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[Supermot]

I can get it to run PERFECTLY with full sound, mouse, and smoothness, ONCE, but the next time I run it says that I have an incomplete installation and that I should try installing again.
The first time I run it, it does this "decompressing shapes file" which it claims it only has to do once, yet when you run it a second time (after it runs fine) it tries to decompress them again and won't work. Any ideas?

BTW VDMsound had no success with this game whatsoever.

This is a problem mentioned here earlier already. The first time after you installed Ultima 8, there's this decompressing. The problem is - it won't work in Windows XP or 98 (the game doesn't even start), nor in DosBox (the decompressing can't be finished and the game becames corrupt), nor VDMSound (same as running in Windows).
You have to do this decompressing by starting the PC in Dos by quitting Windows 98, or a boot-disc, but not simply the boot-disc, add the himem.sys and emm386.exe ram for much conventional and expanded / extended memory and some other extras, else the game won't start either. Same applies to starting PC in Dos after quitting Windows 98. There's no other way to decompress the shapes file correctly after installing the game than to start the PC in Dos-mode by quitting Windows 98 or 95, with a boot-disc or even in native Dos.

[efthimios]

wow, I had no idea about this problem with Pagan. I still have the CD somewhere. So, would it work if somebody would do that and the zip the folder after the decompression and send it to someone who doesnt have access to DOS?

That's how Ultima 8 was uploaded earlier to this site - with the decompression finished. Yes, it would work to send it finished as a ZIP, but you'll be told on this site that this is illegal.

[swiss]

There is an Ultima 8 engine for Windows XP (and other platforms) available. It is called ... ummm ... *googles* ... Pentagram.
This is the download link.

It work pretty well. It just uses the graphics and music and stuff from your Ultima 8 and puts it all together in a Windows XP compatible engine.

[Supermot]

I'll try using a boot disk and see how it goes, thanks for the help, I think I'll enjoy spending more time on this site!

Swiss, it seems that Pentagram can't be downloaded at the moment for whatever reason.

[Supermot]

Ok I tried the boot disk that you can download from this site and it wouldn't run, instead giving me "abnormal program termination".

[swiss]

do u have icq? connect me and I can send it to you. It seems as if they removed the files from sourceforge ... hmm ...

... and PLEASE do not double post. Use the edit button instead.

[Supermot]

Sorry I don't have ICQ, but they say that pentagram isn't fully operational anyway, so I guess I'll keep mucking around with a bootdisk, dosbox, and vdmsound until it works.

I can send you a program with which you can create a Windows 98SE bootdisk. And if you have some knowledge there, you could also modify the contents of the start disk like autoexec.bat, config.sys and add some useful Dos programs like Emm396 which provides expanded memory and frees more of the conventional 650kb memory (needed much for older games), and then burn it for a bootable CD. Of course, I need your email to send it.