Toggle switch

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A toggle switch is a two-state object that remotely operates another object, for example opening and closing a nearby door or portcullis.

In The Games

Ultima Underworld I & II

Various toggle switches can be found on the walls throughout The Abyssal Colony and the worlds within Ultima Underworld II.

TechnicalGame engine switch placement

The game engines of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II only allowed switches to be placed on walls, not on floors or ceilings. The more advanced System Shock engine allowed switches on floors and ceilings.

And actually, technically, switches don't even need to be attached to walls, the engine doesn't require that. They could be just free floating vertically in space. But the level designers always place them on walls to make them make sense in-universe.

The engine object numbers for the switches are #368-375 in their initial states and #376-383 in their toggled states. These objects do not have icons defined in FILEobjects.gr but are rendered with textures in FILEtmflat.gr.

There are eight variants of toggle switches in the games however they are functionally identical.

Name	Icon		Initial State
	PC	PSX	UW1 PC	UW1 PSX	UW2 PC
button			out	out	out
button			out	out	out
button			out	out	out
switch			up	up	up
switch			up	up	up
lever			down	down	up
pull chain			up	up	up
pull chain			up	up	up

InterfaceDifferences between games

• The PSX-port of Ultima Underworld has similar but slightly different graphics for the switches, mostly to get rid of the black outlines as is the graphical style of the PSX version. For more information see: Technical Differences in Ultima Underworld on the PSX
• In Ultima Underworld II the lever's initial state is up where in Ultima Underworld it is down. Technically this makes more sense and conforms to the other switches which all start in up/out states.

Toggle switches can be operated in several ways:

• If within arm's reach the Avatar can manipulate the switch directly
• If just out of arm's reach a toggle switch can be operated using a pole. Thanks to Bragit for this tip.
• Just about any object that collides with a toggle switch can toggle it. This includes projectiles fired from a ranged weapon, missiles fired from a missile spell, or just about any object the Avatar can toss at the switch.
• If out of arm's reach the Avatar can still manipulate a toggle switch if there is a telekinesis spell active.

TechnicalUnseen messages

In both games there are a number of messages in the game's data files that seem to report to the player on the action of toggling switches, however these are never seen in-game. In both games they are located in string block #1, in UW1 they are strings #194-209 and in UW2 they are strings #209-224.

Block	UW1 #	UW2 #	String
1	194	209	You press in the button.\n
1	195	210	You press in the button.\n
1	196	211	You press in the button.\n
1	197	212	You flip the switch.\n
1	198	213	You flip the switch.\n
1	199	214	You pull the level.\n
1	200	215	You pull the chain.\n
1	201	216	You pull the chain.\n
1	202	217	The button returns to its original state.\n
1	203	218	The button returns to its original state.\n
1	204	219	The button returns to its original state.\n
1	205	220	You flip the switch.\n
1	206	221	You flip the switch.\n
1	207	222	You push the lever.\n
1	208	223	You return the chain to its original position.\n
1	209	224	You return the chain to its original position.\n

Notice the typo in UW1 #199 (see #207). This was corrected in UW2 #214, but since neither string is ever seen in-game, it really doesn't matter.

See these strings in the Ultima Underworld strings and the Ultima Underworld II transcript

There are also other types of switches which have eight states instead of just two. The biggest difference in these switches, besides their number of states, is that they cannot be manipulated by projectiles. They can still be manipulated by poles and telekinesis, however.