Goochman

Magic Carpet was so good when it was released that I had to finish it as a bucket list item. My 486-33 at the time and Trident VGA card couldnt keep up with the game. Turns out the game is somewhat locked in its max performance as I ran it under DOSBox on my current rig and the last level was like .01 frames per second even when I tried to speed it up. Speaking of the last level, I dont see how anyone finished that back on a 486. I think there were 6 dragons, swarms of bees and mana bubbles flying all over the place. I believe it took me over 2 or 3 hours to finally win the damn game.........but it was worth it

Not sure why they put the thrust there when it appears there is a button below the fire button they've couldve used instead making it closer to the original.

Well played - I got my butt kicked so bad on the early rounds that I knew I wouldnt come close. I wish I knew of the game back when the ST was my primary computer.

I decided to see if I could take this a bit further and create some more new maps. Attached is a player disk ready to go with 4 alternate maps. If anyone would want a start from 0 player disk of these maps let me know. Ult2_5Maps.zip

Excellent well done conversion - fun to play and just as hard as I remember the arcade version!

Yeah, U3 had alot of backend improvements which were needed. The Towers and Dungeons in U2 dont serve much of a purpose when they did in U1. U3 cleaned up the framework for the future.

Here are my notes. Attached are 2 text files containing the original world maps and the 2 modified maps I did. I used Notepad++ and HxD to make the changes to the .atr file. If someone knows of an editor that can easily be modified to display certain patterns as different colors then it would be easier to make some cool complex maps. 0790 00-0F - Player Name 07A0 05 - STR 07A0 06 -AGL 07A0 07 - STA 07A0 08 - CHR 07A0 09 -WIS 07A0 0A - INT 07A0 0B/0C - Hit Points 07A0 0D/0E - Food 07B0 00/01 - Experience 07B0 02/03 - Gold 07B0 0B - Current Weapon 07B0 0C - Current Armour 07B0 0E - Torches 07B0 0F - Keys 07C0 00 - Tools? Weapons Inv 07D0 00 - Hands 07D0 01 - Dagger 07D0 02 - Mace 07D0 03 - Axe 07D0 04 - Bow 07D0 05 - Sword 07D0 06 - Great Sword 07D0 07 - Light Sword 07D0 08 - Phaser 07D0 09 - Quick Sword Armour Inv 07F0 00 - Skin 07F0 01 - Cloth 07F0 02 - Leather 07F0 03 - Chain 07F0 04 - Plate 07F0 05 - Reflect 07F0 06 - Power Inventory 0830 00 - Ring 0830 01 - Wands 0830 02 - Staffs 0830 03 - Boots 0830 04 - Cloaks 0830 05 - Helms 0830 06 - Gems 0830 07 - Ankhs 0830 08 - Red Gems 0830 09 - Skull Keys 0830 0A - Green Gems 0830 0B - Brass Buttons 0830 0C - Blue Tassles 0830 0D - Strange Coins 0830 0E - Green Idols 0830 0F - Try-Lithiums A - C1 B - C2 C - C3 D - C4 E - C5 F - C6 G - C7 H - C8 I - C9 J - CA K - CB L - CC M - CD N - CE O - CF P - D0 Q - D1 R - D2 S - D3 T - D4 U - D5 V - D6 W - D7 X - D8 Y - D9 Z - DA 00 - 03 - Water 04 - 07 - Swamp 08 - 0A - Grass 0C - 0F - Forest 10 - 13 - Mountain 14 - 17 - Village 18 - 1B - Towne 1C - 1F - Tower 20 - 23 - Castle 24 - 27 - Cave Entrance 28 - 2B - Sign 2C - 2F - Orc 30 - 33 - Sea Serpent 34 - 37 - Daemon 38 - 3B - Devil 3C - 3F - Balron 40 - 43 - Minax 45 - 47 - Horse 48 - 4B - Ship 4C - 4F - Plane 50 - 53 - Rocket 54 - 57 - Armour 58 - 5B - Weapon 5C - 5F - Force Field 60 - 63 - Guard 64 - 67 - Jester 68 - 6B - Merchant 6C - 6F - Guard? 70 - 73 - Brick Walkway 74 - 77 - Black square 78 - 7B - White wall square 7C - 7F - Black square white outline 80 - 83 - Letter A 84 - 87 - Letter B 88 - 8B - Letter C 8C - 8F - Letter D 90 - 93 - Letter E 94 - 97 - Letter F 98 - 9B - Letter G 9C - 9F - Letter H A0 - Locked Door A1 - A3 - Letter I A4 - A7 - Letter J A8 - AB - Letter K AC - AF - Letter L B0 - B3 - Letter M B4 - B7 - Letter N B8 - BB - Letter O BC - BF - Letter P C0 - C3 - Moongate C4 - C7 - Letter R C8 - CB - Letter S CC - CF - Letter T D0 - D3 - Letter U D4 - D7 - Letter V D8 - DB - Letter W DC - DF - Letter X E0 - E3 - Letter Y E4 - E7 - Letter Z E8 - EB - Black Square brown side line EC - EF - Black Square blue side line F0 - F3 - Fighter F4 - F7 - Cleric F8 - FB - Wizard FC - FF - Thief Locations on ATR Present Time 1990 AD 4A90 - 5A80 Legend Time A810 - B800 9,000,000,000 BC 2A90 -3A80 1423 BC 3A90 - 4A80 Future Time 6A90 - 7A80 Ult2NewMap.zip

After figuring out the maps in U3 I decided to look at U2. The more I found out the more it seems we got ripped with U3 - U2 had alot more land mass vs 3 but I digress. U2 map editing provided some bonuses that U3 didnt - Villages, Towns and Castles could be placed anywhere in U2 - they are map based and not position based. A few of the other items are placeable as well. Anyhow - I threw together a modified Ultima 2 character disk with a few familiar maps - see if you can find them The player is pretty stacked with everything so exploring is the name of the game. U2_5 Images Disk.zip

Not much of a mystery but something I found in dissecting Ultima 2 - there is a character tile that I dont believe is used except in the Museum. I believe this tile was used in U3 but not in U2. I highlighted in yellow the tile in question.

The first 3 tracks it doesnt look that bad for a game that came out when it did - he is pretty good at keeping the car under control. The Hot Wheels track exposes all the problems with the physics of this game. That should be the best track to play, but it isnt as you have to drive slower to keep from bouncing all over the place. Todd's world looks like a test area which was decided to not include as core due to no ability to control the car and see what the heck is going on. Fix the gravity aspects of CD and its not a bad game/idea.

Shrine map BE90 - D000

One other thing I noticed is it appears the Ultima Program disks are different. Not sure if there was a bad crack or a change in the Scenario disk at some point, but if I use a different program disk with my characters the system crashes or has a problem when the whirlpool takes a ship down. Your mileage may vary but thats why I included the program disk in the attached zip

Well Im prob the only one paying attention to this thread but figured Id bring it to a close. I figured out how to create a new map. Im pretty sure I can alter the towns and such, I just dont know where they start on the disk just yet. Ive attached a zip file which includes the U3 Program disk and an altered 'player' disk with a new map. There is a newly formed party so you can just Journey on in if you like. Its a new party so nothing advanced. If you want to play around with your own maps or modifications Ive attached a txt file I used to create the new map. I recommend Notepad++ to make changes. Once you have made your changes all you need to do is copy and "paste write" starting at D010 in HxD. Im using 16-ANSI-hex as my view parameters up top. Here is a list of the elements should you want to place them anywhere - each element is repeated 4 times. My best guess is to cover each land tile (grass, forest, dark forest and water) If you try the new map let me know what you think. 00 - 03 - Water 04 - 06 - Grass 08 - 0A - Forest 0C - 0F - Dark Forest 10 - 13 - Mountain 14 - 17 - Cave Entrance 18 - 1B - Towne 1C - 1F - Castle 20 - 23 - Brick Walkway 24 - 27 - Chests 24 - Chest on Brick, 25 - Chest on Grass, 26 Chest on Forest, 27 Chest on Dark Forest 28 - 2B - Horses 2C - 2F - Ships+++ 30 - 33 - Whirlpool 34 - 37 - Sea Serpent 38 - 3B - Man-O-War 3C - 3F - Pirate Ships 40 - 44 - Merchant 45 - 48 - Jester 49 - 4C - Guard 4D - 50 - Lord British 51 - 54 - Fighter 55 - 58 - Cleric 59 - 5C - Wizard 5D - 60 - Thief 61 - 64 - Orc 65 - 68 - Skeleton 69 - 6C - Titans 6D - 60 - Daemons 71 - 74 - Zorns 75 - 78 - Dragons 79 - 7B - Devil 7C - 7F - Exodus 80 - 83 - Force Field 84 - 87 - Lava 88 - 8B - Moongates 8C - 8F - White Wall 90 - 93 - Dark Black Wall 94 - 97 - Black wall white outline 98 - 9B - Letter A 9C - 9F - Letter B A0 - A3 - Letter C A4 - A7 - Letter D A8 - AB - Letter E AC - AF - Letter F B0 - B3 - Letter G B4 - B7 - Letter H B8 - BB - Letter I BC - BF - Letter U C0 - C3 - Letter Y C4 - C7 - Letter L C8 - CB - Letter M CC - CF - Letter N D0 - D3 - Letter O D4 - D7 - Letter P D8 - DB - Letter W DC - DF - Letter R E0 - E3 - Letter S E4 - E7 - Letter T E8 - EB - Snake Rear EC - EF - Snake Head F0 - F3 - Blue Magic F4 - F7 - Red Magic F8 - FB - Shrine FC - FF - Ranger (Player) U3New.zip

Well I started to go through the game and figure out whats where - this is what I gathered so far using HxD and the player .ATR from Atarimania - your mileage may vary but for the most part its possible to change the world but it would take a much deeper analysis to move castles and towns around - the tiles are not unique so one could assume x/y coordinate determines which element you are on. Same for Moongates. Havent figured out where inventory is stored or other game elements, but I can pretty much alter the land to my hearts desire Hopefully this helps anyone looking to poke around the game. Letters/#s: A - C1 B - C2 C - C3 D - C4 E - C5 F - C6 G - C7 H - C8 I - C9 J - CA K - CB L - CC M - CD N - CE O - CF P - D0 Q - D1 R - D2 S - D3 T - D4 U - D5 V - D6 W - D7 X - D8 Y - D9 Z - DA > - BE 0 - B0 1 - B1 2 - B2 9 - B9 Character Entries - Templates Entry #1 MER Name - Offset 00011010 starting at 00 Sex - 00011020 08 - C6 Female, CD Male Race - 00011020 00 Ranger? Type - 00011020 01 - C7 Elf STR - 00011020 02 DEX - 00011020 03 INT - 00011020 04 WIS - 00011020 05 Food - 00011530 00/01 - Combined total food Entry #2 Name - Offset 00011050 starting at 00 FHP Sex - 00011060 08 - C6 Female, CD Male Race - 00011060 00 Ranger? Type - 00011060 01 - C7 Elf STR - 00011060 02 DEX - 00011060 03 INT - 00011060 04 WIS - 00011060 05 Entry #3 Name - Offset 00011090 starting at 00 MBC Sex - 000110A0 08 - C6 Female, CD Male Race - 000110A0 00 Ranger? Type - 000110A0 01 - C7 Elf STR - 000110A0 02 DEX - 000110A0 03 INT - 000110A0 04 WIS - 000110A0 05 Entry #4 Name - Offset 000110D0 starting at 00 FFI Sex - 000110E0 08 - C6 Female, CD Male Race - 000110E0 00 Ranger? Type - 000110E0 01 - C7 Elf STR - 000110E0 02 DEX - 000110E0 03 INT - 000110E0 04 WIS - 000110E0 05 Formed Party Character Entries Entry #1 MER Name - Offset 00011510 starting at 00 Torches - 00011510 0F STR - 00011520 02 DEX - 00011520 03 INT - 00011520 04 WIS - 00011520 05 Type - 00011520 06 - C5 Elf Race - 00011520 07 Sex - 00011520 08 - C6 Female, CD Male 00011520 09 ?? - Hit Points - 00011520 0A/0B Max Hit Points - 00011520 0C/0D Experience - 00011520 0E/0F Food - 00011530 00/01 - Combined total food 00011530 02 - ? Gold - 00011530 03/04 - Combined total gold Gems - 00011530 05 Keys - 00011530 06 Powder - 00011530 07 Armour - 00011530 08 - 00 Skin, 01 Cloth, 02 Leather, 07 Exotic Weapon - 00011540 00 - 00 Hands, 01 Dagger,02 Mace, 05 Bow Entry #2 FHP Name - Offset 00011550 starting at 00 Torches - 00011550 0F STR - 00011560 02 DEX - 00011560 03 INT - 00011560 04 WIS - 00011560 05 Type - 00011560 06 - C5 Elf Race - 00011560 07 Sex - 00011560 08 - C6 Female, CD Male 00011560 09 ?? - Hit Points - 00011560 0A/0B Max Hit Points - 00011560 0C/0D Experience - 00011560 0E/0F Food - 00011570 00/01 - Combined total food 00011570 02 - ? Gold - 00011570 03/04 - Combined total gold Gems - 00011570 05 Keys - 00011570 06 Powder - 00011570 07 Armour - 00011570 08 - 00 Skin, 01 Cloth, 02 Leather, 07 Exotic Weapon - 00011570 00 - 00 Hands, 01 Dagger,02 Mace, 05 Bow Entry #3 MBC Name - Offset 00011590 starting at 00 Torches - 00011590 0F STR - 000115A0 02 DEX - 000115A0 03 INT - 000115A0 04 WIS - 000115A0 05 Type - 000115A0 06 - C5 Elf Race - 000115A0 07 Sex - 000115A0 08 - C6 Female, CD Male 000115A0 09 ?? - Hit Points - 000115A0 0A/0B Max Hit Points - 000115A0 0C/0D Experience - 000115A0 0E/0F Food - 000115B0 00/01 - Combined total food 000115B0 02 - ? Gold - 000115B0 03/04 - Combined total gold Gems - 000115B0 05 Keys - 000115B0 06 Powder - 000115B0 07 Armour - 000115B0 08 - 00 Skin, 01 Cloth, 02 Leather, 07 Exotic Weapon - 000115B0 00 - 00 Hands, 01 Dagger,02 Mace, 05 Bow Entry #4 FFI Name - Offset 000115D0 starting at 00 Torches - 000115D0 0F STR - 000115E0 02 DEX - 000115E0 03 INT - 000115E0 04 WIS - 000115E0 05 Type - 000115E0 06 - C5 Elf Race - 000115E0 07 Sex - 000115E0 08 - C6 Female, CD Male 000115E0 09 ?? - Hit Points - 000115E0 0A/0B Max Hit Points - 000115E0 0C/0D Experience - 000115E0 0E/0F Food - 000115F0 00/01 - Combined total food 000115F0 02 - ? Gold - 000115F0 03/04 - Combined total gold Gems - 000115F0 05 Keys - 000115F0 06 Powder - 000115F0 07 Armour - 000115F0 08 - 00 Skin, 01 Cloth, 02 Leather, 07 Exotic Weapon - 000115F0 00 - 00 Hands, 01 Dagger,02 Mace, 05 Bow Tile Definitions 00 - Water 04 - Grass 08 - Forest 0C - Dark Forest 10 - Mountain 2C - Ship 25 - Chest on Grass 26 - Chest on Forest 28 - Horse on grass 30 - Whirlpool 38 - Man-o-War 5C - Thieves 60 - Orc 64 - Skeleton 68 - Titans 88 - MoonGate Start of land mass on disk 0000D010 00 - This is upper LH corner of map in Peer view 0000D040 0F - End of first line of tiles on map 0000D050 00 - Start of second line of tiles on map 0000E000 0F - Last element for Sosaria bottom RH tile 0000D4B0 0D - 1C - LB Castle 0000DD50 0A - 1C - Exodus Castle 0000D4F0 0E - 18 - Britain 0000DEB0 0F - 18 - Montor West 0000DEC0 01 - 18 - Montor East 0000D7E0 02 - 18 Devil Guard 0000DED0 - Snake location around here

I always used the DoubleClick formatter for all my density/PC compat needs. Worked perfectly back in the day.

I used an HP Inkjet 500 (I think that was the name) - it had an Epson compat cartridge I plugged into it and the ST printed wonderfully on it - B&W though.

Not sure if others have a suggestion here, but one thing I dont see in the hex view is any text. There is alot of dialog in U3 - anyhow have a thought on how I can find that?

I dont think the chests thing works on the Atari version - it literally needs to write hex 25/26 throughout all the 04 sectors! Now that I have a basic understanding, Im wondering what else I could possibly do with the disk.............maybe create a new land mass perhaps?

Thanks to HxD I was able to fix my problem. The file compare was invaluable in debugging what went where. 04 is grass, 2C is a ship, 08 is a forest tile, 25 chest, 26 chest on forest, 00 water I still have an issue with the game which Im not sure how to fix. When the whirlpool captures one of my ships when Im not occupying it, it performs the "come back from whirlpool" process and puts me in a ship just below Britian on the land mass. I think thats how my water problem started. Anyhow, the game logic has gone haywire somewhere and that I cant debug Fixed landmass!

I would say the 8bit is missing a good Wizardy or Bards Tale type game. Just my $0.02

I filled the entire land mass with chests so I didnt have to worry about random monster encounters

My grass turned to water - making access to LB's castle a bit tricky! I dont think this is an easy find unless someone knows the layout of the U3 disk. Ive found a few clues but would be easier if I could find a disk editor tha runs in Windows and can look at ATR files. This site talks about the hex values of items: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Ultima_III_Internal_Formats#SOSARIA.ULT

Im not sure how this started but my U3 character disk has developed a problem with some of the land tiles. Ive attached 2 pictures to show the issue. Ive got water where there should be land around LBs castle and the town. Anyone know of a way to fix the tiles through disk editing? Part of the reason I have this problem is it seems whenever the whirlpool downs an empty ship it thinks its occupied and drops a ship around the castle creating a water space. Not sure how to fix that, but if I could chang ethe land that would help. Sorry for all the chests, those are all 'grass' tiles.

This game isnt that hard to get the max 1080 on it. It just requires *patience* - thats the hard part. You just want to fly around and rip up the dots, but thats how you get crunched. After about 10-15 games you can get a pretty good pattern that once executed will give you that perfect game. Maybe play some "Frankie goes to Hollywood Relax" to help set your pace Patience is the key

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