I saw this story first on Polygon yesterday morning, but it has subsequently been given a page on the Shroud of the Avatar website as well.

Most of you are probably aware that Akalabeth, Garriott’s first released game, was actually the 28th dungeon-crawling game he had written, and in fact was an Apple ][-based re-working of the actual 28th game. Until now, the first 27 games have largely been a thing of mystery…but as of yesterday, we have a little more information about the first game he ever wrote. It looked like this:

The game was inspired by a bet between Richard and his father Owen.

Richard had already written many smaller programs and simple games on the teletype he had access to since 1974. His early programs included calculating radio wave propagation in the ionosphere. Variations of this early “ray tracing” code he wrote won him numerous science fair competitions up through international competition. Still games were his obvious early passion.

Richard’s father told Richard, that if he could create a whole working role playing game, that he would split the cost of an Apple ][ computer with him. The result was D&D #1!

D&D #1 was created on a teletype at Clear Creek High School in Houston Texas, connected via an acoustic modem to a PDP 11 type mini-computer. Richard typed the game on a separate terminal onto paper tape spools, then read the tape strips into the terminal connected to the offsite computer, and ran the resulting program. The resulting program would play a simple Dungeons and Dragons like role-playing game. The player had a character that would explore a dungeon in search of treasure while fighting monsters along the way.

So that’s the history of the game. Here’s the challenge Richard Garriott has posed to the Shroud of the Avatar fandom:

D&D #1 represents one of the earliest known computer role playing games. Originally created and refined between the years 1975 – 1977, this game is one of the few true founding efforts of the entire computer gaming genre. Interestingly the ascii based “tile graphics” are a clear forerunner of what followed in Ultima and many other computer role playing games, and thus remains relevant to the genre’s history.

Richard has been eager to see this simple BASIC program, resurrected in a modern usable form, but remaining true to the original in as many ways as possible.

To achieve this end, Richard is offering a bounty of Shroud of the Avatar pledge rewards for the best reincarnations of D&D #1!

Starting April 15th 2014, just past one year into the development of Shroud of the Avatar, and running for 1 month through May 15th, Richard via Portalarium will be accepting submissions of D&D1 Resurrections in each of two versions. Submissions may be a Unity Version, and or a no-plug-in Browser Version. Winners will be announced shortly after the submission deadline. All submissions become property of Richard Garriott.

Best Unity Version & Best no-plug in Browser Versions will receive a Citizen Level Pledge Reward worth approximately $550.

2 runners up in both categories will receive $165 Collector level pledge each.

Additional eligibility requirements can be found on the Shroud of the Avatar website. The deadline for submissions is May 15th, and a scanned print-out of the source code is available, in PDF format, via the link above. Have at, Dragons and Dragonettes!