Documentation

This documentation is for the snapshot version of Exult. If you have another Exult version, its documentation can be found where you installed the release.

Ultima VII, an RPG from the early 1990's, still has a huge following. But, being a DOS game with a very nonstandard memory manager, it is difficult to run it on the latest computers. Exult is a project that created an Ultima VII game engine that runs on modern operating systems, capable of using the data and graphics files that come with the game.

Exult is written in C++ and runs on, at least, Linux, macOS and Windows using the SDL2 library to make porting to other platforms relatively easy. The current version supports all of "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" and "Ultima VII - Part 2: The Serpent Isle", allowing you to finish both games. This is only possible due to the work done by other fans who have decoded the various Ultima VII data files, especially Gary Thompson, Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Schonberg, and Wouter Dijkslag.

Exult aims to let those people who own Ultima VII (copyright 1993) play the game on modern hardware, in as close to (or perhaps even surpassing) its original splendor as is possible. You need to own "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" and/or "Ultima VII - Part 2: The Serpent Isle" and optionally the add-ons (not required to run) in order to use Exult, and we encourage you to buy a legal copy.

We are using many terms in this documentation, the FAQ and other documentation files that people may have difficulties to understand. Here we will try to give some explanations.

• BG, SI, FoV or SS:
  we refer to "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" as BG and to "Ultima VII - Part 2: The Serpent Isle" as SI. The add-ons "Forge of Virtue" and "Silver Seed" are called FoV and SS.
• eggs:
  these are trip-wires that can cause monsters to spawn, execute scripts, play music, change weather, trigger traps or teleport when you get near them.
• flex files:
  also known as flexes, these are used by the original to store the data files. Also when you choose to not use compressed save games (see save_compression_level in 10.1.) our savegames are also 'flexed'.
• gumps:
  the windows used in the game interface for containers, characters, menus, etc..
• paperdoll:
  when pressing 'i' you get the inventory display. It's the picture of your characters body (or the bodies of your party members) onto which you can drag all kinds of equipment. The way this is displayed in SI is commonly called paperdoll. We integrated this for BG as well. (see FAQ).
• shapes:
  shape files are the format used for storage of all graphics elements (from UI buttons to terrain features) of the games Exult supports. Shapes may contain one or more frames (a frame is a single image).
• snapshot:
  see FAQ.
  Please note that our documentation usually refers to the latest snapshot.
• usecode:
  that's the scripting language that drives all of Ultima VII (conversations, objects...).
• Exult data folder:
  that's the folder where Exult stores its data files (exult.flx, exult_bg.flx and exult_si.flx).
• gamename
  name of games that are set in exult.cfg's <game>, Exult knows by default the gamenames blackgate, forgeofvirtue, serpentisle, silverseed and serpentbeta.

• First you need to get Ultima VII. Either you own it already, or you buy it somewhere.
• You need an installed version of Ultima VII to run Exult with. At 11. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult we have a guide on how to install the original games or use the version offered by GOG.com.
• Download Exult from our download page and install it. The Windows version comes with an installer that asks for the location of both BG and SI. If you entered the correct location or you are using the default games locations on Linux systems and macOS the next two steps are not necessary.
• Now run exult (exult.exe on Windows) and quit it immediately.
• Edit the configuration file with a text editor (e.g. on Windows use Notepad) and enter the correct paths for the game folders - see 10.1. for details
• Run exult and enjoy the game :-)

Word of advice: Don't mix the files from BG and SI.

Most of the options in Exult can be changed from the Setup menu when you run Exult or via the Game Options menu. Exult stores these changes in a configuration file. Except for changing paths to the games you shouldn't need to edit the file. Very few options need manual editing.
However if you need to edit the configuration file, it is extensively explained in 10. The exult.cfg file.

The location of the file varies depending on the Operating System and in the case of Windows OS it also depends on the version of Windows.

• On Linux systems you can expect to find it in $HOME/.exult.cfg
• macOS saves it to ~/Library/Preferences/exult.cfg
• Windows (7, 8, 10, 11) save exult.cfg to LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult, but on these this translates to C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Exult
• On all supported Windows versions you can quickly access this folder by executing
  shell:Local AppData\Exult
  in the 'Quick Access' of Explorer.

On macOS Exult uses a couple of different folders to follow Apple's guidelines:

Note that on macOS Exult looks in a default folder (/Library/Application Support/Exult/data) for Exult's data and the files of the games. On purpose this folder is not in the User-only space, so other users on the same mac can play the games and use the Exult.app.
But you will need to follow our gamename standard when you name the game folders, see 1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima VII, otherwise Exult will not find them there.
Another specialty on macOS is that the Exult.app comes bundled with the Exult data, so Exult will first use the data in the Exult.app and then use the data in the default folder or the location written down in exult.cfg's <data_path>.
This means that you can copy the sfx files and the digital music folder into the app bundle (Exult.app/Contents/Resources/data) and Exult will automatically use these.

Example: User named FooBar on macOS 14. BG is installed to /Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate and SI is installed to /Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle.
The app Exult.app is saved to /Applications. When you run Exult it will automatically recognize that BG and SI are installed. You do not need to edit exult.cfg, which is saved to /Users/FooBar/Library/Preferences/exult.cfg.
When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to /Users/FooBar/Library/Application Support/exult/blackgate/, for SI to Users/FooBar/Library/Application Support/exult/serpentisle/.
If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to /Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate/mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in /Users/FooBar/Library/Application Support/exult/blackgate/mods/keyring/.

Please be aware of the difference between /Library/... and ~/Library/....
In the root of your macOS system hard drive is the folder /Library. The folder ~/Library is a sub folder of your home folder. If your username is foobar then the folder ~/Library is located at /Users/foobar/Library on your hard drive.
On macOS the folder ~/Library is hidden by default. To access it open Finder, click on the menu item 'Go' while pressing 'Option/Alt' and 'Library' will be an option to click on.

If you followed all the instructions and Exult still won't recognize the games, you can try deleting exult.cfg in ~/Library/Preferences and then start Exult to generate a new cfg file.

At 10.4. Path-Settings for macOS you can see an exult.cfg example with the macOS defaults.

As on macOS, Exult uses a default path on Linux systems for its data folder and the game files. Exult will automatically look for these in /usr/local/share/exult unless you entered different paths in exult.cfg.
But you will need to follow our gamename standard when you name the game folders, see 1.3. Terms we use in regard to Exult and Ultima VII, otherwise Exult will not find them there.

Example: User named FooBar on Ubuntu. BG is installed to /usr/local/share/exult/blackgate and SI is installed to /usr/local/share/exult/serpentisle. When you run Exult it will automatically recognize that BG and SI are installed. You do not need to edit exult.cfg, which is saved to $HOME/.exult.cfg.
When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to $HOME/.exult/blackgate/, for SI to $HOME/.exult/serpentisle/.
If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to /usr/local/share/Exult/blackgate/mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in $HOME/.exult/blackgate/mods/keyring/.

At 10.5. Path-Settings for Linux/Unix systems you can see an exult.cfg example with the Linux defaults.

Exult offers some command line options:

• '-h' or '--help'
  Shows all the command line parameters in stderr (stderr.txt on Windows systems).
• '-v' or '--version'
  Shows version information in stderr.
• '-c configfile'
  Specify alternate config file (relative or absolute paths work).
• '-p'
  Portable option for Windows only. Exult will read cfg file from the folder it got installed to (or make one) and will assume the games to be in the gamename subfolders (see 1.3.).
  For example if Exult got installed to E:\Exult, a BG game will be expected to be in E:\Exult\blackgate. Savegames will also be saved in these folders.
  Be careful that you have actually writing permissions in the Exult folder or this will fail.
• '--bg'
  Starts the game with the Black Gate menu (prefers original game).
• '--fov'
  Starts the game with the menu of the Black Gate with Forge of Virtue expansion. Only useful if you have FoV added as described at 10.6., otherwise it will just work like the command '--bg'.
• '--si'
  Starts the game with the Serpent Isle menu (prefers original game).
• '--ss'
  Starts the game with the menu of the Serpent Isle with Silver Seed expansion. Only useful if you have SS added as described at 10.6., otherwise it will just work like the command '--si'.
• '--sib'
  Starts the game with the menu of the Serpent Isle beta version.
• '--nomenu'
  Skips game menu.
• '--game gamename'
  Loads a game specified in exult.cfg when there are other games made with Exult Studio.
• '--mod modname'
  Must be used together with '--bg', '--si', '--fov', '--ss', '--sib' or '--game gamename'; runs the specified game using the mod with title equal to 'modname'. 'modname' is the name of the mod cfg file (e.g. keyring.cfg means 'modname' is 'keyring'.
• '--buildmap x'
  x = 0 shows all roofs, x = 2 pops them all.
  Makes 144 2048x2048 pixels screenshots of the game map which you will need to piece together. The screenshots are numbered according to the ifix/ireg map.
  By default the screenshots are PNG files. In the unlikely case that Exult was compiled without libpng support, buildmap will output PCX files.
  Exult is required to be run in windowed mode and you get the best map if you started a new game before you build the map.
  You need to specify a game, either by '--bg' (or '--si', '--fov', '--ss', '--sib') or with the '--game'/'--mod' option.
• '--mapnum'
  This must be used with '--buildmap' to select a map in multimap games or mods.
• '--nocrc'
  Exult doesn't start when the crc of the exult*.flx files in the data folder isn't the same it got compiled with. This parameter lets the game start nevertheless. Don't try this if you don't know what you are doing as it is likely to crash Exult.
• '--verify-files'
  Verifies that the files in static dir are not corrupt.
  Only valid if used together with '--bg', '--si', '--fov', '--ss', '--sib' or '--game gamename'; you cannot specify a mod with this flag.
• '--edit'
  Start in map-edit mode. This will also load Exult Studio when the game is started.
• '--write-xml'
  Write patch/exultgame.xml. Only useful for game editing.
• '--reset-video'
  resets Exult's video settings to the default values. Very helpful when Exult isn't playable anymore because of wrong settings.

• Windows:
  Exult generates the files stdout.txt and stderr.txt. These may give you some idea of what is going on under the hood. When Exult suddenly quits, sometimes these files can help.
  You can find these files in the folder where exult.cfg is located (see 2.2.)
• Linux/UNIX:
  the above mentioned logs are shown in the console from which Exult is started.
  ./exult >&$HOME/exult_log.txt
  will send both stderr and stdout to the file named exult_log.txt in your $HOME folder.
• macOS:
  Similar to Linux, you need to start Exult from the Terminal.app to see the logs or redirect them to a text file. Use
  /Applications/Exult.app/Contents/MacOS/exult >&$HOME/exult_log.txt
  to find the file named exult_log.txt in your $HOME folder.

The Exult Setup and Game menu share mostly the same options, except for the option to 'Save/Load games' and to 'Quit' the game, which are only available in the Game menu once you loaded a game.

Exult Setup can only be opened on the Exult menu by selecting the 'Setup' option.
And you can access the Game menu either by pressing the disk icon in the Avatar's inventory screen or by pressing 'Esc'.
The following options are available for the Exult Setup menu and the Game menu:

There is a HELP button on most options that will open your default browser at the online version of this documentation.

This one is pretty straightforward. You can load and save a game, delete a game and view some information of a save game on the right side (a screenshot and some stats).
If you have a wheel mouse you can scroll one line up/down by using the wheel. Pressing 'Alt' while using the wheel scrolls by pages.
Pressing Cancel exits the Load/Save options.
This is only available in game through the Game menu.

In this option screen you are able to determine how Exult displays the game.

• Full Screen
  enable or disable running Exult in full screen.
• Window Size
  lets you choose between various resolutions determined by the fullscreen resolutions your system reports as supported. If you want other resolutions edit exult.cfg outlined in 10.1. Settings in exult.cfg.
• Scaler
  lets you choose your favorite scaling engine. Also look at 5.4. Scaler for an explanation.
• Scaling
  choose between 1x up to 8x. Further explanation in 5.4. Scaler.
  For scalers that have a default only scaling (e.g. 2xSaI) this option will be hidden.
• Game Area
  the size of your game viewing area in the Exult window. You can choose between the original default resolution of '320x200' or 'Auto' which tries to set the best viewing area for the chosen resolution.
• Fill Quality
  the scaler used by the different fill modes. You can chose between Point and Bilinear.
• Fill Mode
  Different modes on how to display the Game Area in the Exult window size. Please see 5.2. Fill modes.
• AR Correction
  Aspect Ratio Correction for the fill modes 'Fit' and 'Centre'.
• Same setting for window and fullscreen
  When you disable this you can select different settings for window and fullscreen mode by changing the settings while being in either mode.
• APPLY/HELP/CANCEL
  Checks whether your changes can cause problems, applies your changes and gives you a countdown to confirm that the new settings are working correctly. If you don't want to apply your changes, click CANCEL.

Look at 4. Audio to see explanation on the settings.

• Volume Mixer
  opens our Volume Mixer, see see 3.5..
• Audio
  Enable or disable all Audio in Exult.
• sample rate
  changes the sample rate between 11025 and 48000.
• speaker type
  toggle between mono and stereo.
• Music
  Enable or disable music.
• looping
  Toggles several ways the music can loop, see 4.1. Music.
• digital music
  Enables/disables Digital Music.
• MIDI driver
  choose between different drivers for MIDI, see 4.2..
• device type
  choose between different device types for MIDI music, see 4.2..
• effects
  alters the way the MIDI is played. Choose between Reverb, Chorus, Both (Reverb and Chorus) or disable it.
• SFX
  Enable or disable digital sound effects.
• Pack
  choose between our standard SFX packs, Roland MT32 and Soundblaster, see 4.7.. This option is not available in the Exult Setup.
• Speech
  ptions on whether you hear the voices of the Guardian or the Great Earth Serpent, also toggles subtitles.
• APPLY/HELP/CANCEL
  Applies your changes without closing the Audio Options. If you don't want to apply your changes, click CANCEL.

Our Volume Mixer allows changing the volume of music, sfx and speech independently. Our different midi drivers each save their own volume.

When you have enabled digital music and and another midi driver you can set both volumes for music.

• Take automatic Notes
  Toggle writing automatic notes to the notebook - see 7.3. The automatic Notebook.
• Gumps pause games
  In the original the game got paused when Gumps were shown. Enable/disable it.
• Alternative drag and drop
  When enabled dropping a stack of items (coins, bolts...) will drop the whole stack without asking for confirmation of the amount of items to drop. Hold 'Ctrl' while dropping if you need to split a stack.
• Speed
  if Exult seems too fast lower this setting. If it seems to sluggish raising this setting may help.
• Combat options
  As many people think that the U7 combat engine is far too easy, too hard or just can't stand the real-time-combat we put in some options to make combat more interesting:
• Combat Show Hits
  With this enabled you can see the hit points of NPCs in brackets after their name when you left-click on them.
• Combat paused with Space
  choose between Original and SpacePauses. SpacePauses gives you a little more control of combat. When you hit space the game pauses and you can direct a party member by right-clicking, then clicking on a target to attack. Or change weapons, choose a favorite spell.
• Combat Charmed difficulty
  choose between Normal and Hard. With Normal the Avatar can't be charmed. The original game allowed him to be charmed though that only highlighted him as charmed and the charmed status icon showed but you could control him as usual.
  Hard will neither allow the player to control charmed party members, including the Avatar, nor access the inventory of a charmed party member. But you can still manipulate objects that are not in the charmed party members possessions even if the Avatar is the one who is charmed. Charmed party members will continue to attack, even if the player ends combat.
• Combat Difficulty
  Ranges from Easiest (-3) to Hardest (3). It affects the chance of a hit, and the HP that is lost if a hit occurs.
• Cheats
  Enables or disables all the cheats that we implemented in Exult. See 6.3. Cheat keys what those cheats are.

• Status Bars
  You can either disable the status bars or choose its position on the bottom of the screen (left, middle, right).
• Use ShortcutBar
  Toggle the ShortcutBar or make it transparent when on the map - see 7.1. ShortcutBar for single or double click actions.
• Use outline color
  Choose a the color of the outline around the ShortcutBar buttons or disable it - see 7.1. ShortcutBar for single or double click actions.
• Hide missing items
  hides ShortcutBar items the party doesn't have, otherwise missing items are greyed out - see 7.1. ShortcutBar for single or double click actions.
• Text Background
  shows a tinted background behind text in conversations to make it easier to read. Either disable it or choose between the colors purple, orange, light gray, green, yellow, pale blue, dark green, red, bright white, dark gray and white.
• Smooth scrolling
  Disabled/25%/50%/75%/100% percentage of how smooth the game scrolls when the avatar moves. When disabled Exult uses the 'jerky' scrolling of the original game.
• Skip intro
  When enabled you don't have to watch the splash screen and intro when you select a game from the Exult menu.
• Skip scripted first scene
  When you start a new game of BG the game starts with a scripted scene during which you can't move the Avatar. Enable this to skip this part but only do this if you have already played the game and have seen this scene.
• Paperdolls
  only available in Black Gate and only if you have Serpent Isle installed as well. Enables or disable Paperdolls (inventory screen) in the style of Serpent Isle.
• Use extended SI intro
  To fit the intro of SI onto the constraints of floppy disks, it was cut and made much simpler than originally envisioned by Denis Loubet. We have restored the intro and made it possible to watch it.

• Doubleclick closes gumps
  pretty straightforward, right?
• Right click closes gumps
  the same but different.
• Pathfind with Right Click
  Right-clicking on a spot makes the avatar walk to it. Default is a double click but you can set it to a single one or disable it.
• Scroll game view with mouse
  When cheats are enabled you can scroll the game view with the scroll wheel of the mouse, when you hold down the 'Alt' you will scroll sideways (to the west or to the east).
• Use middle mouse button
  In the normal game, the middle mouse button activates the target-function (which could also be accomplished by pressing 't'). For modal gumps, the middle mouse acts as 'return', the right button as 'escape', so you can now for example accept the default slider value by just pressing the middle button. The escape function is also available during most other actions like selecting a target or conversations. Enable or disable it.
• Fullscreen Fast Mouse
  makes the mouse cursor move faster in full screen modes. Enable or disable it.
• Item helper menu
  Enabling this will pop up a menu on screen of objects you can click on and once you select one, it gives you further options on how to interact with the object. Only on iOS enabled by default.
• D-Pad screen location
  On iOS we display a virtual D-Pad to move the Avatar with your finger (thumb). This toggles and selects the side of the screen this D-Pad is displayed on. For now this is only enabled on iOS
• Pathfind with Long touch
  When you click or touch for a little while the Avatar will move to this location if it's possible to move there. By default only enabled on iOS.

Exits Exult. This option is only available in the in-game menu.
On iOS and Android this is not available (both don't allow you to quit apps directly).

There are three general ways that music is played in Exult. One is using MIDI, which plays the music through any MIDI device, or software synthesizers like TiMidity and FluidSynth. Another way is Digital Music encoded into OGG (similar to MP3) which was recorded directly from a Roland MT-32. The third option is FMOpl which emulates Opl2/Adlib.
The MIDI files are converted on-the-fly from the original Ultima VII MT-32 files to General MIDI format so that they will be playable on modern General MIDI and General MIDI/GS supporting sound cards.

The Music driver options can be changed in the in-game menu that you open by hitting 'ESC'.
There you can enable Digital Music and change the MIDI driver, through which you can also select the FMOpl emulation. When you enable Digital Music, it takes precedence over the MIDI driver.

Exult allows changing of how the games' music loops.

• never
  disables music looping entirely.
• endless
  lopping music will not stop until a new music piece is being played.
• auto
  Music will loop but music started by a jukebox egg will stop looping when the avatar is too far away. The music will play through to the end of the track.
• limited
  same as auto but music will immediately stop when too far from the egg instead of playing through to the end.

The MIDI driver can be changed to:

• Default
  This setting utilizes the FMOpl driver.
• FMOPL
  This is a Software FM Synthesizer (also known as a emulated Opl2/Adlib).
• TiMidity
  is a software synthesizer that can play MIDI files without a hardware synthesizer. You can install TiMidity on all major Operating systems. You need to place tmidity.cfg into the same folder where the Exult executable is installed to, otherwise TiMidity will not work. On linux systems it needs to be in ~/.exult.
• FluidSynth
  is another software synthesizer, which uses SoundFont 2 technology without need for a SoundFont-compatible sound card. It is available for many Operating Systems and opposed to TiMidity still actively developed.
  Since Fluidsynth pulls in many dependencies it is not compiled into Exult at the moment.
  If you compiled Exult ourself and you enabled Fluidsynth you just need to edit exult.cfg and point <config><audio><midi><fluidsynth_soundfont> to the SoundFont you want to use.
  Exult supports FluidSynth's soundfont stack. Soundfonts are specified in the <config><audio><midi><fluidsynth_soundfontN> exult.cfg entries (N = 0 to 9) which are loaded in numerical order (0 first), plus the old <fluidsynth_soundfont> entry, which loads after all others.
• MT32Emu
  Roland MT32 emulation requires either the ROM set 'MT32_CONTROL.ROM' and 'MT32_PCM.ROM' or the ROM set 'CM32L_CONTROL.ROM' and 'CM32L_PCM.ROM' in the Exult data folder. If both sets are present the CM32L ROM set will be used.
• Windows
  Using the Windows MIDI driver.
• CoreAudio
  uses XMIDI on macOS. You can use a different soundfont than macOS' default by pointing <config><audio><midi><coreaudio_soundfont> to it in exult.cfg.
• CoreMIDI
  on macOS this MIDI driver allows using a real MIDI device like a Roland MT32 or software MIDI devices like Munt MT-32 Emulator. If you have more than one MIDI device you can choose the the device by setting the device ID in exult.cfg <config><audio><midi><coremidi_device> - see 4.5..
• Alsa
  uses ALSA on Linux systems. If your ALSA port is not on 65:0 you need to change <config><audio><midi><alsa_port> in the exult.cfg.
• UnixSeqDevice
  Linux systems write to special symbolic file, default '/dev/sequencer'. This can be changed at <config><audio><midi><unixseqdevice> in the exult.cfg.
  Because of size constraints we abbreviated it to UnixSeq in the 3.4..

For drivers that use a real MIDI device, the device type for MIDI can be changed to:

• MT32
  This option will output the music with nothing changed. Because the mapping will be for MT32s you should only use this option if you have a MT32 compatible device. With this option Exult will also send SysEx messages to the Roland MT32 display, which are nice to watch when you have such a device.
• GM
  This will convert the MT32 patches to standard General MIDI patches. Conversion is fairly accurate but some instruments may be different.
• GS
  This will convert the MT32 patches to their equivalent GS patches. This will be a more accurate conversion that straight gm since more of the MT32 patches are in the GS set. However, not all MIDI devices will support this mode.
• GS127
  This option is for MIDI devices that have a MT32 patch bank installed in Bank 127. Some GS implementation have this, some don't. Only use this if you know that you have a MT32 implementation on Bank 127.
• Fake MT32
  This is for MIDI devices that behave like a MT32 but don't support SysEx messages. Use that option if you have a SoundFont or similar loaded for your sound card (or software synth such as FluidSynth) that contains the MT32 capital tones but the device can't be reprogrammed using MT32 SysEx commands by Exult.

NOTE: Currently the conversion to GS and GS127 is not finished and the notes are only mapped to General MIDI.

Due to the way the class was constructed input can be in either .mid, .rmi or the Miles Sound System .xmi format. There are no limitations to they types of .mid and .rmi supported. They can be Type 0, 1 and the rarely seen type 2. The loading routine is also fairly lenient of erroneous XMIDI files that do not have correct XMIDI headers.

During the development of the XMIDI class it was found that certain .xmi files in Serpent Isle had the first patch changed after the first note. The converter will attempt to correct these errors. However it may cause problems with some MIDI files. Currently this can not be disabled and may change in the future.

You can tell Exult which MIDI device it should use. This is useful if you want Exult to use a different MIDI device than the default Windows device (like an MT-32).

To do this start Exult, on the menu choose 'Exit'. Now open the file stdout.txt in the folder where exult.cfg is located (see 2.2.). You will see a listing of the MIDI devices.
For example with an SB Live! in Win2k it will look like this:

4 Midi Devices Detected
Listing midi devices:
-1: Microsoft MIDI-Mapper
0: A: SB Live! MIDI Synth
1: B: SB Live! MIDI Synth
2: SB Live! MIDI UART

By default Exult uses the Microsoft MIDI-Mapper (which uses the device you choose in the Windows Multimedia Properties).
To change the MIDI Device open exult.cfg and change

with the device you want to use.

Similar to the above Windows MIDI mapper you can tell Exult on macOS which MIDI device it should use. By default Exult uses macOS' CoreAudio device to output MIDI music. If you have a real MIDI device (e.g. Roland MT32) or another software MIDI device (e.g. Munt MT-32 Emulator) you want to use, you will need to select the CoreMidi MIDI driver.
CoreMidi uses by default the MIDI device with the first device ID (0), if you have more than one device you will need to learn the device IDs first and then set it in exult.cfg.

To do this you will need to start Exult in a special way:
right click on the Exult.app, select 'Show Package Contents' which will show you the folder/file structure of the Exult.app. Doubleclick on 'Contents', doubleclick on MacOS, doubleclick on exult.
Terminal.app will open a window and will show you all kind of output while Exult will also start. In Exult click on setup and in the Audio settings select the CoreMidi driver (make sure to disable digital music).
In the Terminal.app window you should now see a listing of the MIDI devices which could look like this:

Trying config specified Midi driver: `CoreMidi'
CoreMidi driver found 4 destinations:
0: USB Midi Cable
1: uMIDI/O22 Port 1
2: uMIDI/O22 Port 2
3: Mt32EmuPort

By default Exult uses the first device with the device ID 0, in this case 'USB Midi Cable'.
To change the MIDI Device open exult.cfg and change

with the device ID of the device you want to use.

Exult needs the Digital Music pack to play Digital Music in the game. The music pack contains music for both Black Gate and Serpent Isle, encoded in high quality OGG format. Simon Quinn recorded the current Digital Music pack on an original Roland MT-32 and with this you will experience the music as it would be heard with the original game.
Digital Music should work on any platform that supports digital sound and does not use any MIDI, so it is also a good option for platforms with no MIDI support. Additionally, Digital Music supports a number of background atmospheric SFX tracks that are played when no music is playing. These consist of wind, bird etc effects outside and other sound effects when inside a dungeon. These SFX tracks are not available when using MIDI as they play Roland MT-32 specific voices that cannot be mapped to GM/GS. These SFX tracks do not play when the music is switched off.

The digital music pack seems to have two issue, though, some tracks seem to have been recorded at lower volume than the others. Also, since both the digital music and the sound effects are played by the Wave / PCM of your sound card, you can no longer have a different volume for music and sound effects.

Exult needs the so called SFX packs to enable sound effects for Ultima VII. You have to download separate packs for each game as order of the SFX in BG and SI varies a bit and otherwise will sound odd. However there is a little issue with SFX playback in SI: In combat the SFX may be a little wrong as we still haven't figured out all the data in the 'weapons.dat'.
Also Exult doesn't yet playback all the SFX that the original did.

We've combined all the audio data we offer, Digital Music and Digital Wave Sound Effects, into an all-in-one pack which saves you downloading several smaller zip files. You can download a zip file for manual installation or an installer for either Windows or macOS. Chose the one you want to use on our download page at https://exult.info/download.php.
The Windows installer for Exult gives you the option to download and install the zip automatically, so we recommend you use this method.
On macOS, we recommend you download and run the installer.
On Linux or if you want to manually install the all-in-one pack, you will need to grab the zip file.

To install the zip file, extract its content to the Exult data folder. On Linux systems this is by default /usr/local/share/exult. On macOS it is /Library/Application Support/Exult/data and on Windows it's in the folder data in the folder where you installed Exult to (by default C:\Program Files (x86)\Exult).

Below you can read the instructions on how to use and install the individual packs for digital music and wave effects if. You don't need them if you downloaded the All-in-One zip or installer.

If you downloaded and installed the above All-in-One Audio Data pack you don't need to bother with the following instructions.

The Digital Music pack can be downloaded from https://exult.info/download.php, the files are called Ogg encoded Music files for Exult Part 1 (U7MusicOGG_1of2.zip) and Ogg encoded Music files for Exult Part 2 (U7MusicOGG_2of2.zip). The readme.txt found in the ZIP files contains installation instructions that are no longer 100% valid and should not be followed.
Create a music folder in exult/data (i.e. exult/data/music/) and extract the two ZIP files U7MusicOGG_1of2.zip and U7MusicOGG_2of2.zip into this folder.
If you are not sure where the data folder is, search for the file exult_bg.flx on your hard drive as this file is always in the data folder.
Now start up Exult and start either a game of BG or SI. Hit 'ESC' to enter the game menu. Here select Audio Options and in the 'Music options' enable the digital music option.

It isn't necessary but you can also customize the location of the music files by adding <music_path> to exult.cfg. Example:

If you downloaded and installed the above All-in-One Audio Data pack you don't need to bother with the following instructions.

We currently have two soundpacks for each game. Joseph Morris recorded the original SoundBlaster SFX and Simon Quinn recorded the Roland MT32 SFX. You can find them on our download page at https://exult.info/download.php.
'Sound pack for Blackgate' and 'Sound pack for Serpent Isle' are the SoundBlaster sound effects.
'Sound pack for Black Gate (Roland MT-32)' and 'Sound pack for Serpent Isle (Roland MT-32)' are the Roland MT32 sound effects.

Extract the zip files into your Exult data folder. Exult will automatically find and use the SFX packs and will default to use the Roland MT32 pack when both both packs (SoundBlaster and Roland MT-32) are present. You can then choose between the packs in the Game Menu (3.4.), of course you can override this setting in the exult.cfg (see 10.1.).
An example of how the relevant part of exult.cfg looks when you prefer the SoundBlaster SFX:

You can toggle Ultima VII's speech via the in-game menu or change the settings in exult.cfg - see 10.1..

Additionally you can have the subtitles show while speech is played. In the original the subtitles were only shown when speech was disabled.

Press 'Esc' to enter the in-game menu and toggle Audio or change the settings in exult.cfg - see 10.1..

You can configure the ALSA port for your distribution in .exult.cfg (see 10.1.), by default we use 65:0.
If the default or the port you set is not working Exult tries to figure out a working port and will connect to the first port that satisfies these requirements:

• It is available
• It has a non zero number of channels
• It does not accept READ, SUBSCRIBED_READ or DUPLEX requests. This may be a problem for keyboard synths.

We distinguish between the Exult display resolution (which determines the size of the Exult window and its fullscreen rendering) and the game area, which determines how big the in-game viewing area is.

By default Exult runs the games at 320x200 (which is the resolution the original Ultima VII used). Exult can use different scaling engines to double the size to 640x400 or even triple the the size to 960x600 while increasing the quality of the graphics and maintaining the same viewing area. This allows Exult to show the game as an enhanced version of how it originally appeared, and not show locations that were originally off-screen.
When you first start Exult we apply the scaler 2xSaI which doubles the size of each pixel, resulting in a 640x400 window.

You will also have to hit 'Apply' in the Video gump to apply your changes. Exult will then use the new settings and will show you a countdown which asks you to confirm that the new video settings are working. When you don't confirm by hitting 'YES', the changes will be reverted. This way we try to prevent that some bad video options combinations prevent you from playing the games.

When you disallow same settings for window and fullscreen mode in the Game menu, settings can be set for either fullscreen or windows mode just by selecting different settings while using either mode.

The game area with scaler applied should not be bigger than the display, otherwise you will get strange effects and the game might crash.
For example when you set the game area to 320x200 with the scaler Point at sale factor 3, your game viewing area is actually 960x600. If your display resolution is set to 640x480 the resolutions don't match and your Exult window will be smaller than intended.
Exult will check whether this will happen and will warn you against it, since making the window smaller than 320x200 will cause you trouble with Exults interface and you might not be able to revert your changes.

On the other hand when your display resolution is set higher than the game resolution you can have black borders surrounding the game viewing area. The borders can be used for positioning gumps and the face stats.
You can also change the color of the borders.
If you don't like black borders you can also stretched to fill the entire display resolution, or sacled to fit the display resolution without stretching the pixels.
You have the following options

• Fill
  The game screen is stretched to fill the entire display surface. No borders will be added in this mode. The game screen will be downsampled if it is bigger than the display surface in this mode.
• Fit
  Game is scaled to fill the display surface maintaining square pixels. Black borders will be added to maintain aspect if needed. The game screen will be downsampled if it is bigger than the display surface in this mode.
• Aspect Correct Fit
  Same as fit, but pixels are additionally scaled using a 1:1.2 ratio. This corrects the aspect mismatch between the non square pixels used by the original game and the square pixels of modern screen resolutions.
• Centre
  The game is centered on the display surface without additional scaling. Black borders will be added if game screen is smaller than the display surface. Clipping will occur if the game screen is larger than the display surface.
• Aspect Correct Centre
  Same as Centre except height is scaled by 1.2x to correct pixel aspect mismatch.

If the Game Area setting is set to Auto then the game area is calculated based on the selected fill mode with no additional scaling applied.
The additional scaling method can be set to Point or Bilinear.

Using higher resolutions is considered cheating as you can see too much of the surrounding area. Since the game was designed to be played at a specific size (320x200), this can actually lead to plot-stopping problems; hence we will not fix any problem caused by your cheating! Don't say we didn't warn you :-)
But being able to play in higher resolutions is actually one of the big advantages of Exult but as mentioned above it comes with a price.

The scalers also work with higher resolutions than 320x200. To change the scaling method either use the Exult menu or change your exult.cfg - see 10.1..

• Point
  simple but very fast scaler. Only duplicates pixels, no fancy interpolation. Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...).
• Interlaced
  identical to point except that it skips every other line to be even faster. Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...).
• Bilinear
  bilinear interpolation to smooth the result. Slower than point, but looks better. Can be used for arbitrary integer scales (2x, 3x, 4x...).
• BilinearPlus
  same as Bilinear and it may even be a bit faster.
• 2xSaI by Derek Liauw
  Only 2x. The current Exult default scaler.
• SuperEagle by Derek Liauw
  Only 2x.
• Super2xSai by Derek Liauw
  Only 2x.
• Scale2x by Andrea Mazzoleni
  This is a non-blurring scaler that looks good without soaking up a lot of CPU cycles. Get more information on this scaler at http://scale2x.sf.net.
• HQ2X
  High quality scaler, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 2x.
• HQ3X
  High quality scaler, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 3x.
• HQ4X
  High quality scaler, that uses a *lot* of CPU cycles. Only 4x.
• 2xBR
  High quality scaler by Hyllian Github, that uses a lot of CPU cycles. Only 2x.
• 3xBR
  Same as 2xBR but 3x.
• 4xBR
  Same as 2xBR but 4x.

If your system is a bit slow, the later scalers may tax your system and slow down your gameplay.

• Hold right mouse button down to move Avatar.
• Clicking with the right mouse button will make the Avatar find a path to the selected spot. Default is a double click but you can also choose a single click in the options.
• Click on objects with left button to identify them.
• Double-click on characters to hold conversations.
• Double-click on doors, shutters with left button to open or close them.
• Click and hold an item to move the item if the item is moveable and can be reached by the Avatar.
• Press 'Ctrl' while dropping a stack of items (coins, bolts...) to drop the whole stack without being asked for confirmation of the amount of items to drop.
• Use the arrow keys (or the keypad keys for more precise movement). When you move while holding shift the Avatar walks slowly otherwise he is in running mode.

On iOS we display a virtual D-Pad on screen with which you control the movement. Additionally you can long touch on the screen and the Avatar moves there (if it is possible).

All key commands of Exult can be changed for either BG or SI. However, there is a default setting which closely follows the original with the addition of some improvements.

You can change your key bindings by providing your own defaultkeys file.
Download defaultkeys.txt for BG or defaultkeys.txt for BG, change the bindings and save the file (e.g. as my_keys.txt). Now you have to change exult.cfg to use that file. See the keys settings at 10.1. and change (default) to my_keys.txt.
Our installer for Windows installs the defaultkeys files to your Exult folder (bgdefaultkeys.txt for BG and sidefaultkeys.txt for SI).

During the game press 'h' to see a help screen with most of the keys (for macOS use Alt for Cmd - however the in-game help screen shows the correct key combination). 'KP' means keypad.

In conversations you have the ability not just click on the answer with the mouse but also to use the numeric keys. The response options aren't numbered visually but logically with the dots. Also pressing 'Esc' selects 'bye' if it's an option.

Press 'ctrl-h' during the game to see a help screen with all the cheat keys. 'KP' means keypad.

With the ongoing development of Exult a lot of keys were added that are mainly useful for map editing with Exult Studio. Hit 'shift-h' to see the map edit keys help screen.

Especially on mobile devices it makes sense to have a shortcutbar that allows quick actions with just one or a double click. This was first implemented in the Exult for iOS fork but later back ported and improved in main Exult. By default the shortcutbar is disabled, but can be enabled and further configured in the 1.1. .
You can make the bar transparent (only when drawn on the map) and select different colors for the outlines around the buttons. Some buttons only work when you have a certain item (spellbook, jawbone in SI). You can choose to hide those buttons or display them greyed out.

The buttons have the following functions (cheat functions only work when you enabled cheats in 1.1. ):

• Floppy Disk
  Single click opens the game menu, double click the 3.2. Load/Save Game
  Additionally clicking it will close all Gumps that are open.
• Dove/Flaming Sword
  Toggles combat but also shows you whether you are in combat mode (flaming sword) when combat is toggled in another way.
• Map
  Shows you the map, on double click opens the map teleporter
• Spellbook
  Opens your spellbook if you have it.
• Backpack
  On each click opens the paperdoll of party members.
• Key (Keyring in SI)
  Single click gives you a target pointer that tries all keys on the lock you click on. A double click uses a lockpick if you have any in your party.
  When you acquire the keyring in SI, the button will change into the keyring and use that on a single click.
• Notebook
  Opens the notebook (see 7.2. Using the Notebook), on double click shows you the cheat menu.
• Target
  single click gives you the target pointer, double click changes the pointer to a red cross which will cheat teleport you wherever you click.
• Fork and Knife
  A single click lets you feed a party member while a double click will use bandages or healing potions to heal.
• Jawbone (SI only)
  Opens the jawbone gump if you have the jawbone.

We implemented a notebook you can access by pressing 'n'. With this you can make notes of things you experienced, or 'heard' from any of the NPCs. Entries will be saved when you close the notebook and save the game.

Additionally when you have cheats enabled you will see the coordinates (in decimal) where you wrote your note.

If you want you can also have Exult automatically make some notes on its own when certain things happen in game. This feature has not yet progressed very far, especially for SI we have mostly basic pointers of what was noted.
You can enable autonotes in the 1.1. .

You can also write your own autonotes and override the ones that come with Exult.
For BG download https://github.com/exult/exult/raw/master/data/bg/autonotes.txt.
For SI download https://github.com/exult/exult/raw/master/data/si/autonotes.txt.
Then change the <autonotes> setting in exult.cfg to point at the path of these files instead of being set to (default).
Example:

When you press 'Ctrl-Alt-s'Exult will make a screenshot of your game window in PNG image file format in the same folder your savegames are saved to. In the unlikely case that your Exult has been compiled without libpng support , the PCX file format is used.

With Exult Studio advancing more and more, there are now a small number mods and patches developed, both by Exult team members and other users. See FAQ for a list.

Patches are meant for what the name implies, little patches to the original game. Changing shapes, fixing or changing some usecode and such. Patches also have the limitation that you can only have one patch per original game installed.

Mods on the other hand are more or less meant for heavy modifications of the original games. Changing the map layout, adding NPCs and objects, changing usecode and so on. You can have several mods installed which can be chosen from a convenient menu in Exult. Because of these advantages that mods have over patches, people now develop mods rather than patches.

To install a mod unzip or move the mod files (if they come unzipped) into your games mods folder. By default that is the mods subfolder in the path you set for your game in the exult.cfg file (see 10.2. Path-Settings. If the folder is not there, simply create an empty folder called mods in your games folder and proceed as above.
Now start a new game, choose the mod in the menu and enjoy the mod.

Please read the readme(.txt) that should have come with the mods. In there you will normally find further instructions and what the mod is about and how to experience the changes in the game.

Unfortunately, since there are always advancements in the map editing, mods that are no longer maintained might no longer work correctly with current versions of Exult.

Installation of patches is very similar to the installation of mods: unzip or move the patch files (if they come unzip) into your games patch folder. By default that is the patch subfolder in the path you set for your game in the exult.cfg file (see 10.2. Path-Settings). If the folder is not there, simply create an empty folder called patch in your games folder and proceed as above.
Now start a new game and enjoy the patch.

Please read the readme(.txt) that should have come with the patch. In there you will normally find instructions and what the patch is about and how to experience the changes in the game.

In exult.cfg you can adapt where Exult looks for both mods and patches. The paths Exult uses by default, are explained in 10.2., so stick to that for the location of mods and patches, and only edit the config file if you need to.

When you save a modded game the savegames are saved to <savegame_path>/mods/name_of_mod. The Gamedat folder will be found in that folder as well. For the location of <savegame_path>, please see 10.2. Path-Settings and the following chapters for your Operating System.

Note, you can override the location of savegames in the cfg of the mod under the <savegame_path>.
For example if you install the BG Keyring mod, you would find the settings for that mod in keyring.cfg.

You cannot exchange savegames between original games and mods. For example, when you start a new game with a mod for BG and later run that same savegame from BG only, it might actually work, but the results are unpredictable. The game might run ok for a while until you hit a problem caused by the missing mod.
So don't do it.

The way our mods and patches work, require that both the original games' files and the mod files are using the same case (lower or upper or mixed) on a case sensitive file system as is the standard with Linux. Otherwise some original files won't be patched as the operating system will assume that these are different files.

In January 2015 Chaoji Li (aka Litchie) forked Exult on Github to work on the initial porting effort by Lanica Dragon (which had stopped in 2013).
Since 2020 the port is merged in our code.

Note that Exult runs very nicely on iPads but the item management of the games makes playing on the smaller iPhone screens a bit of a challenge. Starting with the screen size of the iPhone 6 things become easier.

For now Exult is not on the App Store but there are two other ways to get it on your device.

• Write an email to Dominus Dragon (see About Us) to sign up for the beta testing (through Apple's iTunes Connect/TestFlight).
• If your iOS device is on iOS version 12 and higher and you are running a Mac, you can download Xcode from the AppStore, clone the git repository, run the Xcode project file and easily install Exult on your device. This is called 'sideloading'.

Once you have the Exult app on your device, you will need to upload the games to your device using Finder or iTunes file sharing. But it needs a bit of preparing.

First you will need to put the games into a folder called game and use the following folder structure:
game
+-- blackgate
| +--- static
| +---- *.*
+-- serpentisle
| +--- static
| +---- *.*
Please make sure that all the file and folder names are in lowercase, iOS is case sensitive and the games might not be detected otherwise.
Don't write +-- - it's only there to visualize the structure. With *.* all the files of the static folder are meant.

On Windows connect your device to your computer, start iTunes and select your device in it. Click 'Apps', scroll down to 'File Sharing' and select Exult. Now drag and drop the game folder you prepared in the first step. See Apple's guide.

On macOS you have to use Finder, select your iOS device, click on 'Files' and select Exult. Now drag and drop the game folder you prepared in the first step. See Apple's guide.
On older macOS versions you have to use iTunes as you would on Windows.

Only use Finder or iTunes file sharing and not the iOS app Files. Otherwise you will probably end up with an incomplete game. The many small files of the games slow down the Files app and as soon as you switch to another app, the transfer is likely to stop.

Note: if you want to use mods just add them to the game folder structure before you drag and drop that in iTunes file sharing.
Example with the BG keyring and SI fixes mods:
game
+-- blackgate
| +--- static
| +---- *.*
| +--- mods
| +---- keyring
| +----- *.*
| +---- keyring.cfg
+-- serpentisle
| +--- static
| +---- *.*
| +--- mods
| +---- sifixes
| +----- *.*
| +---- sifixes.cfg

To install the optional sfx and digital music, please download the 'Zipped all-in-one audio pack for manual installation' zip file from our download page. Unzip everything to a folder called 'data' and drag and drop this also in iTunes/Finder file sharing. Do NOT put it in the 'game' folder.

When playing you have a dpad overlaying the game screen which by default is on the right of the screen (but can be set to the left side).
Tapping with your finger is equal to a left click in the game.
The green (and eventually red (combat)) movement cursor and the hand pointer are invisible on iOS as they are more distracting than helping when you control and click with your finger.

When you do a long touch on a location and then release the finger, the Avatar will pathfind to this spot.

There is also a helper menu when you click near objects in the games, which can be helpful on the smaller iPhone screens but can be disabled in 3.8. Game Input.

One important addition to the iOS port is that Exult autosaves when it is no longer the focused app. Apple enforces apps to terminate very quickly once they lose focus and to prevent the loss of your current progress, we implemented this automatic saving.

The file uses a simple hierarchical XML-like syntax, which should be simple to understand and modify. Take care though. Handling of syntax errors in this file is not well tested.

The file looks like this (do not copy the **and following - these are my remarks), options you can only change manually are colored in purple.

Note: yes means enabled, no means disabled.

Note: the settings in exult.cfg are the same on all operating systems (except when explicitly stated below).

The way Exult generates default paths (for gamedat, savegames, mods, patches) has changed since Version 1.2. It will not write these paths to exult.cfg but use them automatically.
The location where Exult expects those, and if needed, will create those folders is similarly depending on the Operating System as the location of exult.cfg (see 2.2. Location of exult.cfg). If you were to override these paths you would need to change the following tags (you can substitute gamename with the 'known games' - see 1.3.):

But normally you don't need to. On starting up, Exult will first read which games are available as configured in exult.cfg. Then it will use the <path> setting and assume that <static_path> is <path>/static.
For <savegame_path>, <gamedat_path>, <mods> and <patch> Exult will assume Operating System specific paths.

These folders are used for:

• <data_path>
  the most important folder. In this folder are the files Exult absolutely needs to run. We also check the checksums of these files to make sure that Exult uses the correct ones.
• <static_path>
  the second most important folder. In there you have the data files from the original game. You should never touch these files.
• <savegame_path>
  this is where Exult stores your savegames.
• <gamedat_path>
  contains the (dynamic) data for the game you're currently playing. It's where the 'journey onward' and 'quicksave' 'savegame' is stored.
• <mods>
  here mods for games are saved to. More information on this at 8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches
• <patch>
  Patches for games are saved here. More information on this at 8.1. Introduction to Mods and Patches

Some notes for all Operating Systems:

• On Windows all of these settings, except for the <path> setting, are optional and not required, Exult will sort this out on its own.
• On Linux and macOS you might even not need to touch the <path> setting, if you stick to our standard gamenames.
• You can either use the relative (e.g. ./ultima7) or absolute (e.g. C:\Games\ultima7) path to point to the correct folder. The relative path uses the exult.exe, exult binary or Exult.app as base.
• Better don't use spaces in the path (e.g. C:\Games\the black gate\). Some people seem to have reported problems with that.
• Path settings in exult.cfg are the same on all operating systems. Of course you need to make adjustments on Linux systems when you enter the absolute path.
• Exult and Exult Studio don't trust the exult.cfg 100% and will recognize which games you entered the path for. This means, that if you entered the path to SI in the <blackgate><path> Exult and Exult Studio will not be fooled.
• Don't ever point <static_path> and <gamedat_path> to the same folder.

On Windows (7, 8, 10, 11), Exult uses the special system folder LOCAL_APPDATA:

LOCAL_APPDATA\Exult translates to C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Exult.
Also not that you can quickly access this folder by executing shell:Local AppData\Exult in the 'Quick Access' of Explorer.
For now Exult's data folder is always installed into the same folder where you installed Exult to (default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Exult).
Also note that in contrast to macOS and Linux systems there is no default path, where Exult looks for the games. You have to choose that folder yourself, but the installer will ask you for the BG and SI folder to set your paths up.

Example: User named FooBar on Windows 11. BG is installed to C:\Ultima7\blackgate and SI is installed to C:\Ultima7\serpentisle. The installer of Exult asks for the location of these two games and automatically saves that to exult.cfg. The installer saves exult.cfg to C:\Users\FooBar\AppData\Local\Exult\exult.cfg. Exult gets installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Exult.
When you save a game in BG the savegame will be saved to C:\Users\FooBar\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\, for SI to C:\Users\FooBar\AppData\Local\Exult\serpentisle\.
If you install for example the keyring mod, you copy the contents of the Keyring.zip to C:\Ultima7\blackgate\mods. When you save a game with the Keyring mod, this savegame will be found in C:\Users\FooBar\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\mods\keyring\.

On macOS Exult uses a couple of different folders to follow Apple's guidelines:

On Linux/Unix based systems Exult uses:

If you own both BG or SI without the add-ons FoV and SS and also the versions that has the add-ons you can now have them both shown in the Exult menu. Before you had to edit the exult.cfg when you wanted to switch the games.
You now just have to add the tags for the two games.

If you only own one version of the game, you don't have to worry about this advanced configuration, just follow the instructions at 2.1.. You only have to do this extra work if you want to differentiate between original game with and without the add-on.

Note: Interchanging savegames of games started with or without the add-ons will make your games unplayable.

And again, Exult and Exult Studio will not be fooled by false games under <gamename><path>.

Since November 2011 you can buy Ultima VII from GOG. Unfortunately GOG only offers a Windows installer that you can't easily circumvent, which makes it a challenge for users that use a different OS than Windows.

Right now the only way to get at the game files is to run the installer on Windows (or in WINE if you are not a Windows user). After the installation you will find the game files in C:\GOG Games\Ultima 7 and C:\GOG Games\Ultima 7 - Serpent Isle.

After installation you can just run our installer and when asked where the games are installed enter or browse to the above paths.
Unfortunately GOG changes the download of the games for some unknown reason again and again. So our instructions are sometimes out of date. These ones are for the latest GOG release at the time of writing (version 1.0_(22309)). If it doesn't work, please let us know.

On Linux systems you can use innoextract to extract the games from the GOG installer.
innoextract -L -d /usr/share/exult/forgeofvirtue -e "path to GOG UltimaVII BG installer/setup_ultima_vii_-_the_black_gate_1.0_(22309).exe"
innoextract -L -d /usr/share/exult/silverseed -e "path to GOG Ultima VII SI installer/setup_ultima_vii_-_serpent_isle_1.0_(22309).exe"

Since January 2013 GOG also offers a macOS download for each of the Ultima VII parts. These are install packages for macOS that will install the two parts into your Applications folder as applications that use a modified version of DOSBox to play the game. If you want to make Exult automatically find the games, you will need to copy the game files from these applications to a different folder on your hard drive. To do this follow the next few steps.
These instructions are the same whether you used the manual download from GOG or GOG Galaxy to install the games.

Open Terminal.app found in the Utilities subfolder of your Applications folder and enter the following commands:
sudo mkdir -p "/Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate"
sudo mkdir -p "/Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle"
sudo cp -p -R "/Applications/Ultima VII™  - The Black Gate + The Forge of Virtue.app/Contents/Resources/game/STATIC" "/Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate"
sudo cp -p -R "/Applications/Ultima VII™  - Serpent Isle + The Silver Seed.app/Contents/Resources/game/STATIC" "/Library/Application Support/Exult/serpentisle"
Because we need elevated rights the commands are using sudo and will ask for your password and you will need to do this with an administrator account. If you don't have that, please ask your administrator to do this for you.
Unfortunately GOG changes the download of the games for some unknown reason again and again. So our instructions are sometimes out of date. These ones are for the latest GOG release at the time of writing (gog_3_34095). If it doesn't work, please visit our forum and tell us.

If you are on a Linux system you can extract the files from the install packages via xar. In the extracted folder package.pkg you will find a file called Scripts which is a cpio.gz archive.

There are a couple of CD-ROM versions of Ultima VII. Most of these come with the add-ons pre-installed so with these you don't have to bother with installing the floppy disk version of the add-ons. To our knowledge the following CD-ROM versions exist:

• EA Compilation
  This includes BG and a couple of other games (Savage Empire, Ultima Underworld and other non-Ultima games). Unfortunately BG does not have the add-on FoV included. From the CD just copy the folder Ultima7 to C:\Games\ULTIMA7.
• Ultima Collection
  From the CD just copy the folders Serpent and Ultima7 to C:\Games\ULTIMA7 and C:\Games\SERPENT. Don't bother with the Ultima Collection installer. Both games come with the add-ons included.
• The Complete Ultima VII (EA presents CD-ROM Classics)
  On this CD-ROM the games are zipped in Serpent.zip and Ultima7.zip. Unzip serpent.zip to C:\Games\SERPENT and unzip Ultima7.zip to C:\Games\ULTIMA7.
  Both games come with the add-ons included.

On Linux systems and macOS, you might run into a permissions problem. You need to set group permissions to read and write.
On macOS select both game folders in Finder, bring up info, go to Ownership and Permissions, expand details, change Access under Group from read only to read and write, then click Apply.

DOSBox is a program that emulates the old Dos and should run on any operating system that Exult runs on (and more). So this is perfect for users that don't run Windows.

To install Ultima VII with DOSBox, download and install DOSBox from https://dosbox.com. Make a new folder in your C:\ drive called Games.
Insert Disk 1 in your floppy drive, start DOSBox and enter the following:
mount c C:\Games
mount a a:\ -t floppy
a:
install

These days you are less likely to have floppy drive in your computer. But if you created images of your game floppies you can use these to install the games.
Follow the above instructions until you are asked to insert Disk 1. Instead enter these commands:
mount c C:\Games
imgmount a /path/bg-1.img /path/bg-2.img /path/bg-3.img /path/bg-4.img /path/bg-5.img /path/bg-6.img -t floppy
a:
install
Replace path with the path to your image files. In case of installing Serpent Isle enter this for the imgmount command:
imgmount a /path/si-1.img /path/si-2.img /path/si-3.img /path/si-4.img /path/si-5.img /path/si-6.img /path/si-7.img -t floppy When you are asked to change disk use the keyboard shortcut 'Ctrl+F4', which will use the next image.

The installer will start and ask you on which drive to install Ultima VII to. Choose c and when it asks for the target folder choose C:\ULTIMA7 for BG or C:\SERPENT for SI (in both cases you can just hit enter). Next you choose the sound card, but as this is not relevant for Exult, choose 'No sound card'. Confirm the settings with 'Y' and the installer begins to make noise in your floppy drive...
When asked to insert the next floppy disk and hit any key (or ESC to cancel). When the installation is done, the installer will complain, that 'something has put your system in protected mode...', ignore that and press any key to continue. Again it will complain that 'your current system configuration is not compatible with Ultima VII!...', ignore that as well and press 'N' (you don't need a boot disk for playing U7 with Exult). Finally hit any key to finish your installation. Close DOSBox. The game can now be found at C:\Games\ULTIMA7 or C:\Games\SERPENT.

We assume you followed the above guide on how to 11.4. Installing the floppy disks of BG/SI using DOSBox, so you should have BG/SI installed to C:\Games\ULTIMA7 or C:\Games\SERPENT.

Insert the add-on floppy disk in your floppy drive, start DOSBox and type the following:
mount c C:\Games
mount a a:\ -t floppy
a:
install

Similar to the previous guide you can use a floppy image to install the add-ons. Just use
imgmount a /path/fov.img -t floppy instead of mount a a:\ -t floppy.

Now you have to choose the drive where you installed the game to. Choose C and the installer will find the correct folder of BG/SI and will ask for your confirmation to proceed with the installation. Hit 'Y' and the installation will begin, at the end press any key to finish the installation and to close the installer. Close DOSBox.
FoV is then installed in C:\Games\ULTIMA7. SS is then installed in C:\Games\SERPENT.

Unfortunately you might run into a DOSBox bug when installing the add-ons in DOSBox. You might have to rename the file C:\Games\ULTIMA7\static\usecode.new to just C:\Games\ULTIMA7\static\usecode (or C:\Games\SERPENT\static\usecode.new to just C:\Games\SERPENT\static\usecode), overwriting the existing usecode file.

If for some reason you can't use the above guides to install BG, there is also a way to install BG without using the installer.

Copy all the files of your floppy files in one folder (e.g. C:\Exult\BGfloppy). If you are using Windows open a command prompt (run -> cmd.exe) and change into this folder (enter cd C:\Exult\BGfloppy). There enter the following lines and press return after each line:
copy /b u7disk00 + U7disk01 + u7disk02 u7disk00.zip
copy /b u7disk10 + u7disk11 + u7disk12 u7disk10.zip
copy /b u7disk20 + u7disk21 u7disk20.zip
If you are on a Linux system you use the cat command instead of copy /b, for example
cat u7disk00 U7disk01 u7disk02 >u7disk00.zip

In that folder you can now find 3 zip files. You can now use winzip/winrar/any unarchiver to extract the files (keep folder structure in the settings) to C:\Games\ULTIMA7. Also copy the files INSTALL.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, INSTALL.PRM to C:\Games\ULTIMA7. Or enter the following lines on the command prompt:
pkunzip -d -e u7disk00.zip C:\Games\ULTIMA7
pkunzip -d -e u7disk10.zip C:\Games\ULTIMA7
pkunzip -d -e u7disk20.zip C:\Games\ULTIMA7
copy *.exe C:\Games\ULTIMA7
copy install.prm C:\Games\ULTIMA7
Installation is now finished and you can delete the folder C:\Exult\BGfloppy.

Unfortunately the Add-on installer makes use of unknown file archives so there are no instructions to manually install it.

If for some reason you can't use the above guides to install SI, there is also a way to install SI without using the installer.

Copy all the files of your floppy files in one folder (e.g. C:\Exult\SIfloppy). If you are using Windows open a command prompt (run -> cmd.exe) and change into this folder (enter cd C:\Exult\SIfloppy). There enter the following lines and press return after each line:
copy sidisk00 sidisk00.zip
copy /b sidisk10 + sidisk11 + sidisk12 + sidisk13 sidisk10.zip
copy /b sidisk20 + sidisk21 + sidisk22 sidisk20.zip
copy /b sidisk30 + sidisk31 sidisk30.zip
copy sidisk40 sidisk40.zip
If you are on a Linux system you use the cat command instead of copy /b, for example
cat sidisk10 sidisk11 sidisk12 sidisk13 >sidisk10.zip

In that folder you can now find 5 zip files. You can now use winzip/winrar/any unarchiver to extract the files (keep folder structure in the settings) to C:\Games\SERPENT. Also copy the files Also copy the files 386STEP.EXE, INSTALL.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, INSTALL.PRM to C:\Games\SERPENT.
Or enter the following lines on the command prompt:
pkunzip -d -e sidisk00.zip C:\Games\SERPENT
pkunzip -d -e sidisk10.zip C:\Games\SERPENT
pkunzip -d -e sidisk20.zip C:\Games\SERPENT
pkunzip -d -e sidisk30.zip C:\Games\SERPENT
pkunzip -d -e sidisk40.zip C:\Games\SERPENT
copy *.exe C:\Games\SERPENT
copy install.prm C:\Games\SERPENT
Installation is now finished and you can delete the folder C:\Exult\SIfloppy.

Unfortunately the Add-on installer makes use of unknown file archives so there are no instructions to manually install it.

Modern Windows versions do not actually run 16bit DOS programs anymore, not to mention that modern computers are not likely to have a floppy drive. So this guide only remains for completeness' sake.

Insert Disk 1 in your floppy drive, open explorer and click on the floppy drive (a:\). Double click on install.exe, choose the drive you want to install to, and then in which folder you want BG/SI to be installed to (Let's assume C:\Games\ULTIMA for BG and C:\Games\SERPENT for SI).
Next you choose the sound card, but as this is not relevant for Exult, choose 'No sound card'. Confirm the settings with 'Y' and the installer begins to make noise in your floppy drive...
When asked to insert the next floppy disk and hit any key (or ESC to cancel). When the installation is done, the installer will complain, that 'something has put your system in protected mode...', ignore that and press any key to continue. Again it will complain that 'your current system configuration is not compatible with Ultima VII!...', ignore that as well and press 'N' (you don't need a boot disk for playing U7 with Exult). Finally hit any key to finish your installation. The installer will finish and the game can be found at C:\Games\ULTIMA7 or C:\Games\SERPENT.

When installing Ultima VII from floppy disks in Windows you can run into some problems.
The installer assumes that all drives in the computer are hard drives and can't cope with drives like CD-ROMs and card readers. It tries to read how much free space the drives have and if there is no media in the drive it gives an error and you can't proceed.
To solve this you have to insert a CD-ROM in your CD/DVD-ROM drive. If you have a multi card reader disconnect that if possible (or insert cards in all the slots if you have them). If disconnecting the reader is not possible you have to use one of the other ways to install the floppy versions or use a different computer.

Unfortunately it is possible that one of the floppies is no longer working. In that case the installation will fail and the installer might suggest that there is a device error and asks you to reboot your computer. Don't follow that advice a reboot is not likely to fix it.

Modern Windows versions do not actually run 16bit DOS programs anymore, not to mention that modern computers are not likely to have a floppy drive. So this guide only remains for completeness' sake.

Insert the add-on floppy disk in your floppy drive, open explorer and click on the floppy drive (a:\). Double click on install.exe, and then you first have to choose the drive where you installed the game (BG/SI) to. Default is C:\, the installer will then search in which folder BG/SI has been installed to. This is unfortunately not working on every computer, for some unknown reason the installer might crash at this point.
If it doesn't crash the installer will write where it found BG/SI installed to and will ask whether you want to proceed with the installation. Hit 'Y' and the installation will begin, at the end press any key to finish the installation and to close the installer.

When installing the add-ons you might run into the same problems as when installing the full games (see above 11.8.).

For the ease of use the following guides mostly ask you to use all files from the original. But Exult only really needs the STATIC folder of the games. So if you want to trim down your installed files, you can delete all files except that folder and its content.

• The people of SourceForge without whom this project would not be where it is today.
• The paper by Gary Thompson on the structure of the U7 data files was crucial to the early development of Exult.
• Work by Maxim Shatskih, Jakob Schonberg, and Wouter Dijkslag made the 'usecode' interpreter possible.
• Olivier Marcoux's technical document was also crucial in understanding some data files.
• Thanks also go to the person who wrote u7items.txt and the contributor of the 'avatar.ttf' font.
• Aurelien Marchand (Artaxerxes) for his extensive guide for the Zaurus.

You can contact the Exult team through our Github Discussions page.

• 3.4. Audio Options settings changed and Volume Mixer was added.
• 3.5. Volume Mixer macOS no longer uses the Console.app to show stdout.
• 4.1. Music explain different looping settings.
• 8.7. Problems with case sensitive file systems (e.g. Linux) added note about possible problems with mods.
• 10.1. Settings in exult.cfg added volume settings.

• Replaced *nix with Linux as people are mostly looking for Linux and might get confused.
• Removed documentation for unsupported Windows versions.
• Highlighted more parts of the documentation.
• 2.6. Error Log macOS no longer uses the Console.app to show stdout.
• 4.2. MIDI Music FMOpl is the default MIDI driver.

• 2.5. Command line options Added the shortcut to starting the Serpent Isle beta.
• 4.13. Linux and Audio Alsa port magic by Dragon Baroque.
• 6.2. Keyboard commands More custom keybinding instructions.
• 9.6. iOS automatic saves Explained why we have automatic saving on iOS.
• 11. Installing the original Ultima VII games for use with Exult Resorted this since installing from floppies is very outdated.
• 11.10. Exult only needs one folder Added a note that we only need the STATIC folder.
• 11.1. Using GOG.com's installer for Windows added innoextract instructions for *nix.

• 2.5. Command line options Add t'--verify-files'.
• 3. Exult Setup and Game Menu Moved this section closer to the top.
• 4.2. MIDI Music Mentioned that UnixSeqDevice is shortened in the Audio options menu.
• 5.4. Scaler reordered and deleted OpenGl scaler.
• 9.3. Installing the games on your iPhone/iPad Don't use the Files app on iOS to transfer the games.
• 10. The exult.cfg file Moved the in depth explanation of the cfg file to the bottom.

• 10.1. Settings in exult.cfg cfg setting to disable the extended SI intro.
• 4.8. All-in-One Audio Data pack and installers The Windows installer will optionally install the audio pack.
• 4.11. Speech speech with subtitles is possible.
• 3. Exult Setup and Game Menu Following the reorder of the options, this needed an overhaul.
• 9.3. Installing the games on your iPhone/iPad Don't use the Files app on iOS to transfer the games.

• Changed links to our homepage to exult.info, SDL to SDL2, Mac OS X to macOS.
• Removed references to Windows CE/Pocket PC.
• Many little changes to wordings and indentation.
• 10.1. Settings in exult.cfg Added options for extended SI intro and Speech with subtitles.
• 6.1. Movement iOS movement added.
• 1.1. is new and needed a screenshot as well.
• 9.3. Installing the games on your iPhone/iPad iTunes file sharing is done differently on newer macOS systems.
• 11.2. Using GOG.com's installer for macOS again adapted to GOG changes of the Mac installer.

For older changes of the documentation, please see its git history.