# Akalabeth: World of Doom

> A 1998 PC conversion of Richard Garriott's 1979 dungeon crawler, the game that came before Ultima, made for Origin's Ultima IX.

Web page: https://emulationking.com/microsoft/ms-dos/games/akalabeth-world-of-doom/
Page updated: 2026-10-04

- Developer: Richard Garriott (PC conversion for Origin Systems)

Akalabeth is Richard Garriott's first published game, a 1979 Apple II dungeon crawler that is often called Ultima 0. Lord British sends you into the dungeons below his castle to slay ten ever more dangerous monsters, with an overhead map of the land above and wireframe 3D corridors below.

This version is the 1998 PC conversion, made so that players could find Akalabeth in Ultima IX: Ascension. It runs in VGA and keeps the original's rules and its ten difficulty levels.

## How to set it up

1. Install [DOSBox Staging](/microsoft/ms-dos/emulator/dosboxstaging/) or another DOS emulator.
2. Unzip the download into a folder of its own.
3. Start DOSBox Staging and type `mount c "<folder>\akalabeth"`, where `<folder>` is where you unzipped the download, then `c:`.
4. Type `AK.EXE` to start the game.

## Latest builds

Download these from the web page: https://emulationking.com/microsoft/ms-dos/games/akalabeth-world-of-doom/#download

- (MS-DOS, 397 KB)