Re: Original Apple II Akalabeth (Ultima 0) for Sale

["laser dog" <laserdog@not2bright.net>]

I understand the 11 copies of the original were on cassette tape.  I have a
version of Akalabeth that was issued by Progame, this was before California
Pacific. My version of Ultima is in Applesoft Basic.  It, too, was in a
baggie. (There is no "1" behind the Ultima name).
"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20011022130738.13562.00001042@mb-mm.aol.com">news:20011022130738.13562.00001042@mb-mm.aol.com...
> I found this bit of "trivia" about Akalabeth on Moby Games.  Is it
possible
> that there were actually only 11 copies of the "original" (baggie)
distribution
> sold?
>
> ====
> Richard Garriott orignally wrote this game for his own benefit but was
> persuaded by a friend at his local computer store to try to sell a few
copies
> there. He hand copied the disks and put them into ziplock bags with
> instruction sheets and a copy found its way to the head of California
Pacific,
> who immediately bought the rights for the game.
>
> When he later wrote Ultima 1 for California Pacific the entire code of
> Akalabeth was included as a subroutine for the dungeon levels. There were
> only 12 copies of the original version ever sold and Richard Garriott owns
> one of them. He does, however, have a box of unsold copies and did say
> in an interview in 1999 that he would sell some on ebay just to see the
> price they would fetch. He hasn't done it yet!
> ====
>
> In another page on Akalabeth, it is noted that the PC release was a
> complete re-write of the original Applesoft code...  ;-(
>
> -michael
>
>  Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
>  Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/