In Pictures: A History Of Computer RPGs

[bystander]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Sure, Space quest was an adventure game (with so many great ways to die lol), but King's quest had a definate RPG element to it, and was (I believe) the first game to let you take your character (level stats, looks, etc) and import them into the next game. While you could not beat the game without solving the 'puzzles' (oddly reminiscent of today's 'quest' system on many RPGs), you also could not beat the games without some level of combat and stat upgrades.Either way, the last 'fun' RPG that I played anywhere near this vein of story style was Final Fantasy 9. I really wish more games were like that. There is a place for the D2/3, and dragon age style games, but I miss the days when games were just fun and entertaining.[/citation]

Are you sure you are remembering what Kings Quest was correctly? It has been over 20 years. Maybe I don't remember it correctly, but I do not recall any leveling system, but I guess it could have. I can't remember things that clearly all that way back.

That said, the author of this article and Gamespot thinks it is an Adventure game: http://www.gamespot.com/kings-quest-iv-the-perils-of-rosella/platform/pc/

 

[ethaniel]

Let me put a bit of SNES here and mention Chrono Trigger.

 

[Tab54o]

I thought for sure NWN would be in there before dragon age. Ran out of time or what? NWN was a huge thing for me, I was so addicted to it and it brings back a lot of memories.

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

Planescape Torment!!! Never forget...

True that. I still have my copy. That was definitely one of the funnest RPG's I've played; though I never finished the game.

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

This comes off more as the author's personal playlist. There are so many gaps in there. Almost too painful to look at...and then there is the whole zipping from 1998 to 2009...so I guess nothing good came out between then, huh?

They had several games in the 80's and early 90's then a fly to Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

Fun times. I remember a bunch of those.

I am quite suprised that World of Warcraft isn't on that list, nor is Diablo 2 which progressed and surpassed Diablo very easily and still an active game even today.

WoW is an MMORG, which they said wasn't being covered, but certainly Diablo 2 would have been an important inclusion.

 

[Guest]

How do you leave Everquest and WoW out of that list.

 

[mazty]

Way too big a jump at the end; you certainly needed WoW in there. If you can include Diablo as it's an action RPG, you can certainly include WoW or at the very least Everquest as that's the route most RPG's have gone down for the last decade.
Also as for Skyrim:
"All of the hallmark features from the previous installments, such as an immense open world simulation and non-linear game play, are still featured. "
Because it has levitation and spell creation that rivals Morrowind? And it's graphics are poor, something shown by your benchmarks, saying that it asks for a lot and delivers little. DX9 little.

 

[sviola]

[citation][nom]aweigold[/nom] NWN was fantastic for its online/DM component, but as I said above, I disregard multiplayer for the purposes of this article.[/citation]


That is where I think you are missing something. The online/DM component in NWN was something revolutionary, bringing in the last element missing from tabletop games to the computer: gather a group of friends to play a game where one of them is the one creating the story. It is different from MMORPGs, where the story is written by the game developers. And most important, the player in the DM position could change the adventure during the play, something that does not occur in any other RPG game I can recall.

 

[Guest]

Good to see a few of my old C64 favorites

But there seems to be a whole decade missing!

 

[hythos]

Hehe well - to be fair - the title is "A History...", as to not be confused with anything even close to "complete history"...
Definitely some good memories in there.

 

[bwcbwc]

[citation][nom]LordConrad[/nom]No mention of Zork???I know I'm showing my age, but Zork I & II were the first RPGs I ever played.[/citation]
I was thinking the same thing, but in many ways Zork was more of an adventure game than a true RPG.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]bwcbwc[/nom]I was thinking the same thing, but in many ways Zork was more of an adventure game than a true RPG.[/citation]
Zork is the definition of adventure gaming.

 

[justoneaim]

rpg love thats all!

 

[Guest]

going from baldurs gate to dragon age origins? are you mad? you missed a whole decade of awesome rpg's....

 

[ceh4702]

Final Fantasy . . . So many platforms, so many versions.

 

[fb39ca4]

Where is The Witcher 2?

 

[NuclearShadow]

Unexpectedly, Nastassia pulls your head down to hers and kisses you on the mouth.

To think that reading those words gave a sense of excitement back then. Now we just have no imagination and fully animated 3 characters sexing up our screens.

 

[irvin75berg]

Nice. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[maako]

Will be reading this later xD

 

[Guest]

No Rogue?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_%28video_game%29

http://www.wichman.org/roguehistory.html

 

[Guest]

Baldur's gate, best rpg of all time. I would still play it now

 

[Cy-Kill]

'Diablo established the sub-category of computer action role-playing games.'

No it didn't, we have had action RPGs in one form [console and/or arcade] or another since the '80s; there were even other action RPGs that came out around the same time Diablo did, granted that it was the more popular one, still doesn't mean it 'established the sub-category' when ARPGs were already around!

Yes, I am quoting my own post.

It's kind of funny that in his big post, he never once acknowledged my post about action RPGs, but clarified stuff from others, because he knows he is wrong about Diablo...!

 

[freggo]

It's been a long and fun journey since the days of the ZX-81