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Lord British's Lost Lunar Rover Found, After 37 Years
Lanxon writes "The guy behind Ultima Online once bought an old Russian rover, despite it being lost on the moon somewhere. And now, using images released by NASA, it has been located on the moon's surface after nearly four decades of being MIA, reports Wired. Richard Garriott, who created the Ultima Online multiplayer game, bought the Lunokhod 2 in a Sotheby's auction in New York in 1998. And so new was the discovery of his lost possession, he hadn't even heard that the craft had been discovered when Wired spoke to him."
(Richard Garriott is also well known as Lord British.)
At one point, Richard Garriott declared himself to be ruler of the moon, based on him being the only non-government entity to own anything physically on the moon.
It's a shame he doesn't make that claim more public.
As of 10/06/03, I hate COBOL developers.
Here.
The enemies of Democracy are
...you really need to read the fine print when buying a used car!
The above comments are the ravings of a lunatic and should be ignored completely.
As he is someone who has made his fortune from people paying for virtual possessions, I doubt that physical possession of the item is really that important for the sale :)
He should create an inventory of the parts of the rover and rent out custody of individual pieces on monthly subscription to those who want bragging rights to "having" something on the moon.
"Lord British"? Seriously? I thought Yahtzee was joking.
And now we have people who just know Lord British as "a guy that Yahtzee has once mentioned". *sigh* Where is this world going to?
Yeah, he should rightfully be remembered as that guy who got killed while in god mode in the game he created.
http://www.gamestooge.com/2009/01/02/feature-the-day-lord-british-died/
He also hasn't made a noteable game since 1997 (or 1999 if you consider Ultima IX noteable), at best 11 years ago. While I instantly know who Lord British is, he is far from a household name to someone who was 3 when Ultima Online launched.
That's right, it's happened to you: you got old.
Further observation reveals a parking ticket and booted wheel. With time elapsed, the fine comes to 100 million quatloos.
Here are your messages:
'You have thirty minutes to move your lunar rover.'
'You have ten minutes to move your rover.'
'Your rover has been impounded.'
'Your rover has been crushed into a cube.'
'You have thirty minutes to move your cube.'
But this guy is largely famous for creating the Ultima franchise, which is basically all but dead, because EA sank their fangs into Origin Systems and killed the company.
EA owns the Ultima IP. They also own Bioware, perhaps the number 1 Computer RPG shop on the planet.
Richard Garriott isn't doing anything these days, and I imagine most gamers have never played a single player Ultima these days.
The original Ultima games are barely playable today. The original trilogy is a little too straight forward, full of continuity holes, etc. He wasn't planning a lengthy franchise at that point.
They need to remake the Ultima franchise from the beginning. Arguably they could just use the Dragon Age engine and toolset that Bioware just developed, though I would hope a proper Ultima game would have one seamless world as opposed to maps like Dragon Age. Someone needs to make this happen, like yesterday.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Lunokhod 2 has been returning Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) pulses since the early 1970's. Not only is it not lost, its position is known to a centimeter or better.
Finding Lunokhod 1, which has been missing since 1971, would be a real coup, especially if LLR returns could be obtained from it.
He's been around since at least 2008.