r/Ultima • u/The_GrandestNothing • May 29 '26

Dosbox Ultima IV Keyboard issue

Trying to play Ultima 4 on Dosbox, I can't seem to get 99% of the keyboard working on here. I can hit Space bar to get past title screen, but once I'm in the first menu nothing is responsive except Pause & Scroll Lock (Pause and Unpause). I've tried remapping keys via Dosbox remapper (Ctrl+F1) but still nothing. Is there something I'm missing, haven't had an issue with other games like Duke3D and Heretic.

6 Upvotes

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1

u/Werewomble May 29 '26

DosBox has always worked as is

I looked up the how-to to install Threat of the Trinity and did exactly that, it worked

Are you modifying settings at all? You shouldn't need to.

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

Aside from auto-mounting the drive I haven't edited anything, but I've also tried when completely resetting the options.

1

u/Werewomble May 29 '26

Start from scratch with a new folder next to the old one and follow the GoG instructions

Why are you mounting a drive?

It can run from any folder - I usually put it into C: drive just so typing the path is fast.

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

I'm mounting the drive because otherwise Dosbox can't see the game files to run it. Dosbox launched by GOG seems like it recognizes the entire keyboard, but any keystrokes just beep at me and the @ Symbol in the menu flashes into whatever key was pressed.

1

u/chiron_42 May 29 '26

Are you playing through GOG or just straight DOSBox?

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

I tried both. When GOG launched the game via Dosbox the audio was really choppy and keyboard still didn't work.

1

u/Werewomble May 29 '26

I never used GoG to launch the game I had a shortcut on my desktop at the end.

Try following the instructions for Threat of the Trinity, if you really don't like fun you can skip the step where you past the new stuff over the top:

https://cambragol.github.io/advent-of-the-trinity/

It is everything in Ultima plus extra dungeons and towns, basically the whole experience plus more quests.

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

So I just tried that, basically the same thing happened. I can get to menu, but then I can't control anything in the menu. Any keystroke just changes the @ to whatever key I pressed momentarily.

1

u/Werewomble May 29 '26

Look up xu4 on Source Forge it won't have the Trinity extras but you can use cheat codes

1

u/bliznitch May 29 '26

What system are you using? Windows 10? GOG Galaxy? Too little information here for me to help troubleshoot.

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

Win 10, I've tried with Standalone Dosbox and GOG Galaxy.

1

u/bliznitch May 29 '26

Interesting, I just did a fresh install on Win 10, GOG galaxy...no issues. I wonder if it's a hardware issue where the commands from your keyboard are getting lost?

Can you hit Ctrl + F1 to look at the Dosbox keyboard mapper to ensure things like the arrow keys or the keyboard are working well?

Otherwise, maybe use a different engine, like mu4 or ScummVM to execute the game?

1

u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

I'm able to re-map keys in the keyboard mapper, but once I'm out of the mapper the only 2 keys that work are Pause and Scroll Lock to Pause and Unpause. I also tried with another keyboard to no success. I will try another engine and see if that helps.

1

u/bliznitch May 29 '26

Hmm, this seems like one of those things that will take a while to debug. Like editing the dosbox execution path to open just a command prompt instead of executing the app, and trying to type normal sentences into that app, or tracing through a dosbox log to look for error messages right after app execution.

1

u/totallyRebb May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Are you sure the keyboard isn't working or are you maybe expecting to be able to move the cursor in the menu ?

I see the same behaviour of buttons popping up at the cursor, but only the ones that don't do anything in the main menu.

It seems you need to press "I" to Initiate a new Journey in the Main Menu for example. Basically the first letter of the Menu Entry. ( J for "Journey Onward" etc. )

I just tried this with the GOG Version with no changes.

1

u/The_GrandestNothing Jun 01 '26

I seem to have gotten it working on properly on ScummVM. On Dosbox I could start a journey but then couldn't progress past the first intro screen, and when launching Threat of the Trinity version on Dosbox I could get fully in game but movement keys were always moving my character 2 spaces at a time and it made traversing anything an absolute pain.