I've installed dosbox, and installed U8 from the original cdrom to a folder in dosbox: cddrive or something to that effect. I just followed the tutorial for dosbox from this website.

When I try to run u8.exe it starts to load, displaying 'Origin 1994' and all that, then simply says:

Filename =
Mode = readwrite
error =2001
DOS error=0000
source =flex\flex.c (66)
Program halted by code.
Rest avatar...you will need it!


Any advice would be really appreciated, because I've had this game for ages and never actually beat it. I even had the original game box, which i just threw away. In retrospect, I maybe should have kept it. At least I still have the orginal silk map.

have you tried unchecking "read only" option of the files in ultima directory?

Alright, So I've got u8 running, using Ron Windeyer's patch. However, its pretty sluggish and there is no sound. Any suggestions?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sunkenstate @ May 30 2006, 03:22 AM) [snapback]233145[/snapback]</div>Yes. You need to run Ultima 8 first after it's installed with a boot-disc or in Dos-Mode of Windows 98 or 95 so it can unpack the shapes file without problems. In DosBox it doesn't unpack it correctly, and in Windows no matter the version the game doesn't even start. Once the shapes file is unpacked succesfully you can play the game without any problems in DosBox and increase the speed however you like for the game to be faster.

I'm having a similiar problem..I've got the game running fine and I even have music but it's really slow and sluggish, I mean REALLY slow. Any helpful suggestions?

In DosBox? Try to increase the CPU cycles to around 7000-8000 with CTRL+F12 and see if that helps. Increase more in case it's not enough (should be enough, though).

I've tried increasing the cycles and it doesn't help. I'm just hoping it's not my pc that's the problem, as I'm not getting a new one for a while yet. I'm having the same trouble with all the games I run on dosbox, even Dune 2 is really slow.

Edit: I've changed some of the settings in dosbox.conf and it's running at a pretty good speed now, but I'm still having one problem with it - if I have the frameskip rate set to 0 the picture is all choppy, if I set it to 10 it's slow as hell, and there doesn't appear to be a perfect medium. Any ideas?

First you would need to tell about your PC's specs, I guess. If it's too slow, no settings in DosBox will help, might you try anything too.
Also increasing the CPU cycles above what your PC can handle will slow the emulation down again instead of helping. There's a certain maximum that differs for every computer.

My pc is a Pentium 3 - 650mhz, 14.2gb HD and 128mb ram. I know it's crap. But is it too crap to run these games?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chainsoar @ Jun 10 2006, 01:09 PM) [snapback]235613[/snapback]</div>Oh mate, with that computer you can forget DosBox almost completely. Only the oldest weakest games would run on such computer in DosBox with sufficient speed. At least Pentium 4 with 2Ghz would be needed to play Ultima 8 in DosBox with good speed.
You might want to get a second HD or to split the one you have into two partitions and install Windows 98 on the second one. In that one you can play the Dos games without much trouble once you customized the autoexec.bat and config.sys files more appropriate, and play the games in Dos-Mode (Quit Windows - Start in Dos-Mode). Might need an old Soundblaster-default compatible soundcard though, like Soundblaster Live! that has the necessary drivers for the Dos environment.