If you are a fan of video games and love playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, then you have one person to thank - Richard Garriott, aka Lord British. Garriott is responsible for unleashing some of the best video games that helped to shape the future of gaming. One of his early games, Akalabeth: World of Doom, paved the way for his Ultima series, which still influences role-playing game development today.
You may not know that Garriott is the son of astronaut Owen K. Garriott, who was involved in Skylab 3 and flew a number of Space Shuttle missions. Richard Garriott made it his mission in life to be the first private citizen to go to space. He nearly made it too, until the dot-com bubble burst along with his finances. Garriott eventually made it to space in 2008.
Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission is a documentary about his effort to escape Earth. The doc won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW in 2010. The film is finally getting a limited release this weekend, and we have the trailer below.
Firmly ensconced in the geeky pantheon of computer legends since high school, Richard Garriott can afford to pursue his dreams – even the wildly improbable ones. For instance, following in his astronaut father’s footsteps. NASA won’t take you because of bad eyes? No problem! Pioneer your own private space industry and buy a $30 million seat on a Russian Soyuz. Richly funny and invigorating, Man on a Mission tags along with Richard on his years-long quest to be the second Garriott into space. And maybe come back.
I love the idea of going to space, but there is no way I could afford it. This looks like a cool documentary, that I will check out when it arrives on Netflix or DVD.