Bring your own copy of the game. Play in a minute.
This page is GENERATED from the code: the file list and the loader's states come from the loading page's own code, not from what anyone remembers. If what's needed changes tomorrow, this list changes by itself.
- Point at the folder or the ZIP of your Ultima V — the GOG one works.
- Your browser extracts what it needs. Nothing leaves your machine.
- Play. On your phone too — and from then on you go straight in, without repeating anything.
Don't own the game? GOG sells it for a few euros: the Ultima 4+5+6 pack is DRM-free and includes Ultima V. We earn nothing from that link.
Would you rather see it before gathering anything? There are games recorded on video, one minute each, and they ask for no files.
The questions everyone asks
Why do I need my own copy?
OpenU5 is the engine, not the game: it reproduces Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny by reading the maps, the graphics, the dialogue and the text from your own copy. It distributes no game data: we can tell you where it is sold, not give you the files.
Which formats work?
An install you already have, the GOG installer or your old floppies all work: what is needed is the folder holding ULTIMA.EXE, BRIT.DAT and company. If you can already see it on your disk, there is nothing else to prepare.
- You have the GOG installer. On Windows, run it and use the folder it creates. On macOS or Linux, unpack it without installing with
innoextract setup_ultima_456.exeand use theapp/folder that appears. - You have the floppies. Copy the contents of all of them into a single folder. Eighties magnetic media has not always survived; if one won't read, buying it again is the practical route.
From a phone, a .zip. No phone browser lets you hand over a folder —only individual files— so the loading page also accepts a .zip of your Ultima V folder. Compress it on a computer, move the zip to the phone and drop it there; it does not matter if the zip has the folder inside.
Extra files are ignored and your saved games are left alone.
Where does my game live?
What the loading page produces lives in your browser's local storage, under this same site, and your saved games go to the same place.
- Nothing is uploaded, neither the game files nor the saves. There is no account to create.
- You can erase it whenever you like, from the loading page itself or by clearing the site's data in your browser. If you erase it you will have to load your copy again — your copy of Ultima V stays on your disk.
- What does leave is covered in privacy & data: we record the session by default —including what you type and the game screen—, with its visit analytics; you can turn it off at any time, and then we stop and delete your identifiers. Separately, and only if you switch it on, the list of keys you pressed.
What about your save from the original? You can bring it. The SAVED.GAM from your DOS copy goes in as it is, through «Bring in a save» in the saves panel: everything that format stores is read, and the loader itself tells you what is not —the journal, the world objects and the story progress, which did not fit in there in 1988—. A save exported from here does carry all three.
Does it work without a connection?
Not yet: you need a connection, this time and every time. The site does not yet keep its own page for offline use; what stays in your browser is the game's data and your saves, not the page. It is a real difference and we would rather say it.
The full detail · what is looked for in your folder
This is what you will see: the loader before handing anything over. No game data appears on screen —there is none yet— and the capture is taken that way on purpose.
The loading page requires 33 files, all at the top level of a normal Ultima V install. Of those, 19 are also checked by exact size: a matching name is not enough. The rest vary legitimately between editions, and only their presence is checked.
The 33 names, one by one
\TILES.16\ · \IBM.CH\ · \RUNES.CH\ · \BRIT.DAT\ · \UNDER.DAT\ · \TOWNE.DAT\ · \CASTLE.DAT\ · \DWELLING.DAT\ · \KEEP.DAT\ · \DUNGEON.DAT\ · \BRIT.CBT\ · \DUNGEON.CBT\ · \DATA.OVL\ · \TOWNE.NPC\ · \CASTLE.NPC\ · \DWELLING.NPC\ · \KEEP.NPC\ · \TOWNE.TLK\ · \CASTLE.TLK\ · \DWELLING.TLK\ · \KEEP.TLK\ · \INIT.GAM\ · \SIGNS.DAT\ · \SHOPPE.DAT\ · \LOOK2.DAT\ · \MISCMAPS.DAT\ · \END.DAT\ · \ENDMSG.DAT\ · \KARMA.DAT\ · \MISCMSG.DAT\ · \QUESTION.DAT\ · \STORY.DAT\ · \BRITISH.PTH\
What you'll see if something is missing, or if you have another edition
The 9 situations the loader can show are these, with its actual text:
| Situation | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| Before you drop anything | «Nothing dropped yet» |
| While it reads and extracts | «Reading your folder…» → «Generating the assets in your browser…» |
| Files are missing | «N files are missing», the list of which ones, and «Without them the game can't start. They usually sit at the top level of the folder: if you picked a subfolder, go up one and try again.» |
| They are all there, but one isn't the expected size | «FICHERO is N B, we expected M», plus «This is not the DOS release OpenU5 was verified against. It may partly work, or not work at all.» |
| All correct | «✔ Extraction complete: N assets generated in your browser.» |
| The .zip can't be opened | «I couldn't open that .zip: …» |
| Something breaks while extracting | «Extraction failed: …» |
| You've done it before | «Your copy is already extracted in this browser.» |
| Your browser won't do | «This browser does not support service workers.» |
If you have a different edition —C64, Amiga or Atari, or a patched version— the loader does not tell you «this version is wrong»: it shows you the file and its two figures («X is N bytes, we expected M») and lets you try, because it may partly work. It does not recognise editions: it compares sizes, and only for 19 of the 33 files. An edition differing only in the other 14 would pass the whole check and fail later, inside the extraction. OpenU5 is checked against the DOS edition.
This is a port, not an emulation. The engine is rewritten from the original's disassembly. What that means exactly —what is checked and what is not— is in the port's status and in how it was made.
OpenU5 is a fan project with no relationship to Electronic Arts, Origin Systems or GOG. Ultima is a trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. This site distributes no game data: to play you need your own copy. The engine is published under GPL-3.0-or-later at github.com/kokoima/openu5.