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History of CRPGs Part II: The Golden Age (1985-1993)
Fri, 02/23/2007 - 6:57pm — Matt Barton
GamaSutra has just published the second installment of my in-depth history of CRPGs: The Golden Age of CRPGs. GamaSutra did a fantastic job with the layout, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy this article. I daresay, it's the most detailed and ambitious survey of CRPGs yet attempted, and I hope it will inspire others to start writing up histories of other genres! Check it out, and be sure to send the link to all the CRPG fans you know!
- Matt Barton's blog
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Comments
The article is very
The article is very interesting. I haven't finished reading the second part yet. An error on your Bard's Tale information caused me to look for some way to contact you. Looks like you must have used the wikipedia entry on the Bard's Tale Construction Set before I noticed and fixed it. I haven't completed Nutilan. Soon after I started working on it, Shifting Sun Studios asked for additional programmer to help develop Bard's Legacy (later renamed Devil's Whiskey).
Recently I've started looking at it again to complete the game. But most of the work has gone into completing Bt Builder. Bt Builder is an open source implementation of the BTCS or at least it will be. See http://www.identicalsoftware.com/btbuilder
Also Warrior's Tale is not using the BTCS. It is built with another game development tool.
I noticed that the two
I noticed that the two articles have been linked into the wikipedia article (bottom of the page)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_role-playing_games
both point to the gamasutra articles rather than here tho... as an FYI
-- Stu --
I have several original
I have several original boxes somewhere in a closet. I also have several magazine reviews.
I did all of the programming and ½ of the design for Realms of Darkness. I wrote it in 6502 assembly on the Apple II and then ported it to the C64. I also wrote Tangled Tales which Origin published. I wrote that one in 6502 assembly on an Apple II in 1988 and ported it to the C64 and PC in 1988 and 1989. Origin hired me in 1990 and I worked there until 2000.
Gary
Thanks, Gary. Do you have
Thanks, Gary. Do you have any citations or evidence to support this? That's basically been my problem with all the dates. Unless I can look at the manual or actual disks and see the copyright, I have to rely on secondary sources (Mobygames, Wikipedia, magazines, websites) which frequently contradict each other.
A minor correction: Realms
A minor correction: Realms of Darkness (SSI) was published on the Apple II in 1986 and the C64 in 1987.
Gary
And thanks for mentioning
And thanks for mentioning Tunnels of Doom in the first part... we didn't have many CRPG's on the TI, alas, but that one's a classic, and worth some attention. Some later ones like Legends were decent enough, but in comparison to the games that were coming out on other systems at the time, it doesn't look so good. (Ultima V, for example.) Incidentally, you can now download Legends and its sequel from http://tigameshelf.net/.
Part of the problem was the lack of assembly-language programmers for the TI... and the ones that were around seemed more focused on utility software. TMS9900 assembly is very different from 6502, and the materials available on how to program in it extremely rare. (There are only four books, not including the editor/assembler manual, on TI assembly programming, and only two are really worthwhile.) You just can't write a complex CRPG in BASIC.
I don't know if I'd call the current era the Platinum era, though... more the Gilded era, a lot of flash and style but no substance. As far as I'm concerned, the Platinum era ended with Planescape: Torment, and we have had nothing of the like since.
well I only brought up Times
well I only brought up Times of Lore and Knights of Legend because they felt much more influenced by jcrpgs than other western crpgs. (tunnels and trolls is the exception since it was written in japan by a ajapanese team).
if your writing a book you might want to be aware of the zx + c64 books
http://c64goldenyears.com/
http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/
I collect 'golden age' crpg hint books, and its a shame that hint books dont exist for a lot of games you mentioned.
-stu
Well, generally the first
Well, generally the first thing people do when they see an article like this is start trying to think of games I didn't mention, rather than appreciate all the popular and obscure games I actually did. I had at least a half dozen games on my list that I didn't mention, simply because I could find little evidence that they had an impact on the genre and even less that they had been popular back in the day. There were many games that were just humble "me-too" sorts of clones that didn't seem worth mentioning. On the other hand, I realize that a kid who grew up playing Times of Lore will probably swear it was the best and most innovative CRPG in history, etc. It gets somewhat frustrating after awhile trying to please everyone. I felt like I had really taken on an inhuman amount of work and put so many hours into the article, and it sucks to do all the work and only get comments like "IDIOT, you left out Blagger's Blade of Blackenwood the best CRPG ever!!!" or some such. Thankfully, I haven't had to suffer that (yet?)
I'm not sure that the third and final part will actually mention as many games as the previous installments. For one thing, the market shifted to fewer games, fewer developers, but bigger budgets. Although I haven't really begun my research on the era yet, I think it's safe to say that Wizardry 8 was the last truly "old school" CRPG. Baldur's Gate, Diablo, and the Elder Scrolls series definitely marked a turning point.
I knew about the Neverwinter Nights MMORPG but intended to save that for a special section next time on MMORPGs. You've probably noted that I haven't mentioned MUDs much either. I'm convinced that it'll be best to put all these titles together into a single section. I don't intend to go into much detail on games like Everquest or WoW, since I actually think the MMORPG marks the end of the CRPG as a genre--at least the CRPG as I know it. I'd rather say that WoW and Everquest come more from the MUD tradition than the CRPG, though they obviously have much in common.
At any rate, I would like to extend this into a book, which would give me the time and space necessary to be even more comprehensive. Even still, I'd probably just put some games on a table and just go into more detail with the games I've covered here. Bill's example is true for many of these games--I just haven't had the time to be as thorough as I'd like.
Ahh magic candle deserved
Ahh magic candle deserved moe gravy ;) hehe. Great article. I spent so much time hacking FR-UA. I remeber trying to write articles for the UANL (unlimited adventure newsletter) etc. the BTCK paled so badly in comparison to FRUA.
Was surprised to see Faery Tale, most people overlook it (the sequel sucked tho). I'm sure people will pop up and mention missing games like.. mm.. Times of Lore and suchlike or Knights of Legend, Legend of Blacksilver...
I was really surprised not to see a mention of AOL's SSI goldbox online MMORP Neverwinter Nights.
ps (LoRD was way too easy to win but still some rocking BBS fun).
Looking forward to reading about Waste- I mean Fallout and Diablo in the platinum article.
if you still play azure bonds I have full ascii maps I did on my site from 1990 or such
( http://www.mega-tokyo.com/blog/index.php/site/curse_of_the_azure_bonds_s... )
and i still get hits (very surprising) for fountain of dreams save file format.
( http://www.mega-tokyo.com/blog/index.php/site/fountain_of_dreams_save_fo... )
aaah miss-spent youth :)
-stu
Great job, Matt. Of course
Great job, Matt. Of course I have a minor criticism regarding my favorite game series, Phantasie, in that you didn't mention some of the innovations in III, but you know what, just like the book we're doing, it's impossible to cover EVERYTHING. Regardless, you did an amazing job and it's actually far better than the first entry in your article series, which itself was quite good.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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