Hello,
Just started playing Ultima I again now that it's on GOG. From what I remember, and from what I have read on the internet, you have to kill the Jesters in the Castle to get the key to free the Princesses. I have killed a dozen of those jesters in several castles and it keeps saying "Thou hast found a key". But when I check my inventory, there is no key. I try to open the cell door and it says I don't have a key. I have tried "G" for "Get" and "I" for "Inform & Search" to try and find a key after I kill the Jester but nothing works. I am missing something, or is there a bug in the GOG version of the game?!?!
Thanks, Sean

Problem solved!
What I was doing was killing the jester and then exiting the castle so that I wouldn't have to fight the guards. I then re-entered the castle and tried to open the jail, which wouldn't work.
This time I tried killing the jester, and then freeing the princess. That works, but you have to kill a few guards. And they are not so easy to kill.
You were right about the jester not always having the right key. The first time I tried it the correct way, it said that I had the wrong key. (It never said that before.) I then had to kill a few guards, make my escape, and then go back in and try again. And it did work that time.
Thanks for the mention that the key doesn't show up in my inventory. That was what clued me in to the fact that it might just be something that I had to use right away without exiting the castle.
Thanks, Sean

No problem. A lot of early RPGs can be rather obscure in what they expect you to do sometimes...

As for killing the guards, first raise your stamina as much as possible (which is easy and free if you go to the signposts and stock up on free stats) then buy a reflect suit (most powerful armor) and get a light sword (again there is a signpost that gives you all the weapons one-by-one, ot you can wait for technology to get high enough for these swords to become available at shops) then just fight the guards. They take a while to fall, but their hits are not that powerful. Be a real villain and be sure to buy as many hit points as you can from the king before attempting this. Also don't feel guilty about all the killing because in Ultima I you are not expected to be virtuous, and everyone you kill comes back to life after you leave the castle, so, essentially you are more likely knocking them out that killing them. (Do not try this in later Ultimas as characters actually stay dead if you kill them in later games.) Also, the key distribution is random, so sometimes you will get the key to the empty cell next to the princess. If that happens, try again. Ultima I is kind of funny in that you have to go around murdering jesters and guards to save the world. That's quite a contrast from the later games in the series.

One thing about that, however: Ultima I includes a primitive fail-safe against just camping out at one signpost to spam one stat skyward. Once you visit one signpost and get the stat boost, you won't be able to use that signpost again unless and until you go to any other signpost in the world first. Of course, you can still easily exploit this to do what you want, but you just have to schlep between signposts in order to do it properly.

That's what that does? I always only went there once, got a lousy dagger, and never went back.

Of course, I'd also always play a thief, and just steal at shops until I had the best weapon and armor ;)

Yeah... As much as the series from Ultima IV forward would be all about social niceties and moral dilemmas, the original trilogy is pretty much a primitive version of GTA: Sosaria in that the only real way to make progress is to break as many laws as possible. Killing an innocent court jester just to get his key is probably the most egregious example -- because you can't beat Ultima I without doing so at least once. Even Richard Garriott kinda looks back on this period and winces at what he once thought was "acceptable behavior" for a hero, and it proved to be an influence in how and why Ultima evolved along the lines it did.

Of course, if you like looting towns, ransacking castles, and generally being almost as "bad" as the Evil Wizard(s) you're supposed to be fighting against... these are the games for you! 8^) And it is fun, don't get me wrong, but it's not really representative of where the series would be going as its creator continued to define the parameters of his fantasy world.