Thread: Home Haunt to make you drool

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Do you know Richard Garriott and his home...?...

Okay I will prob. get yell at.... who is he?

Nope, sure don't

He created one of the first server based role playing games, thus why his haunt is very RPG like. The new one starts this year at his new castle, it is going to be amazing more than likely. His new house is like a high tech version of the Winchester mystery house.

Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961) is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa. A figure in the video game industry, Garriott was originally a game designer and programmer and now engages in various aspects of computer game development and business.
On October 12, 2008, Garriott launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the International Space Station as a self-funded tourist, returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12.
Britannia Manor is the residence of game designer Richard Garriott. The name comes from the castle of Lord British, ruler of Britannia, the setting of the Ultima computer role playing game series, which he created. Britannia Manor is situated atop a large hill near Austin, Texas. The home was featured in a 2007 episode of the HGTV television series, Secret Spaces, on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and on MTV Cribs.
Britannia Manor is also the name given to what has been called the world's most famous haunted house, held in this location every two years from 1988 to 1994. Before 1995, Britannia Manor was famous for hosting the most elaborate haunted house in the country. Garriott spent a great deal of money biannually around Halloween to pay for makeup, tools, construction materials, special effects, and costumes for his haunted house. The actors and techs were all volunteers, many donating hundreds of hours for the honor of being a part of the show, and a free t-shirt. Only two men were paid to work on Britannia Manor, Greg Dykes and Keith Ewing, from local construction company Custom Creations. They oversaw and organized much of the specialized set construction. Invitations to what Garriott thought of as a giant house party were given away free, with the exception of a few shows where tickets were donated to charity and sold for $100 or more. People waited for as long as two weeks, camped out in front of Garriott's house, to be first in line to receive the free invitations.
Britannia Manor was a full contact Halloween adventure. The events were designed like a role-playing game. Participants would go through Garriott's mountain property in adventuring parties, gathering clues to solve mysteries and quests, while facing different perils and pitfalls. The actors would touch, grab, and physically as well as verbally interact with the guests, who could not simply wander through like in most haunted houses. They would have to swing, crawl, climb, and row their way out. It was not uncommon for parties to lose members in the course of the quest.

The last line you typed, they would lose members! Getting fingers and other things cut off would not be too much fun in my book.
No wonder this place's popularity died out!
"Here's you free tee-shirt, "I lost a member @ Britannia Manor"
Is this guy a closet cannibal?
"No we never found your finger." (Lip-smackin good it was in soup though, just that extra human meat touch!)

How about that one time he entered his game as Lord British and he forgot to put on his protection, some players noticed this and they killed his character!
He was supposed to have been very upset by this. Oh, well?

I have watched videos on his house before and to be very truthful, I was not too impressed. I know videos don't really take you "there" as far as size, feeling, mood..but with all of the money he had to play with there...?
I'm a nutcase by common standards, I admit this but if there is anybody out there who can sit in judgement on his efforts , it just might be me, all ego aside.
I begged and begged and finally got a personal loan from a non-relative for a mere $3,000 to buy my house (it was in very bad condition) and then for the last 23 years I have worked on this house everyday and had it open for tours almost every night (to make my living) I have done probably (no brag, just truth)98% of ALL the work done here during the last 23 years.
This statement includes everything mechanical, electrical, physical, cement work, display building to sweeping the parking lot.
I have also customized a few cars into Spookmobiles to advertise my house, no they are not hearses(and they don't play one on TV)
My secret doors swing real rocks and real bricks on huge hidden hinges I made. I have created things in this house nobody else ever has (as far as I know) People come here to be entertained, scared, but not to be made foolish by messing themselves infront of their friends, no strobe lights here, no fog machines no day-glow paint, no Hollywood monsters ,no gore or blood. I thoroughly have expressed my own ideas and concepts here as much as humanly possible ..and maybe that is why people come here and financially support what I have done?
I am far from anything like the know-all, be-all of anything but I know how to work hard and make my ideas come to life, with almost no money, just sweat equity, and of course the tools in my hands.
I have never owned or rented or had a backhoe or a crane work for me, but many people think that I have from the things I have accomplished here.

As an ultimate gamer, I must say that Ultima ruled. That aside,

After reading all that Gym, and after spending almost 10 years as a manager at a Hardware store, I am quite sure beyond any doubt Gym, that you are VERY well known at your local Hardware store...

I've seen your website, and I know that ALL didn't all come about without a lot of money, blood, sweat, and tears. And I also quite sure beyond a doubt that you prolly invented up a few choice swear words of your own over time.

Personal home repair, and building is 95% effort, and 5% pure Masochism.

Sounds like a good time!

Cuts, scrapes, punctures..but are you getting the project DONE!? For many years I would be spending 1/2 to a 1/3 of my income at lumber yards and hardware stores! (I kept thinking:"This Has to stop sometime!)
So right you are. All worth it though, I just finished a house tour for a couple who drove 5 1/2 hrs. to get here from the St Louis area. They arrived at 12 midnight but I took them in the house anyway and it was so much FUN!
The guy got very noticably scared numerous times from almost anything I happened to try.
He began swearing when it happened and I asked him if he was getting his money's worth?
(He came here to maybe get scared, you know!)
He begrugingly said, "Yes, he was getting his money's worth!" hahahaha!
They were alot of fun.
I asked him what he does for a living? (R U ready for this haunters?)
He works all night long answering the phone talking to crazy people! Something about mental health insurance!?
"Is there such a thing?" (The insurance not mental health)
They were already making their plans concerning coming back here. (For more fun, not revenge!)
And of course the conversation is always naming names of the ones they wish to bring here!
Of course at this late hour the tour was definately "Adult" in nature and they were a great audience, laughing almost non-stop at times. This got me laughing too.
I'm now getting paid to laugh!

The great god "Dumpster" has almost always been very kind to me.
I have proved that I have the technology to pull old nails from wood and the skill to saw off the rotted tips of old wood to make new boards again.
I have totally emptied huge dumpsters in this quest.
I may have owned this place ten years before I ever bought any lumber.
Salvaging the wood from a 100 yr. old farmhouse also provided some really old mantle pieces and very tall doors.
I had to hand-saw the floor boards out of the farm house , no electricty available there, a pruning saw works good for this.
And of course you need a truck, or the use of a truck.
I even had a local painter giving me all of her left over parts of gallons of latex paint, which also helped alot. I sometimes painted the backsides of wood to protect them where nobody would see what the color was.
The City Burning Ground is close by and people would throw away perfectly good concrete blocks and bricks. The bricks for one basement wall used to be a chimney a block away of a house that got demolished.
After I made the choice to go at haunting full-time, I was then available for all kinds of opportunitys that I mostly would not have had if I was on someone else's timeclock.
I was also available to answer my own phone and run outside to talk to potential patrons and an ocassional reporter, scooping up free publicity whenever the opportunity presented itself.
All of these little advantages went to help make success possible.