Richard Garriott

Richard Garriott
Born	July 4, 1961 (1961-07-04) (age 49) Cambridge, England
Nationality	British / American
Occupation	Game designer

Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961) is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa. A figure in the video game industry, Garriott was originally a game designer and programmer and now engages in various aspects of computer game development and business.

On October 12, 2008, Garriott launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the International Space Station as a self-funded tourist^[1][2], returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12.

Biography

Early life

Garriott was born in Cambridge, England,^[3] and raised in Nassau Bay, Texas, United States. He is the son of scientist Owen K. Garriott, who became an astronaut and flew with Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9. At Clear Creek High School, he took an interest in computers and began self-directed courses in programming in which he created fantasy computer games. In the summer of 1977, Richard's parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British,^[4] despite the fact that Garriott's parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and — despite his nickname and birthplace — his accent is American rather than British.^[5]

Programming career

Richard continued programming many games, often offering them to friends for free. He produced his first published game, Akalabeth (DND28b^[6]), in the summer of 1980 while working at a ComputerLand retail store. Garriott earned more than enough money from Akalabeth to pay to continue his education. In the fall, he entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism.

In the early 1980s, Garriott developed the Ultima computer game series (sequels after the first were numbered, such as Ultima II, Ultima III and so on). Originally programmed for the Apple II, the first was published by California Pacific Computers, and sold in Ziploc plastic bags to interested parties. The second part was published by Sierra On-Line. By the time he developed his third installment, the games had such a large following that Garriott (along with his brother, Robert, and father and others) established Origin Systems, their own video game publisher, to handle the publishing and distribution of his title, now available on several platforms.

Garriott sold Origin to Electronic Arts in September 1992. In 1997, he coined the term Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, MMORPG, giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.^[7] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.^[8][9] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the current CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

In an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website posted November 11, 2008, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.^[10] On the 24th of November NCsoft announced they planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.^[11]

Spaceflight

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as the sixth space tourist, reportedly paying $30 million USD.^[1][12] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,^[1][13][14] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.^[15] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. Garriott placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.^[16] He returned to Earth on October 24 aboard the Soyuz TMA-12 with two members of Expedition 17, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Volkov. Garriott is the second second-generation space traveler, after Volkov.^[17][18]

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.^[19] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the ARISS SSTV amateur radio system. Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.^[20] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.^[20]

Also, Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.^[21]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Crew 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with space tourist Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 9:37 a.m. (0336GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.^{[22][23][24][25]}

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.^[26] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corp, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.^[27]

Other accomplishments and interests

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York^[28] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).^[29]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.^[30]

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas. He also promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures and as a trustee of the X-Prize.

Awards

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006.

Video game works

References

External links

• Richard Garriott's Public Web Site
• Blog and details about Garriott's spaceflight
• Spacefacts biography of Richard Garriott
• Richard Garriott's Twitter page
• Richard Garriott at MobyGames
• Richard Garriott at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Garriott interview with Next Generation
• Richard Garriott interview on UORadio
• Biography of Garriott from DragonCon.org
• Interview with Garriott in Austin Chronicle from 2000
• Munchkin Village mayor tries to go to space: Computer programmer touts commercial space tourism (The Daily Texan, 7/19/2005)
• Interview with Richard Garriott on space tourism (The Space Review, 8/8/2005)
• The Dot Eaters article featuring a history of Garriott/Lord British, his games, and Origin.
• Interview with Garriott on space and Operation Immortality featuring footage of Richard training.
• Windows on Earth
• MSNBC article entitled "Postcards From Space" about the amateur radio SSTV images sent from the ISS by Richard Garriott
• BBC Breakfast News video interview with Richard Garriott filmed about 10 weeks prior to his space mission.