Play Ultima Underworld on Arch Linux

2 minute read Enclosure Published

Everything you need to play Ultima Underworld II on Arch Linux or Manjaro.

The last time I played my favorite computer game was almost 5 years ago now back in 2015. After recenty creating textfiles.bit I went abandonia.com and was saddened to see they started charging to download Ultima Underworld.

That’s okay though as I found a different site which still had a free copy. In case I don’t find the site again I’ve enclosed the game archive with this post. And the following are instructions on how to play it on Linux.

First, download the DOSBox-X package from the AUR so you have an emulator to run the game. Arch users can simply use Yay to install like so:

% yay -S dosbox-x
Tip: Don’t have access to the AUR? Learn how to install Arch or Manjaro.

With DOSBox-X installed run it from the terminal:

% dosbox-x

Or favorite launcher:

Expand to view launcher

Then extract the game from the 7-Zip archive:

% 7zs x ultimaunderworld_dos_win.7z

And mount and run the game using DOSBox-X:

Using a few simple commands:

Expand to view terminal commands
Z:\>MOUNT C ~/Documents/DOSBox
Z:\>c:
C:\>cd ULTIMA~2
C:\ULTIMA~2>cd UU
C:\ULTIMA~2\UU>UW.EXE
</details>

And where ~/Documents/DOXBox is the path to the game folder.

Tip: Select Video > Force scaler to enlargen emulator on HDPI displays.

The game will start with a 4 minute plot introduction:

Expand to watch video

Which you can skip with Esc so you can create your character:

Expand to watch video

At long last you finally reenter the Stygian Abyss…