This is the Ultima Collection CD released by Origins in late 1998.  It includes interviews with Richard Garriott, and includes all of the first 8 ultima games, and his precursor game to the Ultima series, Akalabeth.  Additionally, the CD includes previews for Ultima Ascension (the game that was practically cancelled and ushered the resignation of the original UO team) as well as other OSI games such as Wing Commander.


****Installation****

1.  Mount the image using your favorite mounting program.
2.  Open Auto.exe if your system is not set up to automatically run the software.
3.  Follow the on screen instructions and install the games of your choice.  The default directory is c:\UC, and it is recommended that you leave that as the chosen directory.
4.  Allow the program to install the games.  Note, at the end of the installation, you may get an error with PIFMAKER.EXE.  This is ok as it doesn't seem to effect the performance of the games that run directly in Windows.

****Playing the games****

Before attempting to play any of the games, it is highly advisable that you read the documentation on the CD.  The entire manual is thankfully stored on the CD itself and contains important information for key bindings (remember, pre mouse in most cases here!).

IMPORTANT:  These games have been tested on Windows XP Professional, and were originally meant to be installed through DOS or Windows 95/98.  I haven't had the opportunity to test whether these games run at all through Windows Vista or 7 using any method.  Thus, any instructions pertain directly to WinXP Pro.

****Playing Ultima 1 - 6 & Akalabeth****

The early games are playable through the start menu.  Once you start them, they will open in full screen mode, and allow you to play the game with little trouble (although some problems with the game playing too quickly might exist).  The only problem is that it is impossible to downsize out of the games, and exiting the game requires you to use CTRL+ALT+DEL.
Optionally, you can play the early games using DOSBox.  The method for running these games is similar to that of running U7, 8, and Serpent's Isle, and is reported to work under Windows Vista and 7.


****Playing Ultima 8, 8, & Serpent's Isle****
In order to run Ultima 7, Serpent's Isle, and Ultima 8, DOSBox or some other similar DOS emulation software is required.  DOSBox can be downloaded from http://www.dosbox.com/
Below, are general instructions for setting up DOSBox.  These instructions also pertain to running the earlier Ultima games as well:

1.  Start DOSBox
2.  Type "mount c c:\uc" where "c:\uc" is the directory where you installed the Ultima Collection from your CD.  This mounts your local directory as a virtual drive in DOSBox.  Note: DOSBox can't handle spaces in names, so make sure your install path doesn't include any.
3.  type "c:" to switch to your new directory.  From here you can cd into any of the various folders for each game and run the first 6 games simply by typing in the executable name.

-----Running Ultima 7 & Serpent Isle-----

Below are instructions specific to playing Ultima 7 through DOSBox.

First, before opening DOSBox and mounting the drive, open dosbox.conf.  In C:\Documents and Settings\Your Username\Local Settings\Application Data\DOSBox and can be reached alternatively through the start menu by going to Start -> Programs -> DOSBox-0.7x -> Options -> DOSBox-0.7x Options.  In the options folder, the following value MUST be changed:

ems=true -> ems=false

In addition to this, some recommended settings are as follows:

joysticktype=auto -> joysticktype=none
umb=true -> umb=false
cycles=auto -> cycles=12000
output=surface -> output=ddraw
fullresolution=*your screen resolution here*
scaler=hq3x

Once the changes have been made and saved, open DOSBox and mount the Ultima Collection folder and follow these steps:

1.  Run INSTALL and choose your sound card (unsure if all sound cards will actually work, but Creative cards do)
2.  Run ULTIMA7 (or SERPENT) and have fun!

-----Running Ultima 8-----

Ultima 8 is roughly similar to Ultima 7 and SE in terms of how it's installed and run.  The only suggestions that may be relevant are the following setting in the DOSBox conf:

joysticktype=auto -> joysticktype=none
cycles=auto -> cycles=12000
output=surface -> output=ddraw
fullresolution=*your screen resolution here*
scaler=hq3x

Beyond this, ems can remain on (or off), and playing the game is done in the same way as U7/SE.

****Other Interesting Tidbits****

Here are the two links where the information regarding running U7 and U8 and running it successfully in DOSBox came from:

http://bootstrike.com/Ultima7bg/?/
http://bootstrike.com/Ultima8/

Enjoy!
- Kaivan