Twenty-five years down the line, it's obvious he still has tremendous fondness for the Ultima series. But now with Destination Games becoming an internal development studio for NCsoft, Garriott is more of a company man - neat, presentable, always careful to promote his publisher's other games and never specifically naming the ones outside the NCsoft fold.

It's only from the back, when you see the two enormously long, thin plaits stretching down his back that you realise that the spirit of Lord British is still very much with us.