I got this game from a friend back in 1994 and loved it but it was really daunting in size and options. I was just starting to learn English back then, and a lot of the books I could only half read, which had a serious impact on the background of the story. Not to mention that I never actually got out of the city because it was so big :P
I really need to replay this - tested all Ultima games on DOSBOX yesterday (succesfully except for Akalabeth which won't work) so that's a good thing
. I still need to play Ultima IX - vastly underrated, even if it's buggy in places.