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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Inside 
                        Origin Systems</font></i></font></b><br>

                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        <a href="mailto:tim@damarr.freeserve.co.uk">Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; 
                        O'Malley</a></font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 11<br>
                      February 7, 2000</font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart>

              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Garriot&#146;s 
                first published game was <b>Akalabeth</b> in 1979, which he put 
                together while in college, at the age of 19. It was a simple game, 
                and the first few editions were actually made by Garriot himself, 
                with photocopied instruction manuals and the containers put together 
                by hand, each disk individually copied. The total expenditure 
                for the first few copies was the grand sum of $200, and they were 
                put up for sale in a local shop called Computer Land. A week (and 
                5 copies) later, a publisher contacted Garriot and offered to 
                publish the game for him. He agreed, and his first game was now 
                on the market, ultimately selling over 30,000 copies in total.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He later 
                published <b>Ultima: The First Age of Darkness</b>. On its original 
                release, it had no overall plot whatsoever, but when later remade 
                for the PC, it introduced the story of the Avatar, that ran all 
                of the way up to <b>Ultima IX: Ascension</b>, where the Avatar 
                left Britannia behind him. <b>Ultima II</b> was also released 
                before Origin&#146;s creation, and it continued the story of evil, 
                and the Avatar being sent to put a stop to it. The first few games 
                were made for Apple computers, but were soon been made for the 
                PC, which was becoming the prime choice for games designers to 
                work on. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Garriot 
                had always wanted to make something more of the <b>Ultima</b> 
                series, and proved himself to truly be one of gaming&#146;s pioneers 
                when he released the award winning <b>Ultima Online</b>, which 
                was the first truly massively multi-player game ever released 
                to the public. It suffered many teething problems, but that was 
                because it was the first of its kind, and a massive leap forward 
                for online gaming. Origin never really expected the game to do 
                as well as it did. It wasn&#146;t thought it would sell over 15,000 
                units, and that only one game server would be needed. Today, there 
                are 20 <b>UO</b> game servers in the US, Asia, Europe and one 
                opening soon in Australia, and it is Origin&#146;s fastest selling 
                game ever. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Garriot 
                only ever once had an ego problem that usually comes with all 
                the fame, but he quickly realized it after some friends pointed 
                it out to him and changed his ways. Garriot, along with the likes 
                of John Carmack, Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux, is a rare breed of 
                game developer who can be instantly recognized when you see him, 
                and is known to almost every hard-core gamer on the planet. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Garriot 
                firmly believes there is much more to online games than the usual 
                &#145;kill everything&#146; approach that some games take. Co-operation 
                with other players in<b> Ultima Online</b> ultimately brings greater 
                rewards than going it alone, or being anti-social towards other 
                players. Some of the areas in <b>UO </b>can be so dangerous that 
                going in alone is suicide, unless you&#146;re an expert at running 
                away. More time is spent in <b>UO</b> talking, trading, skill/stat 
                building and enquiring than actual adventuring, but then again, 
                its not as though anyone&#146;s life is non-stop action 24 hours 
                a day.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">His favorite 
                <b>Ultima</b> games would be<b> IV</b>, because of the strong 
                use of the &#147;Virtues,&#148; and <b>VII</b>, because it was 
                the first game with a fully simulated world. After publishing 
                <b>Ultima I</b>, he and his friends all thought that the entertainment 
                software phase would just blow over, and he would have to go back 
                to college to get a real job. Quite to the contrary, despite a 
                serious drop of interest in games in the mid-80&#146;s, the gaming 
                industry has grown now to be comparable to the film industry, 
                and a long way from the handful of developers in the 70&#146;s 
                making games for the Amiga and Apples. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Joachim. This article is &copy; 2000 Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; O'Malley. 
  All other content is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction 
  is prohibited. So don't do it, or we'll make you cry, sissy.</font></i></p>
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