Am I the only one that really hated the combat system in 5? Targeting with ranged weapons was so cumbersome - not worth being able to shoot at an angle.

I'm a huge Ultima fan. In fact, my name had its origin in Ultima VII combined with Under A Killing Moon & Edgar Allan Poe.

But I wouldn't recommend the first 3. Even though I'm a major retro gamer, I honestly can't say they're that good. They're interesting in the sense that you can see how the game evolved and how technology allowed for bigger & better things, but they're games massively crippled by limited system power.

They're playable, but they're very very repetitive and there's not enough going on to keep you going. Back then, people knew no different and drew maps and made notes, but today you have to wonder if all that effort is worth what are really quite primitive games which never really end up rewarding you.

If someone would remake them with some more appealing graphics and with the story fleshed out, it might still be worth a go, but until then, ... well, they're nice to try but that's it.

1 and 3 are worth playing, at least for a history lesson in RPGs. It makes you appreciate how far they've come. :) Ultima 2 is kinda crap, though, to be honest.

Yeah, targetting was a pain but with the magic axe you didn't exactly have to do it much during a fight :)

I'd fight under the bridge close to the start of the game until I had enough money for one magic axe. Then I'd head to Yew right away and buy one. After that it was just good times.

Good idea, I've also read that it's less frustrating to play solo or with a very small party. Having just played U4 when I started U5 I immediately went out and got my party as large as I could then just traded up as I found better people and ran out of slots which I think added a lot to the slow combat. I've contemplated going back and playing it again solo with just melee (or based on your recommendation, magic axe)

Absolutely, sure these games are dated but they're what i like to call "classics of classics". 100% G.O.G. I just hope the rest of the series makes it here.

There's nothing wrong with saying these games are too old for you. They're too old for me.

Forget glass swords, magic axes are the ultimate Ultima weapon. One-handed, ranged, no ammo, and hardly any friendly fire incidents with them in VII.

Also this might sound odd considering the generally shoddy nature of the console Ultima ports, but I actually found the NES version of 3 to be the best. Sort of. It's kind of weird because it was missing some of the essential hints from Utlima 3, in terms of in game text, but... made up for it by having other essential bits of info that WEREN'T in Ultima 3? Whatever, the washed out visuals and soundtrack really fit*.

And Ultima 7 SNES is the most hilarious thing to play if you are familiar with the actual Ultima 7 because it is seriously like playing Ultima 7 on acid. You're going into basements and getting attacked by neon-green elves. I swear to god.

Also this might be controversial, but I recall liking Ultima 8 and generally found it more playable than the 1 and 3 and DEFINITELY more playable than 2. Granted, it's essentially a fantasy version of Crusader, or a... it's really similar to LBA which I think used the same engine as well. I can see why it annoyed a lot of people, being so vastly different from 7, but hey -- I'm cool with experimentation. That and it doesn't involve wandering around on empty planets for hours on end looking for the one NPC you need to beat the game.

* Oddly enough I heard that Savage Empire got a more-or-less exact SNES port. And then SNES port of 6 was actually pretty much all there from what I recall, despite some censorship. The NES port of Ultima 5 is sort of hilarious, though, because of how impossibly slow it runs.

I think my favorite old PC-to-console port was the SNES version of Wizardry 5, though. That thing was just dripping with personality.

That got rid of the severe input delay problem, but now it seems like the sound effects play too fast. I noticed setting the cycles to auto has the game running at 3000 cycles so I tried slowing down the cycles in game, but it caused a crash to desktop and wasn't really fixing the problem. I tried setting the cycles back to 300 in the DOSbox config while keeping the other changes you suggested, but it reintroduces all the other problems.

Well I have to thank GOG for 1-3. After 31 years I have FINALLY completed Ultima 1. 2 & 3 I would have difficulty playing without the EGA patch though - even back when it was normal CGA looked horrendous. Still, I would tough it out to complete the oldest entries on my "to complete" list :)

I can't imagine going back 5 generations of gaming....how do you compare Ultimate 1/2/3 to Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Lost Odyssey, etc? Some people love the older style games, but most of those people remember those games being "Current Tech", so be careful who you listen to. If you don't remember a game being "Current Tech", it can be difficult to get into it later on.

The problem with 1-3 is that they really lack a lot of the cool stuff that 4-7 have. 4's morality system is absent. The character interaction and virtual-worldness of 5-7 isn't there. The storytelling's not there. 7's crazy interactivity isn't there. The conversation-driven puzzles aren't there. They're just not really representative of the series.

4 Looks sick, even though it's sub-NES graphics. I don't care, I have wanted this game so long...8 year old Jason is gonna love it, even if 31 year old Jason has to put his preconceptions away!

to load the games up only to attack the palace guards is worth 6 dollars lol