U5 Upgrade - Status

08-21-2001 - Release 1.0

This is the first full release of the U5 MIDI Upgrade. This is all the stuff that I added:

The game plays "Ultima Theme" to the main menu.
I added various songs from U5 to the Introduction and Endgame sequences. I tried to choose songs that best fit the sequences.
The Character Creation sequence plays the Amiga music.
The game plays the Apple II / Commodore 128 arrangement of songs in their appropriate places in the game. I received most of this information from playing parts of these versions on an emulator and from other Dragons on news:rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons.
I made sure that Death and the Blackthorn capture sequence were both handled properly: no music should be playing during these sequences.
Some people are not aware that you can Exit to DOS using "CTL-E" during the game. Unfortunately, you cannot use it all the time, for example, during combat or dungeon rooms which is a big disadvantage. While I hope to add that capability in a future release, and perhaps even a restore feature, I did add the ability to exit in three key places of the game: the main menu, the last scene of the endgame sequence, and the "bad" ending. (the one if you tell LB "no")
Since the Tandy video driver is no longer in use, I used that as a good place to store the name of the midi driver, MID.DRV. This is included in DATA.OVL, where all the game data is stored, and this is the only update that needs to be made to that file. To conserve zip file size and reduce the amount of original game files that I am including in this package, I've decided to write a separate patch, "U5DATA.EXE" which will make this update for you. Please execute this before you begin the game or the MIDI will not work.
The MIDI files have been enhanced and suited to the game setting for their appropriate scenes. I have also improved most of the MIDI files such that they loop more smoothly.

Known Issues:

Beware, this gets technical.

If you let the game sit at the demonstration sequence on the main menu screen (where the introduction is pretty much acted out in tile graphics), and the "Ultima Theme" music ends, it will not loop back to the beginning. The reason for this is that I refresh the music during each int 16h call (which essentially checks for another key press). In the demonstration, the int 16h call is made in the EGA driver, which is the only part of the game that checks for keypresses in the driver. Thus, it is the only part of the game affected. The reason why this is a problem is because the ega driver is in a different code segment from the rest of the game, so it cannot make function calls back the functions that I wrote in ULTIMA.EXE. There are, as usual, other ways around this, but I am looking for the least messy. ;)

Pre-release History

7-29-2000 - The Holy Grail

Earlier in the week, I had found a few key bytes which were the holy grail of the code-search. One byte controls the map number, another the level, another the tile number of the avatar (eg. frigate), and yet another if there are enemies on the screen during combat, etc. On this day, I had written a rudimentary MIDI driver that monitored these bytes and produced the appropriate song for that particular map and level... and managed to get it working. The largest hurdle was overcome.

Unfortunately, the next day I began a new job which consumed a fair amount of my time for the next two weeks. Progress moved steadily, but slowly.

7-6-2000 - Request for Music

At this time, I had not had too much success deciphering the code, so I published a request on RGCUD asking if anyone knew what songs played at what points in the game. I also downloaded some newer emulators (w/ music support of course) and fired up the U5 ROM for research.

7-1-2001 - Project Begins

I began sorting through the code. My first exposure to a compiler-generated binary! Yippie!

08-21-2001 - Release 1.0
This is the first full release of the U5 MIDI Upgrade. This is all the stuff that I added: The game plays "Ultima Theme" to the main menu. I added various songs from U5 to the Introduction and Endgame sequences. I tried to choose songs that best fit the sequences. The Character Creation sequence plays the Amiga music. The game plays the Apple II / Commodore 128 arrangement of songs in their appropriate places in the game. I received most of this information from playing parts of these versions on an emulator and from other Dragons on news:rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons. I made sure that Death and the Blackthorn capture sequence were both handled properly: no music should be playing during these sequences. Some people are not aware that you can Exit to DOS using "CTL-E" during the game. Unfortunately, you cannot use it all the time, for example, during combat or dungeon rooms which is a big disadvantage. While I hope to add that capability in a future release, and perhaps even a restore feature, I did add the ability to exit in three key places of the game: the main menu, the last scene of the endgame sequence, and the "bad" ending. (the one if you tell LB "no") Since the Tandy video driver is no longer in use, I used that as a good place to store the name of the midi driver, MID.DRV. This is included in DATA.OVL, where all the game data is stored, and this is the only update that needs to be made to that file. To conserve zip file size and reduce the amount of original game files that I am including in this package, I've decided to write a separate patch, "U5DATA.EXE" which will make this update for you. Please execute this before you begin the game or the MIDI will not work. The MIDI files have been enhanced and suited to the game setting for their appropriate scenes. I have also improved most of the MIDI files such that they loop more smoothly. Known Issues: Beware, this gets technical. If you let the game sit at the demonstration sequence on the main menu screen (where the introduction is pretty much acted out in tile graphics), and the "Ultima Theme" music ends, it will not loop back to the beginning. The reason for this is that I refresh the music during each int 16h call (which essentially checks for another key press). In the demonstration, the int 16h call is made in the EGA driver, which is the only part of the game that checks for keypresses in the driver. Thus, it is the only part of the game affected. The reason why this is a problem is because the ega driver is in a different code segment from the rest of the game, so it cannot make function calls back the functions that I wrote in ULTIMA.EXE. There are, as usual, other ways around this, but I am looking for the least messy. ;)
Pre-release History
7-29-2000 - The Holy Grail
Earlier in the week, I had found a few key bytes which were the holy grail of the code-search. One byte controls the map number, another the level, another the tile number of the avatar (eg. frigate), and yet another if there are enemies on the screen during combat, etc. On this day, I had written a rudimentary MIDI driver that monitored these bytes and produced the appropriate song for that particular map and level... and managed to get it working. The largest hurdle was overcome. Unfortunately, the next day I began a new job which consumed a fair amount of my time for the next two weeks. Progress moved steadily, but slowly.
7-6-2000 - Request for Music
At this time, I had not had too much success deciphering the code, so I published a request on RGCUD asking if anyone knew what songs played at what points in the game. I also downloaded some newer emulators (w/ music support of course) and fired up the U5 ROM for research.
7-1-2001 - Project Begins
I began sorting through the code. My first exposure to a compiler-generated binary! Yippie!