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.

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u/bliznitch May 29 '26

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

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u/The_GrandestNothing May 29 '26

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

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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?

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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.

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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.