Akalabeth: World of Doom (with DOSBox emulator) - Le Bottin des Jeux Linux

Akalabeth: World of Doom (with DOSBox emulator)

🗃️ Specifications

📰 Title: Akalabeth: World of Doom (with DOSBox emulator) 🕹️ / 🛠️ Type: Game (Windows)
🗃️ Genre: Adventure & Action 👁️ Visual: 2.5D
🏷️ Category: Adventure & Action ➤ Role-playing game ➤ RPG ➤ Ultima 🏝️ Perspective: First person
🔖 Tags: RPG; Adventure; Exploration; Ultima; DOSBox; Fantasy ⏱️ Pacing: Turn-Based
🐣️ Approx. start: 1979-01-01 👫️ Played: Single
🐓️ Latest: 1998-01-01 🚦 Status: 04. Released (status)
📍️ Version: Latest: - / Dev: ❤️ Like it: 9. ⏳️
🏛️ License type: 🎁 Free of charge 🎀️ Quality: 7. ⏳️
🏛️ License: Free ✨️ (temporary):
🐛️ Created: 2022-01-08 🐜️ Updated: 2024-06-22

📦️ Deliverables

📦️ Package name: PC compatibles - DOSBox ..... 📦️ Arch:
📄️ Source: ..... 📦️ RPM:
⚙️ Generic binary: ✓ ..... 📦️ Deb:
🌍️ Browser version: ..... 📦️ AppImage:
📱️ PDA support: ..... 📦️ Flatpak:
✨️ Not use: ..... 📦️ Snap:

🚦 Entry status

📰 What's new?: 👔️ Already shown:
💡 Lights on: 💭️ New version published (to be updated):
🎨️ Significant improvement: 🦺️ Work in progress:
🎖️ This work: 3 stars 🚧️ Some work remains to be done:
👫️ Contrib.: goupildb & Louis 👻️ Temporary:
🎰️ ID: 16150

📖️ Summary

📜️[en]: One of the first CRPG in history, designed in its first version on an Apple II by Richard Garriott in 1979. Drawing its inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons on paper, it is considered as the 1st Ultima of the series. The game starts (in objective view) in a city where the player will be able to make purchases (food, weapons, ...) to continue for the most part (and in wireframe subjective view) in an underground, where the player will be given quests by Lord British to eliminate 10 monsters increasingly difficult to defeat, while not losing sight of his food that decreases with the progress. 📜️[fr]: L'un des premiers CRPG de l'histoire, conçu dans sa 1er version sur un Apple II par Richard Garriott en 1979. Puisant son inspiration dans les Donjons & Dragons sur papier, il est considéré comme le 1er Ultima de la série. Le jeu démarre (en vue objective) dans une ville où le joueur pourra effectuer des achats (nourriture, armes, ...) pour se poursuivre pour l'essentiel (et en vue subjective en fil de fer) dans un sous-terrain, où le joueur se verra confier des quêtes par Lord British pour éliminer 10 monstres de plus en plus difficiles à vaincre, tout en ne perdant pas de vue sa nourriture qui diminue avec la progression.

🎥️ Videos


🕵️ Reviews: (201707), (201301),


🎲️ Gameplay: (201504), (201804), [fr](202011),


🎙️ Dev Interviews: (201306),

🕸️ Links

🏡️ Website & videos
[Homepage] [Dev site] [Features/About] [Screenshots] [Videos t(202xxx) gd(202xxx) gu(202xxx) id(201306) r(201707) r(201301) lp(202xxx) ht(202xxx) g(201504) g(201804) g(201309) g(201509) g(200911) g(201209 -1) g(201209 -2) g(201110) g(201101) g(202104) g[fr](202011) g[de](202xxx) g[ru](202xxx) g[pl](202xxx) g[cz](202xxx) g[sp](202xxx) g[pt](202xxx) g[it](202xxx) g[tr](202xxx)] [WIKI] [FAQ] [RSS] [Changelog 1 2 3]

💰 Commercial
(bundled with DOSBox): [GOG] - Free

🍩️ Resources
(empty, license): [Homepage] [Dev site] 🎬️ g(202xxx)

🛠️ Technical informations
[PCGamingWiki] [MobyGames]

🦣️ Social
(Ultima) Devs (Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (Lord British) [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [MobyGames] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202004) 2(200903)]
The Project: [Blog] [Chat] [Forums] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [reddit] [Discord]

🐝️ Related
[Wikipedia (Akalabeth: World of Doom) [fr] [en] [de]]

📦️ Misc. repositories
[Repology] [pkgs.org] [Generic binary] [Arch Linux / AUR] [openSUSE] [Debian/Ubuntu] [Flatpak] [AppImage(author's repo)] [Snap] [PortableLinuxGames]

🕵️ Reviews
[HowLongToBeat] [metacritic] [OpenCritic] [iGDB]

🕊️ Source of this Entry: [Boiling Steam on mastodon (202201)]

🦣️ Social Networking Update (on mastodon)

🕹️ Title: Akalabeth: World of Doom
🦊️ What's: One of the first CRPG in history, drawing its inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons
🏡️ https://www.gog.com/game/akalabeth_world_of_doom
🐣️ -
🔖 #LinuxGaming #ShareYourGames #RPG
📦️ #Free
📖 Our entry: https://www.lebottindesjeuxlinux.tuxfamily.org/en/online/lights-on/

🥁️ Update: -
⚗️ -
📌️ Changes: -
🦣️ From: https://mastodon.cloud/@boilingsteam/107584840376479996

🕵️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/YA5YNuooYYQ
🎙️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/NkGQtumY6X0
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/XlspTWt9xy8

📕 Description [en]

📜️ "One of the first CRPG in history, drawing its inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons" 📜️

GOG:

'Tis said that long ago peace and tranquility covered the lands. Food and drink flowed freely, man and beast lived in peace, gold and silver abounded – it was the Golden Age of Akalabeth.

Mondain, second born of Wolfgang, a great king of old, wished to gain his brother's inheritance and so he used his great powers for evil, creating deep dungeons guarded by daemons and Balrogs. Now blood flowed freely in Akalabeth, and foul creatures soon came to roam near the surface. Mondain cast such sickness and pestilence upon Akalabeth, that both man and beast lived in constant fear. Thus was the Dark Age of Akalabeth.

There arose from the land a man, pure and just, to battle the Dark Lord. British, Champion of the White Light, did battle with Mondain deep within the labyrinth of dungeons, eventually driving him from Akalabeth forever. British of the White Light was proclaimed Lord British, Protector of Akalabeth. Alas, much damage had been suffered unto the lands. The Revival of Akalabest has begun.

'Tis thy duty to rid Akalabeth of the foul creatures which infest it, whilst trying to stay alive!

• Developed in 1979, Akalabeth is the first game made by the legendary creator of the Ultima Series, Richard Garriot.
• Designed by the teenage Garriot in Applesoft BASIC for the Apple II, Akalabeth is one of the earliest known examples of a computer role-playing game, and is considered by many to be "Ultima 0."
• Featuring 10 different monsters, procedurally generated dungeon crawling, and wire frame 3D graphics, Akalabeth was highly advanced for its time and is still widely regarded as one of the most historically significant RPGs ever created.


🌍️ Wikipedia:

Akalabeth: World of Doom (/əˈkæləbɛθ/) is a role-playing video game that had a limited release in 1979 and was then published by California Pacific Computer Company for the Apple II in 1980. Richard Garriott designed the game as a hobbyist project, which is now recognized as one of the earliest known examples of a role-playing video game and as a predecessor of the Ultima series of games that started Garriott's career.

History

The game was made by teenager Richard Garriott in Applesoft BASIC for the Apple II while attending high school in the Houston, Texas suburbs. Begun first as a school project during his junior year using the school's mainframe system DEC PDP-11. The game continually evolved over two years under the working title DND with the help of his friends and regular Dungeons & Dragons partners who acted as play-testers. Final development of the game began soon after his initial encounter with Apple computers in the summer of 1979, on Apple II bought for him by his father and, later, on Apple II Plus, but Garriott did not expect that the public would see his work.

When the game reached version DND28B later that year (where "28B" refers to the revision), he demoed the game – now renamed to Akalabeth – for his boss, John Prosper Mayer, at a Clear Lake City, Texas-area ComputerLand, who suggested he sell the game in the store. Garriott consented and spent $200 to package and sell the game for $20 inside Ziploc bags, with photocopied instructions and a cover drawn by his mother. It warned "BEWARE FOOLISH MORTAL, YOU TRESPASS IN AKALABETH, WORLD OF DOOM!!", and claimed to offer "10 different Hi-Res Monsters combined with perfect perspective and infinite dungeon levels". California Pacific Computer Company received a copy, and contacted Garriott to publish the game. Garriott flew to California with his parents and agreed to receive $5 for each copy sold. The retail price of the California Pacific version, with cover artwork by Denis Loubet, was $35; Garriott claims that the game sold 30,000 copies, with him receiving $150,000, and that Akalabeth had the best return on investment, with later games "all downhill from there". The company suggested that for marketing purposes "Lord British" be credited as the author, and organized a contest for Softalk readers to figure out his true identity.

In creating Akalabeth, Garriott was primarily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, for which he held weekly sessions in his parents' house while in high school, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, which he received from an in-law of his brother. The name derives from Tolkien's Akallabêth, part of The Silmarillion, though the game is not based on Tolkien's story. In the original game, the last monster on the need-to-kill list is called "Balrog", like the demonic monsters from The Lord of the Rings, and unlike the later name for the monster in the Ultima games, Balron.

While not explicitly stated, Akalabeth is seen as the first game of the Ultima series, a very popular and influential series of role-playing video games. It was, therefore, included as part of the 1998 Ultima Collection where it officially picked up the nickname Ultima 0. The version, programmed for free by Corey Roth, an Ultima fan, in the Collection added CGA colors and MIDI. It ran on DOS, making it the first official port of the game to any system other than the Apple II, though an unofficial, fan-made PC version had circulated on the Internet since late 1995.

Copies of the original Akalabeth are much more rare than those of other games that sold fewer than 30,000 copies. Jimmy Maher from the Digital Antiquarian homepage believes that Garriott is mistaken on the figure, as the game only appeared near the bottom of the Softalk's monthly list of the top 30 best-selling Apple II programs twice before being discontinued in 1982; by contrast Sierra On-Line's The Wizard and the Princess, which often appeared near the top of the list, sold 25,000 copies by mid-1982. Given California Pacific's high royalty rates, he suggests that 10,000 copies might have been enough for Garriott to earn $150,000.

Gameplay and technology

Garriott is the sole author of the game, with the exception of title artwork by Keith Zabalaoui. The game attempts to bring the gameplay of pen-and-paper role-playing games to the computer platform. The player receives quests from Lord British (Garriott's alter-ego and nickname since high school) to kill a succession of ten increasingly difficult monsters.

The majority of gameplay takes place in an underground dungeon, but there was also a simple above-ground world map and text descriptions to fill out the rest of the adventure. The player could visit the Adventure Shop to purchase food, weapons, a shield and a magic amulet; the player's statistics can also be viewed here.

The game used concepts that would later become standard in the Ultima series, including:

• First-person gameplay in dungeons
• Requiring food to survive
• A top-down overhead world view
• Hotkeys used for commands
• The use of Elizabethan English

Garriott's earlier versions before D&D28b used an overhead view with ASCII characters representing items and monsters. However, after playing Escape, an early maze game for the Apple II, he instead decided to switch to a wire-frame, first-person view for the underground dungeon portions of the game, the first computer role-playing game with such graphics. The game asks the player to provide a "lucky number", which it uses as a random seed to procedurally generate the rest of the game, including dungeons and player stats; by using the same number the player can always return to a given world. The Ultima Collection version added savegame support while still using a similar random seed.

While crude by modern standards, in 1980 Akalabeth's graphics and dungeon crawl gameplay mechanics were considered quite advanced, and the game attracted a large amount of attention. And, since Akalabeth was written in Applesoft BASIC, an interpreted language, it was a simple matter for users to modify the source code to suit their needs or desires. For example, the game's magic amulet, which occasionally did unpredictable things like turn a player into a high-powered Lizard Man, or a weak Toad, could be set for "Lizard Man" with every use, progressively increasing the player's strength to the point of virtual indestructibility. One could also set the player's statistics (normally randomly generated and fairly weak to start) to any level desired. Also later Origin Systems offered the source code on their FTP servers.
Release date

Most sources, including Garriott and Origin Systems, say that Akalabeth was created in the summer of 1979 after he graduated from high school, and sold that year in Ziploc bags. Maher believes that Garriott did not begin selling Akalabeth until the summer of 1980, after his first year of college. California Pacific widely released the game in 1980 with a 1980 copyright date, and Akalabeth first appeared on the Softalk top 30 list for the month of October 1980.

Akalabeth was ported to DOS as part of Ultima Collection in 1998.

Reception

According to Richard Garriott, Akalabeth sold roughly 30,000 units. As he earned $5 per copy, these sales totaled $150,000 in revenue, which Garriott called "not a bad return for a hundred hours of work by a high school kid."

Steve Jackson reviewed Akalabeth in The Space Gamer No. 36. Jackson commented that "On the whole, I recommend Akalabeth highly. The graphics are better than I've seen on any similar game; the program is varied and fairly logical. And it's fun."

The game was reviewed in 1982 in The Dragon #65 by Bruce Humphrey. Humphrey concluded that "Akalabeth is a poor cousin in relation to Wizardry and some of the other recent role-playing computer games." Scorpia of Computer Gaming World, a fan of Ultima, agreed in 1991 and 1993: "Bluntly, it wasn't all that terrific". She did, however, note that the game was the first to offer 3-D perspective dungeon graphics.

📕 Description [fr]

L'un des premiers CRPG de l'histoire, par Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (Lord British)
Il utilise l'émulateur (DOS) DOSBox.

Akalabeth: World of Doom est l'un des premiers CRPG de l'histoire, conçu dans sa 1er version sur un Apple II par Richard Garriott en 1979. Puisant son inspiration dans les Donjons & Dragons sur papier, il est considéré comme le 1er Ultima de la série. Le jeu démarre (en vue objective) dans une ville où le joueur pourra effectuer des achats (nourriture, armes, ...) pour se poursuivre pour l'essentiel (et en vue subjective en fil de fer) dans un sous-terrain, où le joueur se verra confier des quêtes par Lord British pour éliminer 10 monstres de plus en plus difficiles à vaincre, tout en ne perdant pas de vue sa nourriture qui diminue avec la progression.


GOG (traduction du Bottin) :

On dit qu'il y a longtemps, la paix et la tranquillité régnaient sur les terres. La nourriture et les boissons coulaient à flot, les hommes et les bêtes vivaient en paix, l'or et l'argent abondaient - c'était l'âge d'or d'Akalabeth.

Mondain, second né de Wolfgang, un grand roi d'antan, souhaitait récupérer l'héritage de son frère et utilisa donc ses grands pouvoirs pour le mal, créant de profonds donjons gardés par des démons et des Balrogs. Le sang coulait désormais librement dans Akalabeth, et des créatures immondes vinrent bientôt errer près de la surface. Mondain répandit une telle maladie et une telle pestilence sur Akalabeth que les hommes et les bêtes vivaient dans une peur constante. Ce fut l'âge sombre d'Akalabeth.

Un homme, pur et juste, s'est levé pour combattre le Seigneur des Ténèbres. British, champion de la lumière blanche, combattit Mondain au plus profond du labyrinthe des donjons, le chassant finalement d'Akalabeth pour toujours. British de la lumière blanche a été proclamé Lord British, Protecteur d'Akalabeth. Hélas, de nombreux dommages avaient été subis par les terres. La renaissance d'Akalabest a commencé.

Il est de votre devoir de débarrasser Akalabeth des créatures immondes qui l'infestent, tout en essayant de rester en vie !

- Développé en 1979, Akalabeth est le premier jeu réalisé par le légendaire créateur de la série Ultima, Richard Garriot.
- Conçu par Garriot adolescent en Applesoft BASIC pour l'Apple II, Akalabeth est l'un des premiers exemples connus de jeu de rôle sur ordinateur et est considéré par beaucoup comme "Ultima 0".
- Avec ses 10 monstres différents, ses donjons générés de manière procédurale et ses graphismes 3D en fil de fer, Akalabeth était très avancé pour l'époque et est encore largement considéré comme l'un des RPG les plus importants jamais créés.


🌍️ Wikipedia:

Akalabeth: World of Doom est un jeu vidéo de jeu vidéo de rôle créé par Richard Garriott en 1979 sur Apple II. D’abord publié par Richard Garriott lui-même, le jeu est ensuite publié par la California Pacific Computer Company. Le jeu s’est vendu à environ 30 000 exemplaires, rapportant environ 150 000 dollars à Richard Garriot qui est alors encore à l’université. Akalabeth: World of Doom est considéré comme un des premiers exemples de jeu vidéo de rôle sur ordinateur et inclut la plupart des fonctionnalités présentes dans les jeux plus récent du même genre dont la possibilité de choisir un personnage, les caractéristiques de celui-ci, une boutique permettant d’acheter des armes et des armures, un système de niveau basé sur l’accumulation de points d’expériences et des monstres dont la puissance croit au fur et à mesure de la progression du joueur dans le jeu. Son succès a provoqué l'émergence de la très populaire série Ultima, ce qui lui vaut d'être désigné sous le terme Ultima 0, et du studio Origin Systems fondé par Richard Garriott en 1983.

Initialement publié sur Apple II, le jeu a bénéficié d'une version DOS publié au sein de la compilation Ultima Collection en 1998.

Origine

Akalabeth fut créé à l’été 1980 par Richard Garriott, alors adolescent, en langage BASIC pour l’Apple II tandis qu’il travaillait dans un magasin Computerland d’Austin, au Texas (certaines sources — Garriott inclus — affirment que le jeu fut créé en 1979, mais les premières éditions mentionnent cependant 1980 comme date de publication). Garriott distribua brièvement le jeu lui-même dans des sacs plastiques avant que California Pacific Computer Company n’acquiert les droits et ne le publie.

En créant Akalabeth, Garriott s’est principalement inspiré du jeu de rôle Donjons et Dragons et des œuvres de J. R. R. Tolkien. Le jeu essaye de reproduire une partie de jeu de rôle sur un ordinateur et le joueur se voit confier par un certain Lord British des quêtes en vue de tuer une suite de dix monstres de plus en plus difficiles à vaincre.

Le nom dérive du terme « Akallabêth » créé par Tolkien dans son Silmarillion (bien que Garriott l’ait à l’origine appelé « D&D28b », le 28e jeu inspiré par Donjons et Dragon qu’il ait programmé).

Présentation

La majorité du jeu se déroule dans un souterrain tracé en perspective subjective en fil-de-fer, tandis qu’une carte du monde très dépouillée et un peu de texte complètent le reste de l’aventure.

Au vu des jeux actuels, Akalabeth semble un jeu simpliste et ses graphismes sont totalement dépassés, mais il reçut une certaine attention de la part des joueurs quand il fut publié. Les graphismes étaient plus qu’acceptables pour l’époque et Garriott vendit plusieurs dizaines de milliers d’exemplaires d’Akalabeth, chaque copie lui rapportant 5$ alors qu’il étudiait toujours au lycée.

Comme Akalabeth était écrit en BASIC interprété, il était très simple pour un joueur d’en modifier le code pour satisfaire ses envies, changer les statistiques de son personnage, ses objets, etc.

Lien avec Ultima

Bien que cela ne soit pas déclaré explicitement, Akalabeth est considéré comme le tout premier jeu de la série Ultima. Le jeu fut ainsi inclus dans la compilation Ultima Collection pour PC publiée en 1998 où il fut officiellement surnommé Ultima 0. Cette version possède des graphismes CGA 4 couleurs et une musique MIDI et fut le premier port officiel du jeu sur un autre système que l’Apple II (une version non officielle faite par un fan circule cependant sur Internet depuis 1995).