I think a certain degree of nostalgia is needed to really enjoy the earlier titles in the series.
I have a pretty good idea of this. My first computer, the TI, did not have any Ultima titles released for it. And I was unable to buy a new computer for many years, not until the early 90's in fact. And to add to my frustration, we still had an active Compute! magazine subscription from 1986-1888, so I was constantly teased with reviews and articles on games I couldn't play. (I have, in fact, the issue with Shay Addams reviewing Ultima 5.)
Events also seemed to conspire against me ever getting the chance to play Ultima. We had Apple II's at school and a professor had a copy of Ultima 2 (which suspiciously looked like a cracked copy, come to think of it), but without any guidelines on the keys I met a quick death, since I couldn't figure out the movement keys. Later a friend lent me his old Atari 800 with disk system to play Ultima 4... and his boot disk died on the second try.
In my late teens, I was finally able to start saving up for a PC. My goal was a PC that could play Ultima 7, which I had seen on a friend's computer. (He in fact gave me his copies of U6 and 7, with the maps and everything.) I bought the 1-6 compilation CD months before I had the computer, and even several of the hint books, some of which I was fortunate to get at that point, since they're worth a LOT on eBay now. My first PC, a 486, was up to the task of every Ultima out at that point (1-8), so I was at last able to play the series I'd dreamed about so long.
The one thing really lacking, though, in the earlier titles is the sense of mystique and the unknown. When I read an early review of Ultima 2, it sounded like a living world you were stepping into. I remember someone telling me that the first town you visited had some kind of festival going on... I'm not sure how he got that impression, since there's no such thing in the game's dialogue, but clearly imagination lent a large part of the verisimilitude to the games. If you don't have that, then it's just another game, really, with finite boundaries. The ONLY game I know of that has actually come close to a living world is Dwarf Fortress...
I think a certain degree of nostalgia is needed to really enjoy the earlier titles in the series.
I have a pretty good idea of this. My first computer, the TI, did not have any Ultima titles released for it. And I was unable to buy a new computer for many years, not until the early 90's in fact. And to add to my frustration, we still had an active Compute! magazine subscription from 1986-1888, so I was constantly teased with reviews and articles on games I couldn't play. (I have, in fact, the issue with Shay Addams reviewing Ultima 5.)
Events also seemed to conspire against me ever getting the chance to play Ultima. We had Apple II's at school and a professor had a copy of Ultima 2 (which suspiciously looked like a cracked copy, come to think of it), but without any guidelines on the keys I met a quick death, since I couldn't figure out the movement keys. Later a friend lent me his old Atari 800 with disk system to play Ultima 4... and his boot disk died on the second try.
In my late teens, I was finally able to start saving up for a PC. My goal was a PC that could play Ultima 7, which I had seen on a friend's computer. (He in fact gave me his copies of U6 and 7, with the maps and everything.) I bought the 1-6 compilation CD months before I had the computer, and even several of the hint books, some of which I was fortunate to get at that point, since they're worth a LOT on eBay now. My first PC, a 486, was up to the task of every Ultima out at that point (1-8), so I was at last able to play the series I'd dreamed about so long.
The one thing really lacking, though, in the earlier titles is the sense of mystique and the unknown. When I read an early review of Ultima 2, it sounded like a living world you were stepping into. I remember someone telling me that the first town you visited had some kind of festival going on... I'm not sure how he got that impression, since there's no such thing in the game's dialogue, but clearly imagination lent a large part of the verisimilitude to the games. If you don't have that, then it's just another game, really, with finite boundaries. The ONLY game I know of that has actually come close to a living world is Dwarf Fortress...