                          ReadMe file for U7WIN9X
                               August 2000
                             Gilbert Rouqui
                        <e-mail address to be filled> 
                          <dragon name to be filled>

                               Version 1.10

Objective
---------

U7WIN9X allows Ultima 7 Part One (The Black Game / Forge of Virtue) and
Ultima 7 Part Two (Serpent Isle / Silver Seed) to be played on a regular
Windows 95, 98, and hopefully ME PC, without the need for a DOS reboot or
a MSDOS boot diskette.


Installation of Ultima 7 (if not done already)
----------------------------------------------

Install Ultima 7 or Ultima 7 Part 2. 

Then check that your game is the most recent patch. 
If installed from a Ultima 7 Complete CD, it probably is. 
Your game may be outdated only if it comes from diskettes. In that case
you may have to download the fixes from Origin.

In any case, U7WIN9X depends on Ultima 7 being :

        Ultima 7 Part One : U7.EXE 689248 bytes, Jun 02 1992
                            U7.EXE contains a version stamp at offset 45D1D
                               Ultima VII - The Black Gate 
                               ver 3.4
                               Created Jun 02 1992 18:50:49

        Ultima 7 Part Two : SI.EXE 754240 bytes, Feb 03 1994
                            SI.EXE contains a version stamp at offset 46403
                               Ultima VII Part II - Serpent Isle
                               Ver 1.02s5 Final
                               Created Jul 14 1993 12:43:24

Please do not try to use U7WIN9X on Ultima 7 if it does not fit this version.

If not already done, use the program INSTALL.EXE to select and configure the
sound and music devices. 
INSTALL will complain about the machine being in protected mode. You may 
disregard this message.
INSTALL will also check your free memory. The DOS amount should be enough
for the game to run. In fact, since U7RUN.COM is bigger than Ultima 7 expects, 
the DOS amount requirement should be increased by about 2 KBytes. Narrow 
memory space fitness may result in the game crashing, especially with Music 
and Sound active.


Installation of U7WIN9X
-----------------------

Unzip U7WIN9X.ZIP in the same directory where U7.EXE or SI.EXE reside.
This will create, apart from this readme file and the technical companion
U7HOW.TXT, two files
        
        U7RUN.COM   Aug 16 2000 1:10
        U7VXD.VXD   Aug 16 2000 1:10

Or copy these two files from wherever you unzipped U7WIN9X.


Game Play
---------

Open a MSDOS Window. 
CD to the directory where U7RUN.COM/U7VXD.VXD and U7.EXE or SI.EXE reside.
Type U7RUN instead of ULTIMA7 or SERPENT.

This is all. 
Enjoy the Game.

Tidbits
-------

To activate the Cheat Mode, type the password after U7RUN as you would have
done after ULTIMA7 or SERPENT. No, I am not giving the passwords here ...

History of Changes
------------------

1.00    Aug 10 2000     Distribution limited to Gaseous Dragon 
                        (Ron Windeyer) for Testing.
1.01    Aug 12 2000     Added checks for the VXD being found and loaded.
                        Added the removal of XMMHAND.DAT at the beginning.
1.02    Aug 13 2000     Fixed intermittent No Voodoo messages.
1.03    Aug 15 2000     Checked the command line parameters for Cheat Mode.
                        Revised the ReadMe and How files.
-------------------
1.10    Aug 16 2000     Revised the ReadMe file. 
                        Gather up for public delivery.

Disclaimers
-----------

This work is not sponsored, funded, or supported in any way by Origin, Inc,
or Electronic Arts, Inc.

This work is the personal result of a personal will to prove that Ultima 7 
could be run under Windows 9X. In particular, it does not engage my company.
It is Copyright Gilbert Rouqui, August 2000.

It cannot be sold, it can only be distributed or redistributed free of charge
and only in full without any file being tampered with, including this ReadMe
file with the Copyright and Disclaimer notices. It cannot be made part of a 
commercial product without my prior written agreement. If any doubt arises
about the authenticity of the distribution, you should fetch the original
ZIP file from Gaseous Dragon Ultima 7 Web page.

Even I do not release it with any garantee that it shall work on any PC
or any Windows 9X, though I promise to look at trouble reports. 
Anyway, should the Ultima 7 run with No Sound but not run with a sound/music
board being selected, there is probably little that I can help you about.
I shall always assume that the memory fitness checks of INSTALL.EXE have 
passed. Otherwise please perform the standard clean up of 
CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT or check on Gaseous Dragon's page about UMBPCI 
or RDOSUMB and similar ways to recover memory below 640k. 
And remember, the DOS Window does not need a DOS mode MOUSE driver,
because Windows provides one.

I promise that I will NOT try to make U7WIN9X run with Ultima 7 distributions
that predate Version 3.4 (Part I) or 1.02s5 Final (Part II). Please
download the patches instead.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   In addition, I cannot garantee in any way that the VXD shall not damage  |
|   your Windows 9X configuration. You should avoid running any application  |
|   while Ultima 7 and the VXD are active. If the game crashes, but Windows  |
|   does not, you should still reboot Windows.                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

There is no hope at the moment for running Ultima 7 :
    o   in a window (as opposed to full screen)
    o   under Win 2000 or Win NT (as opposed to Win 9X)

Finally, I do not condone software piracy. So please refrain from asking
from me or from any person listed here, any file from the game proper.


Known Quirks
------------

Intermittent trouble reported about Ultima 7 with Win 98 SE with an USB mouse,
    Win 98 SE crashed with HIDCLASS taking a page fault, USB Mouse then lost.


Test Platforms so Far (feel free to report new successes)
---------------------------------------------------------

    CPU
    ---
    Intel Pentium :     133 MHz, 166 MHz
    Intel Pentium II :  233 MHz, 400 MHz
    Intel Pentium III : 450 MHz, 550 MHz, 800 MHz, 1130 MHz 
    Intel Celeron :     400 MHz
    AMD K6-2 :          450 MHz

    Memory
    ------
    16 MB to 160 MB

    Sound
    -----
    (ISA) Creative SB 16
    (ISA) Creative AWE 32 PnP
    (PCI) Creative SB 64
    (PCI) Creative PCI 128
    (PCI) Creative SB Live !
    (ISA) Crystal SB Compatible
    (PCI) Aureal SQ2500 Vortex II

    Operating System (I would like to mention the OSR levels)
    ----------------
    Microsoft Windows 95 B (OSR ?)
    Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 SE

    Miscellaneous
    -------------
    USB Mouse (as opposed to Serial or PS/2 Mouse) 

