Contra the not-so-recent-anymore spate of fake copies of Akalabeth that popped up on eBay a while back, one would be forgiven for looking askance at this sale and dismissing it as just another scam. And yet, that is apparently not the case; this is apparently a legitimate original copy of Richard Garriott’s first published game, verified by readers of this very site (which probably means Stephen Emond and Jocksitter Dragon).

In which case, its $6,500 price tag is a bit of a steal; you had to pledge $10,000 to Shroud of the Avatar to get a copy of Akalabeth copied from the original source on the original Apple ][!

Furthermore, the diskette does apparently boot:

So…if you want to own what appears to be a legitimate piece of gaming (and Ultima!) history, you can do it for just $6,500. Or maybe less; the buyer appears to have left the entry open to offers.