Underworld Adventures is a project to recreate Ultima Underworld 1 on modern operating systems (e.g. Win32, Linux or MacOS), using the original game files.
Underworld Adventures is Copyright (C) 2002,2003,2004,2019,2021 Underworld Adventures Team
Underworld Adventures is available from https://vividos.github.io/UnderworldAdventures/
This Readme file contains the Manual for end users of the Underworld Adventures project. Please use the table of contents to navigate the document.
1. Quick start and quick reference
2. Installing and configuring Underworld Adventures
3. Configuring Underworld Adventures
4. Gameplay
A. Underworld Adventures Music
B. Underworld Adventures Debugger
C. Release Notes
You need a copy of the game to run Underworld Adventures. Install the game to
any folder you like and start the uaconfig tool. Set the Ultima Underworld
1 folder and close the tool. Start the game by running the uwadv program.
In the game, use the WASD keys to run and turn and X to go backwards, or the left mouse button pressed while moving the mouse cursor in the 3D view. Use the command buttons on the left to interact with game objects, e.g. for talking to people or picking up objects.
Enjoy the game and return to this manual if you need more in-depth information.
This chapter explains how to install the games and configure Ultima Underworld to use the game's resources. To play Underworld Adventures, you definitely need the original game files.
Ultima Underworld 1 was originally distributed on install disks, which had to be installed on a hard drive in order to run the game. Later it was also released on a CD-ROM distribution called "Electronic Arts Presents CD-Rom Classics: Ultima Underworld I & II" CD. Nowadays you can get the games on gog.com, in yet another format.
The original installer is a 16-bit DOS executable, which doesn't run on modern 64-bit processors anymore. You can install the game using DosBox, though, which emulates most of the MS-DOS needed, as well as the hard disk. DosBox can be downloaded here: https://www.dosbox.com/
Run DosBox with the following command, which mounts a part of your hard disk as drive D:
dosbox -c "mount d c:\uw1_disc\"
Inside DosBox, you can start the installer by calling the setup exe. The installed game files should then be available in the mounted folder.
This is most straight-forward; just copy the game files (uw.exe, the "data" and any additional folders) to your hard disk.
The gog.com installer extracts several files to your hard disk. The actual games are stored in a file called "game.gog", which is actually an ISO file that is mounted when starting the game using DosBox. Open the "game.gog" file with your favourite ISO tool and extract the files on your hard disk. Note that the popular 7-zip can also open and extract the file without problems:
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x game.gog -ouw1and2
The actual games are in the "UW" and "UW2" subfolders.
There is also a demo version of Ultima Underworld 1 available for free on some
Ultima fan download sites. Usually this comes in an uw_demo.zip that only
contains a single uw_demo.exe file. The exe file is a self-extracting
executable using the LHA compressor. The demo game files can be extracted
using DosBox, as shown above, or using 7-zip:
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x uw_demo.exe -ouw_demo
The files are extracted into the uw_demo subfolder.
Nowadays, any computer with an on-board graphics card that supports 3D graphics can be used to run Underworld Adventures. Also, modern CPUs are not fully used to run the game.
Back in 2004, when the project was started, at least a 600 MHz CPU was needed, along with a decent 3D graphics card with current OpenGL drivers, e.g. an Nvidia GeForce card. For sound output a dedicated sound card was often useful.
This chapter describes how to set up and configure Underworld Adventures to run the old Ultima Underworld games.
Underworld Adventures is configured using the uwadv.cfg file. On Windows,
there is the uaconfig tool that helps you configuring that file. The tool
shows a dialog with several fields to edit.
You can also configure Underworld Adventures directly, using the uwadv.cfg
file. Just open the file using your favourite text editor. It contains
instructions on top on how to edit the file. Be sure to keep a copy of the
original uwadv.cfg file, in case you made a mistake editing the file.
The uwadv program has some command line options that can be specified. The
syntax of the command line is:
uwadv {options} [savegame-filename]
An optional save game filename can be specified to directly load a savegame
from a file with .uas file extension. The savegame must match the base game.
uw_demo savegames won't work correctly with uw1 savegames and vice versa.
The following options may be specified:
-h -? -H --help Shows help
-g <game> --game <game> Starts custom game
Note that custom games are currently not implemented.
This chapter contains operating system specific documentation about Underworld Adventures.
The game uses timidity for playback of the original MIDI tracks. timidity is a
library that uses a software wavetable for synthesizing audio. The library
requires to have a GUS compatible set of sound patches on your system. By
default, the library looks for these patches on UNIX in
/usr/local/lib/timidity/. The patches are available here:
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/timidity/timidity.tar.gz
Underworld Adventures tries to reproduce the old games as faithfully as possible, including graphics and controls. If you still have the manual for the game, you can also use this for reference. However, there are a few differences, which are explained in more detail later.
Underworld Adventures has a flexible keyboard key mapping configuration that
can be used to remap keys to differnt actions. The key mapping is specified in
a keymap.cfg file. The uwadv.cfg file specifies the default keymap to be
used:
custom-keymap %uahome%/keymap.cfg
The keymap.cfg is found in the data/uadata00.zip file that comes with the
binary distribution of Underworld Adventures. In order to customize keys, open
the zip archive, go to the uw1 subfolder and extract the keymap.cfg into the
main folder. You can then adjust the custom-keymap setting in uwadv.cfg to
point to the new file, e.g.
custom-keymap ./keymap.cfg
Open the file with your favourite text editor. It contains instructions on top on how to edit the file. You can always get the original keymap file from the zip archive, in case you made a mistake editing the file.
One limitation of the Underworld games were the number of savegames one can use during the game. Underworld Adventures lifts that limitation by providing practically unlimited number of savegames.
Underworld Adventures introduces a savegame Load/Save screen that is used to either load a savegame, e.g. when using "Journey Onward" on the game's screen, or when selecting "Save Game" or "Restore Game" in the game's builtin menu. The old way of accessing the savegames via buttons numbered I to IV and savegame descriptions listed in the text scroll isn't used anymore.
The current game can quickly be saved using the Quicksave feature. The key F11 saves the current game to a special Quicksave slot. With F12 one can restore the previously saved quicksave savegame. The key bindings can be modified in the keymap.cfg.
While creating Underworld Adventures there were some things that were done differently than in the original games. Reasons for this are mainly to simplify the game or to improve it in some way, without losing the spirit of the old games.
Here is the list of things that are different than in Ultima Underworld 1. Some of the options can be switched off with the "enable-uwadv-features" setting in the configure file.
-
Up/down view angle can be varied between -75 and 75 degree, as opposed to something like 45 degrees in the original (can be switched off).
-
Cutscene speech is played a bit too slow (due to some technical reasons the audio samples isn't exactly converted to the proper frequency).
-
The input cursor in text scrolls (e.g. in conversations) is a vertical line, and not a blinking cursor square. The cursor can be moved to any position in the input field.
Underworld Adventures contains an (incomplete) set of newly arranged music pieces. This chapter describes the software used and arrangements made in the rendition of this digital soundtrack for Underworld Adventures.
The original files that came with the game are used in creating a digital soundtrack. The original .xmi file had to be converted into standard MIDI, and the tracks parsed according to channel. Based on that - variations are applied and the arranegent modified, to ad accents and realism to its performance by the synth.
The digital music soundtrack is included in the binary packages and are automatically used by the game.
Pentium 4 - 1.5GHz machine with Soundblaster Audigy Platinum. Internal Audigy synth is sometimes used for certain tracks.
Main synth is Yamaha S-YXG50 software MIDI emulator. Has over 600 patches accessible through its banks, fairly realistic sound, and high polyphony.
Arrangements in Cakewalk, recording and reverb in Cool Edit, audio compression in winLAME.
Here, the most recent renditions of the pieces are described - their peculiarities, arrangements, features, etc..
Most elaborate arrangement so far. Number of instruments expanded from 9 to 14, more specifically - Tuba, Trombone, one more Strings section, Marimba, and a Taiko Drum. For the most part - same melodic motifs are given to these instruments as are already played by others, duplicating in unison, or in some cases taking over a part that originally was played by another. In a few cases - as with taiko and marimba, new parts are written for some sections (echo of marimba at the beginning of tuba solo). Strings are given a new part at the end of the piece, when they mimic trumpet melody in canon. All used patches - Yamaha.
Internally, the original arrangement had a flute patch set up to play in the lower octaves that would be played by a contrabass or a tuba. I tried to use other patches of typically low-pitched instruments, such as a Church Organ, but... the flute just seems to work best. I HIGHLY reccomend a good subwoofer and loud bass when you listen to this piece - it's beauty and it's mass is in the bass.
Contrast is given to it's bass by the orchestral harp. The harp was not bright enough to stand out against the powerful bass. I decided that the Yamaha patch was a little too "mellow". So I recorded the harp part played by the SB Audigy synth. The rest of the instruments were done with Yamaha, an dthen the two parts were mixed down.
In progress. Arrangement is pretty much the same. Only patches and dynamics modified. Brass sounds too synthetic. Expect a new rendition in the near future.
The piece is short, simple and perfect. Almost no changes were done to the original arrangement. More appropriate patches were chosen.
The Underworld Adventures Debugger is an add-on software to Underworld Adventures that shows various game states and data and is mainly used for developing and debugging the game engine and the implemented logic. It's described here in this manual, even though it is more of a developer tool.
The Debugger can be started while the main game is running. The default key combination is Alt + D; the key can be modified using a custom keymap.cfg file.
A future idea is to create a "Underworld Adventures Studio" application that helps to create new games in the style of Ultima Underworld 1 and 2. The debugger is designed so that the studio application also uses the debugger to design the new game.
The main window consists of several windows that show game information. Most windows are tool windows and can be docked to any side of the main window, by dragging their title line with the mouse. Some windows are content windows and display data that needs more screen space. The content windows use the remaining space of the main window not occupied with tool windows.
The main window also has a menu bar, tool bar and a status bar.
The following tool windows can be shown:
- Player info
The following contnet windows can be shown:
- Object list
Note: The debugger is a work in progress and may not be completely functional.
This release is the first one in 17 years. It was mainly released to restore, refactor and improve the old code base that I stopped developing at around 2007. My main goal was to show what the project was like in the 0.9 release, and what the team accomplished at the time. So keep in mind that most gameplay elements are still not implemented yet.
This release contains several improvements and bug fixes:
- Refactored the whole code base to compile again and to use modern C++ language constructs
- Implemented displaying the current map when looking at the map object
- Reactivated displaying 3D models provided by Sam Matthews (servus)
- Objects and critters now use the hqx 4x scaler to improve image quality
- Binaries include the digital music pack, provided by Martin Shetty (QQtis)
- Improved decompiling conversation code
- No need to lowercase game files anymore
- Extended
uwdumptool to recognize more file types - Improved Underworld Debugger, including debugging Lua and conversation scripts
- Updated all external libraries, like SDL2, Lua, zlib, etc.
- New CMake based build system to help porting the project to other platforms
- Fixed rendering the 3D models, especially the shrine ankh
- Fixed picking up items and containers
- Many more small bugfixes
This release doesn't have many new things. There even are features left out. The reason for that is a restructuring and refactoring of source code that was done over the last few months. The release mainly was done to show that the project is still alive and active. Expect more things to work again in the future.
Underworld Adventures now has a (not yet complete) manual that you can read. On Windows it is available from the "Underworld Adventures" program group. For Linux it is installed into /usr/share/doc/uwadv-0.9_mojito/.
There is a new version of the music pack with a digitally rearranged soundtrack for Ultima Underworld 1 available. It can be obtained from http://uwadv.sourceforge.net/, in the download section.
Changes:
- restructured and refactored code
- added config option to show "pixely" user interface
- added splash screen when starting the game
- new savegame format (incompatible to previous versions)
- updated and improved physics code
- added stats and runebag panel
This release has a lot of new features inside. Picking up objects from the underworld was built in (via the "get"-icon). Lava and water textures are now animated, giving a nice effect; also NPC's are now animated. Added drawing of levers, buttons and pull chains (although they lack functionality for now, since doors are not rendered yet). Bridges are now added to allow the adventurer to visit more of the underworld.
Finally a savegame feature was added (press CTRL+R or CTRL+S in game), together with a quicksave (F11) and quickload (F12) functionality. The 3d models incorporated in the last release were too small, due to a bug, which is now fixed, too. Some of them can e.g. be found in the rat's room on the first level, at Lakshi Longtooth's campfire on level 4 or in the abyss' library on the 6th level. Happy hunting!
Changes:
- added simple NPC animation
- added picking up items from the underworld
- added animated lava and water textures
- added switches, levers and pull chains
- implemented some traps and triggers
- added bridges
- added savegames loading/saving
- added quicksave functionality
- fixed 3d models sizes
In this release there is basic support for conversations. Just click on the "talk" command button on the left and click on people in the underworld you see. Inventory interactions with NPC's are not supported yet, and some conversations may end unexpectedly when an unknown script function is called internally.
Some objects are replaced by 3d models done by Sam Matthews. Just look out for them in the underworld.
Changes:
- added support for 3d models for static objects
- conversations work (no inventory interaction yet)
- removed usage of big textures larger than 256x256 (voodoo3 cards should work now)
There are some new features in this release:
Mouse movement mode: You can move around the levels using the mouse. Just place the mouse cursor over the 3d window and left-click to start moving. During using mouse movement mode you cannot leave the window, as in the original game.
Looking at objects and walls: You can look at these by right-clicking on them. For this, you have to be in "default" or "look" command mode. "default" mode is when no command icons (those on the left side) are on, and "look" mode is when the "eye" symbol is highlighted.
Level changing: To let the user explore more of the Abyss than just the first level, there are some keyboard keys to change the levels. Press Alt + PageDown to descend a level, and Alt + PageUp to move one level up. You are usualy placed at different interesting spots when changing levels. Users of the "uw_demo" can use these keys to change positions in the first level.
SPOILER WARNING: Since this is considered cheating, you might see things that you should not see before ending the game. So better don't descend beyond level 8!
Changes:
- added looking at objects in the underworld
- initial rendering of NPC and critter sprites; no animation yet
- added mouse movement
- added customization of key mappings
- added support for digital remakes of the underworld soundtrack
- added support of changing levels via Alt+PageUp and Alt+PageDown
- rewrote collision detection; added gravity
- Tools: improved conversation script decompiling
- Linux: fixed midi playback on Linux
- Linux: added manual pages
Changes:
- added character creation
- Linux: finished build system, including binary RPMs
- Windows: added installer and configuration program
Changes:
- Linux: improved build system
Changes:
- added introduction scene
- added acknowledgements screen
- added inventory handling
- added fullscreen mode
Changes:
- added splash screen and start menu
- added initial collision detection
Changes:
- added rendering objects to the abyss
- textures are rendered correctly now
- Tools: added conversation script decompiler and animation viewer
Changes:
- set up SourceForge project and CVS repository
- player is able to run around on first level of abyss; no clipping yet
- introduction music plays
Changes:
- made a simple level map viewer