Computer Games That Defined RPGs In the 1980s 350
adeelarshad82 writes "The 1980s were huge for RPGs. This genre was one of the most defining game forms in the computer gaming world. A recently published article strolls down the memory lane to look back at classic computer games that both defined and extended the definition of the RPG in the 1980s. The roundup includes some obvious ones like Ultima and The Bard's Tale, and others which you may never have heard of."
Quest for Glory... (Score:5, Informative)
Nuff said. Great series...humor was great.
Available at GOG (Score:5, Informative)
Wasteland. (Score:5, Informative)
Wasteland. The spiritual ancestor of the Fallout series.
Obvious omissions (Score:3, Informative)
Sierra Games was big back in the day, and the Kings Quest series from memory were almost as big as the Leisure Suit Larry series.
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:3, Informative)
This article addresses computer games. Zelda, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are classics, but still console games.
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:5, Informative)
See the title... Computer games.
Re:Obvious omissions (Score:5, Informative)
Sierra Games was big back in the day, and the Kings Quest series from memory were almost as big as the Leisure Suit Larry series.
Absolutely! And Police Quest, and Space Quest, and Hero's Quest, and Codename Iceman ...
Which are all great ADVENTURE games
Pool of Radience was so good (Score:3, Informative)
Between Pool of Radience/Wasteland/Final Fantasy 1 and Legacy of the Ancients, I learned a lot about where game design can bring you in terms of successful systems.
Temple of Apshai? (Score:5, Informative)
Has everyone forgotten this classic?
As a note, Wizardry 1 was really awesome - it was hours and hours and hours of fun. Trebor and Werdna ruled!
Re:Obvious omissions (Score:5, Informative)
Those are not RPGs, they are adventure games.
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:3, Informative)
Many of the games in the slideshow are a lot more like Shadowgate than Zelda or Dragon Warrior.
ADVENTURE (Score:3, Informative)
That is all.
Re:Final Fantasy 7 (Score:5, Informative)
People asked Squaresoft Enix if they would ever consider doing open-world, really long Final Fantasy games again, or if they'd consider making a remake of the older ones. They said it would be almost impossible to update those games to PS3 graphics because the amount of work involved to produce such a game would be too high.
Which shows us the problem with modern consoles: great graphics, decent or terrible gameplay, short-ass games.
I myself didn't like FF13 at all. I enjoyed FF13-2 a lot more, but goodness that game was short.
Re:Final Fantasy 7 (Score:5, Informative)
Title of this article: Computer Games That Defined RPGs In the 1980s When was FF7 released?
Besides, FF6 was better :P
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:5, Informative)
Just because in your mind they faded into obscurity doesn't mean they weren't profoundly influential.
These games by and large predate those JRPGs. Dragon Quest, in fact, was inspired by Wizardry and Ultima. Final Fantasy also sees it's roots in those early RPGs. Both have been extremely influential, particularly amongst JRPGs, but they weren't the originators of the genre.
The Legend of Zelda is more unique because of it's arcade-like elements and reduced emphasis on conventional RPG elements. While it's been influential I don't think it's quite had the direct impact of those other games, particularly within the RPG world.
And the most important aspect of all is that this article is about COMPUTER games.
Re:why are they showing DOS versions? (Score:4, Informative)
No, they had Dungeon Master there. Also, the fact that they are PCmag may be a clue as to why all their screenshots were taken on PCs.
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:5, Informative)
Of all the games mentioned, what's missing? (Score:4, Informative)
NETHACK! Classic, genre-defining game. Unbelievably funny as well (where else do you get to write a spell with a magic marker(!)?)
and Douglas Adams' BUREAUCRACY. Very difficult even now, but doable.
Re:Ultima 7 (Score:2, Informative)
U7 was released in 1992, that is not the 80's but thanks for your pointless input
READ THE FUCKING TITLE if your confused
Re:Of all the games mentioned, what's missing? (Score:5, Informative)
Telengard rocked (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Quest for Glory... (Score:5, Informative)
An older article on the history of CRPGs (Score:3, Informative)
A series of articles I enjoyed:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132024/the_history_of_computer_.php?print=1 [gamasutra.com]
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130124/the_history_of_computer_.php?print=1 [gamasutra.com]
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129994/the_history_of_computer_.php?print=1 [gamasutra.com]
Not a top ten list, and pagination defeated by print mode.
Re:Final Fantasy 7 (Score:2, Informative)
Get the torrented version.
Re:Where are the JRPGs? (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed, the early Ultima games were fairly big in Japan, and the first Final Fantasy game was an attempt to cash in on that by a company which was taking one more throw of the dice before it expected to go out of business (hence the title).
Acknowledging your point about this being a list of computer games rather than video games - if there was a Japanese RPG that deserved a place on the list, it would be the second Final Fantasy game. That's where you start to see the elements that would define JRPG storytelling (as opposed to the Western equivalent) introduced.
The CRPG Addict has better information (Score:5, Informative)
This guy [blogspot.com] is playing through all of the computer RPGs ever released in chronological order and gives them a critical, but fair review from a modern perspective in addition to interesting observations while he's playing them. He's currently at the end of 1988. It's definitely worth reading if you're interested in the history of CRPGs.
Re:Of all the games mentioned, what's missing? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, they mentioned that Rogue on the PC was a port from an older game on Unix systems, and also mentioned that it inspired Nethack and Angband.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that they remembered to include these games, which despite the simple graphics were by far the most advanced games of their day.
However, if you want to get really pedantic, they should have mentioned the even older ADVENTURE.
Re:Of all the games mentioned, what's missing? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm reading so much blasphemy in this thread...
Sierra Adventure games mentioned as RPGs.
Lucasarts games confused with Sierra games.
A lot of mentions towards recent games as if they were from that time.
Do not mess with my classics!
Dungeons and Dragons (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Quest for Glory... (Score:4, Informative)
I was glad to see Dungeon Master mentioned. There's a modern dungeon crawler based on similar values in the works called The Legend of Grimrock [grimrock.net] which is getting released in April. I'm actually looking forward to this more than Diablo 3 and for similar nostalgic reasons.
This will be doomed.... (Score:4, Informative)
to be a small 1 pointer at the bottom of an old thread, but in case anyone is still mining...
In addition to wasteland which was already mentioned (which finally has WL2 coming!!) I think there was another awesome RPGs not mentioned:
Alternate Reality (the dungeon)
This great game has it all - humor, great music, discovery, tons of monsters and items and a neat story. It's really hard, but worth it.
http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D101 [lemon64.com]
and a modern reboot:
http://www.crpgdev.com/ [crpgdev.com]
Re:Temple of Apshai? (Score:3, Informative)
Temple of Apshai is a FABULOUS game. I spent many hours (playing and waiting for it load on the cassette player) on this game on my VIC-20. I even had to go out and buy the 16K expansion module to run it!
It seems so long ago now :(