Tip to the first timers of the classics

Read the manuals before playing.

On different sites, forums, friends, etc. I keep seeing people trying to jump into the Ultimas without reading the manuals, and struggling because of it.

With the Ultima's (and this is more true, the further back you go) much of the lore and feel to the game is generated through the books. A lot of that flavor simply wouldn't fit on the disk in the early days, and once it did, it was beneficial to recap the story so far without wasting disk space. So now, trying to figure out what's going on, why and how without them is going to make the games nearly impenetrable. And not just because you need them to know what reagents work with what spells.

So seriously. Read the books. They're short, and they'll make the games much more enjoyable.

 

Also, be prepared to take notes. Especially in IV and V, you can not win without taking notes (or following a walkthrough, but what's the fun in that?) IV in particular has collecting information and following leads as the meat of the game. Needless to say, there is no quest log.

If you do get stuck, don't go to Gamefaqs for some soulless walkthrough. Go to http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/ and look in the side menu for Ultima Guides. There you can find scans of the official clue books, which are the best way to get yourself unstuck and pick up some extra lore in the process. You could also try to get them off of eBay, but be prepared to strain your pocketbook. The III clue book in particular can run for $200, so hopefully the copyright holders will forgive you for getting these OOP books in a pdf.

There are no clue books for I and II. Just get yourself a walkthrough for those and blaze through them as quick as possible so you can get to the good stuff. The only reason to play those games today is so you can say you beat all the Ultimas, and they can both be done in a few hours if you know what to do.

 

If you get them in www.gog.com they include all the guides and cluebooks.

Example: ULTIMA 4: Quest of the Avatar (free to download), includes:

Bonus content included for FREE with purchase:
manual
cluebook
spellbook
reference card
interview with Richard Garriott
map

 

This is one of the things I really liked about the Ultima series is the backstories created for each game. You essentially needed to read them in order to understand the world in which you arrived in and the main characters that were part of the story. I never started playing the game until I read through the manual and backstory guide.

 

Same goes for the SSI's gold box D&D games. You actually need the manual.

 

I still remember the smell of that paper...