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| Son of Skylab astronaut Owen Garriot, Richard Garriot (aka Lord British)
created his first game, Akalabeth, in 1979, when he was working in a computer
store. The shop's owner convinced him to publish the game himself, selling 15
copies of the original 16 he produced in the store. A Californian publisher
got hold of the game and bought the publishing rights, giving him his big break.
Ultima followed a year later, and used much of the same code and graphics as
Akalabeth. Then followed a steady stream of releases in the Ultima series of
RPGs, of which only Ultima's III-VI were released on the Amiga. Ultima VII,
Garriot's favourite, features a new danger, the evil Guardian, but retains much
of the morality and virtues of previous titles. After Ultima VII Electronic
Arts bought Origin, and Garriot found himself under pressure from the gaming
giant to create games to order. Both Ultima VIII and Ultima IX were shipped
unfinished due to this pressure. After this Richard quit and spent some time
travelling the world. He has now returned to programming and I believe is
working on a mystery project called simply, "X" which has nothing to do with
Ultima.
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