start=>Control Panel=>Folder Options=>View Tab
- Scroll to, Hidden files and folders
- Tic "Show hidden files, folders, and drives"

Close the Explorer, reopen it and browse to \Users\<Your Username>\ and the AppData folder should be there.
Look in the mentioned locations for your Ultima files and make a back-up off all of them.

GOG's newer installers don't install to Program Files so they won't be in VirtualStore. The saves will be located in the installation folder.

The standalone Ultima IV installs to C:\GOG Games\Ultima 4 - Quest of the Avatar
The Ultima 4+5+6 version installs to C:\GOG Games\Ultima Second Trilogy\Ultima 4

Hi everyone. If you are running the XU4 Ultima Recreated, then the save files will be at the following location:

C:\Users\<Account>\AppData\Roaming\xu4

You will see 3 files:

monsters.sav
party.sav
xu4.cfg

I'm just updating this old posting, because i couldn't find this answer on the internet, and this GOG page keeps coming up. So anyone else asking for this info will see the XU4 version save location now. :)

THANK YOU Zsolan! You helped me recover hours of my saved game. Very appreciated.

Ha! I knew this would help someone, someday. Glad to have helped, as i know i would literally cry if i lost my Ultima saves. :)