New Poll - Best RPG's of the 80's

Bard's Tale 1
Ultima IV
Wizardry 1
Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds

I was aged 6-16 during the decade of the 80s. What a time it was to be a kid. Mostly played on a C128 and a couple different Ataris. I spent many a day flipping through the PC section of the JC Penny's/Sears catalog during the last half of the 80s. But I swear I never looked at the lingerie section

Starflight 1&2
Hero's Quest (the ega one, later called quest for glory)

I didn't play any others at the time being more into adventure games.

Voted for MM2 only. I have played and finished MM1 but didn't enjoy it that much. Pretty sure they are the only two I played.

If Quest for Glory was in the 80s then that would have been my #1 choice. It's the best RPG of the 80s for me, a real RPG, where each class played differently and even had access to different areas of the world, and would solve situations and encounters in different ways depending on the class.

SirJames said:

I voted for

Curse of the Azure Bonds
Pools of Radiance
Bards Tale
Ultima 4
Battletech

Sorry, Dungeon Master.

Never heard of Wasteland until Wasteland 2. I find it hard to believe it scored that highly. I think its just Wasteland 2 fans voting for something they've heard of.

Not sure why Pools is scoring higher than Curse. Curse was way better!

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If you never heard of Wasteland then you must not have been alive in the 1980's. Why do you think the Kickstarter was so successful? Please don't make yourself look so bad with comments like that

I voted Phantasie III, Pool, Magic Candle, Ultima IV, and Might and Magic II. Might and Magic III was probably my favorite game from that era, though all of the above were/are great games.

What made Phantasie III so cool was that it was the first game I had played that supported locational damage. If one of your arms was crippled, you couldn't use a bow or a shield, etc. It added a new level of strategy to combat as you could cripple, but not kill, weak critters to stop more powerful creatures from reaching melee range. Once you whittled down the powerful foes, you then killed the fodder.

I voted for:
Pool of Radiance
Wasteland
BattleTech
Star Command
Ultima IV

I'm really surprised that Star Command isn't in the top 5 actually, cuz I LOVE THAT GAME. But the people have spoken!

Presently, there are 263 votes, when should we call it quits?
Also, if any of you are interested in giving us some footage of the Top 5 games for our video, or writing up a fanboy love letter ode for one of the winning games, PM me.

the video will be something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlbptHYKo6Y

-PsychoSyd

The poll now has 427 its amazing how it doubled in just one day.

It seems the winning games so far are as follows.

1. Pool of Radiance
2. Wasteland
3. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
4. Bard’s Tale (Tales of the Unknown: Volume I)
5. Curse of the Azure Bonds

Also be sure to give the site a hand with the reviews. You can write them here or on the website with the poll. So thanks for helping guys.

Might and Magic 2
Ultima 3
Wizardry 1
Ultima 4
Bard's Tale 1

joxer said:

Finally an online poll that won't put some crapware on the top spot just because the publisher used multiaccs.

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That's where you're wrong. Wasteland is on the list.

Falchor said:

Pool of Radiance all the way! Still some of my all-time favorite gaming experiences. I also enjoyed Might and Magic and some of the early Wizardrys. I never got into the Ultima games, except Underworld which came later.

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SSI games were tedious and fairly brown and ugly. I was really disappointed with TSR for choosing SSI as the official developer for their games.

Zloth said:

Ultima 2
Ultima 3
Dungeon Master
Wizardry 1
Rogue (I would have voted for Hack but I guess they all got merged into one Rogue-like)

I'm the only one to vote for U2!? Come on people! It had time travel! You fought sea monsters and flew to Pluto! You spelled your name out with the buggy, pirate ship copies! So very, very awesome!

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Ultima III blew it away in terms of professional looking production value. U2's big mistake is its largely a scaled up U1, like U5 is a scaled up U3/U4. Its a great idea for a theme but still has the feel of someone in their garage. U3, well, the only things out there in terms of professional quality before it were Wizardry and Print Shop.

Xian said:

I picked
Ultima IV
Ultima III
Dungeon Master
Bards Tale
Magic Candle

They were missing several of my favorites from the 80s
Phantasie III
Dark Hearth of Uukrul
Questron II
Alternate Reality
Faery Tale Adventure
I am not sure if all of the above were available for the PC though, I mostly gamed on the Atari 800 in the first half of the 80s, and the Atari ST and Amiga in latter half.

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Yes, the Questrons are missing but they weren't that great (except the great cutscene at the end) Some slight improvements over U3 but it still felt more like U1.

Dark Heart of Uukrul, perhaps the epitome of Apple ][ (pre GS) gaming, actually came out in 1990. Probably the last great game ever made for that machine.

Couchpotato said:

The poll now has 427 its amazing how it doubled in just one day.

It seems the winning games so far are as follows.

1. Pool of Radiance
2. Wasteland
3. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
4. Bard’s Tale (Tales of the Unknown: Volume I)
5. Curse of the Azure Bonds

Also be sure to give the site a hand with the reviews. You can write them here or on the website with the poll. So thanks for helping guys.

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That's such a sad list of winners, when obviously my picks are so much more insightful.

edit: wow, I'm so negative today. it must be all this tule fog outside.

I've played nearly all of those, so here are my top 5 picks:
Note: I spread my picks between series, rather than picking all 5 Ultimas.

Ultima IV - Huge world to explore on your quest to embody the 8 virtues.
Dungeon Master - Most technologically advanced & immersive. Best visuals,sound,AI.
Wizardry V - Complex RPG with bare boobies (a first for a mainstream game).
Might & Magic 2 - Very addictive gameplay, same as M&M3-5.
Bard's Tale - Great game early on, but became a chore to finish.

One of the first CRPGs I've ever played is oddly missing from that list…
Telengard from 1982. Great game for its time.

Sacred_Path said:

I'm too young to have played these upon release, but from my perspective, Dungeon Master and Ultima IV/ V should make top of the list.

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Same here as I began my gaming hobby during the early 90s.

From that list I've only really played ultima IV (gog version) and i thought it was a brilliant game, definitely an unique experience. It must have been a great thing to play back in the 80s (and it still is!).

I've also tried bard tales from that list, but since I never bothered playing them long enough, i don't think i'm qualified to give them a vote.

So to put long story short I voted only 1 game:

Ultima IV

I voted for a bunch of games I never played.

I'll get to them all. Someday...

Wow. we almost have 1,000 votes! (http://www.xp4t.com/poll-best-rpgs-of-the-80s/)

We're gonna stop voting once we reach 1,000 which should be soon.

If there are any die hard fanboys or girls out there that would like to write a page of gushing text regarding one of the top five games, let me know! We'll then use this text as the script for the video we'll be producing.

Thanks again for all of your input.

The results are in!
Check it out.
I'd like to thank everyone for their input
Also, if you're interested in adding your 2 cents to the next poll, our Best RPG's of the 1990's, we've put together a 'pre-poll' of sorts, to ensure that we don't miss any.

Be sure to add Ultima VII: The Black Gate and U7.5 Serpent Isle. (1992 and 1993 respectively). U8 (1994) and U9: Ascension (1999) also belong, but perhaps aren't quite as mandatory as the first two I mentioned.

Please use the following link for the 90's poll.

Link - http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061302939#post1061302939

Pessimeister said:

Be sure to add Ultima VII: The Black Gate and U7.5 Serpent Isle. (1992 and 1993 respectively). U8 (1994) and U9: Ascension (1999) also belong, but perhaps aren't quite as mandatory as the first two I mentioned.

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Yeah the poll is a joke without the best games ever in it!