Pix’s Ultima Patcher: Savage Empire Patch Added
Origin Systems historian Pix released a surprise update for his venerable Ultima Patcher utility earlier this month:
I was approached by “Death Strike” about adding a patch for Savage Empire to the Ultima Patcher. Apparently, the GOG version of the game contains a bug which disables the alternate ending but a later fixed version was released on the compilation CD with 7 Cities Of Gold (anyone who has ever spent time hunting for Ultimas on Ebay should be familiar with this particular CD). They created a patch to update the GOG version which I’ve added to the Ultima Patcher.
Other than that, I’ve added in the latest default installation directories which appear to have changed every time I look, updated some links and changed the Beautiful Britannia download URL.
You can, of course, grab the Patcher directly from Pix’s site, or from the project entry here at the Codex.
Well, this is interesting. I was aware of the two versions in October 2019 when someone wrote me to ask about them, and added some info to Dino’s Ultima Page about them in January 2020. I was aware of some changes in the dialogues between the versions (thanks to Eric Fry of Nuvie, who helped decode the game files), but this bug with Tristia is new to me and reveals additional differences between the versions.
Is there any place that documents or lists all official versions for all Ultima games? I’m trying to preserve Ultima games in their entirety, including their various versions (even outdated ones) and official patches.
Something like this?
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1467934607/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_D6NYEbASHXHPC
Does that book list all versions and patches for the PC games?
Every known (as of 2012) release of each game, across all platforms.
Patches…not so much.
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I’m not a collector as much as a digital preservationist. I’d rather not have to purchase that book for collectors just to know the games’ revision history. Can’t people add all the version numbers to the wiki?
BTW, I recall some Ultima 6 versions (such as the Ultima Collection one) starting the game at the 0:00 in-game time, rather than 8:00. Do you know whether this was due to the game having multiple revisions, or due the UC release of U6 being broken?
I couldn’t say. I think there were a few minor changes made to a few of the games that were bundled in the Ultima Collection disc, though the rationale for any of these is likely lost to time.