Role-playing Video Games Codexery

Akalabeth: World of Doom

The game is recognized as one of the earliest role-playing video games and a predecessor to the Ultima series.[1] Richard Garriott developed the role-playing video game Akalabeth: World of Doom for the Apple II in 1979, with California Pacific Computer Company publishing it the following year.[1] Keith Zabalaoui contributed the title artwork, while Garriott handled all other aspects of the game's creation.[1]

Quick Facts

Developer
Richard Garriott
Publisher
California Pacific Computer Company
Genre
Role-playing
Modes
Single-player
Platforms
Apple II, MS-DOS

Facts from the source article.

Making and release

Teenager Richard Garriott created the game in Applesoft BASIC while attending high school in the Houston, Texas suburbs.[2] The game began as a school project on a DEC PDP-11 mainframe under the working title DND.[2] Garriott was primarily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.[3] After playing the maze game Escape, he switched to a wire-frame first-person view for dungeons.[3]

He demoed the game, then named Akalabeth, for his boss John Prosper Mayer at a ComputerLand store.[4] The California Pacific version, with cover art by Denis Loubet, retailed for $35.[5] Garriott claims the game sold 30,000 copies, earning him $150,000.[5]

What the cited sources add

The hardcoregaming101 account states the game was named after a chapter of Tolkien's Silmarillion.[6] Maher questions the 30,000 sales figure, noting the California Pacific version remains exceedingly rare.[7] Maher states that California Pacific's founder Al Remmers orchestrated a contest with Softalk to guess Lord British's identity.[7] The hardcoregaming101 account says the program was originally called D&D28b.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Akalabeth: World of Doom" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "» A Word on Akalabeth and Chronology The Digital Antiquarian"; Barton, Matt: Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games (A K Peters Ltd, Wellesley MA, 2008), pg. 1; King, "Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic", McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003; "18 Years", Imagine Media, March 1998, p. 1; Maher, Jimmy, "Akalabeth", The Digital Antiquarian, 2011-12-18 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Akalabeth: World of Doom" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic", McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003; "Ultima and Lord British - Origins", The Dot Eaters; King, "Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic", McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003; Andrea, "Through the Moongate : the story of Richard Garriott, Origin Systems Inc. and Ultima", Independently Published, 2020–2021, p. Chapters 1 and 2; The Official Book of Ultima, by Shay Addams, Second Edition, page 7; Andrea, "Through the Moongate : the en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Akalabeth: World of Doom" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic", McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Akalabeth: World of Doom" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Andrea, "Through the Moongate : the story of Richard Garriott, Origin Systems Inc. and Ultima", Independently Published, 2020–2021, p. Chapters 1 and 2 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Akalabeth: World of Doom" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The Official Book of Ultima, by Shay Addams, Second Edition, page 8; Ferrell, Keith, "Dungeon Delving with Richard Garriott", Compute!, January 1989, p. 16; Maher, Jimmy, "California Pacific", The Digital Antiquarian, 2011-12-20 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Akalabeth: World of Doom - Apple II (1979/80) on hardcoregaming101.net "Origin Systems for a time had the original Apple II source code of Akalabeth for downloa. facts only, no text reused. hardcoregaming101.net
  7. Maher, Jimmy, "California Pacific", The Digital Antiquarian, 2011-12-20. facts only, no text reused. filfre.net

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Akalabeth: World of Doom (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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