I didn't actually read all the replies yet, but the question seems easy to answer, I mean to me it seems easy. Start with the first.
I've already played the C64 vers. of the first three and I enjoyed them. I think I enjoyed
Exodus: Ultima III the most of those, though. So now I CAN play
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, which I'm doing (also the C64 ver., a newer re-packed version called
Ultima IV Gold).
But WHOOPS! I've only recently discovered the existance of "Ultima Zero", that being
Akalabeth: World of Doom, so now I'm playing that too (Apple II ver.), to "catch up" and "fill in the blank" hehehehe
But that's just me. I can't play any sequel or sucessor unless I play any and all predessors first. It's, like, against my gaming religion or somethin', see LOL hehehe
So yeah,
Ultima IV,
V, and
VI may be more advanced, and may be better games (depending on your opinion and standard of judging), but that's not to say that the first three
Ultimas (and "Zero") aren't also fun to play as well hehehehe At the very least, they ARE worth playing. Well I think so hehehe
TheKid965: Ah, the Gold Box games... I never did get a chance to get into those back in my C64 days. Would love the chance to try them out, though I understand they're almost unplayable without all the supplemental material.
You can do that right now, no problemo.
I don't know about all the docs of all the SSI Gold Box games, but I know that you can play
Pool of Radiance (which could be the best of them anyway [and I think is about the CRPG EVER, even to this day]) AND with all the docs!
If you're really interested, I'll take the time to help you get set up to play, and it's not hard. I can give you the docs too---all of them hehehe