Jimmy “The Digital Antiquarian” Maher promised, the last time we heard from him, that he would dispel a myth common to Ultima fan circles, something that happened around the time that Origin Systems was founded and Ultima 3 was released. And today, he delivered on that promise with a look at the history — and, yes, fabricated stories — surrounding Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash.

He begins thusly:

…a legend sprung up around Drash that consisted of a few known facts woven together within a tapestry of conjecture. Drash, the story went, was an attempt by Sierra to make a quick buck off the Ultima name by releasing a slapdash game to the VIC-20 market, terra incognita to Richard Garriott, without his knowledge or consent. The implication is that someone at Sierra eventually got nervous about this dubious scheme and buried the game — in some versions of the story literally, by dumping remaining copies into a landfill in a tale that echoes the (itself likely exaggerated) tale of Atari’s dumping of millions of E.T. cartridges into a New Mexico landfill that same year. It’s a glib story which seems to explain much about the game’s obscurity while also investing it with a nice dollop of the nefarious, a plus for collectors of an industry that, let’s face it, isn’t exactly rife with the sort of dark secrets and forbidden fruits that their pals who collect, say, vintage records get to enjoy. Yet it’s also a story that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, to an extent that it’s hard to understand how so many bright people could buy into it. There are two serious objections, either of which would make it highly improbable. Together they make it impossible to believe.

The truth, of course, is a little less intrigue-laden, and has a great deal to do with the friendship between Keith Zabalaoui (the game’s author) and Richard Garriott:

Zabalaoui did visit Sierra in Garriott’s company, where he was inspired to start work on a simple maze-running action game. When he eventually showed the finished product to them, they were doubtful. It wasn’t a terrible game, but it wasn’t a great one either…Sierra hemmed and hawed, and then made a suggestion: if they could maybe market it as an Ultima that might help…Garriott was perhaps not thrilled with Sierra at this point in time, but he was always good to his friends. When Zabalaoui came to him with Sierra’s request, Garriott agreed, likely more as a personal favor to someone who had helped him out with his own projects quite a bit in the past than anything else. Today, of course, when the industry is so much more mature and so much more sensitive to the power of branding, one in Garriott’s position would never risk tarnishing his trademark in such a way. But in 1983 both Garriott and his industry were still very young.

He notes that this story has been confirmed by other sources, including Origin historian Pix, who got confirmation from Richard Garriott in person that yes, Mount Drash had been authorized by him.

So…that’s that. Maher goes on to urge those who still have published versions of the erroneous Mount Drash legend to issue corrections thereto. I, for one, am happy to report that the Codex of Ultima Wisdom already has the correct history of the game in the relevant entry.