Ultima MIDI

Updated 18/04/01
 
Introduction to the Ultima MT-32 MIDI files

This page contains MIDI files for some of the Ultima games, i.e. Ultima7 Black Gate, Ultima7 Serpent Isle and the two Ultima Underworld games. These contain some of the best music I have ever heard in computer games so this is sort of my tribute to them.

Although these MIDI files are readily available all over the net I could not find them in their original Roland MT-32 format so I've ripped these myself from the games. The only way to really appreciate the music in these games is to hear them played from an MT-32 synth as the composers intended and not in the poor imitation General Midi (GM) format.

I've recorded all the tracks into OGG files for those who don't have an MT-32 and would like to hear what they are missing. These can be downloaded below.
 
How to use the MIDI files

You will need a real Roland MT-32 or LAPC-1 to make use of these MIDI files, a Soundblaster emulating an MT-32 is as poor an imitation as GM. Unfortunately nobody has ever written a real software emulation of the MT-32 synth so I guess most people won't be able to make use of these files.

The Ultima7 midi files each contain a sysex dump for the MT-32 unit, these should be played first before playing the tunes and sound effects midi files. On my MT-32 unit these sysex files cause the unit to buffer overflow when played from the old MS Windows MIDI player, get the latest Windows Media player which plays them OK. No problems occur under Linux.

The Ultima7 Serpent Isle MIDIs are only the extra tunes that were in this game, the rest are in the Black Gate zip.

The Underworld MIDI files do not require a sysex dump as they use the default MT-32 voices, programmed voices were used only for sound effects.
 
Download Files

Ultima Roland MT-32 MIDI files:

  • Ultima 7 Black Isle - ultima7blackmidi.zip
  • Ultima 7 Serpent Isle - ultima7serpentmidi.zip
  • Underworld - underworldmidi.zip
  • Underworld 2 - underworld2midi.zip

    • The complete tracks are now available in OGG format from the Exult project. I work on this as a developer on the sound code. The OGG tracks were recorded by myself.

    Get the files U7MusicOGG_1of2.zip and U7MusicOGG_2of2.zip from Exult Sourceforge Site

     

    Ultima MIDI file disclaimer: All rights reserved by Origin Systems Inc. 1992 respectively the original composers

    Created by Simon Quinn email