I've seen arguments for both.

Thoughts?

Personally, I wouldn't recommend the game in the first place.

If you must play the game, however, I would recommend the original DOS version, as Exult is sometimes not faithful to the original. For example, last time I checked HP and MP regen worked differently; in the original, you recover 1 HP and 1/2 of spent MP + 1 (IIRC) every hour; in Exult, however, you recover a random amount of HP and MP (up to 1/3 the maxiumum) each hour. I personally find the original's MP mechanic more interesting, as to maximize MP regen you actually have to spend MP. (Too bad the reagent system ruins this, however.)

If you just want to play an Ultima game, I would recommend 4, 5, or 6. 3 is also good, though it is rather simple compared to later games in the series, and has a different focus than the later games.

Consider playing the game in DOSBox with my patches applied. I've added a lot of features and conveniences without rewriting the game engine.

https://github.com/JohnGlassmyer/UltimaHacks

I'd say, try out both. Play them each for an hour and see what feels better.

Although I love Exult, I can't deny that it has some issues in the combat- and NPC schedules department, although one of Exult's devs has recently improved upon this. I haven't seen the changes yet.

Exult does bring a lot of quality of life improvements however. And personally, even though it's a little game breaking, I love to have a high resolution over the original's 320x200. It does make me see more of the space around me, so it might be a little 'cheaty', but I've played vanilla so many times, there are no secrets left anyway.
You can still go for a 320x200 res in Exult though. That's nice work, Sir. I'd definitely recommend this for people playing vanilla. SI's shortcut keys are extremely handy to have in TBG, especially the key one.

Thanks everyone.

I've got to admit that Dosbox does feel more natural. But Exult looks better however it does feel more cheaty because I feel like I shouldn't be able to see as much of the map as I should. I guess that's how it was supposed to be when it came out huh?

i have never been very "tech savvy" but i personally found Exult easier to use than DOSBox

I congratulate you to the decision to play this exeptional game! I played it some years ago for the first time and had a serious blast with it, there is no other game like it. :)

To your question: I prefer playing Ultima VII Part 1 via Exult. Why? Because of the terrible framerate-issue on dosbox (it's impossible to find a solution to that - the game itself runs either way too slow or the animations run at lightning speed - while 5000-8000 cycles seems to be a good value for the animations, the game itself runs only acceptable if I use around 15000-20000 cycles on my system). Exult gives you the most fluent and pleasant experience. Also there are some good additions to make the whole game more accessible, a bunch of bugfixes and an additional questline. It is true that there still are some minor aspects that don't work as in the original dos-version of the game: Some of the more complex schedules for example (smith in Minoc) and the quite elaborated lighting-system of the original game. I'd still recommend to play the game with Exult, I never had any bugs or issues with it. I'd recommend using the original, intended resolution of the game as a higher resolution could cause trouble. Plus there is also the possibility to use the fantastic and very well done new enhanced soundtrack by JD Harding with Exult:

https://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii (scroll down to get the free download for the game)

While I recommend playing the first part of Ultima VII with Exult, I prefer playing the second part (Serpent Isle) with dosbox. It seems they managed to optimize performance issues with this second game, it runs much more fluent in dosbox.

So Dosbox isn't so bad if you can take the bigger resolution.

The main and imho massive drawback with dosbox and this game (Ultima 7: The Black Gate) is its terribly bad framerate, it's sluggish as hell. That's my main reason to stick to Exult. But even in Exult I don't use another resolution than the intended and original.

Apologies for the minor thread necromancy, but I'm hearing stuff about issues with NPC behavior* in Exult. Could you elaborate om what's wrong with the smith in particular?

(* Also saw some post on the Exult forums about bartenders producing wrong items/putting them in the wrong spot/food not de-spawning. idk how recent that is or if it's been fixed).

It's nothing grave at all, mainly aesthetic or atmospheric things: In the original game, the smith has a very elaborated daily schedule, expecially when he is doing what he does best in his smithy. Under Exult some steps of his work are missing (for example he doesn't get out of the smithy to get fresh water if I remember correctly). Another thing I noticed was in Serpent Isle: In the original game a farmerlady cuts down the weed with her scythe - under Exult she doesn't (she just swings her tool without doing anything to the wheat). There are some other NPCs with similar issues in both games if I remember correctly. It's sad these things (as well as the very innovative lighting-system) haven't been implemented. Ultima VII shows its virtues especially in such tiny details in my opinion. However if you don't know these steps are in the original game, you won't even notice it.

Okay, screwed around with U7 in PCEM and now that I remember how the lighting system's *supposed* to work it might be hard going back :P

I wonder if it'd be possible to kinda backport SIFixes to the original SI.

Yeah, I also tried the game in PCem, unfortunately it's exactly as sluggish as under DOSBox for me... but I know what you mean: If you realize all the ingenious details the game has it's really hard to go back. On the other hand: You won't notice all the details later on. It's also fair to mention that Exult brings new quirky details into the game - like Iolo's lactose intolerance or the possibility to craft additional things like butter out of milk.

The thing with the lighting isn't just a matter of, well, it being a nice detail -- it's flickery and inconsistent in a way that, at best, looks very strange and at worst either makes the game darker than it should in a way that kind of effects playability or sometimes I've noticed that night just doesn't happen.

Regarding speed, I ended up going back to DOSBox because it's easier to fine-tune the cycles there and it seems like your own party members are a big contributor to things getting slow, so being able to up the cycles by ~500 every time you add someone seems to offset that a lot.

I do wonder if they game had speed issues on actual PCs of the time. Reading up on someone who built a 486 based PC specifically for U7, I kinda get the impression it did :S

Though, what's weird is that I've noticed that regular U7 in DOSBox is mostly slow in large buildings, like Lord British's castle, whereas Exult has a lot of slowdown in combat that I'm not running into at all in regular U7.