ANOTHER "is this the real deal" auction -- Ultima

[Buyatari]

Ok I am not a die hard PC or Apple collector but I was under the impression that Akalabeth was a rare game. Being distributed only by Lord British himself to local area shops who were willing to try it.

I was under the impression that this was a holy grail. I mean rare less than 10 original copies rare. Thousand dollar a pop or more sell your own mother rare.

Yet the seller doesn't promote it as such and while the bids are high if its what I think it is they aren't high enough.

Is this a different print run. Does anyone know enought about the Ultima series to comment on this one?

Adam

[ianoid]

I don't know the subtle nuances of such items (contact antiques road show please), but these look rather authentic to me. I sold a CalPac Ultima Disc only for $100 several years back. The complete Ultima I by CalPac is like a $200+ item.

With Akalabeth, the value is rather limitless. I would guess that this auction will snipe and sell for $1000+.

I'm surprised that the seller didn't list these seperately. I will bet that whoever is hiballing Akalabeth will turn over the CalPac Ultima because they probably already have it.

The link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3644074540&category=182

ian

Thanks for the correction...

[tholly]

I went to the link and it was coleco games.
I searched eBay for Akalabeth and found this link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3644074540&category=182

I think this is what you were talking about instead of the above link.

[Buyatari]

Doh I forgot the link the first rule of posting here. Thanks for the link guys.

So Ian, you believe that this is original . That this isn't some pack in Akalabeth reissued disk later down the road.

They way its set up its almost like he wants you to believe this is the real deal but he won't go so far as to say it because its really not.

That was my first impression.

Adam

[Buyatari]

OHH GREAT !

Ians watching the same Colecovision auction as me.

Some sniper fest that one will turn out to be.

Adam

[tholly]

He made a post about those coleco games in another ebay post. He probably just forgot to copy the new url and just used the same one over again.

[Buyatari]

I looked around and found this info.


The original Akalabeth was Richard Garriott's first published project ever. Made by hand and sold at the Computerland store where he worked in 1980, this original is one of about 12 copies known to be made (of which 4 are known to still exist). One of them made its way to California Pacific where it was published professionally, and the rest is history. Complete with the original plastic baggie, this is without question the rarest and most sought after Origin collectible. The Certificate of Authenticity is of particular note...Personally verified (and signed) by Richard Garriott, this is the only copy known to include a C.O.A.

Note: Copies actually sold in the Computerland store came with a small green hand-numbered sticker on the disk. This particular copy was from Origin's corporate archive, and auctioned off for charity.

http://originmuseum.solsector.net/pics/Akalab/disk2.jpg

http://originmuseum.solsector.net/pics/Akalab/manualcv.jpg

http://originmuseum.solsector.net/pics/Akalab/fullbag.jpg


After Richard Garriott signed a contract with California Pacific Computer Company, they began distributing the game with new cover art and a (slightly) revised play book.


The next year California Pacific changed the artwork for the game again. The original painting from which this cover was taken is called "Wrong Way" (as in, this is the WRONG WAY to summon a daemon!), and is by Denis Loubet.


http://home.hiwaay.net/~rgregg/ultima/collectibles/pics/Title_Aka3.gif

It appears this auction has the 3rd and final version.

The Ultima disk didn't look like the one here in this auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3061716772&category=3561

so I looked around some more


The original Ultima was distributed by California Pacific Computers for the Apple II in 1980. It did not have any box or luxury like maps etc. like the later games but was released in a simple ziploc bag containing the disk, a play book, reference card and a nice 'cover' art page - amazingly they still sold about 50.000 copies this way. This first release has the line 'top of the orchard software' printed on both the cover as well as the disk.



In 1981 California Pacific re-released Ultima under a different (maybe low-budget?) distribution label. Instead of the 'top of the orchard software' line it now reads 'progame' on the disk. Also the previously separate cover page was removed and the artwork was used for the manual (which is otherwise identical with the original). The motif looks a bit different too, the Ultima name goes diagonally now and it also has the 'progame' logo at the bottom. Reference card remained the same.

So it turns out he is selling the 3rd version of Akalabeth and the 2nd version of California Pacific Ultima 1.

[Buyatari]

$1,505.00

WOW

[tholly]

That is just crazy. It even states that this is an as-is auction, so this disk may not even work. Whoever bought this sure has a deep wallet. Look at the winners other auctions. He sure likes his games, especially Ultima.

[Buyatari]

I can't view what else he won. Something about European privacy laws.

Adam

[ianoid]

Do I know my sh!t or what? Seriously, it's not that tough to guess that it's a sky's the limit auction.

And I don't scoff for a second. For Ultima collectors, there just ain't all that much to do backflips over, so why not blow your gift money on a grailish bit like this?

We don't think it's so odd when someone pays $2000 for Video Life, now do we? Of course, it's exorbitant, but not particularly odd.

ian

[Buyatari]

I only ::scoff:: because what you had there was a 2nd and a 3rd pressing and they weren't complete.

Its possible the bidders were unaware of these facts or maybee they were I dunno.

Adam