Lord British’s return to Britannia is old news – Richard Garriott’s Kickstarter to fund his new game, Shroud of the Avatar, is already up to more than 75% of its stated goal of $1 million – but did you know that pledging at the “Lord of the Manor” level, a $10,000 donation, would have secured for yourself a copy of Garriott’s original game, Akalabeth?

What differentiates this perk from the high-priced copies that occasionally show up on eBay, is that these have been assembled from Garriott’s private stash of left-over parts from when he was originally selling ziploc-bagged copies at his local software store.  Unfortunately, all 10 backer spots at that level have sold already (the Kickstarter launched just three days ago) so if you missed out, you’ll just have to dream about what might have been.

You can read all details at this Wired article.  Is a hand-assembled copy of the original Ultima game worth $10,000?  It was to a few eager fans.

Volume 17, Issue 2 (June 2012) of Juiced.GS, the longest-running Apple II publication in print, has been mailed to all subscribers. This issue features an interview with Dan Muse, former editor-in-chief of inCider/A+, as he reflects on the magazine’s evolution and legacy. Wade Clarke details his transition from writing text adventures for the Apple II in Eamon to using the modern interactive fiction language of Inform 7. Andy Molloy reviews Stephen Emond’s paperback book, Ultima: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide, while Peter Neubauer continues his Logo programming tutorial. All this, and much, much more!

This is Juiced.GS‘s second quarterly issue of 2012. Hardcopy subscriptions are available at $19 for United States customers and $27 for international customers, with several free sample issues available as PDFs.

Over at comp.sys.apple2, an extensive message detailing the disassembly of Richard Garriott’s Ultima 1 has been posted.  It’s a great read and definitely worth checking out if you’re at all interested in Ultima, game programming or just Apple II programming in general.  Check it out here.

The June 2011 episode of Open Apple, the only co-hosted Apple II podcast, is now available. This month, Mike and Ken chat with Brian Wiser about VCF East, Apple II magazines, museums, Ron Wayne, and Ultima.

Find the episode on the Open Apple Web site or in iTunes.