There’s a very positive review of the second edition of Dungeons & Dreamers (which, you may recall, came to our attention a while back) over at GeekDad.

It really came as no surprise to me that much of the book focuses on just a few known names in the computer gaming world, and the first section of the story being told in the book is that of Richard Garriott, aka Lord British, of Ultima fame. Was it a surprise that the creator of Ultima played D&D? Absolutely not. But it’s all the details of Garriott’s home life and how his parent’s encouraged his involvement with D&D (as well as pretty much any kid in the small Oklahoma town where Garriott grew up). I’ve heard bits and pieces of Garriott’s story over the years, but here’s an amazingly comprehensive telling of how he went from D&D to coding an early version of a dungeon-inspired computer adventure game called Akalabeth to what fans around the world know as Ultima.

Scattered between the personal stories of Garriott and a few other notables) are snippets of history that cover text-based computer gaming such as MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) and Zork. Oh, the amazing history of Zork. I don’t care how many times I read different takes on the rise of the text-based adventure, it never gets old, and this book delivered plenty of behind-the-scenes details including some of the shenanigans that early programmers dealt with in terms of “liberated” code

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Finish Dungeons & Dreamers and I think you’ll agree that there really can’t be any doubt about D&D’s influence on the computer gaming world. Ultimately, the book isn’t about convincing you of this point, but providing you with the background stories… the good stuff. The good stuff is here, no doubt, spread out over 300 pages of personal stories, a bit of geek history, and a dozen or more games that can still be played today. And should.

Dungeons & Dreamers is available via Amazon (and it’s cheap on Kindle) or through the book’s website.