I thought Garriott pioneered the first commercial RPG when he wrote "Akalabeth" as a high school programming project in 1977, but it was never released as a commercial game. (Copies are available, but are rare.) The first with graphics other than Basic/ASCII characters and little blobs representing people was by Richard Clardy, in 1978, with "Dungeon Campaign" (Apple only.) According to my source (Shay Addams' "The Official Book of Ultima,) "Wizardry" was designed in 1979, but not published until 1981. I remember it: it was all stick figures and lines representing dungeon mazes--but came with a little tablet of 16 X 16 dots arranged in squares (so that you could connect the dots to form a 15 X 15 matrix--the standard dungeon size in those days, and plot out the dungeon as you went along. In those days, volume 2 was essentially an add-on to the first game, as you could not play game 2 without owning game 1. This was before D. W. Bradley took over as lead designer, changing the entire format and introducing that spaceship. "Temple of Apshai," arguably the first RPG designed in Silicon Valley, was started in 1979. It was the second RPG I ever played, a little gem called "Phantasie" being the first. I don't know when it was published.

My copy of Jon van Caneghan's "King's Bounty", which preceded the first Might & Magic, is dated 1989-1991. So M&M is technically one of the later series, saving the best for last, of course. And what ever happened to Shay Addams? He was my hero, at one point.