Actually, from what I understand, most diehard Ultima fans don't really consider this an Ultima game (despite the name.) Sierra put it out on their own (w/o Lord British,) when they still had the rights to future Ultima games. That being said, I'm ashamed to admit that if I had the money I'd probably be in on the bidding myself. But not being exceptionally wealthy, I'm putting it in among the original Akalabeth that LB sold in little sandwich baggies. That is, I'd love to have one, but probably never will.
As for playing it now. I'd really suggest playing 1-3 on the C64. Though, if you have an Apple II with a Mockingboard installed, they play fairly nicely on that as well. I would really only advise playing 4 and above on the PC. Also, on the PC there are a total of 15 games (16 if you count a conversion of Mt. Drash, but the only way to get that is unacceptable on this board.) Because I'm sort of anal, I'll give you the complete list in chronological order along with my opinion of the best system to play them on 😀
1 - Akalabeth (originally released for Apple, but the PC version is good) [Updated version for the PC is best IMHO, it allows saving and restoring the game.]
2 - Ultima (only released for Apple II, updated version named "Ultima I - The First Age of Darkness" was released later for Apple, C64, Atari, & PC) [C64 or PC-DOSBox. In order to get the sound effects, DOSBox is needed to play the speaker sounds. The sounds are better on the C64 IMHO.]
3 - Ultima - Escape from Mt. Drash (Vic20 Only) [Again, many don't consider this a true Ultima. While it came out under the Ultima name that Sierra had finagled away from LB somehow, it really has absolutely nothing to do with the story line or world invovled. Also, it came out after the original Ultima, yet is even uglier than Akalabeth was in the beginning, and just like the original Akalabeth, there was no way to save your game.]
4 - Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress (Apple, Mac, Atari, C64, & PC) [C64 wins this one hands down IMHO. The PC version'c CGA is ugly, and again only speaker sounds. There is a downloadable upgrade that greatly improves the look, but slows it down such that you cannot use DOSBox to restore the speaker sounds any more. YOu can still use DOSBox, but you have to raise the cycles up too high to get the proper sounds.
5 - Ultima III - Exodus (NES, C64, Apple, Mac, Atari, PC, & Amiga) [I'd have to say Amiga on this one, or the C64. PC has the exact same problem as U2.]
6 - Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar (NES, C64, Apple, Atari, Amiga, & PC) [I have to say that the overall best for this is PC DOSBox with the music and graphics update patch. Set your cylcles right and you get good music along with the proper speaker sound effects. The main point that pushes the PC to the top here is that your character can now migrate from one game to the next until U6. With the other systems, migration only works from 4 to 5, you have to start over in 6.]
7 - Ultima V - Warriors of Destiny (NES, C64/128, Atari, Apple, PC, & Amiga) [Again, the game is good on the PC in DOSBox with the music upgrade patch. The C64 version only had music if it was played on a C128. The Amiga version had 1 piece of music that none of the other versions had.]
8 - Ultima VI - The False Prophet (Amiga, Atari, C64, PC, & SNES) [PC with DOSBox. While the C64 got its music back, the PC version also had better music depending on your midi card. You could also use the same character you built in 4. One thing to note here, while 6 had drivers for better midi devices, the music was designed aroung an adlib card, and it actually works best on the adlib. All the other, are taking adlib code and trying to force them onto other devices.]
9 - Worlds of Ultima - The Savage Empire (PC only) [Guess I don't have to suggest the best system for this one]
10 - Worlds of Ultima 2 - Martian Dreams (PC Only) [Ditto. Both of these use the same engine as 6 did, and they both play best in DOSBox with proper cycles settings to get smooth game play with proper speaker sounds. Also, some don't really consider these Ultima as they take place on real(ish) earth and not Sosaria.]
11 - Ultima Underworld - The Stygian Abyss (PC only) [Ditto. This one, and all that follow, finally got rid of the speaker sound effects. You can now set it for multiple sound cards.]
12 - Ultima VII - The Black Gate (SNES & PC) [Just to note here, all the Nintendo versions were crap in my opinion, clunky, slow, and a nightmare to play right. All the Ultimas after this one were PC only. There was also an expansion for this one called "Forge of Virtue" which added to the game play]
13 - Ultima Underworld II - Labyrinth of Worlds (PC Only)
14 - Ultima VII - Serpent Isle (PC Only) [Yes, there are 2 Ultima VII's. This one also has an expansion called "The Silver Seed." While both 7's play best in DOSBox, IMHO, there is a replacement engine called Xult that plays them both very well in a variety of different OSes.]
15 - Ultima VIII - Pagan (PC Only) [Again, I feel they play best in DOSBox, but there is an engine replacement being worked on. Don't know the name off hand, but last I heard it was still in its infancy.]
16 - Ultima IX - Ascension (PC Windows Only) [The final Ultima. I suggest you look around for some balancing and improvement patches though. EA rushed Origin Systems to release it before they were really ready too. The original story line got hacked to bits and even after numerous patches was still very buggy.]