WEBVTT -- English

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Programmer, entrepreneur, astronaut, explorer.

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Richard Garriott is one of the most well-known personalities in the video game industry

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and one of the last of its pioneers still in the business.

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Ultima, the revolutionary series of role-playing games he designed

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and Origin Systems Inc., the company he co-founded in 1983

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are inextricably linked to the history of videogames.

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This is their story.

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Over the last four decades, Garriott has worked alongside and collaborated with many influential people in the gaming industry.

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Origin Systems, in the years that it operated, was an incubator of sorts; many well-known game developers got their start at Origin.

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And as computer technology moved from punch cards to the PC, from 2D line art to 3D graphics

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and from offline play to the internet, the games produced by Garriott and Origin

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were a driving force of innovation in an industry characterized by continuous, rapid evolution.

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Through the Moongate: The Story of Richard Garriott, Origin Systems Inc. and Ultima

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is a comprehensive, organic work of research – the first of its kind – on the history and impact that Garriott and Origin have had on the gaming industry.

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Within its pages, the author Andrea Contato has retold the story of Garriott’s entire creative career

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from his first games to his most recent: Shroud of the Avatar.

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A painstakingly researched study of character and history, Through the Moongate recollects the memories

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of friends, associates, and employees of Richard Garriott and Origin Systems, giving the reader a truly privileged point of view.

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Many of the stories in the book are new, having never been shared before

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and all serve to give the reader an intimate understanding one of the most eclectic personalities in the videogame industry.

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The work, detailed and complex, is divided into two volumes

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the first covers the career of Garriott from Akalabeth  through Ultima VI

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the second  will cover the period from Wing Commander and Ultima VII to Portalarium.

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Through the Moongate includes dozens of interviews with notable figures in the world of videogames

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such as Warren Spector, Paul Neurath, Siobhan Beeman, Al Nelson, Starr Long and many others

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and is illustrated with previously-unpublished images from the collections of Enrico Ricciardi and Richard Garriott.

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Embellished with new artwork by Denis Loubet and Manda

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Through the Moongate is a must-have book for Ultima fans

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and those fascinated by the history of video games.