Richard Garriott’s story begins with an Apple II and a dream.

At eighteen, he spent his entire life savings two hundred dollars to produce Akalabeth, his first video game. The first week he sold maybe a dozen copies, but soon after, the California Pacific Computer Company came calling, asking to publish the game.

Never could Richard have foreseen that this would become a multibillion-dollar industry. He would go on to launch Ultima, a seminal series of role-playing games. Ultima Online was the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and was named one of Time’s 100 greatest video games ever. Throughout, Richard has aspired to build the most lifelike gaming worlds possible, allowing players to interact with every object on the screen, experience consequences for moral transgressions, and fully personalize their gaming journey.

Away from the screen, Richard has also pushed the limits of human experience. A lifelong adventurer, he has plumbed the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to see the remains of the Titanic and hunted for meteorites in Antarctica, and in 2008 he became one of the first private citizens to travel into space. He was named by Maxim as one of the “Six Most Interesting Men You Can Actually Meet,” and was the real-life inspiration for James Halliday in Ernest Cline’s classic Ready Player One, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. Here, in his own words, is his extraordinary life story.