Akalabeth: World of Doom

Akalabeth (1979) is the prequel to the great Ultima series, the first commercial game of Richard Garriott (aka Lord British).

According to Garriott himself (who worked at that time as a salesman in a computer store), at first he did not even think about any commercial prospects of his creation there. But, following the advice of his senior manager, he spent two hundred dollars on printing and self-adhesive bags and released (put on the counter) the game in the same 1979. Of the eight copies sold by Richard, one got into the office of the publisher California Pacific, which was so interested in the work of Garriott that immediately invited him to conclude a contract. So the future Lord British ended up in California, and we got the opportunity to enjoy real works of art - the games of the role series "Ultima".

After a couple of years, California Pacific began to have financial problems (I guess, not because of a contract with Garriott), and Ultima 2 was already released under the Sierra label, and the third part was already under the usual brand of Origin, a company founded by Richard and his brother in 1983.

Of course, I tried to play Akalabeth. But soon one unpleasant feature of the gameplay became clear: a successful attack by Gremlin (the killing of which is the first quest task to obtain a knight's rank) takes exactly half of all provisions. And considering that without food a character is a dead person without the right to revitalization, as well as the fact that the aforementioned Gremlin has an unpleasant habit of conducting a successful attack repeatedly, I stopped trying to complete the game. Instead, he engaged in cheating and looked at what should be in the final, through the code. Perhaps you will be more persistent ...

But history is history - after all, it was with this game that it all started!