History of Computer Role Playing Games (1974-1983)

Matt Barton writes "I thought Slashdotters might be interested in my History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part I article on Armchair Arcade. It starts with the birth of the CRPG on mainframes and ends in 1983. I start by discussing tabletop D&D and number games like Strat-O-Matic, move into mainframe classics like dnd and Rogue, and then cover the first CRPGs for home computers. I wrote this article for CRPG fans who want to learn more about venerable old classics like Akalabeth, Temple of Apshai, Ultima, Wizardry, Tunnels of Doom, Dungeons of Daggorath, and Telengard. Please share your own stories!"

Early Influences - Miniatures

[skeptictank (841287)]

I agree that D&D had a huge influence on CRPG and miniature wargaming had a huge impact on D&D. The first pnp rpgs grew out of existing miniatures rules.

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[rucs_hack (784150)]

I've never played a single RPG DND or MMORG.

And yet I'm a unix coder. I must be a mutant

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[dave1791 (315728)]

Like the rules covering armor in modern 3.5 D&D (and most CRPGs, at least spiritually). It is a twist on the older = 2ed rules which in turn take their form from the way that hits were calculated using six sided dice in chainmail.

Rumour has it...

[D-Cypell (446534)]

I start by discussing tabletop D&D....

Ahh... good old D&D. Better than Sex.... or so I'm told.

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[Aphrika (756248)]

I think the general rule back then was that you had one or the other...

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[AuMatar (183847)]

Not true, my character got laid plenty!

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[0racle (667029)]

Back then? I doubt it's changed. Well, unless you play with guys that swing the other way.

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[forkazoo (138186)]

I think the general rule back then was that you had one or the other...

Well, it's still difficult to do both at the same time....

Wizard's Crown

[Nightspirit (846159)]

Although slightly offtopic (wizard's crown was released in 1985), it is one of my favorite crpgs of all time, and it is obvious from the article where they got some of their ideas from. I still havn't beat the game.

Bard's Tale

[Saint Stephen (19450)]

That POS was the first one I played, although I saw some geeks playing Ultima I (I guess, or whatever) on the Apple IIe in the back of the classroom.

It was pretty fun as I recall.

Telengard

[Sigma 7 (266129)]

I tried getting back to Telengard after ~15 years. While there isn't a problem running a game in real-time, it becomes an issue when you have to wait ~5-10 seconds for the scene to render and only have a short window of opportunity to make an action before being assigned the default "pass". The situation was worse with IBM PCs - since processor speeds kept improving, any old game that relied on a slow processor for delays became almost unplayable (e.g. Ultima III - on a modern system the whirlpool would slag pirate ships before you could see it on screen, which was required to advance the plot.)

As a side note, these games aren't exactly Role-playing games. It's more on par with a combat-oriented red-box D&D (1st edition) where the only interest is in killing off monsters, as opposed to Paranoia where there is a mandatory focus on roleplaying (usually at the expense of the rules.) Regardless, I don't have anything against computer-run adventure programs.

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[Ucklak (755284)]

Telengard for the Commodore64 was written in Basic.
Very easy to give yourself the advantage.

My childhood was lost to Ultima III

[maeka (518272)]

In Ultima III I used to love to create "roads" three chests wide between all the cities/dungeons/moongates so I could travel at will w/o fear of attack by wandering monsters.
Then I learned that I could do the same in the ocean with boats, once I trapped the whirlpool.

L=Land
M=Sea Monster
O=Whirlpool
S=Ship
W=Water
(fixed width font required)

WWWW
LWLL
LSLL
LMOL
LLLL

You could do this in the little fjord just north of Lord British's castle.

Slashdotted already

[MagerValp (246718)]

Database server down. Any reason why slashdot doesn't coralize [nyud.net] or link to mirrordot [mirrordot.org] in every article?

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[Tim Browse (9263)]

Any reason why slashdot doesn't coralize or link to mirrordot in every article?

Yes [slashdot.org]

Trinkets

[ScottCooperDotNet (929575)]

I miss the large boxes with real manuals and a game-related trinket. For example, the Orb of Moons in the Ultima 6 box.

What other games came with trinkets?

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[ReverendHoss (677044)]

Everquest I & II both did this often. In addition to in-game items when the retail version of an expansion was purchased, I have a small collection of extras such as a Fiorina Vie figurine, collectable coins, cloth maps, etc.

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[damiangerous (218679)]

Ultima IV came with a nice cloth map and a lead ankh. Of course every Infocom game I can think of came with stuff. Ogre came with a real ID rad-badge (I didn't know until much later they were random since mine is the appropriate 2033rd Armored Division badge) with stickers that changed colors when exposed to gamma radiation.

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[Avatar8 (748465)]

I know that every Ultima game from IV through IX came with a cloth map and a trinket. I'm proud to say I have them all.

Ultima III definitely came with a cloth map; a friend had it, didn't want it any longer and gave it to me.

I do not know if Ultima I or II came with a cloth map or trinket. I only have the cardboard remake maps of those two.

The original Ultima Online, Collector (Dragon) edition included a cloth map and a medallion.

All of the Infocom games came with some trinket related to the game.

Nowa

Telengard

[Petrushka (815171)]

FTFA:

Telengard was directly inspired by the PLATO dnd game mentioned above, with minimal graphics and randomized dungeons.

This is inaccurate: Telengard's dungeon is not random, but procedurally generated (rather like the universe of Elite).

Out of interest, this map [mazmanian.net] rather entertainingly shows someone's abortive attempt to map the dungeon (they got only a tiny fraction of the way through mapping the first level, tee hee).

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[fishbowl (7759)]

The subject says "used" as though rogue is past-tense...

Lots of people still play rogue. I prefer Nethack, of course. By "prefer", I mean, I prefer its gameplay to any other computer game that I have tried *ever*.

Re:Rogue used @ for the player, not *

[Jesus_666 (702802)]

And maybe one day you will beat it.

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[Hott of the World (537284)]

God I loved LoRD. Especially the In-Game Modules (crossroads, etc) and the balanced nature of the time/fight limit. It was a game that the casual player could do as well as those with more time on their hands.

Don't forget the Original Adventure either

[NorbrookC (674063)]

That was a makeover of the original Colossal Cave (Adventure/Advent) text game. One of the more influential games, and the first adventure game, it had some of its features like "you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" copied into other games. I remember spending hours trying to work through it on a VAX 11/780. There were several ports done, and I played one a few years back, and it was still addictive. A great piece of gaming history, and something everyone should try - it's still fun,

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[v1 (525388)]

I loved Ultima IV and Ultima V. Those were games that could send you all over the map repeatedly gathering up information. Things like "ask the three brothers anthos about the riddle". Two (real time) days later you might actually have gotten to find them. Forced you to explore the land and get to know the inhabitants. If Ultima V was re-released in its original form for a modern computer I'd buy it just to play it again.

For the Apple II there was an unexpected challenge. Due to an oversight, the Apple