Over at The Reconstruction, Voyager Dragon has posted an interesting summary of the history of the non-canon Ultima title Escape from Mount Drash, as well as links to the various remakes of it that have emerged over the years.

Of all the games in the Ultima series, Escape from Mount Drash for the VIC-20 is like a bastard child among its brethren. Not only was it not even made by Richard Garriot, but it was made by one of his friends who published the game through Sierra Online shortly after the release of Ultima II. Unbeknownst to RG, the game was given the Ultima name. It barely sold, and it has been rumored that both retail outlets and the publisher were so embarrassed by the game that they either buried all their remaining copies or dumped them off of a cliff! For more info on this history of this game, see the Wikipedia entry.

Whatever the real story, the VIC-20 version surfaced again among Ultima fans in 1997 when Ben Johnson claimed to have found a copy, and again in 2000 when Fortran Dragon obtained a copy and posted the screenshots on his website. Thanks to their efforts, we now know more about this game.

Click on over for the rest of it!

🙂 WtFD