Back in December of last year, I posted about The Way Things Were, pointing the way to Matt Barton’s article on the early days of CRPGs.
That was the first part. Now, at last, Matt has finished the second part, about the “Golden Age”, and quite a piece it is, covering the period 1985-1993. The detail is astonishing, and his range of knowledge is really amazing.
Some of those titles I’d never heard of. Of course, those specific to a platform other than the Apple are outside my range, but he mentioned a few Apple/DOS that were completely unknown to me.
Matt does a fantastically thorough and detailed analysis of the best games in the period. He didn’t miss one. Despite his love for the original Pool Of Radiance from SSI (the way I feel about Ultima IV), he does manage an overall objective assessment of the genre.
This is also, by its nature, a long piece, running nine pages over on Gamasutra. Nonetheless, it is very much worth reading. A tip o’ the claw to Matt Barton for the work and love (you can’t do something like this unless you love gaming) he put into it.
Loved the article. A LOT.
I think he did miss a couple of excellent games from the era, but he’s already mentioned that one game (Ultima VII) would be talked about in the next installment (even though it came out in 1992, and part II came out in 1993).
Also, Ultima Underworld came out in 1992, and UU2 in 1993. In some ways, UU blew me away more than U7 did, though I think U7 had the more lasting impression upon my psyche.
There was also no mention of Paragon’s RPGs, like the Traveller series, or Twilight:2000. Not that those games were really any good, but they did carry licenses from the dice & paper world into the world of computers. Twilight: 2000 was unique in that it had you play the vehicular combat as a 3D simulation. Clever, and cool in concept, but I think it hurt the game in the long run.
Matt has a LOVE of the genre that is infectuous. He talks about these ancient games as lovingly as if they were brand new, and makes it very clear just why they (and the genre in general) are so very cool.
Coyote,
If you want to pick nits, I can add the following games as well that were omitted from the article.
The Black Crypt from Raven Software published in 1993 by EA. An excellent DM clone with an unique magic system.
Ishar from Silmarils published in 1992.
Paladin and Paladin II from Impressions published in 1992 (for 2) by Omnitrend. Impressions is best known for Casar 1, 2, and 3.
Bloodwych published in 1989 by Image Works, UK.
Star Command published in 1988 by SSI.
Roadwar and Roadwar Europa (1987) by SSI.
Sword of Aragon published by SSI around 1990.
And the excellent King’s Bounty by New World Computing around 1990. This game was the ancester to the Heroes of Might & Magic series.
Scorpia, did you play any of these games???
Ow, yeah, Ultima Underworld. That ought to have been on his list. But remember he’s not just talking about games that impressed, but had an effect on the genre.
Presto, Paladin and King’s Bounty sound dimly familiar. The others, I don’t know at all. I certainly never played any of them.
I think UU qualifies as both impressing and having an effect on the genre. It was the first “first person 3D” type RPG and the first one where you could literally pick up ANYTHING. I remember fondly grabbing rocks and skulls and bones to hurl at monsters. Heh. Fun times!
I wasn’t as impressed with UUII… some of the “worlds” you went to were just a bit too weird and the whole thing had a much more claustrophobic feel for me (appropriate given the premise, I guess). I should someday go back and finish it.
Yup, I thought UU was very influential. Never finished UU2 though. But I think UU1 was a bit of a spiritual ancestor of Elder Scrolls: Arena.
The only reason I mentioned the Paragon titles was their licenses. I think there was also a Jorune-licensed RPG (or was it an action game) that came out in this time period as well. But probably just as well — this isn’t a comprehensive history :)
Oh wow that article brought back a lot of memories. Most of them good. :)
I still have many of those games in boxes in my closet (and recently I was looking through them when trying to dig out LOOM to play with my kid). It sure made me want to go back and play some of them again. Unfortunately I’ve found that many of those games I just can’t play anymore. I look at the interface and my brain cramps. How did we ever keep all that stuff straight? And no automapping! No auto-journals! We sure are spoiled now.
And he even mentions Sentinel Worlds! Heh… the thing that sticks out most in my mind about Sentinel Worlds is the music. I was blown away by the amazing music they made come out of my PC speaker for that game. It was revolutionary!
It always seems funny to me when people include Quest for Glory in the CRPG category – I’ve always thought of it as an adventure game myself.
I see he’s going to cover one of my all-time favorite games next time, too – Planescape: Torment. That game had some of the most memorable NPCs to join your party. Morte, Annah, Falls-From-Grace, the Githyanki (Drakon? I can’t remember his name now!), and I know there were others but I didn’t take them with me so I don’t remember them. To this day I think Morte is my favorite NPC in a CRPG. Followed closely by Minsc (and Boo), of course.
I will have to agree on Ultima Underworld as well. It really did have an effect on the genre, and was years ahead of anything else at the time. For example, you could look up and down, something that you couldn’t do with Doom or other FPS games until Quake, nearly 5 years later. There was also one part way down in the abyss where you got the ability to fly, so not only could you look up and down but actually move on the Z axis. I finished both Ultima Underworlds and enjoyed both of them.
A couple really bring back memories. I really liked Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, which was the predecessor to games such as Eye of the Beholder or The Black Crypt that Presto mentioned. Dungeon Master still has a loyal following, and remakes for modern PCs such as Return to Chaos are available as freeware, as well as having an active forum at http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/.
At first Alternate Reality: The City was pretty good, but there wasn’t really a point to it. The first module let you build up your character, but that was about all you could do. With the release of Alternate Reality: The Dungeon you finally had some objectives but it was too little too late.
Bloodwych was also good. I played it on the Amiga, never saw the PC version.
Scorpia,
On a related topic, there is an article entitled Rose Tinted Memories of CRPG at:
http://www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1184
This article supports this history article nicely. Check it O-U-T. Or I will let you meet my jolly green giant friend, The Big G from Japan.
A link at RPGWatch has an article about storytelling in CRPGs. The first article covers Wizardy 1 Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.
An interesting read.
Xian,
To my knowledge, Bloodwych was an UK game for the amiga only.
Speaking of old games-
I found a game that was inspired by The Bard’s Tale, I think it was created using the construction set. I have not played yet (no time during the week), but it looks good.
http://www.battlephase.com/warrior/index.html
Have you seen this Scorpia?
Mark
Another one that I’ve tried only briefly is “Devil Whiskey.” It looks nice, but just like The Bard’s Tale it is INSANELY hard to survive the first couple of levels. Just on your way to the blacksmith to buy weapons you are likely to get your entire party slaughtered by passing thugs.
Some things are BETTER left in the past.
Mark, that’s a new one on me. When I have a moment, I may take a look at it. The download is under 5 megs, which is reasonable. Thanks for the link.
Coyote, it’s one thing to draw inspiration from the past, and another to recreate it too closely. Sounds like the people behind DW were a bit too close in the recreation.
Devil Whiskey seemed boring to me, I hope this one is better.
Mark